Photo Op AddressesWhat a crock, flying in on a jet, jumping out in a jump suit, looking for all the world the like the president protrayed in
Independence Day. I can't believe how cynical this White House is. Well I can, because they're going to get away with it.
But this president, this president who took National Guard duty to ditch going to Vietnam and then ditched out on his guard duty has the gall to fly in on a miltary jet and pretend he's a pilot again!
What bunk! What hokum!
Meanwhile, the networks lapped it up, the image of Bush in flight suit was used in the Boston Globe and who knows how many other newspapers. The White House must be giddy. They do Presidential press conference with docile reporters called upon by index card, where the president gives the same answer to every question, no matter what was asked. And people still call it a press conference!?!. Then last night they stage manage a 27 minute victory speech that's a rehash of the incredible, in fact so far discredited claims, and no one calls them on it.
The President claimed that the war in Iraq turned the tide on terror, further weakened Al Qaidi, and stopped the weapons of mass descruction from getting into terrorists' hands. What weapons of mass destruction were kept from terrorists? -- so far we haven't found any, despite being in Iraq for close to 40 days and having visited all those sites that Powell's UN PowerPoint claimed were sites of WMD production!! What connection to Bin Laden and Al Qaida was disrupted?-- so far there hasn't been one evidenced, and before the war, such connections were disavowed by the CIA, hardly a pacifist group!!
This rant is not about whether the war was right or wrong, it's about the fact that this president lies and cheats, can't give an honest and coherent unscripted answer, and gets away with this, all because the White House knows how to script and stage the president in a way that wows the population and cows the media.
It's a disgrace.
Having Gone Off LineNot for lack of access (I had my laptop with its built in modem and a phone line handy.), I was off line for four whole days. Instead of connecting and keeping my email inbox lean by copiously deleting, or logging in here, I spent a few days hanging out with family, not doing much of nothing except hanging out, playing cards, eating a bunch, running errands here and there. Most of the work I do, and many of my social connections, are conducted by email. So when I was off line, I was gone for three days from the world where I spend most of my working hours.
The fun part of taking a simple break from work, with no planned events or things to do, was in getting away from a job with deadlines to meet, meetings to go to, and other planned events or things to do. I shucked that skin for a while. For a while the prospect of living that way continuously, without having anything in particular that I had to do, seemed appealing.
Of course, if the respite became the routine, appeal would turn to ennui pretty quick. I was reminded especially of that by a piece in today's
New York Times that looked at how many people have opted -- or have been forced to opt -- out of the job market. These are people who, unable to find jobs, have decided to stay home, or go back to school, or are living off savings.
One person interviewed remarked on how much he missed work, on having a work life, an office to go to, people to work with, projects to work on, challenges to meet, problems to solve.
The paycheck matters, but so too does the work, the place of work.
As much as I enjoyed, and wouldn't mind a few more days of just hanging out, I'm glad I'm going back to work tomorrow.
