Bush’s self-justification rare – baltimoresun.com — UH, I thought he was going “fire” anyone involved in this leak. Now what?
I’m actually more amused by the Bush-apologists who think this is all great. Sean Hannity is the worst of the lot. He’s pathetic. Listen to him sometime on the radio with his, “There was nothing illegal! So what’s the big deal?” Apparently no matter what anyone does, if it is not technically illegaly then it’s ok. Ethics and honesty be damned.
President Bush said yesterday that he ordered the release of classified information in 2003 to prove his reasons for the Iraq war were legitimate – a striking assertion for a leader who has made secrecy one of the trademarks of his administration, analysts said.
Bush’s account of why he declassified a July 2003 intelligence report suggests that the president, usually as unapologetic about his decisions as he is tight-lipped about the internal workings of his White House, feels the need to justify the action he took to bolster his case for the war.
Of course this now begs the question. What else is he lying about?
For someone who does so well going into the nuts and bolts of technology, you get confused really quickly. The ‘firing’ leak was about Valerie Plame.
“what else is he lying about”???
There isn’t a mass storage medium on the planet big enough to contain that data.
btw, Valerie Plame and the Iraq “intelligence” are part and parcel of the same thing.
I am rendered breathless at the willingness of the Dumbyaphiles to accept anything he says at face value, facts be damned.
What is America coming to???
So what started as an outing of a CIA operative, is now the President revealing intelligence that Iraq has weapons? You better impeach then!
For AB CD
“At one point, McClellan vowed: “The president has set high standards, the highest of standards, for people in his administration. He’s made it very clear to people in his administration that he expects them to adhere to the highest standards of conduct. If anyone in this administration was involved in it, they would no longer be in this administration.””
Moreover, a Washington Post article “reported that Fitzgerald wrote in his recent filing that “the grand jury has collected so much testimony and so many documents that ‘it is hard to conceive of what evidence there could be that would disprove the existence of White House efforts to ‘punish’ Wilson.’ ” They noted that the filing had “described a ‘concerted action’ by ‘multiple people in the White House’ — using classified information — to ‘discredit, punish or seek revenge against’ a critic of President Bush’s war in Iraq.””
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/11/AR2005071101568.html?nav=hcmodule
http://mediamatters.org/items/200604100008
Clearly, President Bush “was involved.”
ABCD – I think it is you who need to read the article. This is the leak of the phony information about Iraq trying to get nukes from Niger. They knew the information was bogus and they still leaked the info because they wanted to go to war. Only Bush knows the real reasons we are in Iraq. Too bad America keeps buying BS like we are there for “security” and combat “terrorism”.
Don’t waste too many electrons suggesting reason or ethics to any of the Bush dittoheads, folks. Like Hannity, like O’Reilly, those who properly qualify as apoligists will attempt nothing but.
The number of traditional Conservatives fed up with the cronyism and corruption of the current administration continues to expand. As does the numbers of Libertarians and other political flavors with a conservative core. Ethics are often a deep motivator for American individualism. Sadly, the same cannot be said for the ethically-crippled whose rationale, whether it be nationalism or something a bit more fear-driven, holds sway over their view of politics.
“Apparently no matter what anyone does, if it is not technically illegaly then it’s ok. Ethics and honesty be damned.”
Unless of course it involves getting sexed up in the Oval Office. Then it’s (by the very same voice) an impeachable offense.
This is an administration of half-truths. You never know when they are telling us the whole truth, or just telling us whatever is of benefit to their own agenda. Over and over it happens, where they claim one thing, and it turns out that the truth is completely different. It happens with all politicians, but rarely with the callous disregard for core values.
We need a president that we can trust. A president that we can believe.
Right now, Bush and those in his administration have ZERO credibility.
If the President and his administration do not have the trust of the American people, then the President should step down. Mutual trust is the core and most important value that we can expect from our leaders.
And America no longer trusts the Bush administration.
The homorable thing would be for his political party to ask him (and the VP) to step aside. The Speaker would take over… not a great option, but at least a step in the right direction.
To conservatives NOTHING a Republican president does is ever wrong. Only Democratic presidents lie and behave unethically. If Dumbya did it, it was right. Save your breath, no amount of facts is going to convince them.
AB CD – apparently like his hero Bush “Doesn’t read newspapers”
Read here how he brags about not reading
OMG!!
Someone revealed DE-classified papers to the media that support the Presidents policies!?
We need to elect members of congress whose only agenda is to impeach this President
Yet he didn’t speak up when Judith Miller had to go to jail????
2 more years…
Emotionally distraught writing leads to errors in grammar and spelling.
I remember after Bush was sworn in, on the heels of Clinton’s scandal, he gave a speech that his administration would not even give the appearance of doing something dubious. Well, let’s forget about whether anything this administration has done is legal or not, has Bush kept that promise? I don’t think even the apologists will defend him on that because whether the administration has done anythin illegal or not, it sure as hell has done lots of stuff that seemed illegal, wrong, and indefensible.
12, Why am I surprised? I’m not. I’m frightened. I would never have thought Bush had the gumption to admit he lied, but he has, and on two major issues.
First, he admitted that the NSA has been illegally (or legally according to Bush) tapping American’s telephones. Then he admits that the White House tried to plant information known to be wrong. They left a journalist sitting in jail protecting their butts while they went on as if nothing happened. To top it off, Bush then claims he has the authority to declassify secret information.
He blatantly decided that restrictions on torture do not apply to his administration, after signing a bill prohibiting it.
This brazen gall frightens me. Bush, and his cronies feel they are above the law. There is no remorse or admission of wrong doing. Soon all it will take is some perceived problem, such as illegal immigrants protesting, to declare martial law. Next come the suspension of habeas corpus, elections, and King George now has his third term!
Once again……the leak he authorized and the leak of Plames’ CIA cover are not one and the same. As much as John and Mr. Fusion and others want it to be, it’s not.
It could very well be that that the Plame leak will be traced back to Bush….or to Cheny……but that hasn’t happened yet. Unknot your shorts guys.
Alex…..I happen to be a Conservative, and as much as the Democrats have tried to eliminate them from their party, there are still many Democrat Conservatives in this country. I will admit, as I have before that I voted for Bush…..because I wanted to believe that he was what he said he was. I was fooled. He is not a true conservative, he is a religious right, big goverment, budget buster that seems to have a problem with the truth. I would suggest that you use that big brush you like to use to generalize, to paint the barn.
All the ranting of the left and the rosy scenerio of the right aside, the proof isn’t there yet….until it is, I plan to give Bush the benifit of the doubt.
Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities. – Voltaire (1694 – 1778)
Allen McDonald, El Galloviejo®
“Of course this now begs the question. What else is he lying about?”
Actually, I think it begs the question, “What, if anything, isn’t he lying about?”
John, I guess you are an optimist while I know I am a pessimist.
“it’s a shame that neither of you are using the term ‘begs the question’ properly. it used to have a specific meaning. but now, much like “unique”, it no longer has any damned meaning.”
But its an even greater shame that all you were interested in doing was demonstrating to all on this blog how brilliant you are and how ignorant I am.
Okay fine. I know I am ignorant in many things. But, if I am using the phrase, “begs the question”, incorrectly, the least you can do after pointing my ignorance out to me, is to help me understand my ignorance.
So, 1) what is the specific meaning, that the phrase used to have? 2) How am I using it incorrectly?
Another lie exposed tonight.
Remember those trailers that Bush and friends announced as Biological Weapon development trailers, and months later were proven to be nothing? Well it turns out that even BEFORE the first announcement of the trailers being found there was already a report on record stating that the trailers were not Bio-Weapons development tools. Two days before they used the “Weapons on Mass Destruction Trailers have been found” they already knew the truth, yet they continued to lie for months and months, probably since nothing was being found to replace the claim.
How can anyone trust these people anymore? Believe nothing they say or have said… nothing.
The full story:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/11/AR2006041101888_pf.html
>>We need to elect members of congress whose only
>>agenda is to impeach this President
So it would seem, given the amount of monkey business “this President” appears to get himself into.
19, Sorry joshua, but they are related. US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald submitted a brief to the court quoting Grand Jury testimony from Lewis Libby. Libby had testified that he was told by Vie-President Cheney that he was authorized by Bush to release this information to Judith Miller. Subsequently, Bush acknowledged he had authorized the release of the “classified” information in order to deflect the attacks on the White House by its critics.
For an update try
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/11/AR2006041101440_pf.html
18, Sorry Paul, but I have never seen “24”. Isn’t that on the “F” word network?
History has shown that dictators have usually grabbed power by declaring an emergency. The emergency makes for a good reason to stifle opposition, suspend courts, close newspapers, and jail protesters.
Have you remembered that search engine yet?
Begging the question,
idiom
beg the question
Take for granted or assume the truth of the very thing being questioned. For example, Shopping now for a dress to wear to the ceremony is really begging the question—she hasn’t been invited yet. This phrase, whose roots are in Aristotle’s writings on logic, came into English in the late 1500s. In the 1990s, however, people sometimes used the phrase as a synonym of “ask the question” (as in The article begs the question: “What are we afraid of?”).
http://www.answers.com/main/ntquery?s=%22Begs+the+Question%22&gwp=13
To me, I think the quote, Of course this now begs the question. What else is he lying about? fits the first definition. Bush hasn’t revealed more of his lies yet. Then by interpreting it to be sarcastic, as I did, it would fit the second definition.
Interesting point Paul. Off topic, but it got me thinking about how I use the phrase and similar idioms. Darn it all, you should know how thinking gives me a headache !!!
Apparently, if someone goes out and lies about you and calls you a criminal, you think it’s a crime to tell the truth as a defense. The Senate Intelligence investigators has already concluded that Wilson’s trip to Africa SUPPORTED what Bush said in the State of the Union address, and the British still stand by their claims with regards to uranium purchases in Niger. But I guess you all want to believe that Saddam sent his Vatican Ambassador to Niger for some innocent reason, you know the guy who was his expert on nukes.
http://www.slate.com/id/2139609/?nav=navoa
Turns out this declassification was reported 3 years ago.
http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2006/04/media_selectively_recycles_old.html
Hey #26, I agree. It’s more like “Chimpy McStalin” or even “Chimpy McHussein” – “Chimpy McHitler” is a little over the top!
“What else is he lying about?” Come on folks, these are Politicians were are dealing with — THEY ALL LIE. So, how is Bush any different than ALL OF THEM?
Maybe, sorry to say, the best any of us can do, is to choose THE LESSER OF TWO EVILS when electing officials. No matter WHO we get in office, we can expect lies — they ALL do it! The question is not IF a President will lie, but HOW MUCH he will lie. I don’t trust ANY politicians, at all, ever. And I am not EVER surprised when they are CAUGHT being dishonest, and corrupt.
Good Luck, America. You need it.
By Vickie Sue
Bush has many flaws and has done many things wrong but you all need to remember 2 things:
1. He’s still not worse that Kerry would have been. It’s not possible to be worse than Kerry. If he practised cannibalism live on television followed by dropping nukes on the UN building, Mecca, the Vatican and Paris and then had the military research labs release every experimental virus they have, America would still be better off than if Kerry or Gore had been President. Those two stiffs are both icky.
2. None of this matters because we’re all going to die of Global Warming.
When we’re all dead, don’t say I didn’t warn you.