First Door on the Left

President Bush, citing two trailers that U.S. intelligence agencies have said were probably used as mobile biological weapons labs, said U.S. forces in Iraq have “found the weapons of mass destruction” that were the United States’ primary justification for going to war.

In remarks to Polish television at a time of mounting criticism at home and abroad that the more than two-month-old weapons hunt is turning up nothing, Bush said that claims of failure were “wrong.” The remarks were released today.

“You remember when [Secretary of State] Colin Powell stood up in front of the world, and he said Iraq has got laboratories, mobile labs to build biological weapons,” Bush said in an interview before leaving today on a seven-day trip to Europe and the Middle East. “They’re illegal. They’re against the United Nations resolutions, and we’ve so far discovered two.

“And we’ll find more weapons as time goes on,” Bush said. “But for those who say we haven’t found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they’re wrong. We found them.”

No, Mr. Bush. What we found were two empty trailers that may have at one time been used in an attempt to manufacture biological weapons. We have not found any weapons of mass destruction.

Just how illiterate is this guy?

The economic rationale for this tax cut is dubious, but its political impact is clear. It’s a cynical device to re-elect the president and put the country in hock. One Senate Republican dubs it “The Rangers Relief Act,” after the newly created category of Bush donors who contribute at least $200,000 to his re-election. (The Pioneers used to be the high-rollers at $100,000 plus; now the Rangers, named after the baseball team Bush owned, are the heavy hitters.) “The tax cut reimburses the donors before they’ve given,” says the Senate Republican, noting the added benefit of starving the government of resources to support the programs that Democrats typically champion, like Social Security and Medicare.

I am beginning to believe that Karl Rove knows there is no chance of George W. Bush being elected in 2004, and he is determined to do as much damage to this country as he possibly can in the time he has left.

When the Bushes moved into the White House, they accused the Clinton people of trashing the place. When the next Democrat moves in, in January 2005, he’ll have to clean up the mess that Bush & Co. have made of the country. Trashing the White House will seem trivial in comparison.

by David Michael Rothschild

Being a politically active person, discussions with family and friends frequently turn to our chances in 2004. For the most part, they are at best pessimistic, or just scared; I tell them that our chances in 2004 are superb.

George’s popularity? The War on Terror? Gulf War II? How can we win? The answer is two-fold. Firstly, we represent most Americans on most issues and secondly, Karl Rove does have a fatal flaw. He shares the same attribute that has brought down giants since antiquity – hubris. These two facts are not mutually exclusive, because it is Karl Rove’s voracious hubris that will lead journalists and consequently Americans to begin appreciating just how damaging the current regime has been to America.

I have not yet seen this movie.

An administration hypes the threat posed by a foreign power. It talks of links to Islamic fundamentalist terrorism; it warns about a nuclear weapons program. The news media play along, and the country is swept up in war fever. The war drives everything else — including scandals involving administration officials — from the public’s consciousness.

The 1997 movie “Wag the Dog” had quite a plot.

Although the movie’s title has entered the language, I don’t know how many people have watched it lately. Read the screenplay. If you don’t think it bears a resemblance to recent events, you’re in denial.

Should I try to rent it this weekend, or will it just seem kind of redundant, given what we’ve been living through lately?