From the Washington Posttoday comes an article on the President’s “inadvertent” mispronunciation of “Democratic Majority” (he called it “Democrat Majority”).

 Bush also said he “didn’t mean to be putting fingernails on the board,” while noting that the parties need to work together on addressing problems with the Social Security system. “I am surprised, frankly, at the amount of distrust that exists in this town,” the president said. “And I’m sorry it’s the case, and I’ll work hard to try to elevate it. So the idea that somehow I was trying to needle the Democrats, it’s just — gosh, it’s probably Texas. Who knows what it is? But I’m not that good at pronouncing words anyway.”

 There are several points I want to make about this statement that are absolutely disturbing to me, and should be disturbing to people across this nation:

1. YOU, Mr. President, created the distrust that exists in this town today. Let’s be perfectly honest. You are the son of a life-long Washington politician, you fabricated evidence against an entire nation in order to retaliate for planned attempts on your father’s life, you lied to the American people, you lied to Congress, and you lied to the World. YOU, Mr. President, drove the Republican majority (or, “Republic Majority” if we need to speak your language, sir) to steamroll the minority rights of house members and Senators in order to further your failed agendas (of which there are many). So, I’m not sure why you are surprised, unless, of course this is another example of how far you are removed from reality.
2. You are the leader of the free-world (what you haven’t destroyed or allienated at least). DON’T USE THE WORD “Gosh“…EVER…AGAIN!!
3. “…it’s probably Texas…”– Huh? What the hell does that mean? Are you implying that Texans don’t speak well? Are you trying to blame your personal inadequacies and lack of a logical mind on the fact that you are from Texas? If that was your intent, then I would have to congratulate you on succeeding at something…finally. As a Texan, I would like to point out that you are not a product of the Texas education system (something you were responsible for during your do nothing term as Governor) and that your inability to formulate a coherent sentence has absolutely nothing to do with were you are from. Furthermore, I would like to point out that if Texas has done this to you that you seek another state to place your Presidential Library/Think Tank/Out-house (Alaska might be a good choice. I hear they have newly cleared land in the ANWR region of the state).
4. “But I’m not that good at pronouncing words anyway.”– Pronouncing words. That is your major fault? Mr. President, you are poor at pronouncing words beacuse you lack a clear command of the English language and simply lack the brain power to formulate logical thoughts into words that anyone can comprehend.

The Bush administration is in a real pickle this week over the leaking of classified intelligence documents that were critical of the President’s war in Iraq. (If Vietnam was Johnson’s war, why shouldn’t Iraq be Bush’s war?) Al Kamen, at WashingtonPost.com did an excellent piece this morning where he examines the administration’s use of shock that someone would leak such a document, considering this administration’s spotty history of cracking down on leaks.

Sadly, this is not the first time such damaging leaks of sensitive information — information jihadi recruiters couldn’t possibly have known — have occurred shortly before an election. Four years ago this month, back in September 2002, a leak of secret intelligence on Saddam Hussein ‘s efforts to get “specially designed” aluminum tubes to make nuclear weapons showed up in the New York Times.

As recounted in the new book “Hubris,” by Michael Isikoff and David Corn , a White House official worried in the Times article that the tubes might mean that “the first sign of a ‘smoking gun’ might be a mushroom cloud.” The brilliant line (later used by Rice) was conceived by White House chief speechwriter Michael Gerson , according to the book, and had been discussed in a White House meeting a few days earlier.

Vice President Cheney , on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” cited it to moderator Tim Russert as backing for the claim that Hussein was trying for atomic weapons. “There’s a story in the New York Times this morning,” Cheney noted when asked about Saddam’s push for nukes.
Unclear why no one went after the leaker…

I think it is important to highlight the real advantages to being an American that many of us take for granted. Of these advantages, the right to publicly speak out about a particular subject is the most important. Whether it is a citizen standing in front of the Congressional Representative, or writing a letter to the editor of the local or national newspaper, or whether it is writing in the weblog fashion, it is a fantastic right that Americans have.

Compare this to the degree of freedoms that others throughout the world have. Muslims for example have no such rights, or at the least very limited rights, in this respect. Bashir Goth has written an excellent piece on The Washington Post blog community that deals with this very topic.

You are not allowed to be a person with vices and virtues, you cannot follow your own reasoning, and you cannot be unpopular or defend an unpopular idea. You cannot go out of the circle. To express yourself freely means to risk death. And death indeed if you change your faith. Invention itself is considered as an act of blasphemy.

Thank God the United States is free of this kind of treatment. But pray to God that our own extremisim is not leading us down this path. Goth continues:

On a personal level, I remember writing a poem in early 1980s, which was considered critical of Somalia’s dictatorial regime of Siyad Barre. Later when I wanted to visit my ailing father I had to travel by land from Djibouti, taking a longer route, rather than risking an arrest at the airport of Hargeisa.

In another unfortunate instance, a lyric I wrote on raising awareness about HIV/AIDS and encouraging safe sex has to remain under wraps because musicians were all afraid to set them to music. They considered its message un-Islamic.

Goth’s words should also serve as a reminder to us that creating a democracy in the Muslim world may not be that simple, and what’s more important, it may not be desired. Democracy is a sociopolitical system, whereas Islam is a socioreligious system. The two do not always belong together.

President Bush’s comments on the state of the world last week at the United Nations raise some interesting thoughts about not only his own personal view but of America‘s collective view of the world around us. 

To say that the mission of this government is to eradicate tyranny from the face of the Earth sounds great. It is the battle call of so many wars before, and yet it is almost a hollow message. In World War II the allies pulled their resources to combat a common external enemy. The campaign was costly but effective in removing true fascists from the grips of power around the globe. Storming cities across Europe and invading islands throughout the South and North Pacific were all tasks that in themselves created a culture of appreciation for the West. But this war on terror is not as simple. 

The world we live in is a very complicated and often caustic world filled with hate and distrust for one another, not as nations but as people. William Arkin points this out rather eloquently in his blog posted today on The Washington Post website. 

Bush has an incredible knack for saying things that are throw-backs to the WWII era, but never really delivers any substance that supports his rhetoric. Many people were completely surprised and shocked to hear Venezuela’s president Hugo Chavez refer to Bush as the devil last week, but really if examine the root cause of this language we can see that Chavez is merely expounding the underlying feelings of many around the globe that find themselves pointed out as the enemy in increasingly generic language used by Bush. Our global war strategy in terms of WWII is no longer sufficient. Instead, we need to take notice of the historical definition of war back to the middle-centuries when wars were more tribal and the underlying cause of such wars was religion and moral values. The people that Bush calls “extremists fascists” are the same people who were slaughtered by the Spanish and Romans centuries before our continent even existed on the map. Centuries of hatred and distrust are bubbling to the surface, and those “warriors” fighting this war are well-learned in the historical purpose of their cause.

The enemy is not one country. The enemy is not even a public state that can be pin-pointed on a map. The enemy is something much more dangerous and elusive and deserves a different approach militarily and politically. As Americans we really need to understand the world a little better, and as citizens, we need to demand that our government take a much more diplomatic and constructive approach to squelching the volume on extremist groups and not annihilating entire societies to eradicate the few and ultimately creating more “extremists”.