Tuesday, August 03, 2004 :::
 
Ye gods and little fishies, as a beloved Latin teacher used to put it--10 days, and no A Mind That Suits. This will never do.

However, there will be nothing large today. Just the comment that it is probably the duty of every American to read the 9/11 Commission Report. It is well written, and covers the water front. It also makes clear that there can be no such thing as a "Global War on Terrorism," a point which has, heretofore, been banned from the opinion pages of the Right, much to their shame. (Some conservatives tried to point that out, but they were told that "you just don't get it." )

There can only be security measures against terrorism, which is a technique that is used by our enemies. And a war can never be against a technique or instrument. Imagine a war on rifles. There can only be a war against a specific enemy, and, the Commission pointed out rightly and unanimously, the enemy has not been properly identified by the Administration. With this report, nearly half of the stupid ideas pushed by commentators are slain, never to be heard from again, and good riddance.

It also appears we will have that Administration with us for a good long while, for what it is worth. There has been no appreciable post-convention bounce for Sen. Kerry, and the public has picked up the gravamen of the three government reports that came out right in a row, just before that convention. The gravamen, of course, is that George W. Bush never lied about this war. One woman in California even walked up to me to ask about the report, and offered that is was "such a relief to find out Bush didn't lie." With that, his problems are over. Unless something bad happens in Iraq, which it still might.

Why he, and the conservative press, never addressed the underlying issue--the missing WMD--is another thing to add to their pile of shame. A President is supposed to lead, and writers have easy jobs where they should find it easy to address the hard issues, but neither has done their jobs in this case.

A certain pudgy, balding English teacher has resigned himself to actually voting for George W. Bush, but it will not be with a light heart. His preferences for the next term are Powell at Defense, Bremer at State, and That Horrible Man somewhere where he can spend a lot of time quietly trying to get all those things he just doesn't get. Powell at Defense is just dreaming, but it would be nice.


::: posted by A Mind That Suits at 5:27 PM


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What doesn't kill me, makes me laugh... usually.