Tony Snow weeps today - for himself, of course (NBC just now).

[Faygo Kid]

Look, I wish no illness on anyone, but NBC Nightly News just had a report about Tony Snow and the illness he has faced over the last year. Tearfully, the new Bush press secretary said he told Chris Wallace that it "was the best thing that ever happened to me." I didn't think Brian Williams would be able to refrain from breaking down.

Here, Brian thought, is a peer. Not some anonymous person in Peoria who lost their health insurance, or a single Mom in LA trying to raise two kids on two minimum wage jobs, or a laid off 56 year old whose pension has been taken from him and has been "laid off" and has no chance - none - of again finding a good job. No, Brian wept, as Joe Klein or Richard Cohen would, because this was truly a Peer. A wealthy, inside-the-beltway journalist with nice hair. One who just assumed the job of Press Secretary to an Administration that long ago surpassed Nixon, Harding, Buchanan, et al as the worst in American history, and to a president without honor, honesty, intelligence or competence.

Should we suspect that Tony might have worn his heart on his sleeve to gain favor with the press corps? Or perhaps to bring a tear to the eye of a Nightly News viewer with cancer in Des Moines who lost her son in Iraq in 2004 and can only say after seeing it, "That Tony Snow. So brave." Can we be that skeptical? Or even worse, that he is simply manipulating us to begin his tenure? What, the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld-Perle-Wolfowitz-Feith cabal do something like that? My good friends here can consider whether this administration would ever stoop so low.

Deep breath now. I am sure that Tony feels the pain of American and Iraqi mothers; of Bush Pioneers aching with agony over continuing to reap the riches of their tax cuts in light of this war. While the anonymous Someones go ahead and die. Somewhere.

So, here is my suggestion. If Tony wants to weep, and to have Brian Williams and the rest of the Washington press corps weep, why not head over to Walter Reed Hospital and pick up a 21 year old kid with a quarter of his brain blown off and bring him to his next press conference. Or another, maybe a 19 year old young woman, with three limbs gone who will someday maybe run for office and be accused by a much older Ann Coulter of cowardice. Or a Hispanic kid who will be demonized or exploited as cheap labor, depending upon which way Karl Rove thinks the winds will blow. None of these kids make NBC Nightly News, but I am to weep with Brian Williams for Tony Snow.

Good luck, Tony, sincerely, but I will save my tears for others.

[MSgt213]

1. Well I'm glad Tony didn't die of cancer, but he seems to be using this

now so the press won't be too hard on him. Or maybe I'm just an ass, but I don't put nothing pass these people. After all some of them shoot their own friends in the face.

[Faygo Kid]

3. You captured the essence of my post.

I hope you at least read the conclusion. You get it. There is no low point for these people. And their inside-the-beltway snuggle buddies, also known as the Washington press corps. I am so appalled by the reaction to this, I could just spit (maybe I will. That's still legal, right?)

[MSgt213]

6. Just make sure no one holds open a paper bag captures your spit

and passes it on to NSA for the DNA database.

[Faygo Kid]

7. Let 'em bring it. At this point, put me in the camps.

If that's what it takes to reclaim my country, fine. I am not brave. Just not young anymore. Sure would love to see someone 22 years old come out and write a great song against the War. My peer, Neil Young, is the only one doing it. So, they may get me. Just need someone to take care of my cat.

[MSgt213]

13. Yea I miss the movements myself, but to my dismay we are in a different

time now. College kids today who should be speaking out about world events, at least the small majority are drowned out by kids who just care about making a million bucks their first year out of school. During the late late 50s, 60 and 70s kids who are now main stream did not have, so much the me first attitude of today. I know I'm rambling, but listening to the type of songs you are talking about would require young people to reach inside themselves and.......

[Tsiyu]

18. I feel your pain and get your point, but young people ARE writing

and speaking out and buying anti-war stuff by:



System of a Down

Green Day

Eminem

Pink

Incubus



I work at a University. I can promise you that many kids are aware and involved and working for peace and an end to this regime. Many of the college-aged kids I speak with are more aware of issues affecting this nation than people my age. (I'm 47.)

IMHO, Boomers should be ashamed, because any search on MySpace will bring up a plethora of young people writing against war, yet the media fail to cover their activities. So why not be angry with the Gen X and Boomer media rather than the kids?

Additionally, during the 60's many of the young protesters came from affluent families (and there was also the motivation of a draft.) Today, fewer kids are doing as well, financially, as their parents did at the same age. Kids have to work to help families and to survive and don't have the gas money or time to attend protests.

I see more laziness and apathy among people my age, honestly, when I think about it. Have some faith in our kids.

Many of them are DUers ;)


Edited for subject/verb agreement: media is plural....:P

[Faygo Kid]

21. Thank you. All those damned long hairs with bell bottoms. . .

Oh wait, that was me. You remind me that we should not pass judgment. Perhaps no generation should be "ashamed," and we ought to quit stereotyping each other, young old or in between. You are right. I protested in the '60s and was from a dirt poor family. Thanks for the admonishment. What we all need to do is not criticize, but learn. And come together to fight the evil. You know who that is.

http://www.alternet.org/images/managed/Story+Image_thumb_051006_story1.jpg

[Miss Chybil]

2. I didn't see it, but all I can say is, "All pain is relative."

Just like everything else.

[BlooInBloo]

4. What was it? Katrina? Where the first thing he thought there was.....

"time to buy" stock?

Fuck him.

[Clark2008]

16. Was that Tony Snow or Brit Hume?

All those Ken-doll hair, Rove-talking-points-spouting, over-paid news readers look the same to me.

[BlooInBloo]

32. Oh damn - you're right - it WAS Shit Hume....

[OldLeftieLawyer]

5. He had prostate cancer a long time ago

More than five years ago, if I recall correctly. It was news here in the DC area because he was a regular on the Diane Rehm Show, but that was it.

So, since I don't watch these shows, are they claiming that he's had a relapse, or are they simply trotting out the old prostate again, and, if so, they're much more craven than I ever thought.

Scottie lost his job because he couldn't cough up a good enough medical history, do ya think?

Oh, now I'm sounding so cynical .......................

[AlCzervik]

8. and like the reporter who asked him about the yellow bracelet--

like she didn't know what it was?? Give me a friggin break, i understand there seems to be a rubber bracelet for just about everything these days but i think most people already know what the yellow one is for.

[OldLeftieLawyer]

10. Well, another question

would be "When did it become a sign of good journalistic practice to ask a White House Press Secretary about his fucking accessories?"

What a suckass move. What a plant.

Set up, total, I bet.

[AlCzervik]

11. yup and i also hate being so cynical but this is how you have to be

to get through everyday of Bush's occupation, that and Stoli's and soda.

[Faygo Kid]

14. The more I think about and review this, the more pissed I get.

Not just Brian Williams, but now I hear that Wolf Blitzer got sentimental about this. I swear, we have more work to do than we ever anticipated. We can take nothing for granted. These people are beyond horrid. Is there a way we can get some of the mentally and physically destroyed at Walter Reed on evening news and cable, instead of Paris Hilton and Duke lacrosse players and Aruba murders?

[Gabi Hayes]

15. I saw him use the word "HEARTwrenching"

it made me so mad I immediately started a thread on it, too

where was the sympathy for Kerry's cancer?

huh?

[Southsideirish]

25. I thought he was dx'd with colon cancer as a result of lifelong ulcerative

colitis?

[Rufus T. Firefly]

26. She's an incompetent reporter

if she doesn't know what the "Livestrong" bracelet means. It's the original, for Christ's sake. She doesn't know ANYONE who has one? I know it's just a symbol, but DAMN. She must have missed, oh, about 6 years and 6,000,000 news items on Lance Armstrong.

I'm betting he knew she would ask it ahead of time.

[Horse with no Name]

36. Not to minimize anyone's cancer

But prostate cancer caught in it's early stages (and his should have been caught early because he has good insurance), is very treatable.
And now 5 years out from treatment and diagnosis?
That is considered a cure.

[in_cog_ni_to]

9. I, too, will save my tears for those more deserving of them.

Unless he's had a relapse, this is a stinkin' rotten sympathy ploy and YES the cabal WOULD stoop that low. Hell, they MURDER people every day without a blink of an eye. Sorry. No tears for Tony, but I weep for those he has murdered.

[Faygo Kid]

12. Thank you, and who pulls something like that at work?

I have been in the professional workforce for 30 years, and I might discuss something like that with coworkers, but who the HELL in the first two weeks of work pulls something like this? Sympathy? My bosses would have kicked my ass or fired me, and rightly so. Totally unprofessional. And typical of this unprofessional crowd.

[Gabi Hayes]

17. that was a fantastic OP, faygo. I remain the only one to recommend it.

so there!

and to do it in a moment's notice is particularly impressive

you GO!

[Faygo Kid]

19. You are Da Man

Yeah, this is a stream of consciousness (normally I am unconscious) but passion sometimes leads to clarity. Maybe this was just too obvious to not have it write itself. I look forward to returning the favor. I never forget a friend. Leave the gun. Take the cannolis.

[Gabi Hayes]

27. I usually take the canollis after I take the cannabis.

I'm hep

[Rufus T. Firefly]

30. And you take a hit rather than getting hit.

:-)

[Faygo Kid]

37. Up against the wall. . .

8-track, no less.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

43. Then you know the Pope smokes dope, then.

:-)

[Riverman]

20. Lack of Empathy is What Allows Humans to Mistreat Each Other!

As a cancer survivor married to a cancer survivor, I am appalled at the level of lack of empathy of my fellow travelers here on the DU. Yes, Snow is up there to defend an immoral wanna be dictator whose has sent thousands to their deaths or dismemberment. Aren't we the so-called progressives, who openly care for the rights of people. If so, we cannot win over allies (and oh my do we need them now), by not, at minimum, seeing some hope for a man who can show his emotions in such a public forum about his mother and his own motality, then we are no better than those we so harshly criticize. I see a man who is at least willing to allow such vulnerability, to show that he even has ANY human feelings, as hopeful, that maybe, somewhere under the crust of his privledge, he will look at himself and say "Oh my God what are we doing with this war." And, maybe use whatever influence he might have, as little as a press secretary would have, to try to argue inside the West Wing for sanity. I actually believe that Tony Snow is a decent man who genuinely believes in his own moral code and that he is not a malicious man. I don't think a sociopath could stand in front of the White House Press Corps and show his emotions as he did. Clearly, McClellan was too terrified to show anything human. So, I look for hope where I can find it and will not join the chorus here to run him down. It serves no purpose!

[Faygo Kid]

22. It serves a purpose. But if you're right, I'll be the first to admit it.

A healthy dose of skepticism in 2002 and early 2003 might have saved thousands of lives. You may disagree with the purpose. But to say we should not "run him down" and be skeptical because it "serves no purpose" is an analysis I disagree with profoundly and deeply. We are into the sixth year of this insanity, this evil. As I have even Olbermann on, they weep for Tony Snow. Like I said, I wish him no ill, and no illness. But I have every reason to be skeptical. I have had illnesses and losses; two in one week last week. Yet, I don't take that to work. I do not trust this Administration; if I want a tearjerker performance, I will watch Bette Davis in "Now, Voyager." I don't criticize you, really. But don't criticize me because I am a skeptic. There is good cause. I appreciate the time you took to respond; it was thoughtful, if one with which I disagree.

[greiner3]

42. Lol;

Tony Snow is a pig who lies for his handlers. Everybody has a heart tug story. I'LL bite, what is your cancer and your wife's? Was it excised, chemo or both? What is your survival rate at this, the number of years out of treatment? What were your survival rates at diagnosis? What was the size of the tumors at diagnosis vs time of first treatment? Did either of you have a propensity for cancer, genetic, environment, excess sun exposure? Or maybe your P-53 genes turned traitor! If somebody lives long enough, it has been estimated that they WILL develop cancer. It's other name is evolution.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

23. Does he cry every time he looks at the bracelet?

I wear one too (though I've never suffered), and there is a history of cancer in my family. However, this smacks of a setup - no one asked him about it during the untelevised briefings? He decided to get personal THAT quickly, even though it tore him up that much? Either 1) He doesn't have the emotional strenth to stand up to the responsibilities of his post, or 2) He's full of shit.

And it's easy to be emotional about something that's about YOU as opposed to OTHERS.

That being said, I hope he continues to be healthy and lives a long life.

P.S. I'd say his "emotional moment" is cancelled out by his use of the word "tarbaby." I'd guess that's a first by a presidential spokesperson. Can he be THAT clueless? No wonder * loves him.

[Gabi Hayes]

28. Really, from now on he's Ed Muskie to me.

he lost his position as front runner for the Demnom in 72, largely for his tear-filled response to a Nixon-generated dirty trick.

why does the media treat him differently than that?

Oops! I know. He's a re PUB lican.

how silly of me

[Rufus T. Firefly]

29. "'It's my Ed Muskie moment,'

...the 50-year-old Ohio native joked about his response."

Ha ha ha! Muskie's career was destroyed, while you cynically used tears to win favor! Good one!

Asshole.

[maveric]

24. "I had cancer so be easy on me." = No hardball Questions.

Thats how I saw it. Why else would he bring this up?

[Hissyspit]

31. It's Moral Orel!

[bleever]

33. Damn, that was good. There's something profoundly distorting

about the proportion of journalistic attention paid to the suffering of ordinary Americans, ESPECIALLY the suffering attributable to the malfeasance and incompetence of this administration, compared to that lavished on a wealthy man with health insurance and the funds to fly around and get the best treatment money can buy.

[linazelle]

34. Looks like he's going to live up to his name: Snowjob

First there was the gaggle fiasco, now--within days of his debut, the press conference is about...HIM?

Where's the news?

All of this is just to buy time.

I'm sure he will his remission will mysteriously disappear when shit gets tough for BushCo.

[Catfight]

35. It's normal to lose a parent first, how about all the parents that lost

children for Bush's war? Tony used the press moment to get people on hate radio to talk about what a great guy he is because he cries and what a horrible press for asking questions and doing their jobs right. This is so wag the dog it makes me ill. Another inept Bush choice.

[Bucky]

38. Fu-uck! I am so bookmarking to your DU Journal.

Thank you.

[Bucky]

39. Hey, add this to your journal

now, dammit

[Faygo Kid]

40. Yes, sir! I have done so, sir!

Many thanks; I am flattered. On a lighter note, I hope you enjoy my little song posted on my Journal. Until then, Sir, Yes Sir!

[Faygo Kid]

41. And I shall bookmark to your blog.

Only the most important are bookmarked by me.