T
Traumahawk
This column should be required reading for anyone buying W's mantra of bull.
Ruth, A coulumnist in Tampa, well respected by both political circles...
W's Catapult Loaded And Ready To Fly
DANIEL RUTH
W ithin political circles, when one is said to have ``gone off message,'' it generally means the poor hapless pol had the misfortune of inadvertently committing veracity.
No good comes from this.
Thus it was the case for President Bush during one of his insufferably interminable town hall meetings May 24 to tout his scheme to privatize the Social Security system.
This quote has not gotten a great deal of attention, largely because it was uttered deep into the Colossus of Crawford's opening remarks when the audience had probably fallen into a deeper frozen stupor than Ted Williams.
The leader of the free world opined: ``See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.''
No Link
On Tuesday night, the presidential propaganda catapult was locked and loaded and ready to fling all manner of ... stuff.
No fewer than five times did the Clauswitz of the Beltway directly invoke the memory of the Sept. 11 attacks in a declasse attempt to stir up public support for the U.S. military's ongoing presence in Iraq, which so far has claimed more than 1,740 American lives.
Five times Sept. 11 was referred to, in addition to numerous other more subtle references to one of America's darkest days linking the tragedy to Saddam Hussein and yet not once did the Sun Tsu of Texas mention the yet to be discovered weapons of mass of destruction, which was the Bush Administration's primary - and highly dubious - predicate for going to war with Iraq in 2003.
Indeed even though there has never been any links between the regime of Saddam Hussein and the terrorist attacks, Bush persisted in relating the two Tuesday night, going so far to describe the deposed Iraqi leader as an `'ally of al-Qaida,'' despite the fact the 9/11 Commission could find no connection between Hussein and Osama bin Laden.
All presidential speeches are moments of political theater - some vaudeville, some Old Vic.
Patient People
So it's understandable why the Bush handlers would conclude having the commander-in-mischief delivering a prime time speech from Fort Bragg, the home of the 82nd Airborne Division, would look swell.
But don't these men and woman in uniform, whose lives have been put at risk by this president and his parallel universe inner circle of Gen. Halftracks, deserve better than being treated as photo-op props for a president with more credibility problems than Ted Baxter?
There is a painfully elegant reason why the Bush White House is suffering from plummeting job approval ratings as well as a growing distrust over the handling of the Iraq war and its aftermath.
As the Fourth of July weekend approaches we are reminded that Americans have always been willing to pay the ultimate sacrifice and die for their country.
But this country isn't willing to die for a lie; it isn't willing to fill up body bags with the war game- fuled hubris.
We're a patient people. We still want to think the best of our leaders.
But after more than two years it has finally dawned on the body politic that America was led into a war on a tissue of conceited deceits; a war expected to be fought on the cheap; a war for which the rationale has become an alibi du jour and a war with less of an exit strategy than a Chinese fire drill.
The American people didn't need another ``my dog ate the war plans'' political speech from its president Tuesday night. It's needed, for once, some honesty. If George Bush wanted an appropriate military setting to speak to the country, he had the perfect backdrop in his own backyard - the Vietnam Memorial, as poignant a tribute to bravery as you'll find in this country as well as the high price of quagmires, too.
This story can be found at: http://tampatrib.com/News/columns/MGBJLMFNLAE.html
Ruth, A coulumnist in Tampa, well respected by both political circles...
W's Catapult Loaded And Ready To Fly
DANIEL RUTH
W ithin political circles, when one is said to have ``gone off message,'' it generally means the poor hapless pol had the misfortune of inadvertently committing veracity.
No good comes from this.
Thus it was the case for President Bush during one of his insufferably interminable town hall meetings May 24 to tout his scheme to privatize the Social Security system.
This quote has not gotten a great deal of attention, largely because it was uttered deep into the Colossus of Crawford's opening remarks when the audience had probably fallen into a deeper frozen stupor than Ted Williams.
The leader of the free world opined: ``See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda.''
No Link
On Tuesday night, the presidential propaganda catapult was locked and loaded and ready to fling all manner of ... stuff.
No fewer than five times did the Clauswitz of the Beltway directly invoke the memory of the Sept. 11 attacks in a declasse attempt to stir up public support for the U.S. military's ongoing presence in Iraq, which so far has claimed more than 1,740 American lives.
Five times Sept. 11 was referred to, in addition to numerous other more subtle references to one of America's darkest days linking the tragedy to Saddam Hussein and yet not once did the Sun Tsu of Texas mention the yet to be discovered weapons of mass of destruction, which was the Bush Administration's primary - and highly dubious - predicate for going to war with Iraq in 2003.
Indeed even though there has never been any links between the regime of Saddam Hussein and the terrorist attacks, Bush persisted in relating the two Tuesday night, going so far to describe the deposed Iraqi leader as an `'ally of al-Qaida,'' despite the fact the 9/11 Commission could find no connection between Hussein and Osama bin Laden.
All presidential speeches are moments of political theater - some vaudeville, some Old Vic.
Patient People
So it's understandable why the Bush handlers would conclude having the commander-in-mischief delivering a prime time speech from Fort Bragg, the home of the 82nd Airborne Division, would look swell.
But don't these men and woman in uniform, whose lives have been put at risk by this president and his parallel universe inner circle of Gen. Halftracks, deserve better than being treated as photo-op props for a president with more credibility problems than Ted Baxter?
There is a painfully elegant reason why the Bush White House is suffering from plummeting job approval ratings as well as a growing distrust over the handling of the Iraq war and its aftermath.
As the Fourth of July weekend approaches we are reminded that Americans have always been willing to pay the ultimate sacrifice and die for their country.
But this country isn't willing to die for a lie; it isn't willing to fill up body bags with the war game- fuled hubris.
We're a patient people. We still want to think the best of our leaders.
But after more than two years it has finally dawned on the body politic that America was led into a war on a tissue of conceited deceits; a war expected to be fought on the cheap; a war for which the rationale has become an alibi du jour and a war with less of an exit strategy than a Chinese fire drill.
The American people didn't need another ``my dog ate the war plans'' political speech from its president Tuesday night. It's needed, for once, some honesty. If George Bush wanted an appropriate military setting to speak to the country, he had the perfect backdrop in his own backyard - the Vietnam Memorial, as poignant a tribute to bravery as you'll find in this country as well as the high price of quagmires, too.
This story can be found at: http://tampatrib.com/News/columns/MGBJLMFNLAE.html
