You know, I’m willing to buy into the idea that it was Pakistan, not Karl Rove, pushing for the “July surprise.” And yet, if Pakistan knows that it will make Bush happy to produce a HVT at the end of July, does that make Bush any less complicit?
In a lot of ways, it’s like the CIA’s relationship with the Administration after 9/11. Cheney, Rumsfeld, et. al. must have made if very clear that they wanted to find a relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda and/or WMD. And the CIA delivered, despite the evidence to the contrary.
I don’t really believe that Osama’s in a can and Bush is going to pop him in October. I don’t want to believe that.
Still, I’m not satisfied.
I’m very disappointed that Tom Ridge felt the need to mention, in last week’s news conference, that the al Qaeda intelligence was “the result of the president’s leadership in the war against terror.”
It’s that extra bit of partisanship that comes out of this Administration. Smarmy, over-the-top partisanship that you’d never see out of a Democratic administration. It’s the same smarminess that leads to the IRS colluding with the GOP to produce press releases, or the Administration producing fake TV news clips touting the Medicare bill.
No Democrat would be that audacious and think they could get away with it. Would Howard Dean or Michael Moore be that partisan? Absolutely. But you’d never see such cynical manipulation out of a Democratic President or his cabinet. Heck, you’d never see it from a rational Republican administration. But here, everything’s fair game to be politicized, it seems.
So when we’re skeptical about terror alerts, it’s not unfounded, as some would suggest. It’s because we have ample evidence of extreme hubris coming from the White House and the Cabinet.
I’m convinced it’s because this administration doesn’t have a mandate, and they know it. So they have to be very agressive in staying on message and running an intense PR campaign. I don’t think they’re trying to scare me into voting for the president. No, it’s more like the huckster who’s trying to sell me a product I don’t need. He needs to heap on the hard sell because the product doesn’t exatly sell itself.
Now Playing: Episode 355
Democrats in Denver, Republicans in St. Paul, and Iraqis in Anbar.
Links Mentioned: Robert Caro on Obama … Americans hand over Anbar … John Kerry’s surprisingly good convention speech … Sarah Palin’s governing problems
What gets me is the tax break. Do I understand this correctly? A business owner only has to prove that the truck is over 6000 lbs to qualify it as a write off? That doesn’t seem fair. A person should have to prove that it’s necessary for the business, shouldn’t they? Jeez, I hope I’m misunderstanding something here.
And no this isn’t a kneejerk response to SUV’s, they can be very practical for the right person.
No, Rachel, you’re correct. One merely has to be self-employed and you can qualify for the tax break. It’s absolutely absurd.