bush

Why did I vote for change again? Even if non-discriminatory hiring practices were instituted, the very nature of faith based administration of community services is bound to run into discriminatory practices and proselytizing. I would much prefer it if government and tax-payer dollars were divorced from faith based programs. It would, in my opinion, allow both the church and state to better preserve their respective autonomies.

Iraqi PM wants Petraeus out. Iraqi people want us to leave. Iraqi lawmakers back withdrawal.

Wayback Machine:

"We are there at the invitation of the Iraqi government. This is a
sovereign nation. Twelve million people went to the polls to approve a
constitution. It’s their government’s choice. If they were to say,
leave, we would leave." ~ President Bush, May 24th 2007

Atrios is right about how the Bushies use wishful thinking as a GTD (getting things done) method. I can't help but be reminded of the Neitzschean will to power craze centered around Oprah and The Secret. The premise of the book quite simply is that wishing for something can will it into existence. While well-intentioned (benefit of the doubt) there is the blatant suggestion that the reason why one persisists in a bad situation is because one did not  "clap loud enough". In many ways this idea dovetails quite nicely into Bush's view that we lost Vietnam because of bad media coverage and the loss of faith on the part of the American people, and that things are bad now because of the same reasons. Even more depressing is that this belief in wishful thinking also fits into the larger dolchstosslegende (knife-in-the-back) narrative that the conservative right-wing war supporters are weaving.

If only we clapped our hands loud enough, remained "firm" and "resolute", and banned all this "hippie" talk, we could have been greeted as liberators,  had candy fall from the sky, and made peace between the Israelis, the Palestinians, and hell,even the Germans just for good measure!

Could anything be more direct?

Oh right...

With the appearance of Cheney in this particularly sordid episode of the NSA wiretapping scandal, I can safely say that the Grand Unified Theory of the Bush Administration.