progressive cyberdadaism from our nation’s capital
There’s something revealing about the confrontation between Webb and Bush described in the Washington Post:
“How’s your boy?” Bush asked, referring to Webb’s son, a Marine serving in Iraq.
“I’d like to get them out of Iraq, Mr. President,” Webb responded, echoing a campaign theme.
At this point, a normal person would have said: I hope your son comes home safely. The leader of the free world instead opts for the snippy approach:
“That’s not what I asked you,” Bush said. “How’s your boy?”
“That’s between me and my boy, Mr. President,” Webb said coldly, ending the conversation on the State Floor of the East Wing of the White House.
Of course, there’s no way to know exactly what Webb was thinking. If it was me I would have thought something like: Next time you want to start a war of choice, maybe you should first ask yourself if you would ask your daughters to serve in it.
The hysterical children of NRO are of course deeply offended by Webb’s words. This for instance: “K-Lo, it could be argued that this is precisely what Webb’s Daily Kos base wants, someone to treat Bush like a bumbling neocon-plaything to his face.” Or this: “If you take the — by my lights — most reasonable view that the Post was fairly capturing a moment of extreme dyspepsia from Virginia’s junior Senator, then Bush’s response to Webb’s tone is understandable.”
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hip·po·pot·a·mus n. A notion, perhaps distinct from conventional wisdom, that needs to be verified by reality-based scrutiny.
95. Cogito cogito ergo cogito sum (I think that I think, therefore I think that I am.)
— Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary
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BOULTON: There are those who would say look, lets take Guantanamo Bay, and Abu Ghraib, and rendition and all those things and to them that is the complete opposite of freedom. BUSH: Of course, if you want to slander America. [Link]
In a subsequent e-mail to the employee, Cargol described himself as “a rub-your-belly, grab-your-balls, give-you-a-hug, slap-your-back, pull-your-dick, squeeze-your-hand, cheek-your-face, and pat-your-thigh kind of guy.” [Link]
Democracy Now! Radio and TV News [Link]
Let's take a look at how the Los Angeles Times covered the new Senate Intelligence Committee report on the claims made as part of selling the Iraq war, and compare it to how the editorial page of the Washington Post, by which I mean Fred Hiatt, sees the e [Link]
Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan writes in a new memoir that the Iraq war was sold to the American people with a sophisticated "political propaganda campaign" led by President Bush and aimed at "manipulating sources of public opinion" an [Link]
Hertzberg's analysis is noteworthy because he appears to be able to allow several ideas to coexist in his head simultaneously, which quite an achievement these days. [Link]
That night, George Stephanopoulos, who was then a top aide to Mr. Clinton, declared that it was “mathematically impossible for Brown to get the nomination” — the start of a campaign to declare Mr. Clinton the presumed nominee, even as several other [Link]
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November 30th, 2006 at 1:15 pm
It gets worse. George Will edits out the rude part of Bush’s side of the exchange and the polite parts of Webb’s and then goes on a rant about Webb’s lack of civility and his misuse of the word “infinitely”, which indicates the decline of civilization.