notes and comment

[sisyphusshrugged]

from Fox: a few shining moments from the Bush interview

BUSH: ...you know I'm a man of peace. And obviously I would hope that we wouldn't have combat. I also live in a real world of being the president during a war on terror. So I guess I would rather fight them [in Iraq] than here. I know I would rather fight them there than here, and I know would rather fight them there than in other remote parts of the world, where it may be more difficult to find them.


Keep in mind: there is no connnection between 9/11 and Saddam. Our fearless leader said so.


HUME: There are people who suggest that, look, you wouldn't have to be dealing with these people at all if you hadn't gone into Iraq. That these, in some sense, are newly recruited or newly minted terrorists. What's your view of that?

BUSH: That's probably the same type of person that says that therapy would work in convincing terrorists not to kill innocent life. There is a terrorist network that attacked us on September the 11th, 2001 that is active, that is engaged, that is trying to intimidate the civilized and free world. And this country will continue to lead a coalition against them. You know, there is -- in my judgment, the only way to deal with these terrorists is to stay on the offensive, is to find them and bring them to justice before they hurt us again.


Um, although it wouldn't have been technically correct to say again, since as Our Fearless Leader said on TV, there was no connection between 9/11 and Saddam.


HUME: I mean, you had Senator Kennedy the other day accusing the administration of the fact that you were bribing foreign leaders, of a fraudulent war. This is pretty strong medicine in a town that you -- where you hope to change the tone. How do you account for this intensity of the Democrats' feeling about you?

BUSH: ...I mean, Senator Kennedy, who I respect, and with whom I have worked, should not have said we were trying to bribe foreign nations. I mean, my regret is -- I don't mind people trying to pick apart my policies, and that's fine and that's fair game. But, you know, I don't think we're serving our nation well by allowing the discourse to become so uncivil that people say -- use words that they shouldn't be using.


I'm guessing it was at this point in the interview that someone had to perform the Heimlich Maneuver on Max Cleland and the surviving members of the Wellstone family.


HUME: Do you think that it's not politically dangerous for you to wait to respond to some of these criticisms?

BUSH: No. I've got a job to do, and I'm going to be judged upon whether or not the world is more peaceful and whether or not America is more prosperous and more compassionate.


Done and done. I'd be perfectly content if that's exactly what he's judged on.


HUME: How do you get your news?

BUSH: I get briefed by Andy Card and Condi in the morning. They come in and tell me. In all due respect, you've got a beautiful face and everything.

I glance at the headlines just to kind of a flavor for what's moving. I rarely read the stories, and get briefed by people who are probably read the news themselves. But like Condoleezza, in her case, the national security adviser is getting her news directly from the participants on the world stage...

Yes. You know, look, I have great respect for the media. I mean, our society is a good, solid democracy because of a good, solid media. But I also understand that a lot of times there's opinions mixed in with news. And I...

I appreciate people's opinions, but I'm more interested in news. And the best way to get the news is from objective sources. And the most objective sources I have are people on my staff who tell me what's happening in the world.


My only comment on that revelation is to assure you that I could not have made it up, and I'm told I'm good at that.


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Juan Cole on iraqi "economic liberalization" - it could be that I'm not clear on what this plan involves, but from what little reading I've done it strikes me that the plan is to sell off all the property of the iraqi people under the stewardship of serial embezzler Ahmad Chalabi and make them pay private companies for their essential services while the oil money continues to leave the country.


Hey! Oops! Them ayrabs work for the Associated Press!


Those eight cops our soldiers shot? The ones in the four different speeding cars? Well, you'll be relieved to discover that our soldiers, while not able to recognize marked police cars, were able to lay down a firing pattern that killed all those policemen in thirty seconds, and it wasn't their fault.

At least, we say so, and what else do you need?


Because we have to bring our boys and girls home some day: Pentagon considers reservist call-up



Pay no attention to that Party behind the curtain


Congressional Republicans toss get-out-of-liability-free card into jobs bill. I'm sure you'll be astonished to hear that the nice folks at Halliburton have a big chunk of the asbestos liability that would be legislated away.


Judges would prefer that the Executive Branch not do their job for them, but the Justice [sic] Department doesn't trust them to sentence criminals. Separation of powers is for pussies anyway.


Surprise! We've been so busy responding to 9/11 by putting all our national resources into a war that had nothing to do with 9/11 that the White House hasn't had time to give the Commission the records they're asking for.


Report Sees Risks in Push for Missile Defense, the primary risk, of course, being that we'll end up paying for a hideously expensive system that doesn't even work in the abstract.


Republicans Set to Spell Out Plan for Oil Drilling in Refuge, because alaskan oil is far more accessible than that stuff off Florida.


from Off the Kuff, my beloved Gov. Ehrlich of Maryland, the only moderate to serve as a freshman enforcer for Newt Gingrich, has decided that he's willing to take the risk that the Republican activist owners of Diebold might do something Bad, and those nice folks in Texas who think MoveOn members are communists have a few associational difficulties of their own.


Pity me my ignorance and despise me, as Robertson Davies once said (I don't quote him nearly as much as I want to - cut me some slack) - Brad deLong explains to digital cargo culters like myself (ooh! box makes pictures!) why it's very very bad that Verisign has hijacked all the vacant addresses on the WWW.



It was good enough for Savonarola, and it's good enough for me


I do not think that word means what you think it means: slacktivist is concerned that the jewish right is making some unfortunate assumptions about the christian right.

and she for God in him: Laura looks at the way one school of religious thought views family.

Our fearless leader, to the great surprise of no-one, doesn't think that these ambiguities suggest a little oversight when asking "faith-based" organizations to spend our money.

The perils of faith-based war: what popular acceptance of religious hatred looks like from the other side.

Comments

from the Fox interview

[mehetabel.livejournal.com]

I particularly liked
"I would never use God to promote foreign policy decisions."

also, re: Schroeder--"I just look forward to talking to him. I think that the idea of -- he needs to answer this question better than me, but I think he got into an election and the German people are essentially pacifists because of their -- many still remember the experience of World War II. And they may not have seen Saddam Hussein as evil a person as a lot of other people have.

But having said that -- and he made the choice not to commit troops -- they are willing to help train police in Iraq, for example. They are taking an active role in Afghanistan. And I appreciate that support."

yeah, the Germans, currently active in Afghanistan, have been rendered pacifistic by the memories of WWII (a conflict that did not leave any memories about what the face of evil looks like, curiously).

"What is necessary to defeat that sentiment that causes people to be suiciders and just kill innocent people for the sake of religion or a fake religion? And my judgment on that is the best way to do it is to spread freedom."