DeLay uses Houston to make point about Iraq news coverage

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON - When House Majority Leader Tom DeLay sat down with reporters on Tuesday on Capitol Hill, he was asked to assess President Bush's campaign in Iraq and to respond to criticism that the military mission is not going well and the White House needs to develop an exit strategy.

DeLay offered this response: "These things take time and they take a long time, and some people get weary of the constant barrage that we see in the media.

"You know, if Houston, Texas, was held to the same standard as Iraq is held to, nobody'd go to Houston, because all this reporting coming out of the local press in Houston is violence, murders, robberies, deaths on the highways," DeLay said.

"And if you took that as the image of what is a great city that has an incredible quality of life and an incredible economy, it's amazing to me. Go to Iraq. And see what's actually happening there.....

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/front/3235606

[Oreo]

1. If the media only showed what was REALLY happening

The American people aren't even getting a taste of the carnage that's taking place

[Tesla]

3. We aren't allowed to see what it looks like there

except in the "Green Zone" where there is a Subway on every corner!!

[maddezmom]

2. great PR for Texas there, bugman

:argh:

[SlavesandBulldozers]

39. seriously

what a dumbass.

[Carla in Ca]

43. Yeah, is this what Houston looks like?

From today

?

[mike_c]

4. "Go to Iraq..." WTF? Congress gets all the good drugs, evidently....

"Go to Iraq and see what's really happening there." OMFG.

[SlavesandBulldozers]

40. OMFG is right.

Uh, no thanks I think I'll stay put right here thank you very much. But uh why don't you go bugman, go and do a meet-and-greet in Baghdad, bugman, press some skin!

[steve2470]

5. I'm sure Houston is thrilled about your statements nt

[gratuitous]

34. You know, in a universe where what's good for the goose . . .

Before the Republicans repealed the "good for the goose, good for the gander" principle and substituted the "It's OK if you're a Republican" principle, some newspaper story or teevee talking head or cable show or radio host would say that DeLay owes Houston an apology for saying it's a war-torn, battered city being used as a staging ground for a civil war.

And not only that DeLay owes the city and people of Houston an apology, but that he'll be censured or expelled from the House if he doesn't.

That is, in a universe where turnabout was still fair play.

[RamboLiberal]

42. LOL - Last I heard they weren't using IED's or car bombs in Houston

Nice going bugman! Surprised he didn't use LA or NYC.

[flamin lib]

6. Go to Iraq. And see what's actually happening there.....

Preferably in uniform.

[CBHagman]

48. Then why isn't George W. Bush making a tour there?

Really, if things are going so well and democracy is flourishing in the Middle East, why isn't Bush making a triumphal tour of the area, greeting cheering throngs? Why did the U.S. military have to whisk Bush in and out in secrecy when he made that Thanksgiving trip?

I don't know if anyone else saw Senator Joseph Biden's comments the other night on C-SPAN, but he gave some vivid descriptions about what it's like to go Iraq (and he's on an official visit and protected; God knows what it's like for the average person).

I hate to use an Imus transcript, but this link has the description given below.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/8143665/page/2/

Biden's words:

"No—look, let me put it—the best way for me to explain it is the way I explained it to my wife when I got back.

"She said, 'How did it go?'

"I said, 'Look, they take me into Baghdad airport what they call a corkscrew landing so you don’t get fired at, or you’re less of a target. They get you out. They hustle you off of the fixed wing aircraft, put you on a Black Hawk helicopter with a vest on with two guys with 30 caliber machine guns hanging outside the helicopter. And you fly somewhere around 100 feet off the ground and 150 miles per hour over Baghdad so you don’t have a profile to be shot at, land inside, quote, the Green Zone, the safe zone. There’s great big cement walls and guards all around it.

"'And then you get out. They hustle you in to an up-armored Humvee or they get you into a semi-armored, you know, Chevy van. And they take you at somewhere between 40 and 60 miles an hour through an area that’s about a 25-block area, supposedly totally safe, get you out.

"'You don’t stand outside the car. You wait until a Special Forces guy opens the door. They hustle you into the building you’re going to go meet with the prime minister. And that is my fifth trip. And they’re telling me that’s safer? When I went out last time, same thing.'"

If that's what Houston is like, according to DeLay, hell, no, I won't go. :eyes:

[donco6]

7. Yeah, sign me up for the next flight to Baghdad.

Sounds great! How's the nightlife, Tom?

[SlavesandBulldozers]

41. Lovely Baghdad

Where everyday is the Fourth of July.

[getmeouttahere]

8. If you like...

smog-ridden, humidity-ridden, highest percentage of obesity, nothing but chain restaurants everywhere kinds of cities, go for it in Houston!

[maddezmom]

12. lots of DU'ers live in the Houston area

:hi:

[getmeouttahere]

20. Don't worry, I feel the same about....

most American cities...

its like Hope Davis' character says in "American Splendor"

"I find most American cities to be depressing in the same way"

[ninkasi]

28. Yes, I'm one of them

Indeed,lots of us do live in the Houston area. I was born in Houston. I see the local news, and know about the crime, and the things the Bugman is talking about, but I think if Riverbend, the girl blogger from Baghdad could live in Houston for a week, then she might be able to give Toxic Tom a more valid opinion of the differences.

A more fair comparison would be to subject Houston to an invading army for a couple of years, let them do to Houston what we've done to Baghdad, and then see what Delay has to say.
Just to make the playing field more level, let Delay experience the hospitality of the invading army's equivalent of Abu Ghraib, and ask then.

[Trailrider1951]

16. Roaches, my friend,

you forgot the roaches, particularly the 2 inch long flying ones....the state bird of Texas.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

21. We called them Sewer Roaches

In Phoenix. I was eating breakfast by the way! :puke:

[musette_sf]

25. and here is the Houston mascot:

[Shakespeare]

30. In Florida, they're euphemistically called "palmetto bugs"

This is just a too-nice way of saying HUGE FUCKING FLYING ROACHES!

[Rose Siding]

9. Has DeLay ever embraced the wing-nut argument...

about fighting The Terrorists in Iraq so we don't have to fight them here? -because that would really contradict this sunshine blowing.

[grytpype]

10. Tom, please go to Iraq and walk down the street without bodyguards.

Do us all a favor.

[CitySky]

32. actually, to that extent only, the comparison is kind of fair

'cause we wouldn't let DeLay walk down the street in Houston without a bodyguard either!

Here, when we know his schedule, the Bug Man is now greeted by swarms of sign-wielding, chanting protestors, like the 200+ of us who showed up to protest his speaking at the NRA convention. Now, none of us are handling any kind of explosives or weaponry like the folks who don't like us in Iraq, but somehow Hot Tub Tom finds us all pretty scary nonetheless.

[ananda]

11. DeLay needs to read..

.. Riverbend's newest blog, here:

http://riverbendblog.blogspot.com/

Perhaps he's only familiar with the newly christened "Green Republic," as Riverbend now calls the Green Zone. The rest of Baghdad's a mess, along with much of the entire country.

As for Houston, well, it's a one-of... no zoning, lots of construction and traffic clogs, and hardly any light rail thanks to, you guessed it, Mr. Bugman and his crony, the very sucky John Culberson ( my.. gag.. rep).

Sue

[DinahMoeHum]

13. The proof of peacekeeping, Tom, is in the sleeping.

If we truly are making progress out there, you can sleep in most villages and Baghdad neighborhoods outside the "Green Zone" without fear and without bodyguards.

Somehow, I'd doubt you'd get much sleep out there right now, unless it's the permanent kind that accompanies a slit throat.

But then again, so what? Your demise would be doing all of us, and your nation a favor.


:evilfrown:

[K8-EEE]

14. No, YOU Go To Iraq, You Asshole!!

Go check it out Tom, I'll chip in for a one way ticket!

[marmar]

15. Go to Iraq...

to change planes en route to Hell, you trough-feeding hog!

[5X]

17. Delay needs to apologize to Bagdad

Compairing it to Houston?!

[tibbir]

18. There's a old statement that

'coming from you that's a compliment.' Houston has its problems but it has a lot of DU'ers and it's only the 'burbs that elect scumwad like the bugman.

[krkaufman]

19. Go for it, Tom..!! Please *do* go to Iraq, and prove us all wrong.

Yes, Mr Delay, I agree. You should prove to the American people just now biased the media coverage of Iraq is by going to Iraq and walking the streets amongst the throngs. You'll be greeted with flowers as a liberator.

[kwolf68]

22. DeLay still isn't in jai?

I thought the great Whodini was good.

[Roland99]

23. So, Houston sees an average of a couple dozen killed by explosives

every day?

[gkhouston]

24. the electricity works in Houston almost all of the time.

How often do they have electricity in Baghdad? Potable water? Don't notice many people blowing themselves up around here, either, unless you count Billy Bubba chowing down on a belly-buster.

Damn, he's really not wantin' to get re-elected, now is he?

[Felix Mala]

26. Let DeLay go to Iraq and hold press conferences on several streets

Then he can say he knows how well things are going.

[MidwestTransplant]

27. Sure bug boy. Go to Iraq. Walk the streets. Wait for people to throw

flowers. Don't forget to duck the lead that will head your way within 2 seconds of exiting your car. These people are pathological liars.

[Miss Chybil]

29. Thanks, Delay, but I think I'll stay home. I'd like to keep my head.

Seems you've already lost yours.

[kwolf68]

31. Houston Great?

LMMFAO....Not only is Tom DeLay a (bad) Congressman, but he's also a fucking comedian.

[geek tragedy]

33. I wonder if that'll make the Houston Chamber of Commerce's literature. nt

[musette_sf]

37. you gotta admit though

anything's better than "HOUSTON'S HOT!", the stupid motto of the late 80s.

I remember that one of the major newsmags had a national promotion back then, with an all-expenses paid vacation in H-town as the grand prize. Big double-truck color ad with front placement.

Three people entered.

[The_Casual_Observer]

35. OK, houston is a shit place, I agree with you for once, deLay!

[Dr Fate]

36. We need to take the battle to Houston so we dont have to fight it here...

...er...opps...I mixed up my talking points.

Anyway, shut up and wave your Chinese manufactured flag.

[The Night Owl]

38. When Delay says "go to Iraq," what he really means is...

... go to one of the green zones in Iraq. But don't venture out of the green zones unless you're in a heavily armored convoy of military vehicles or you'll get your ass shot off.

[pissed_American]

44. "Go to Iraq. And see what's actually happening there"

How about YOU go and come back(if you make it) and give us a report !!

[0rganism]

45. Wait, so Houston only has electricity half the day, and no potable water?

Wow! Things are already worse in America than I thought possible.

"Incredible," yes, that would be the right word to describe it. Incredible.

[Generator]

46. Christ o mighty

Here goes Generator on another pointless rant.

Just watched most of "Frontline" documentary about private contractors and soldiers in Iraq last night.

Delay is talking out of his ass.

I've been to Houston, the airport in fact on my way to Louisiana. I didn't feel that it was a fifty/fifty life or death decision.

Just watching the reporter drive to the fucking airport in Iraq was enough to show you there is no comparison I dare say to almost anywhere else right now. NONE.

He also was unable to drive ANYWHERE even with armed guards to the teeth. Hell, one of his guards one week was dead a few weeks later. That's just some anyomous AMERICAN that nobody will even count. Of course, the number of anyomous Iraqi's is much much higher.

Everyone is a target..everyone that isn't Iraqi. And ALL Iraqi's are just acceptable damage to those doing the killings. The seperate world of the Iraqi's and those in their SUV's and armed guards couldn't be more clear.

If people were being blown to death on their way to the airport in Houston EVERY OTHER DAY I think it would be news too.

Go to Iraq! You might as well say go to the fucking moon and try to eat it the cheese.

Make shit up and be paid for it while destroying the world. Is that Mr. Delay's job description?

They love to complain that L.A. is "la la" land. These people are out of their ever loving minds.

HELP us dear lord.

[pfitz59]

47. Yeah, uh huh......

Houston....

Baghdad...

Houston...

Baghdad...

Houston....

Bahgdad...

[CBHagman]

49. NPR said 40 people died in Baghdad alone...

...in suicide bombings in the last day. Is that what's going on in Houston?

[Daphne08]

50. DeLay offered this response: "These things

take time and they take a long time, and some people get weary of the constant barrage that we see in the media..."

1- These things take time? Warmongers said we'd be in and out.
2- What media is he watching?