Imagine a world without Free manditory public eduction  ¶ 12:27 AM           |

  Why I don't think Bush lied about Iraq: a personal perspective

Apparently there is a large difference between what Bush has said and what people think he said. After the end to major combat everyone else got the feeling Bush said the war was over, while I got the feeling that "We have difficult work to do in Iraq ....parts of that country that remain dangerous. We are pursuing and finding leaders of the old regime". When they hear mission accomplished they hear" peace has been restored" I hear "the regime has been changed". During the run up to war people tell me that Bush and friends said they know where the WMD were, and I said of course they know where they were in Iraq at some of the 130 sites they identified.

Maybe I am natural liar and use "weasel words" but my wife says I am a horrible liar. Or maybe I am use to dealing with liars so I listen to every weasel word. The fact is people strive to not be precise with language. One of the reason Rusmfield so annoys people is that he is specific with language. He tries to keep his points small and truthful. For example after the sacking of the Iraqi national museum he didn't say that it didn't happen, he said everyone is seeing the same clip over and over so it looks like a lot more was stolen then actually was.

I am use to reading left and right articles and pulling the facts out and leaving the spin behind. Its is second nature to me, I assume that everyone does it and for the most part they do. And it is expected. It is our job as intelligent listeners to discern the "truth" from what we hear.

Language is ambiguous, political writers make it more so. Bush didn't lie he spoke like a politician. Every "fact" that people hold against him was qualified and in such a way to was obvious to me that there was no imminent threat from Iraq. In fact he said we must act before threats become imminent, which seems to be the whole point of having a doctrine of preemption.

Anyway I don't think it does the public discourse any good to call people liars. Didn't help against Clinton wont help against Bush. Everyone just need to present their facts without calling in to question "motives and honesty" of their opponents, of course they will disagree on the fact if they didn't there would be no discussion. Everyone needs to accept with thousand of different writers and reporters the world is a great game of telephone and everyone needs to do their best to stick to the facts please.   ¶ 8:34 AM           |

  How I have been feeling for the last year or so

"What a tragedy for the left-the worldwide left, this left of ours which, in failing to play much of a role in the antifascism of our own era, is right now committing a gigantic historic error. Not for the first time, my friend! And yet, if the left all over the world took up this particular struggle as its own, the whole nature of events in Iraq and throughout the region could be influenced in a very useful way, and Bush's many blunders could be rectified, and the struggle could be advanced."

Excellent article..

  ¶ 4:40 PM           |

  You Must Read This ! !

Speachless am I.  ¶ 10:26 AM           |

  A Cheap Dollar Boom : Its all good

Contemplating all this bullish talk about the U.S. economy, a top European financial official was scratching his head. If European economies were facing trade and budget deficits like those in the United States, coupled with a sharply declining currency, European investors would be jumping out the windows. But for America, all news is good news.

Euro-pessimism was a common theme here. One British economist predicted that a strong euro, coupled with the continuing structural rigidities of the European economy, would produce "a decade of stagnation in Europe," worse than what happened in Japan after its bubble economy burst.

  ¶ 1:25 PM           |