A little excitement that the major media seems to have largely passed on. It seems that the recent announcement by the White House of the name of Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, the Al-Qaeda communications guy whose information prompted the recent scare-mongering (or was that prompted by the Democratic convention? Whatever.) may have succesfully foiled a sting operation involving Kahn that could have led to the capture of many more Al-Qaeda operatives. It doesn’t seem too surprising that this hasn’t become the big deal it should have, so let’s focus on another aspect of the story. Here’s a quote from David Blunkett, the British Home Secretary:
“Is that really the job of a senior cabinet minister in charge of counter-terrorism? To feed the media? To increase concern? To have something to say, whatever it is, in order to satisfy the insatiable desire to hear somebody saying something?”
Apparently, yes.
I’m sure by now you’ve heard the latest Bush gaffe:
“Our enemies are innovative and resourceful – and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people – and neither do we.”
Pretty standard Bush fare, if unusually apt. It seems rather unfair to make a big deal of it, because we all know what he meant, and if he makes these mistakes a little more often than normal, well big deal. Here’s the thing that I find irritating, from spokesman Scott McClellan:
“The American people know this president speaks with clarity and conviction”
I don’t doubt that Bush has conviction in his thoughts and actions. Clarity I’m less sure of; I don’t think he has really examined his convictions, which is why he gets so irritated when those ideas are challenged. But if clarity of thought means “Terrorists: Bad. America: Good. New Golf Clubs: Ooh, Shiny!” then yes, I’m sure he has clarity of thought.
But speaking with clarity? We’re lucky if he can speak with punctuation.