Unbelievable

I was able to read through the transcript of Mister Bush's "major speech". It's quite a bit easier to absorb in text--you don't have to suffer through the smirks and twitches. But it's still pile of manure.

I'm not always in sync with Slate's Fred Kaplan, but I think his summary of the speech is spot-on:

Near the start of the speech, Bush declared, "We will never back down, never give in, and never accept anything less than complete victory." What he has to do now—because, after all this time, he still hasn't—is to explain what he means by "victory" and how he plans to get there.

Don't hold your breath, Fred. Mister Bush will never explain what he means.

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The close timing between the big speech and the New York terror alert is hardly surprising. It's a shameful sign of the state of America when we have to take these coincidental terror scares seriously even though we're nearly certain that they are thinly veiled political ploys. In the Rovewellian era, we have no reason to trust anything our government tells us, and no conspiracy theory is too outrageous to dismiss out of hand.

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Speaking of coincidence, we get more body count news from Iraq today.

U.S. soldiers killed at least 29 insurgents in a drive to root out militants in western Iraq, the military said on Friday, after U.S. President George W. Bush vowed not to waver in his campaign against Islamic extremists.

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And this from Mister Bush's lap dog:

British Prime Minister Tony Blair said on Thursday London suspected Shi'ite Iran and Lebanon's Hizbollah group might be supplying technology and explosives to Shi'ite Muslim militants operating in Iraq, although he said he had no proof.

Hizbollah and Iran deny the accusations.

Tony Blair makes unsubstantiated accusations and Hizbollah and Iran deny them. I never thought I'd see a day when I found Hizbollah and Iran more credible than the Prime Minister of England.

But that day has come. Hell, Blair's track record shows that you can't believe him when he does have "proof."

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Speaking of people you can't believe…

White House spokesman Scott McClellan denies Mister Bush said he was "driven with a mission from God" to invade Afghanistan and Iraq.

Which means it's a good bet that Mister Bush did say it.

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I'll be tapping out query packages over the weekend. Have a good one!