The President's Bloggers vs. The Body Count

The president has learned his first lesson about the blogosphere: sometimes bloggers are full of shit. Of course like most of the president's missteps, this lesson was learned the hard way. President Bush during Wednesday's address:

"I want to share with you how two Iraqi bloggers -- they have bloggers in Baghdad, just like we've got here -- (laughter) -- 'Displaced families are returning home, marketplaces are seeing more activity, stores that were long shuttered are now reopening. We feel safer about moving in the city now. Our people want to see this effort succeed. We hope the governments in Baghdad and America do not lose their resolve.'" ["laughter" parenthetical included from the official White House transcript]

If only Thursday's reports from Baghdad were as hilarious as the president successfully pronouncing the word "blogger" in public. A little more than 24-hours after mentioning Omar and Mohammed Fadhil's blog (the only bloggers of any political stripe who have been invited to the Oval Office) and quoting their oddly bucolic view of Baghdad's marketplaces in their Wall Street Journal editorial, the following gruesome scenario took place in Baghdad Thursday:

"Multiple suicide bombers struck in predominantly Shiite markets in Baghdad and in a town north of the capital, killing at least 104 people and wounding scores on Thursday -- the day that new U.S. Ambassador Ryan Crocker took office."

104 killed, "scores" wounded. Someone is wrong about the safety of Baghdad's markets and streets, and the body count doesn't lie. Now it could be that the Fadhils live in that one part of Iraq -- the section of town that's completely immune to attack. Maybe during their trip to the White House they were able to acquire a few of the Cattlemen's Beef Association's protective beef helmets so as to allow them, as they wrote on their blog Thursday, to "have barbeque and cold beers." Or maybe, just maybe, their hope and aspirations have blinded them to what's really happening in their city.

But the Fadhils really aren't the problem here. They seem like nice enough men -- as dentists go. It's the president who's made an ass of himself. Like always.

The president is clearly a rookie when it comes to this technology. You and I both know -- and the president obviously doesn't know -- that with a few clicks we can find support for almost anything online. A search of "The Google" can produce sites with firsthand accounts of everything from "God hating fags" to the best ways to eat babies to the bogus story of a little boy who's nothing but a head. Just because it comes from a website doesn't make it altogether true. For example, those little heads at the top of each Huffington Post blog? Our heads aren't really that small, Mr. President. And we have bodies attached to them.

So it's no surprise that the president and the Pajamas Media crew have discovered one Iraqi website which seems to overlook the carnage, and just because this one website says so, everything just has to be most excellent over there -- even though the death toll sadly doesn't appear to support the optimistic blogging by the Fadhils.

And one final note to the president if he happens to have used The Google to find this article. Sir, the Eating Babies website is a joke. Don't try it. I know Hannity would still love you if you ate a baby, but it's, you know, illegal and terrible to eat babies. Also, while we're at it, a word of warning before you try another internet reference in your next Iraq policy speech: a computer mouse isn't a walkie-talkie. Talking into it won't allow you to hail Crazy Cooter for a tow.