Posted on 04/30/2006 11:40:12 AM PDT by Wolfstar
PRESIDENTIAL NEWS OF THE DAY: President and Mrs. Bush attended St. John's Church this morning, as is their custom when spending the weekend at the White House. Last night they attended the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner, where the President and his "alter ego," comedian Steve Bridges, stole the show.
The best review I found is on USA Today's website. Since I'm not sure how much of their material we can excerpt, I'll just provide a link. The article includes a nearly complete transcript of the President's and Mrs. Bridges routine.
LINK TO USA TODAY CORRESPONDENTS' DINNER REVIEW
Thank you for your post Fudd, your comments on 93 were spot on and gut-wrenching says it all.
I too was on the edge of my seat, though watching live that morning and knowing what took place you still watch
as if to make sure this really happened.
It is so out of our mind set and character to dream of such a thing.
"watch it"
Watch what?
That is the bottom line. Watching in hindsight, it's tempting to say "why weren't the fighter jets moving sooner" or some such, but I don't think the answer is incompetence, it's because Americans do NOT imagine such inhumanity before we're exposed to it, and even after (which could be why some seem to have "forgotten" 9/11).
Anyway, thanks... I had promised another FReeper a review but I didn't really want know what to say; however once I started typing, it flowed.
VICTOR DAVIS HANSON NAILS IT AGAIN:
Our Orphaned Middle East Policy
Things are looking up as everyone starts jumping ship.
. . . But if we look beneath all these self-serving contradictions, real progress amid the carnage since September 11 is undeniable. It is not just that the United States has not been attacked again. Al Qaeda's leadership has been insidiously dismantled. Even bin Laden's communiqués are increasingly pathetic, whining about lost truce opportunities for the Crusaders while warning of more welcomed genocide in Darfur. We can be sure of his war-induced attenuated stature when some on the Left are already suggesting that the 9/11 attacks were mostly the operations of just a few criminals rather than precursors to international jihad.
Some European governments that were patently anti-American — Chirac's in France or Schroeder's in Germany — are either gone or going. The European public no longer thinks that the threat of Islamic fascism was mostly something concocted by George Bush after 9/11. American supporters in Australia, Japan, and the United Kingdom were returned to power. Finally a parliament is meeting in Iraq. There have been open elections in two regions of the Arab Middle East. In one place, terrorists were voted in; in the other place — the much more criticized one — terrorists are being hunted down.
Hamas wanted power; the Americans didn't interfere, and they got elected. Now they can galvanize their people for their promised war against Israel (that they will lose), or they can find a way to evolve from thuggery to governance — it's their call. It is not the decision of the United States, which, after fifteen years, is finally freed from subsidizing West Bank terrorists masquerading as statesmen.
It is a fine thing for all to see the once swaggering gunmen now on television appealing for daily cash from suddenly stingy Middle East benefactors, as Hamas whines that Fatah is in Israel's hip pocket and decries militants who shoot without government authorization. Democracy, not more autocracy, exposed that absurdity.
Middle Easterners wish that we would be humbler, that we would let more Arabs into the United States, that we would not lecture them so, that we had not used force to remove Saddam, that we did not seem so self-righteous when promoting Western democracy, that we could express our intentions in a more sympathetic and articulate fashion. It is true that at critical junctures we did not explain ourselves well, and did not apprise the public candidly here and abroad about the range of poor options that confronted this nation after September 11.
But aside from these complaints, the people of the Middle East for the first time are watching on television a voting parliament in Iraq — and what sort of killers are trying to stop it. They know that oil skyrocketed and that the petroleum of Mesopotamia was not appropriated by the United States — and that huge windfall profits in the Middle East are still not likely to trickle down their way. They also accept that China in the Middle East cares only for petroleum, Russia only to cause others trouble, and Europe mostly to talk.
Those in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Libya, as elsewhere in the Arab world, want closer, not more distant, relations with the United States. Ever so slowly the Arab Street is grasping that the more its own governments are angry at us for prodding them, the more it is a sign that we are on the right side of history.
You can read the entire article at
http://nationalreview.com/hanson/hanson200604280625.asp
It may be just me, but I think I saw his lips move....... :)
btw, THANKS for the Sunday Dose, Wolfstar! GREAT 'smirk' from the President this morning! Feeling good about being a star, I'll bet. :)
WOW... great article. Thanks for posting it.
Well folks I'm leaving early tonight, going to watch a movie with Mr.FF. I'll be looking for some "light fare" tonight.
GOD BLESS US EVERY ONE.
He did! I watched it three times on CSPAN and at least three more times on msn. He is DEFINITELY mouthing "she's hot" when Bridges says it. It's SO cute!
Lovely photo of the doggies.
Thanks for your play by play in D.C.
Doing FReeps ar the best.
When the pols get together they must sit around trying to figure out how they can get more of our money into their coffers so they can redistribute it to other people.
LOLOL.......make that HER birthday!!!! LOL
Hey snugs!
How are you tonight. Sorry I didn't get to answer you last night. I had to attend a work related dinner. Bah.
It was better on FNF in the morning tho.
Glad you got the DVD's I thought you would like the corgi footage.
WWWWWWHHOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOO came home from dinner just in time........thanks for the heads up!!!!
He definitely mouthed it...it's not just you. I saw it and so did my friend Lauren. So cute. I wish he would have really been the one to say it since he NEVER says something like that lol. I would liked to have been around him when he saw that line was written into the speech...just to see what he said about it.
Good night have fun watching the movie
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