Tuesday, July 19, 2005

Some of us accept facts. Some of us live in a more malleable world where "facts" are "fixed" or "done"

The quote of the day from 18 July 2005 from WhiteHouse.gov (emphasis added):
PRESIDENT BUSH: We have a serious ongoing investigation here. (Laughter.) And it's being played out in the press. And I think it's best that people wait until the investigation is complete before you jump to conclusions. And I will do so, as well. I don't know all the facts. I want to know all the facts. The best place for the facts to be done is by somebody who's spending time investigating it. I would like this to end as quickly as possible so we know the facts, and if someone committed a crime, they will no longer work in my administration.
Just another mindless ungrammatical nonsensical Bushism? Or in the Bush/Cheney White House are "facts" understood to be mere arbitrary constructs to be created and manipulated to fit the changing needs of an omnipotent spin machine?
Compare the similar treatment of "facts" in the Downing Street Memo of 23 July 2002 (with emphasis added):
Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.

Thanks to Shakespeare's Sister for pointing out the presidential grammatical "misstep" in yesterday's short meeting with the press.

2 comments:

Jeri said...

Mark Crispin Miller (author of The Bush Dyslexicon) pointed out that Bush only misspeaks when he talks about things he doesn't really care about. Whenever he's angry or talking about vengeance or smiting or war, he speaks perfectly clearly. Here's an article mentioning Miller's observations, and a quote:

"When he struts and thumps his chest, his syntax and grammar are fine. It's only when he leaps into the wild blue yonder of compassion, or idealism, or altruism, that he makes these hilarious mistakes."

Grace Nearing said...

Oh there is just so much there in a few sentences. Facts are not only "done," they're done in a "place." In the Bush administration, I bet they are. I also like the idea of "jumping to conclusions" after the investigation is completed. Which is, of course, what the freepi will be doing.