LOL -- Look at this email Conason got about "Bannergate"

[CatWoman]

:D

"What if the Navy had wanted to put up a 'Fuck You, Chickenhawk' banner? Are we really supposed to believe that the White House just handled the manufacture of the 'Mission Accomplished' banner but had nothing to do with its editorial content? The buck passing is truly amazing. It's not the White House's fault, it's the CIA's fault. It wasn't our idea, it was the Navy's. And on and on ..."

http://salon.com/opinion/conason/2003/10/29/banner/index.html

[denverbill]

1. An 'FU Chickenhawk' banner. LMAO.

Boy, that woulda been worth the price of admission.

[RobertSeattle]

4. Bwawk Bwawk Chickenhawk

I'd love to see that chanted at Bush.

[gratuitous]

2. Hey, as long as Chimpy isn't responsible for his backdrops

"Fuck you, Chicken Hawk" seems as good as anything for Stupidhead to stand in front of while he mouths his lines.

[bif]

5. Someone outta PhotoShop this!

I would but I don't have the time right now.

[quispquake]

10. Sloppy, but here ya go!

<>

[CatWoman]

15. and

[meti57b]

3. that is truly hilarious!

[Wickerman]

6. Like Wes Clark said

"strong rhetoric in the aftermath is no substitute for wise leadership."

Bush* can't be allowed to have it both ways any longer. He needs to be accoutnable for all the fuckups coming out of his office. I realize being responsible for his own actions is going to be a novel experience, but with time he will get used to being a grown up.

[GainesT1958]

7. Well, he IS 56 years old, and...

He hasn't had to grow up yet...don't know that it's ever going to take hold with Dub, but I suppose we CAN all hope for the best...

As long as it takes hold once he's safely OUT of his squatting quarters in the West Wing, that is! :D

B-)

[judge_smales]

8. Hey!!

At least they didn't have to cover up the "Made in China" stamps on the banner.

[Kool Kitty]

9. Aha! A silver lining to this cloud.

Good one.

[Ivote]

11. THANKS GUYS

Everytime I want to sit down and cry my eyes out about what is happening to my country, one of you comes across with something that cheers me up. Thanks again.

[kskiska]

12. The White House has admitted to paying for the banner

but still insist the idea came from the crew. I guess they've got someone in the Navy to say so. They're clinging to that one thread now.

[CatWoman]

13. Heh

Hi Kathy :hi:

Check out Josh Marshall's take:

So it was all the Navy's idea, but the White House was happy to step in with their sign-makers to help out.

Yeah. (They forced him to get on that plane too ...)

This is so ridiculous that I'm surprised they're even trying it. It's an example of how bedraggled and out-of-it they are at the moment.

I think it's at least possible that someone on board the ship or in the Navy suggested such a sign. But even if that's true, it's irrelevant.

This event aboard the Abraham Lincoln was a particularly crass exercise. But every such major event for a modern president is minutely choreographed. For Clinton as much as for Bush. Nothing isn't debated. And nothing, no image or word, is left to chance.

I doubt the Navy actually suggested this idea. But if they did -- and they may have -- there is no way that the idea was not debated, planned, vetted and everything else in the White House's political and communications offices. No way.

Everybody knows that it's ridiculous. And yet the president is on the record saying it.

And unlike a lot of other inherently more important issues, this is the sort of thing the White House press corps grabs onto and won't let go of.

www.talkingpointsmemo.com

[kskiska]

14. Thanks, Midori

:hi:

I can't believe the lame stuff these people are coming out with. First, he tries to tell us that the attacks on our soldiers in Iraq are actually GOOD because it means we're making progress. This Bannergate thing is icing on the cake. They keep trying to cover one lie with another.

Judy Woodruff (or was it Paul Begala) said that they knew this was coming, and Dan Bartlett addressed it at a gathering within the last week, saying that sometimes pictures come back to haunt you.