"DISARM YOU WITH SOME BILE..."

(sorry, that was the worst smashing pumpkins reference of all time)

I have a love-hate relationship with the L.A. Times. It comes out strongest when pieces like this, by LAT staff writer Robin Wright, make the front page.

Content-wise, there's nothing wrong with it: It details how Bush basically threw an impatient tantrum yesterday in front of reporters in Washington, whining about France Germany and Russia, complaining -- without producing any evidence, of course -- about how Saddam isn't disarming. (cough cough proof would be nice, cough cough). Anyway, as we all know, Dubya is losing patience not because Saddam is "running out of time" as he claims, but because Bush himself is seeing the clock run out on his war. Support for it is waning, both here (finally!) and abroad, and France has vowed to block a UN resolution for war given current circumstances. The man is looking at a serious case of blueballs here.

Anyway, my problem is with the Times, and perhaps Ms. Wright (who I'm pretty sure isn't THAT Robin Wright, hehe). A paragraph in her piece jumped out at me:

"It is very much like what happened prior to our getting a resolution out of the United Nations. Many of the punditry were quick to say no one is going to follow the United States. And we got a unanimous resolution out of the United Nations," he said.

Why does that 2nd sentence sound so familiar? Then I remembered reading this yesterday:

"Many of the punditry—of course, not you (laughter)—but other punditry were quick to say, no one is going to follow the United States of America."—Washington, D.C., Jan. 21, 2003.

Yes, it was a Bushism! And the LA Times is back in the business of cleaning up Dubya's verbal messes again! I suppose the boy king puts many news editors in a tough position with his odd verbal tangents and contortions, so perhaps we should go easy on Ms. Wright. Then again, it's our president, it's what he said, report it that way! (by the way, I'm curious, how many television pundits said that? give me some names)

In the interest of piling on, though, here's another Bushism:

"When Iraq is liberated, you will be treated, tried, and persecuted as a war criminal."—Washington, D.C., Jan. 22, 2003.

Another helping of pretzels, stat!