I have reached the point of being sceptical about anything the administration claims.
I would also be sceptical about anything news outlets or blogs report that the admistration has claimed.

And the blogosphere gobbles up the media reports and regurgitates them….

And the readers swallow it and shake their head with righteous indignation.

Everyone has played their assigned roles, to a T.

(A) The President shall submit an initial report, in classified and unclassified format, to the Congress, not later than July 15, 2007, assessing the status of each of the specific benchmarks established above, and declaring, in his judgment, whether satisfactory progress toward meeting these benchmarks is, or is not, being achieved.

(B) The President, having consulted with the Secretary of State, the Secretary of Defense, the Commander, Multi-National Forces Iraq, the United States Ambassador to Iraq, and the Commander of U.S. Central Command, will prepare the report and submit the report to Congress.

(C) If the President’s assessment of any of the specific benchmarks established above is unsatisfactory, the President shall include in that report a description of such revisions to the political, economic, regional, and military components of the strategy, as announced by the President on January 10, 2007. In addition, the President shall include in the report, the advisability of implementing such aspects of the bipartisan Iraq Study Group, as he deems appropriate.

(D) The President shall submit a second report to the Congress, not later than September 15, 2007, following the same procedures and criteria outlined above.

Is there any lack of clarity as to whom Congress tasked to prepare and submit the report? Anyone surprised that the report is being prepared by the White House, with the input of appropriate officials in Iraq and throughout the Executive Branch?

If it is such a surprise then you obviously didn’t even bother to read the supplemental bill.

If you are surprised, it is on YOU, not the admin.

Sickening how many times the same false indignation is being expressed around the blogosphere.

Where was this indignation when the bil was passed with THAT EXACT WORDING?

Amazing.

I’ll keep looking for the full set of questions…….it may be subject to “subscription only” rights for the moment.

Honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever seen that technique used. Ask 32 (or more, who knows?) questions, but only publish the ones that support your narrative. It’s one thing when an article ABOUT a poll uses cherry picking like that, but I think this is the first time I’ve seen a news agency have the gall to actually withhold most of the data…which begs the question, why?

Lo and behold, you may well have stumbled into another Rathergate by CNN.

Jules Crittenden has your answer……..

Poll: Americans Want to Win
47 percent of Americans now think we’re making progress in Iraq, despite the best effort by our major news media organizations to ignore this, to bury it, to cast it in the worst possible light.
That is not the number that CNN chose to highlight in its poll, however. This war has had approval ratings in the 30s and disapproval ratings in the 60s for over a year now. But what did CNN find remarkable in its poll results?

http://www.julescrittenden.com/2007/08/17/poll-americans-want-to-win/

But the fact that it now is going to be written by the Bush administration means it will only be embraced and pointed to by those who already strongly defend the war and by people such as conservative talk show hosts and Fox News commentators. Democrats will likely reject it out of hand.

It was ALWAYS supposed to be written by the White House. Does no one know how to do basic freaking research anymore, or does it just get in the way of the preferred truthiness? Because the CNN article contains outright falsehoods, and you’ve reinforced them wholesale without ever checking the relevant source material.

You ARE aware that the U.S. Troop Readiness, Veterans’ Care, Katrina Recovery, and Iraq Accountability Appropriations Act, 2007, aka PUBLIC LAW 110–28 as passed by the Democratic majority Congress and signed into law, REQUIRES that said report be made by the White House, and not by Petraeus and Crocker? See Title III, Section 1314, for bleep’s sake.

Essentially you (and CNN, and Froomkin, and a host of others) are ranting and complaining and demagogin’ that the White House is doing EXACTLY what the Democratic majority Congress required them by law to do., and holding that up as some kind of example of devious perfidy and corruption on the part of the White House.

GMAFB.

But, exactly where did this half-baked notion of calling for an “administration” report on progress?………….can we dare mention it was the Democrat controlled Congress that specified this?

Mmmm…thanks for the cherries, CNN!

Now that is the lack of credibility pot labeling the kettle.

The question is obvious, if they have no reason to manipulate the report, why not just let the general himself make it? Mind you, they could still manipulate a report written by the general, or simply make clear to him that a bad result is not an option, but writing it directly?

They just don’t care anymore, do they? I mean, they’ve always shown little interest in public opinion, but this is just laughable. It’s not the Petraus report, it’s the White House report on Iraq! Geez, they could at least TRY to make it look honest. Fine, we wouldn’t believe it anyway, but the GALL is insulting all by itself.