Things I’ve Seen

From the BBC

US President George W Bush has said he wants to “know the facts” about Iraq’s alleged weapons of mass destruction.

That would presumably be the same way that he wanted facts before the invasion? And the same way that he wants the facts about the leaking of Valerie Plame’s name? And the same way that he wants the facts from the 9/11 commission?

If there were ever two words that do not belong together in a sentence, they are ‘Bush’ and ‘facts’.

When an enquiry finds that a report made by the BBC was in error, not just the journalist who did the report, but both the Chair and the Director of the BBC resign. In fact, they resign before the journalist. So, the BBC has a clear idea of where the buck stops.

This sort of clarity is obviously not to be found in the foggy brains of the leaders of our beloved democracies. Not only was Iraqi WMD just vapourware but what about ‘Children overboard’? What about Dick Honan & Ethanol?

It appears that if you’re the head of a democratically elected government, you can be ’sloppy with the truth’ as much as you like, and then just hide behind the “wasn’t me guv, it was my adviser” line.

Pah!

Blair seems to have come out of his difficult week unbelievably easily. The Hutton report confers near sainthood on him, and has probably done a great deal to wipe the memory of the tuition fees vote from the popular mind. Blair may well have lost the ability to force through any legislation which his back-benchers really do not like - certainly for the next parliament, in which he will no doubt have a much thinner majority - and so lost the ability to push the Blair Witch Project much further. I doubt he has done much to lose himself the PM job, or the next election.

“I think some in the media have chosen to use the word ‘imminent.’ Those were not words we used.”

White House spokesman Scott McClellan, Jan 27th 2004

“This is about an imminent threat.”

White House spokesman Scott McClellan, 10th Feb 2003

Update - a lot more quotes here.

From Pollkatz (clink on the image to see the full size version…)

Nominee List.

Slight suprise that LOTR-ROTK didn’t get a Cinematography nomination, I thought it was beautifully shot. It’s a safe bet for a big bag of oscars, though.

From the BBC - Blair wins key top-up fees vote

Tony Blair has scraped home by just five votes in a crunch House of Commons test of his controversial plans to introduce university top-up fees.

Just 5 vote, when he has a government majority of 161…

So… will Tony Blair still be Prime Minister in a week? It’s about 24 hours now until the commons vote on the University fees, which he could lose; a couple of days until the Hutton report, which could be critical; and Gordon Brown has hinted that Blair is ready to go soon…

How many times will we see headlines saying thigns like “Bush administration retreats on Iraq weapons claim” before people accept that the Bush administration is either incompentant or dishonest?

The White House retreated Monday from its once-confident claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, and Democrats swiftly sought to turn the about-face into an election-year issue against President Bush.

Budget analysts see deeper 10-year deficits of $2.4 trillion

The government’s budget outlook deteriorated further on Monday as the Congressional Budget Office projected nearly $2.4 trillion in deficits over the next decade, providing new fuel for an election-year battle over soaring federal shortfalls.