It is a time of freedom and fear, of Gaia and of borders, of many paths and the widening of a universal toll road, emptying country and swelling cities, of the public bought into privacy and the privacy of the public sold into invisible data banks and knowing algorithms. It is the time of the warrior's peace and the miser's charity, when the planting of a seed is an act of conscientious objection.

These are the times when maps fade and direction is lost. Forwards is backwards now, so we glance sideways at the strange lands through which we are all passing, knowing for certain only that our destination has disappeared. We are unready to meet these times, but we proceed nonetheless, adapting as we wander, reshaping the Earth with every tread.

Behind us we have left the old times, the standard times, the high times. Welcome to the irregular times.


 

Ignorance Is Not Bliss

Thanks to Joe Conason at Salon.com for blowing the lid on this one:

On July 14, 2003 George W. Bush said "The larger point is, and the fundamental question is, did Saddam Hussein have a weapons program? And the answer is, absolutely. And we gave him a chance to allow the inspectors in, and he wouldn't let them in. And, therefore, after a reasonable request, we decided to remove him from power, along with other nations, so as to make sure he was not a threat to the United States and our friends and allies in the region. I firmly believe the decisions we made will make America more secure and the world more peaceful."

Read that again, slowly. I know, there are lots of errors in that one paragraph, but can you pick the whopper?

Yes, George W. Bush said that the reason we went to war was that Saddam Hussein wouldn't let weapons inspectors in.

You and I and the New York Times and the Washington Post and the Associated Press and every other big and small newspaper, newsmagazine and TV anchorman -- know that not only did Saddam Hussein agree to let weapons inspectors in the country, but they actually went in and were doing their job!

No, the reason we went to war was that George W. Bush said the weapons inspectors weren't finding the missing WMDs that were really there and didn't know what they were doing.

George W. Bush's historical ignorance apparently extends to major events involving him during his own presidency.

Lest you think we're making too much of this, George W. Bush said it again January 26, 2004: "He chose defiance. It was his choice to make, and he did not let us in." No, no, no: again, the historical record shows that inspectors were let in.

George W. Bush made these bizarre counterfactual statements in question-and-answer sessions with the White House Press Corps. Do you think the White House Press Corps questioned him on it during the sessions? Oh, no, of course not. Do you think these statements became major news stories the next day? What do you think? The "liberal" New York Times didn't mention them at all in their newspaper reports the next day in either case.

When the press abdicates its duty to report completely and objectively on a sitting American President, democracy has lost one of its great protectors. It is up to us to protect democracy in November 2004.

Posted by James Cook at 7:48 AM. # (permalink)




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