Baghdad Melanie?

I had intended to write about the Cindy Sheehan story tonight. Aside from a funny bit that I posted the other day about the Right Wing talking heads, I haven't made any comment about this. I'll save it for the weekend, because it'll probably run long.

In the meantime, you have to check this out. It's radio talk show host Melanie Morgan being interviewed by Chris Matthews on Hardball. If you didn't know any better, you'd think this was a parody from Saturday Night Live. Morgan takes her turn in the role of the Right Wing blowhard and apologist for Bush and his war. And Matthews is hardly playing hardball as he allows her to get away with each outrageous statement without any strong challenge. Let's examine some of her better nuggets:

MORGAN: And, by the way, we're still going to find weapons of mass destruction.

She's joking, right? That's a statement Baghdad Bob would be proud of. I guess the WMD's are buried in the basement of the airport that the Iraqi army still controls. Melanie would have been slightly more credible if she had followed, "And, by the way" with, "they're real, and they're spectacular!" But that's just speculation.

MATTHEWS: Do you think that he made the case that adequately, do you think it was a fair case, a truthful case that the Iraqi people would greet with us celebration? That they would be happy to have us there? Is that a fair statement -- a full statement of the truth?

MORGAN: Do you not remember the video? Does America not remember the video of the statue of Saddam Hussein coming down and the cheering and the flowers?

Yes, we remember the video. It was a grossly misleading video of a staged event as part of the propaganda campaign to sell the war. The fact that Matthews didn't call her on this is inexcusable on his part. Maybe his show should be called "Tee-Ball".

MATTHEWS: What about the argument that was made that there was a connection to 9-11? At least some connection? Do you think that's been made? That case? Between Iraq and 9-11. Or between Iraq and Al Qaeda, I should say.

MORGAN: Oh, yes. Absolutely, there's been a connection made there. The reason why we are in Iraq is because those planes went flying into the World Trade towers...

Right. Although she framed this in a way in which she can later deny connecting Iraq with 9/11, this kind of ambiguous rhetoric has been a staple of the Bush administration and their noise machine in the media and has led millions of dittoheads to believe that Saddam himself packed a lunch for the 9/11 terrorists. Morgan went on to claim that 4000 Al Qaeda terrorists were operating in Iraq at the time, and the MMFA article demonstrated there is no documentation of that. But 4000 sounds like a good number. If it's good enough for Matthews...

My favourite part is when Matthews asked her about the (very well documented) claim by the Bushies that Iraqi oil revenues would pay for the reconstruction.

MORGAN: You know, I don't remember hearing that.

(...)

I never remember hearing that. And besides, the -- what the government has said as far as I'm concerned is that the Iraqi oil belongs to the people of Iraq.

First she pulled a Ronald Reagan. Then, she accurately repeated the administration's stating that the oil belongs to the people of Iraq. Which got me thinking: when did the Neo-Cons become socialists? The answer is that they haven't. Which means they believe the oil belongs to the Iraqi people about as much as a diamond mine belongs to the rats that live in it.

This is what it has come to, folks. These are the arguments for the war and, apparently, they never get old. Bush and his buddies better hope their media mouthpieces don't get bored of them. But if they do, is Baghdad Bob still available?