The Balance of Life?

Quote:
"It's important for me to be thoughtful and sensitive to those who have got something to say. But it's also important for me to go on with my life, to keep a balanced life."

-President George W. Bush, explaining to reporters before a two-hour bike ride why he won't meet in Crawford, Texas, with Cindy Sheehan, whose son [Casey Sheehan] died in Iraq.

When I read this quote in Newsweek, the part that stuck out was when he said, "It's also important for me to go on with my life." Too bad Casey Sheehan doesn't have that option.

Pat Robertson is pissed....and it's funny!

Q: What's more fun than taking a transcript from an interview and adding certain words and phrases to make it funny?

A: Getting someone to believe it and repeat it on the air!

Pat Robertson was "absolutely appalled" by some comments that Barbara Boxer NEVER MADE.

Someone from RadioBlogger, who, by the way, seems to be your typical ultra-right-wing blogger who buys whatever the President and his Republicans are selling, took the transcript of an interview between CNN's Wolf Blitzer and Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and offered to "translate Boxer's answer[s]" as he typed the interview, putting his additions in bold print so that it would at least be easily recognized, even by Pat Robertson.

And Robertson takes this blatantly altered interview, more specifically the parts in the bold print(!), and repeats it on the Fox "News" show "Hannity and Colmes," saying how he was just "absolutely appalled."

So right-winger Pat Robertson was fooled by a right-wing "Radioblogger."
Is this poetic justice, or just simple and comedic irony?

Be sure to read the Radioblogger piece (of crap) here, and read what Pat Robertson said here.

Patriotism

Newsweek's Anna Quindlen, who is always a refreshing voice of reason in this ever so polarized country, wrote an article titled, "Scrap Metal, Not Soldiers," in which she had this to say...

"In the lickety-split fashion of our times, there's already a TV drama about the Iraq war called 'Over There.' It aired just as an independent panel reported that planning for postwar Iraq was inadequate. So is planning for postwar America, over here. Two months ago the secretary of the VA went to a House committee, hat in hand, because the agency had so grossly underestimated the number of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan needing medical services that he found himself $1 billion short of necessary funding. Never mind the yellow-ribbon magnets; patriotism is an empty, dumb show if it doesn't include adequate health care, a living wage and decent shelter for people who laid down their lives."

It's a shame that our politicians can afford to start wars, but can't afford to take care of the people who actually do the fighting.

(the above referenced article appears in the August 8, 2005 issue of Newsweek.)

"Treason?" is up at the Capital City Free Press

My new column, "Treason?" is up at the Capital City Free Press.

Excerpt:

"For example, if the phrase "First Lady travels to Africa" appears on the front page of the New York Times, would it be safe to assume that they were referring to Laura Bush? Just like saying that Joseph Wilson's wife works for the CIA -- it is safe to assume, especially in a society that has banned polygamy, that they must be referring to Valerie Plame, because, that is who is married to Ambassador Joseph Wilson..."

Read More Here.

Capital City Free Press