WTF Is It Now?!?

'Threats, promises and lies'
"So it seems that Turkey wasn't really haggling about the price, it just wouldn't accept payment by check or credit card. In return for support of an Iraq invasion, Turkey wanted - and got - immediate aid, cash on the barrelhead, rather than mere assurances about future help. You'd almost think President Bush had a credibility problem. And he does.

"Credibility isn't just about punishing people who cross you. It's also about honoring promises, and telling the truth. And those are areas where the Bush administration has problems. I can't think of anyone other than the hard right and corporate lobbyists who has done a deal with Mr. Bush and not come away feeling betrayed....These days, whenever Mr. Bush makes a promise...experienced Bushologists ask, "O.K., that's the bait, where's the switch?" - Paul Krugman, courtesy of SmirkingChimp.com, where's there's lots of good stuff.

For an 'informal list' of Bush lies, see BushWatch.net.


"Do as you're told or you're irrelevant"
Bush held in contempt in England, while US Midwesterners want to believe "their pension plans are being wrecked for good reason."

"The caricature of the current state of public opinion is that there are these two polarised continents: Europe, where everyone is against a war on Iraq except Tony Blair and some Spanish bloke with a moustache, and America, where everyone is absolutely gagging for it... That is worse than an over-simplification. The polls vary, depending on what question is asked and how it is phrased, but on the whole the same lack of enthusiasm for the venture pervades every set of findings, and the difference between one side of the Atlantic and another is not all that marked. And there is an altogether more mysterious phenomenon: it is surprisingly hard, even in the US, to find people who share their leaders' enthusiasm." - from the Guardian.