GW : "Power is being the president"

[tocqueville]

Chaos under heaven
By Tom Engelhardt

"Asked about continued political challenges such as Iraq and social security, President George W Bush said he doesn't care about the polls.

"Question: But power is perception.

"The president: Power is being the president."
- Bush in an interview with Texas reporters.


G-SAVE yourself
Last week, the State Department issued an "updated worldwide caution" about "extremist violence" against US citizens traveling abroad. According to Robin Wright of the Washington Post:
The warning said attacks against private and official targets could come in the form of assassinations, kidnappings, hijackings or bombings. The targets could include places where Americans meet or visit, such as residential areas, hotels and restaurants, as well as places of worship, schools, clubs, business offices and public areas, the caution said ... as causes of concern, the department cited spillover from the US intervention in Iraq in and outside the Middle East ... .
This came not long after other officials in the Bush administration, who had been arguing fiercely since September 11, 2001 for a series of deep links between terrorism and Iraq, strove hard to deny that the terrorist bombings in London's subways had anything to do with Iraq. So the message was clear: don't leave home because ... uh, they hate us (but Iraq has nothing to do with it). Somebody just hadn't bothered to inform the State Department.

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/GH09Ak01.html

[bryant69]

1. Mabye President Bush is using the word Power in an unusual way?

Power is being the President? That's a very creepy sinister comment.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[indepat]

2. Hopefully absolute power will not corrupt absolutely and if a dictator,

hopefully a benevolent dictator.

[acmavm]

3. This is how out-of-control the whole situation in this country has become:

<snip>

If you really want to sample the madness of our times, consider Juan Cole's little history of how "the American Right, having created the (anti-Soviet) mujahideen (in Afghanistan) and having mightily contributed to the creation of al-Qaeda, abruptly announced that there was something deeply wrong with Islam, that it kept producing terrorists", or just wrap your mind around the fate of the poor birdwatcher in Bush's America. Cynthia H Cho of the Los Angeles Times recently reported that, from Cape Charles, Virginia, to Sierra Vista, Arizona, your typical birder, walking quietly in nature with a pair of binoculars (and possibly a telescope and camera), the very picture of the harmless human being, is now feeling the pinch of the homeland security state. "At popular birding sites across the country, they are facing stricter regulations - in some cases being required to hire a police escort - as authorities beef up national security." Birds, it turns out, don't hesitate to congregate around key bridges, tunnels, roads, and military facilities like so many terrorist rock doves and who knows what stranger may be lurking in their vicinity cleverly dressed in the guise of a birder.

<snip>