Absent and Unaccounted For
 
Speaking as we were about politics and why the devil gets all partisans in the end, I thought an example of how powerful parties injure the public might be useful. To do so, it will be necessary to discuss the undiscovered weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Another blog first here at The Prattler. In the discussion of what the administration knew and when they knew it, there have been two sides to the debate. The most flattering the Republicans have been able to come up with was “the intelligence was bad” to explain how we went to war to find weapons we never found. The most sinister explanation the Democrats were able to offer was “Bush lied.” Nearly the entirety of the public discourse has been a useless argument between those two points of view. This remains the conversation, staler now and no more promising than the search for WMD. Due diligence may be the two words in English most likely to excite attorneys and bore the living, but unlike the President’s honesty and ability, the practice and value of judging and continuing evidence offers the public a topic of manifest importance. We don’t need a Democratic president or a Republican congress but we sure could use a government committed to getting things right. Just prior to waging war is one occasion that kind of springs up. Watch the news or read it: Men or women representing the parties are quoted and presented to provide the basis for discourse, two opposing obfuscations to judge between. The evidence we have is that the administration selected among theories rather than investigating them. That’s the scandal of the Iraq War and the precise method used by partisan voters. The Prattler Wordbook DEBATE, n. A war of idealogues. DEVELOPMENT, n. A fresh quote. DIALOGUE, n. Dueling echoes. DILIGENT, adj. Firmly focused on frivolity. DISCURSIVE, adj. Following the method of presentation, feedback and response as a mouse in the choir box. DISINTEREST, n. A dullness curable by deafness. From Waking Ambrose OSTRICH, n. Evolutionary Successor to the owl as mascot to the fourth estate. Cultural naturalists debate whether the the ostrich will suffer the same fate as its predecessor, replaced by a cute caged songbird or a plump turkey with a blog. http://bitterbierce.blogspot.com/http://bitterbierce.blogspot.com/2005/04/ostrich.htmlshapeimage_2_link_0shapeimage_2_link_1
Saturday, April 22, 2006
 
 
From the collection of Richard Samuel West / Periodyssey.http://www.periodyssey.com/private/press.htmshapeimage_5_link_0