ok well... sadly my earlier draft of this blipped to nothing. This'll be an abreviated and, most likely, less eloquent form, but I've got to vent a bit.
Oy. I watched the press conference tonight. It was a waste of time in most ways. Bush went out of his way to avoid answering questions. I can't even say he did a fine job of that. His avoidances seemed labored. It seemed to take quite a bit of effort to keep spewing forth his stock answers. I don't know if his drugged appearance had anything to do with that.
In the midst of repeating his usual mantras, he let slip some interesting items. One that particularly caught my attention was that before war really starts in Iraq, "The journalists who are there should leave." Once we get down to the business of Shocking and Awing the Iraqis, we shouldn't have to bother with those meddling kids, er...reporters. Why disrupt a PR campaign with the nuisances of battlefield truth?
On the subject of truth.
I was struck by how many time Bush said, "I believe..." --almost 15 times in the short course of the press conference. He generally offered these beliefs up as alternatives to supporting evidence for his assertions. The beliefs are reason enough themselves. His faith in the immutabiity of those beliefs is absolute. The beliefs are part of the defining structure of Bush's world view. As a structural aspect of his paridigm, any real challenge to them would, if entertained, be cause for cognitive dissonace, a state I'd reason Bush avoids.
Therefore, anything that challenges those beliefs, is likely to be dismissible on the level of a nuisance or risk posing real challenges to his world view--a world view based greatly on faith and gut instinct. Therefore, it is a small step for him to dismiss such nuisances as the millions of anti-war protesters, NATO allies, "old Europe," the UN, international and domestic law, and the uncomfortable realities of democracy in action around the world.
1:56:53 AM 
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