I'm watching Bush address the nation on the state of Iraq. He just cited the passage of a budget as one of the major signs of improvement in Iraq. To be sure, I understand that nearly all politicians believe that government expenditures are the acme of human achievement. Nonetheless, this seems like a rather low bar.
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It may be a low bar, but it's a standard our own Congress cannot meet with any consistency. Is it really fair to ask the Iraqi parliament to be MORE effective than our Congress? That, I think, was Bush's point. Congress is trying to hold Iraq's parliament to standards the Congress is unwilling or unable to meet.
Ah, David, I remember when I believed Nietszche was correct that ressentiment is an exclusively left-wing malady. Those were happy days.
To be fair, I believe that "passing a budget" is a proxy for "enough government has evolved where a balance sheet can be created, and the formation of tax collection and bureaucracy is going in the right direction." They'll be adding riders to amendments and allocating federal funds for the Basra Bridge to Nowhere any day now.
My dear Megan, I think the bar was in the swamp (as in - when you're up to your ass in alligators, its hard to remember the original mission was to drain the swamp).
The only thing more pathetic was the Democrat's response, which was absolutely horrible.
The best thing Mr. Bush could do would be to find someone in his administration who can connect with the American people, then use s/he to make the points he is so bad at making. Still, I'm willing to give more time, but only if it ends in killing many, many more al-Qaeda than they've done already.
I was working out when he made his address, and one of the very large, black Marines on the bike next to me had a very cogent point, "Why use the US military in half-measures? If you 'pull the trigger' and decide to use our military, let them do what they need to do, (kill people and break things) else keep your gun in your holster. Now HE was very compelling.
Did Mussolini make the budgets run on time?
No, but he did make the trains run on thyme.
Just to echo David,
It has been very amusing to see the Congressional leadership gripe about the Iraqi parliament taking time off, and then taking the month of August off themselves.
How many bills has the Democratic controlled Congress passed lately? (Keep in mind no one is assassinating members of Congress or kidnapping their relatives.)
The Democrats are just hoping that by calling the Iraq War "Bush's War" they can keep everyone's attention away from the fact that thus far they have been completely ineffectual themselves.
"Why use the US military in half-measures? If you 'pull the trigger' and decide to use our military, let them do what they need to do, (kill people and break things) else keep your gun in your holster. Now HE was very compelling."
nearly a half million Iraqis have died...hows that working out?
"How many bills has the Democratic controlled Congress passed lately?"
Evidently, enough that our country is not mired in civil war.
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