if these limits may, at any time, be passed by those intended to be restrained?"
-- Chief Justice John Marshall, Marbury v. Madison, 1803
Scandals and Sandals
by Lee
An Israeli columnist overall supportive of the Iraq invasion makes a great point’, one which echoes things I have said here many times.
The problem caused by the revelations of just how much the Bush administration lied, cheated and manufactured the Iraqi threat to the U.S. and all of Western Civilization as we know it is that there was and is something valuable under way here: A truly brutal, neo-fascist dictator has been deposed, a country is on the mend, and the region’s remaining dictators are watching their backs.
Those are all good things. That the administration’s prevarications have caused that message to be lost or disregarded - that’s the shame.
There is value in what has happened, and not only for Israel. The shame is that the Bush administration has ruined its ability to explain and be proud of that effort.
This is absolutely true. One of Bush’s many failings, indeed possibly his main failing as president, is to be likable. Being likable doesn’t necessarily mean that you’re going to be a better president per se, only that you will be able to use that likability to drum up popular support. This is why car companies send models to auto shows. The hot broad in the skimpy outfit is a much better salesman for the car than the frumpy greasy-hands engineer who designed and assembled the thing. But public opinion is important, and Bush, through the various scandals, has made himself and most of his staff to appear as pretty unlikable people. Through their failings in other areas, supporters off the war and of the administration itself are really righting for air during discussions over the fate of Iraq. The administration’s incompetence is causing the glow from the Saddam Trial to diminish, The schmucks in the MSM aren’t giving it the coverage it deserves simply because when they have a choice over highlighting the latest scandal or the trial, which are they going to pick?
Comments
I dont think being likable is a failing. Using your likability as a cover for some questionable activities is, however. And, in my usual defense of the MSM, They have covered the major parts of Saddams trial (His retarded outbursts, when a defense lawyer was killed...) How much coverage of the story is warranted? Most americans and many around the world realize he was a tyrant and a mass murderer. What is more important to american viewers, Following a trial that we all know is going to end in a guilty verdict, or following up on (or finding new) reports of questionable activity by our president and/or his staff?
Lee, you and this Israeli columnist make good, if not obvious, points.
But history will have to judge.
I think President Bush has gone a long way to express where mistakes were made and that the Administration has moved to adapt and correct.
The lamestream media is always fighting the last battle—as most of the Democrats are as well.
I am not comparing Bush to Churchill or Reagan here, but we forget many mistakes were made in otherwise necessary and important strategic and policy visions. I think we are over the hump on Iraq. And I think the men and women of the US military on the ground know it and it is thanks to them that this Administration’s mistakes did not result in a complete meltdown in post-Saddam Iraq.
Having little or no charisma has no doubt made it harder to get his messages across. While i agree with most of his policies to deal with terrorists and how to prosecute WOT i think other things hes been a complete disaster at. His voodoo style economics being the biggest failure of the administration, decrease taxes while at the same time increasing spending to unprecidented levels, what the hells that about.
If conservatives are meant to value small government then i dont know how he keeps the support he has now.
You are not saying what the columnist is saying. You’re saying that Bush is a terrible salesman who is unlikable, so the people don’t listen to any good news coming from him. This journalist is saying people are ignoring the good news from Iraq because Bush is a liar who manufactured reasons for going to war. What a load of horseshit. Do you really think Bush lied to get us into Iraq? Do you agree with this journalist that Bush knew there were no WMDs but used it as an excuse to go in? Because that’s what this journalist is espousing, the views of the Loony Left.
It’s funny how “Bush lied; Halliburton; Yellow Cake” is such a popular rally cry these days. It’s like a special handshake used by members of the virtuous tribe.
The left sticks with this WMD thing out of desperation - this is the most serious charge against Bush imaginable. It’s not important that this is not relevant and not accurate, because in debates and demonstrations and blogs you can whitewash that. So WMD is all the left has.
>>But public opinion is important, and Bush, through the various scandals, has made himself and most of his staff to appear as pretty unlikable people.>>
I’m sorry. What scandals, other than the lame Plame one and the constant faux scandals put forth by the press? The original column also puts forth 2 of the biggest LIES about the war in Iraq: that Bush said SH was involved in 911 and that WMD were the sole reason for invading.
>> The administration’s incompetence is causing the glow from the Saddam Trial to diminish<<
That’s hiliarious. What incompetence, other than bloated spending and lack of immigration plan? Neither of which are ever covered by the MSM.
Do you realize if it wasn’t for this “incompetent” admin there would be no trial of SH
No, what’s really causing the glow of SH trial to diminish is the press’s reluctance to cover it because by covering it, it will shore up support for the war.
Yeah the trial of ol’ Slobo got a lot of media attention too…
I apologize for the o/t ness, but I found something you might like:
NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope may have detected the infrared glow from the very first generation of stars, a new study reports. If confirmed, the work would reveal the structure of the universe a few hundred million years after the big bang, when the galaxies that exist today were just beginning to take shape.
Astronomers have already detected light from even earlier times, when the universe was a mere 370,000 years old. It was then that radiation first escaped from a scalding primordial soup of matter and energy, and it still suffuses space today in the form of the cosmic microwave background radiation.
But infrared light also floods space in what is called the cosmic infrared background radiation. “It is a repository of the emissions of all the stars that have ever existed in the universe,” says the study’s lead author, Alexander Kashlinsky at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, US.
It is this light that researchers have scrutinised for signs of the first stars that blazed into existence when the universe was about 100 million years old. Space has expanded so much in the intervening 13 billion years that today’s telescopes are simply not powerful enough to resolve individual stars from that first generation.
But the stars’ combined light should be detectable by removing the foreground stars and galaxies that can be resolved, and several teams have tried the approach in the past. Now, Kashlinsky and colleagues have made the most sensitive measurements of the infrared background yet using 40 hours of observations of a single patch of sky by Spitzer’s Infrared Array Camera.
Don’t you find it laughable and ironic that the same media that covers the anti-war rallies as if they’re cornerstones of American life doesn’t give any time to the trial of the mass murderer whom the protestors were marching to save?
Comparing the effect that Slobo has had on American political life vs the effect that SH has had on US politics/govt. is some sort of a joke, right?
no one seems to notice that the piece of shit slobo is still on trial and living it up… if we dont keep our eye on the ball<Saddam> we risk the same thing happing.
The Media seems to do their best not to cover his trial.
But public opinion is important, and Bush, through the various scandals, has made himself and most of his staff to appear as pretty unlikable people.
I’ve been trying to make that argument here but get dismissed by some who think Bush can do no wrong. I’m sure you can relate.
<<But public opinion is important, and Bush, through the various scandals, has made himself and most of his staff to appear as pretty unlikable people.>>
Well, thank God that the MSM has been on Bush’s side all along. Otherwise, Bush would really be hated. Why, thankfully the media....
1) always mentions that every Clintonista believed SH had WMD stockpiles
2) always reports on the fact that Abu Ghraib was being investigated and soldiers disciplined before it became a news item
3) vehemently apologized for completely botching up its Hur. Katrina coverage and quickly apologized to the Bush Admin for hinting that racism played a part in the disaster
4) made sure to paint Cindy Sheehan in a bad light, while continually reporting that she had met the president before
5) always makes sure GWB’s tax cuts get partial credit for the fine economy we now enjoy
6) clearly and constantly elucidates that the recent NSC leaks are much more important to Nat. Security that V. Plame.
And yes, purple is the color of the sky in my world and the sky is the best place to observe pigs flying, from where I sit!
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Bush was hated before he even had a chance to do anything. I don’t know what got covered in the US (but I have a good idea), but in Canada, from day one the media has done everything it can to highlight his bad points. Oh, and BTW, he’s an American and a dumb redneck from Texas as well. Which is 2 strikes against him. In 2000, all we heard was how he executed retarded people in Texas, how he was just a puppet for dad etc… When he invaded Iraq it was prophetic because a lot of people said he’d do that before it was even on the table.
Also, if things turn out well in Iraq, then you know a couple of tie-dyed dirty hippies are gonna fly over there when it’s safe. They will do a few cultural things and sing Kume-bye-ya-Allah with children and laugh and smile. Then they will stand up and say that peace is the only way to get things done and they are the proof. The MSM will lap this shit up and at least 7/10 reports will be on the valiant efforts of dirty hippies and tree huggers turning Iraq around using peace not war.