A Lost Year?
It must be something in the water, but folks over in the White House are clearly becoming delusional.
Here’s one senior official, quoted by the New York Times, worried about pushing the Iraqis too much(to “pull up their socks” as Rummy put it):
“The worry is that the more Maliki is seen as our puppet, because he is abiding by our timelines and deadlines, the internal political dynamics will become so fragile that the whole government would collapse.”
And this would be bad because …? “That would set us back a year.”
And what a year it was: 800 Americans killed; more than 30,000 Iraqis murdered; and over 1 million refugees. With good years like that, what would a bad year look like?
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Bush is working on what Josh has pointed out, a 'Great Leap Forward" link
Regardless, whether we are set back a year or forward a year, with the Bush administration the flypaper strateragy holds true:
As long as we stay there, they can kill us there, and they won't have to kill us here.
December 10, 2006 2:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
Delusional? Perhaps, but also a wee bit sloppy.
Among the next list of those slated to recieve the Presidential Medal of Honor is a raving rightwing nutjob journalist/historian Paul Johnson, much beloved by influential Americans of a similiar persuasion.
Ok as far as that goes and not exactly unexpected. But, it seems that the columnist who never tired of extolling family values finally went too far and in 1998 was outed by his mistress of eleven years or so. Not a big deal except for the fact that he really was a "naughty boy" with a difference:
"IT WAS when Gloria Stewart read an article by her lover celebrating his fortieth wedding anniversary that she finally snapped.
For more than a decade, Ms Stewart had been the mistress of Paul Johnson, the 69-year-old journalist and historian who regularly lectures the godless masses on good conduct and is a keen follower of the late Jesus Christ and the present Prime Minister.
So incensed was Ms Stewart by her lover's "gross hypocrisy" that she recorded one of their encounters in the study of his Bayswater home. Exact details of the tryst have yet to emerge, but the smart money is on Mr Johnson bending over the Chippendale and singing "Stand Up, Stand Up For Jesus!"while Ms Stewart sets about his freckled rear with a stout copy of Hymns Ancient and Modern.
"Paul loved to be spanked and it was a big feature of our relationship. I had to tell him he was a very naughty boy," explains Ms Stewart".
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4153/is_19980513/ai_n11863175
Let's hope someone informs Bush of his awardees' penchant for S&M. It wouldn't do for Bush to give Johnson a friendly swat during the ceremony.
December 10, 2006 6:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
What a hoot. Best laugh since Cheney went hunting. Thanks!
Here's Christopher Hitchens in 1998 (apparently sober back then) on Johnson and conservatives.
Hitchens finishes with a great ending, although perhaps not a prescient one (emphasis mine):
(By the way, the medal is for freedom, not honor.)
"I don't want to say that George Bush is a lame duck, but this morning, Cheney shot him". Bill Maher
December 12, 2006 6:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
"(By the way, the medal is for freedom, not honor.)"
LOL....thanks. Talk about being sloppy......
December 12, 2006 8:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
When you think about it, the medal could swing either way. He has the freedom to be spanked or he is honorably spanked by his mistress. Must make sense somewhere. (Or maybe he gets spanked with the medal?)
"I don't want to say that George Bush is a lame duck, but this morning, Cheney shot him". Bill Maher
December 13, 2006 1:22 AM | Reply | Permalink