Mixed Signals
I'm a bad liberal, so I don't normally watch The Daily Show, but I put it on last night and saw a curious story about how Bush went to visit the Department of Energy's renewable energies lab in Colorado just a little bit after 32 workers there got laid off because of budget cuts. Just in time for the President's visit, the money was found and they were reinstated. Weird, eh? All true, it seems. Bush says, "I recognize that there has been some interesting, let me say, mixed signals when it comes to funding" and elaborates that "part of the issue we face, unfortunately, is that there are sometimes decisions made as a result of the appropriations process, where money may not end up where it is supposed to have gone."
I say the government is being run by idiots. There are sometimes decisions made as a result of the appropriations process, where money may not end up where it is supposed to have gone? The MBA presidency? The grownups are back in charge? Meanwhile, looks like someone forgot to conduct a legally-mandated 45 day investigation of the UAE port deal. Perhaps the funds necessary were accidentally appropriate elsewhere.
I really can't imagine not watching TDS. The clips are here: http://tinyurl.com/9c3ko
I don't really know why it isn't clear -- unless you are a BushCo pal / donor, the government's opinion is "fuck you." "The grownups are supposed to be in charge" is so, like, 2002.
February 22, 2006 7:53 AM | Reply | Permalink
I'm a little suprised that with a burgeoning Stevedore scandal, Matt has not had as far as I can tell, one mention of Season 2 of "The Wire".
February 22, 2006 8:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
Apologies for the double post.
Bush discovered the phrase "sending mixed signals" during the last presidential election and has used it several times since as if it were a magic mantra. Can people really be so stupid as to put faith in a guy who is like a three year old who, upon learning a new phrase, endlessly repeats it. His comments yesterday were literally incomprehensible - he confused company with country etc. but he had incomplete sentences and grammatical mistakes so egregious that they don't have names. Why doesn't the press simply have a headline; " Bush speaks gibberish when asked about the ports deal"? Instead, they try to figure out what Bush meant then report on that. Sure, you can kind of understand what he means but literally most of what he says is gibberish or is formulaic as in "mixed signals."
At least Nixon could talk.
February 22, 2006 10:08 AM | Reply | Permalink
Deleted due to accidental double post.
February 22, 2006 10:08 AM | Reply | Permalink
I think you mean 'mixed up'. As in dazed and confused.
thepeoplechoose
February 22, 2006 11:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
"I'm a bad liberal, so I don't normally watch The Daily Show"
What exactly is the point of this verbal slap at "good liberals"?
February 22, 2006 11:42 AM | Reply | Permalink
Finally somebody agrees with me. This government is a government run by idiots. I mean, how many screw-ups do people need to convince them that these guys are incompetent bunglers. That's whats so scary about this Dubai thing. Given their track record, it's bound to result in yet another thing to add to the screw-ups. It's been ling chi, chinese for death by a thousand cuts, ever since these idiots took power. Bush's resume read like one disaster after another before he took office. I'd love to see it when he leaves office, if he ever does which is iffy.
February 22, 2006 1:07 PM | Reply | Permalink
J. McCutchen "JmacSF"
San Francisco. CA
You don't watch the Daily Show
I don't read you
February 23, 2006 12:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
J. McCutchen "JmacSF"
San Francisco. CA
Matt watches the Wire!
All is forgiven my son. Should be required viewing in Public Admin programs nationwide.
Not a half bad pohlees show either
Brilliant program..now back to the Daily Show
February 23, 2006 5:05 AM | Reply | Permalink
I say the government is being run by idiots.
Not idiots -- dissemblers. We all know that Bush had no interest in renewable energy research, and it should be no surprise that these folks were getting laid off, even as government spending grows. No interest, that is, until he needed an idea for the State of the Union speech. The mistake you're making is in thinking that there is some rationale connection between the happy words in the State of the Union and actual policy. Not to worry -- we've all been there. And had Bush not gone to speak at this laboratory, no one in the press would ever have noticed that these folks were being laid off, notwithstanding the State of the Union, and none of us would have been any wiser.
February 23, 2006 7:21 AM | Reply | Permalink
I don't know what it has to do with being a 'good liberal', but, while missing the 'Daily Show' is not the worst thing in the world, nobody should miss the 'Colbert Report'.
February 23, 2006 6:18 PM | Reply | Permalink
grayday101
This has been my worst nightmare - that another disaster will occur that will enable Bush to extend his presidency. He needs another disaster before the midterms to retain control of Congress.
Living as I do only 10 miles from the Port of Philadelphia, the Dubai controversy looks like a possibility to me.
"I can be paranoid and people can STILL mean me harm."
February 24, 2006 3:51 PM | Reply | Permalink