I am Confused.
Mar. 15th, 2004 12:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eruthrosFrom a NYTimes.com story on what Bush does with his time:
"To break it down further, the president is generally awake by 5 a.m., when he has coffee and reads the newspapers in bed with his wife."
Now, if I'm not mistaken, this quote is about the exact same president who said he didn't read newspapers because they were biased; instead, he got his news from his (absolutely unbiased!) advisers and also from a couple of really friendly lobbyists who happened to be hanging around the White House.
Now that president reads newspapers in bed with his wife? Not only that, he generally reads newspapers in bed with his wife, implying that this is the status quo, the typical morning throughout his entire presidency, and not a sudden change? Did I miss something? Was there a big news article three months ago saying "Bush Decides to Check Out Actual News Sources Rather Than Dick Cheney?" (Really, who'd want to check out Dick Cheney?) Was there a sudden revelation that actually, all that stuff about not reading newspapers was a lie, prepared by the RNC to make Bush seem more like the common people, and in fact he reads every major newspaper in the country and has a Ph.D. in political science and international relations?
Somehow I'm thinking "no."
And yet the article doesn't address that contradiction at all. Instead, it sounds rather as though Bush is totally overbooked and busy and smart. (Whoa. That's approaching AU territory, there.) There's another big problem with it, too, by my standards, which is that it's trying to analyze what Dubya does with his time -- while focusing only on the time he spends in D.C. I might have liked an analysis, say, of how many hours Bush has worked last year compared to most employed Americans. The author could have pointed out that Bush has more vacation than any other President, say, or that he seems to have no problem vacationing in Texas during the early stages of a war. Seems to me that that would be a better indicator of what Bush values and what Bush time means.
But maybe that's just me.
In other news, I clearly need a set of political icons. I should get on that. A nice "wtf?" one for ridiculous media coverage of, well, anything, say. And I'm sure I can think of something snarky to say for an icon of BushCo. I should get on that.
"To break it down further, the president is generally awake by 5 a.m., when he has coffee and reads the newspapers in bed with his wife."
Now, if I'm not mistaken, this quote is about the exact same president who said he didn't read newspapers because they were biased; instead, he got his news from his (absolutely unbiased!) advisers and also from a couple of really friendly lobbyists who happened to be hanging around the White House.
Now that president reads newspapers in bed with his wife? Not only that, he generally reads newspapers in bed with his wife, implying that this is the status quo, the typical morning throughout his entire presidency, and not a sudden change? Did I miss something? Was there a big news article three months ago saying "Bush Decides to Check Out Actual News Sources Rather Than Dick Cheney?" (Really, who'd want to check out Dick Cheney?) Was there a sudden revelation that actually, all that stuff about not reading newspapers was a lie, prepared by the RNC to make Bush seem more like the common people, and in fact he reads every major newspaper in the country and has a Ph.D. in political science and international relations?
Somehow I'm thinking "no."
And yet the article doesn't address that contradiction at all. Instead, it sounds rather as though Bush is totally overbooked and busy and smart. (Whoa. That's approaching AU territory, there.) There's another big problem with it, too, by my standards, which is that it's trying to analyze what Dubya does with his time -- while focusing only on the time he spends in D.C. I might have liked an analysis, say, of how many hours Bush has worked last year compared to most employed Americans. The author could have pointed out that Bush has more vacation than any other President, say, or that he seems to have no problem vacationing in Texas during the early stages of a war. Seems to me that that would be a better indicator of what Bush values and what Bush time means.
But maybe that's just me.
In other news, I clearly need a set of political icons. I should get on that. A nice "wtf?" one for ridiculous media coverage of, well, anything, say. And I'm sure I can think of something snarky to say for an icon of BushCo. I should get on that.
(shrug)
Date: 2004-03-15 12:57 pm (UTC)(shrug)
screwy pup ~~~ woof
no subject
Date: 2004-03-15 01:48 pm (UTC)Unfortunately, it's nothing new. Remember, before the war, we had to invade Iraq because it was a threat, and an important part of the war on terror. After the war, with no weapons to be found, and not terrorist links, the reason that we invaded was because Saddam was evil, and gassed the Kurds in the '80s with US mustard gas. (There was a great shot on the Simpsons last night where Homer found a Newsweek from 1986 in the closet, and the cover story was "Why the US Loves Saddam Hussein". Ah, the Simpsons.) Apparently having a consistent story is no longer an important part of news stories.
no subject
Date: 2004-03-15 07:18 pm (UTC)Nope. We just repeat what the White House tells us. And if they say Georgie's a teetotaler who gets up at 5 am, why that's what we'll report.
no subject
Date: 2004-03-28 06:55 pm (UTC)Firstly this is a metaphor to show what a Wonderful Thing heterosexual marriage is, by presenting this cozy image of Shrubby and his Wife (although personally any image that in any way might be related to Shrubby having S-E-X makes me totally gag ;) having Quality Time together before they start their Busy Days.
Secondly Presidents don't actually read newspapers, they read news summaries provided by staff persons who find and collate all relevant (as defined by the President or whoever he trusts) news stories and prints them up for him to read. So what they really mean is that he gets his news briefing, not the real newspapers. Besides if he read real newspapers, he might get his lily-white hands dirty. ;)
As for Bush saying he didn't read newspapers and now saying he does, there's no contradiction there, you see there's multiple GWs all existing at the same time but in different dimensions of reality. One GW not only knows there are WMDs in Iraq, he's found them! Another GW never said there were WMDs in Iraq at all! See, GW has one of them Doctor Who time thingies, I forget what it's called but I'm sure another GW will be along in a moment to remind me...
alice ttlg, CNIA (Certified Know-It-All)
no subject
Date: 2004-03-31 06:05 pm (UTC)Oh! It all makes sense to me now! So that's how this works. Now I understand how he can say he's not lying... he's just telling the truth about a different leg of the Trousers of Time.