The President spoke yesterday at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and defended his escalation plan for Iraq. As support for his argument that things are getting better, he cited bloggers with a surprisingly rosy view of life in Baghdad:

“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.”

What Bush did not mention is that these so-called “average” bloggers were actually old friends, Mohammed and Omar Fadhil, who had met with him in the White House in 2004. Their blog is available at Pajamas Media, a conservative leaning blog network. And in an interview with Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post in December of 2004, they declared:

“Now we want to say in a loud and clear voice that we welcome American troops and consider this a liberation, not an occupation. People outside Iraq are more worried than the Iraqis themselves.”

Exactly how numb do you have to be to believe that? I don’t know about the Fahdils, but if dozens of bodies were discovered each morning in the city where I live, I would be pretty worried. But it’s not surprising that Bush would select these gleeful cheerleaders to affirm the gaiety of Baghdad. They almost make me regret living in the doldrums of Southern California and thinking about all the good times and parties I’m missing in Iraq.