Press Conferences are not his Forte.
 

A. With Kos, you gave me nothing to talk about.

B. As to Bush's performance, the blogosphere simply confirms that Bush-haters will resume their hate, and the rest will carry on with whatever impression they had before, too. I expected to see a not-very-brilliant, poor public speaking, rather inscrutably-faced guy with fairly steady moral convictions and values that I think are uniquely suited to our present needs say next to nothing of importance simply because the media has started harping on the idea that he needed to have a press conference. That's what I saw. I feel prescient.

9/11 is Gorelick's fault for setting up "the wall"
 

PC fuck yourself. Call them camel schtuppers til you're blue in the face for all I care. I think it's even possible - possible - that the wholesale rounding up of swarthies or whatever you call them post-9/11 averted other attacks. But at what cost? It's a short term solution to a long term problem unless we want to just seal our borders and reject the notion of a pluralistic society.

Assassinating UBL after Bush took office may not have prevented 9/11. Clarke predicted that if he were killed even before then that it would lead to a bilmore bee backlash (I paraphrase). UBL has most assuredly set in motion more attacks. Are you saying you don't want him dead even though those attack may happen anyway?

Press Conferences are not his Forte.
 

Nothing there worth repeating, I agree, but I included it for context.

He's closer than you are to the essence of this, which is that Bush is claiming credit for this while failing to concede the link between Khan and the Pakistani government.

No, it's not a far cry at all. Al Qaeda's not reading tomorrow's Washington Post to see whether we're losing our will power. But Bush is running for re-election.

What's your basis for thinking that AQ is following our press? That's the worst kind of projection. OBL's fatwas include ravings about al-Andalus -- he's focusing on what happened in modern-day Spain hundreds of years ago, and you think he's following exit polls.

Kos is referring to Bush's use of that phrase as a totem to ward off hostile questions, something you are beyond perceiving. Hard questions about Iraq? Just talk about The War On Terrorism. If you keep insisting that Iraq is part of The War On Terrorism, there's no need to explain how we're going to win.

It may not work for you, but when Bush starts that smirking thing, he's like the jackasses I knew in high school. He has that same mean streak. Since club has posted how he admires this in Bush, I know that some conservatives see this streak in him.

Thanks. I note you don't say anything positive about Bush, and I find that strangely heartening.

9/11 is Gorelick's fault for setting up "the wall"
 

?

Press Conferences are not his Forte.
 

Did you see any of this so-called "harping" before the last day? I didn't. Bush told people a day or two ago that he was going to do this press conference, unlike the others he's done, when he gave the media only an hour's warning, or less. Or so I heard on the radio this morning.

9/11 is Gorelick's fault for setting up "the wall"
 

Press Conferences are not his Forte.
 

"Failing to concede"? Like, there's a question about it? I don't get this comment. I think the Pakistan government has gone a long way in cleaning itself up since then, and I doubt that Bush and his actions and (apparent) intentions had nothing to do with that.

Al Jazeerah spent days quoting Kennedy. They quote much of the antiwar stuff. They talk about Kerry's positions, taken straight from our media, and are now saying that if Kerry wins, and backs off the fight, they'll relent a bit, too. What you say is just completely unrelated to reality. Of course they watch us, through our media, constantly.

The "totem" is in Kos's mind, because he thinks that Bush has no right to that phrase, because he thinks Bush is using it to cover his war on Iraq. That's Kos's opinion, and maybe yours. It's not mine. I think that you guys should have no right to say the word "hunger" because it's your economic policies that cause it worldwide, but do I complain when you do? Do I claim that you're saying it in a way to scare me off of debate? That's just weak.

You could have just said "you're right, Bilmore". It would have been quicker.

I find it disenheartening that, to you, apparently, strongly held values and beliefs are nothing positive.

9/11 is Gorelick's fault for setting up "the wall"
 

Ah. Thanks. I was . . . confused.

Well, more confused.

Press Conferences are not his Forte.
 

Yes, it's been a fairly steady theme for some time. Out of fairness, I think his supporters were probably saying it as often as media types were, for a different reason.

Press Conferences are not his Forte.
 

Hope springs eternal.

You should get someone to tell you the difference between Al Qaeda and Al Jazeerah.

I can't speak for Kos, since I don't read him, but I wouldn't say that Bush has no right to that phrase, whatever that means. I would say, however, that he deploys it with great frequency to avoid discussion of what he's doing the name of that war.

What that has to do with "hunger" is highly unclear to me.

Just what do you think we agree on here?

You made that point in a different post that I had not seen yet when I posted this.

All else equal, strongly held values and beliefs are good. But I wish OBL's values weren't so strongly held. Likewise, I am disturbed that Bush holds his beliefs so strongly that he declines to relinquish them in the face of mounting evidence of changed circumstances.

9/11 is Gorelick's fault for setting up "the wall"
 

Nobody was advocating rounding up Arabs. What was being debated was whether they could investigate (not roundup) non-American Arab men in flying schools specifically because they were non-American Arab and the biggest terrorist threats to the US were coming from non-American muslims, in particular Arab muslims.

That is it. Just investigate to see why there were so many non-American Arabs in American flying schools. But that is racial/ethnic/religious profiling and the PC crowd says there is something morally wrong with that.

Nothing I have said suggests that. Why are you even saying that? UBL dead is a good thing. If he had been killed 8 years ago, it might have stopped 9/11. But killing him in the 9 months preceeding 9/11 wouldn't have helped.

Press Conferences are not his Forte.
 

When your country is at war, it is not the time for a President to engage in public introspective self-flagellation simply because a reporter asks a question. This is not the right time. That sort of thing needs to be done in private right now with trusted advisors. To do it in publis will only embolden our enemies because they will perceive it as weakness.

Press Conferences are not his Forte.
 

Seen any more evidence of continuing transfer of info to NK, Iran, Malaysia, or wherever?

You should get someone to explain to you where AQ recruits come from, from where its popular support arises, what regions and groups of people are disaffected enough to seek the same goals as the actual present AQ members, . . . the list is too long to finish here.

How can something be "highly unclear"? It's either unclear, or not.

Okay, sorry, I was channelling the FB there for a moment. You object to one particular part of Bush's philosophy. Therefore, you think that he is somehow honor-bound not to speak of it. I think that we are, in fact, effectively fighting a war on terror, and I think Bush is correct to focus on this. If Kerry wins, I'm sure I will likewise object to his use of the words "france-like heaven", but I'm not ego-centric enough to think he will avoid it merely to not offend me.

Kos's comments reflected a stupid, visceral hatred of the guy for dumb reasons. A smirk? C'mon. You're better than that. Your comment supported what I said.

Now I gotta go. It's later in the day for me than for you guys.

In more ways than one.

9/11 is Gorelick's fault for setting up "the wall"
 

Cite please.

Cite please.

Clarke says this in his book, but for a profit.

Press Conferences are not his Forte.
 

But war is a good time to think on your feet. I think our enemies will take his failure to do so as a sign of stupidity. Or weakness. Take your pick.