Things Could Be Worse

You could be (or married to) this guy.

If I Had a Boat

This is a rare live version from some radio station in Austin Texas. I’ve always loved this tune. My kids don’t get it. They think it is a stupid song.

“Kiss my ass, I bought a boat, I’m going out to sea.”

“If I Had a Boat” [click here to listen.]
By Lyle Lovett
From the album “Pontiac.”

If I had a boat
I'd go out on the ocean
And if I had a pony
I'd ride him on my boat
And we could all together
Go out on the ocean
Me upon my pony on my boat

If I were Roy Rogers
I'd sure enough be single
I couldn't bring myself to marrying old Dale
It'd just be me and trigger
We'd go riding through them movies
Then we'd buy a boat and on the sea we'd sail

And if I had a boat
I'd go out on the ocean
And if I had a pony
I'd ride him on my boat
And we could all together
Go out on the ocean
Me upon my pony on my boat

The mystery masked man was smart
He got himself a Tonto
'Cause Tonto did the dirty work for free
But Tonto he was smarter
And one day said kemo sabe
Kiss my ass I bought a boat
I'm going out to sea

And if I had a boat
I'd go out on the ocean
And if I had a pony
I'd ride him on my boat
And we could all together
Go out on the ocean
Me upon my pony on my boat

And if I were like lightning
I wouldn't need no sneakers
I'd come and go wherever I would please
And I'd scare 'em by the shade tree
And I'd scare 'em by the light pole
But I would not scare my pony on my boat out on the sea

And if I had a boat
I'd go out on the ocean
And if I had a pony
I'd ride him on my boat
And we could all together
Go out on the ocean
Me upon my pony on my boat

***
This week's Top 10.

Stay Tuned

I'm burned out on politics for the time being.

In the near future I will be launching a new blog magazine that will feature some of the best writers that I've met here in the 'sphere. The theme of the new blog will be essays about life in the 21st century apart from politics and religion.

Please stay tuned.

***
Still, I don't want to leave you completely disappointed. How about demoralized? Here is a trailer from a soon-to-be released political film, "Amercia - From Freedom to Facism."

"It's organized crime. All you do is you call the Republicans 'The Genoveses' and the Democrats 'The Gambinos.'"

Whiny Kids Grow Up To Be Conservatives?

I know this is going to come as a shock, but apparently whiny kids grow up to be conservatives. I just can't believe it. Cheney, Bush and Rumsfeld? Rush, Hannity, and O'Reilly? Whiny and rigid as kids?

From the article:

Remember the whiny, insecure kid in nursery school, the one who always thought everyone was out to get him, and was always running to the teacher with complaints? Chances are he grew up to be a conservative.

At least, he did if he was one of 95 kids from the Berkeley area that social scientists have been tracking for the last 20 years. The confident, resilient, self-reliant kids mostly grew up to be liberals.

The Fatass Drug Addict's Words of Wisdom

I have an RSS feed to Media Matters, and this caught my attention.

"[A]nytime an organization has the word 'peace' in it, throw it out. It's just a bunch of long-haired, maggot-infested, dope-smoking, FM peace-types that have an agenda."

- Rush Limbaugh

How many ways is that wrong? Throw out any organization with the word “Peace” in it? Does this include any organization that subscribes to the teachings of the “Prince of Peace” or Mahatma Gandhi?

“Pot smoking?” I guess in order to have a credible opinion in that idiot’s world you have to abuse something harder.

“Peace types that have an agenda?” Yeah, you know the type. People who think that organized maiming, killing, torture and destruction ought to be avoided should be held up for ridicule.

Funny, but the people who are most often against peace have never been anywhere near a war.

***

A new Top 10 is out with a face-lift.

O-BAMA!

SEN. BARACK OBAMA'S GRIDIRON SPEECH

Thank you very much:

It's great to be at the Gridiron dinner. Wow, What an extravaganza! Men in tails. Women in gowns. An orchestra playing, as folks reminisce about the good old days. Kind of like dinner at the Kerrys.

Nice to see you Mr. President and Mrs. Bush. I think it takes a great spirit for the President, who we all know is an early riser, to sit here until midnight and hear himself lampooned, when he could be back at the White House enjoying a quiet, peaceful night, watching TV and approving secret wiretaps.

I don't see the Secretary of State is here tonight. You know, the President promised a muscular foreign policy. And anyone who's seen the Condi Rice workout tapes knows he means business.

The truth is, I'm terrified to be here. Not because you're such a tough audience, but because they're serving drinks, I'm standing about 30 yards from the Vice President, and…Mr. Vice President this is too easy!

Mr. Vice President, I know you came here expecting to be a target, which, it turns out, may prove easier for you than shooting at one. But I do want to thank you: for years, we Democrats have succeeded in doing little more than shooting ourselves in the foot. You've taught us a valuable lesson: aim higher.

There's probably only one person more sick of these jokes than you… and that's your wife. It's an honor to share this stage with Lynne Cheney -- a great personage in her own right. Scholar. Author. A few years ago she wrote a book called, “Telling the Truth,” or as they call it in the Vice President's office, “Telling the Truth-24 hours later.”

The Vice President and I do have one thing in common, we both married up. I want to acknowledge my wife, Michelle, who is here tonight. This is a true story: a friend sent me a clip about a new study by a psychologist at the University of Scotland, who says sex before a public speaking engagement actually enhances your oratorical powers. I showed this clip to Michelle, before we arrived here tonight. She looked it over, handed it back and said, “Do the best you can!”

This appearance is really the capstone of an incredible 18 months. I've been very blessed. Keynote speaker at the Democratic Convention. The cover of Newsweek. My book made the best-seller list. I just won a Grammy for reading it on tape. And I've had the chance to speak not once but twice before the Gridiron Club. Really what else is there to do? Well, I guess…. I could pass a law, or something…


About that book, some folks thought it was a little presumptuous to write an autobiography at the age of 33, but people seemed to like it. So now I'm working on volume two-the Senate Months.

My Remarkable Journey from 99th in Seniority to 98th.

(With an introduction by Nelson Mandela.)

Believe me, when you're the last guy to ask questions at every committee hearing, you have plenty of time to collect your thoughts. Especially when Joe Biden's on the committee.

I'll tell you, that Grammy was a big surprise. I thought, for sure, Jack Abramoff would win for his rendition of “It's Hard Out Here for a Pimp.”

As I said, it's great to be here speaking opposite Lynne Cheney. As you may know, Mrs. Cheney was a late substitution for Senator John McCain. And speaking of Senator McCain.

This whole ethics thing has been an adventure. I was really excited when they asked me to be the lead Democratic spokesman. But I don't know. Turns out, it's a little like being given the Kryptonite concession at a Superman convention. I mean, how did I know it was a freshman hazing? It gets a little depressing. So as I sometimes do when I get a little down, I wrote a song. Maestro?


(To the tune of “If I Only Had a Brain”)

I'm aspiring to greatness, but somehow I feel weightless
A freshman's sad refrain
I could be a great uniter, making ethics rules much tighter
If I only had McCain

I could bring us all together, no storm we couldn't weather,
We'd feel each other's pain
Red and blue wouldn't matter, party differences would shatter
If I only had McCain

Oh why is it so hard, for honest men of good will to agree,
If we ever found a way to strike a deal, would we survive… politically?

When a wide-eyed young idealist, confronts a seasoned realist
There's bound to be some strain
With the game barely started, I'd be feeling less downhearted
If I only had McCain

Still I hope for the better, though I may rewrite my letter
Cause I gotta have McCain

Needless to say, my Grammy was in the spoken word category!

I should say that I really do get along well with Senator McCain. But as you know, not everyone in politics does. Because of his superstar status, his virtuous image, the kind of hero worship treatment he gets from all of you, some of my colleagues call John a prima donna. Me? I call him a role model. (Think of it as affirmative action. Why should the white guys be the only ones who are overhyped?)

By the way, before I forget, raise your hand if Karl Rove didn't tell you about Valerie Plame?

You know, The Gridiron Club is an aging institution with a long, proud history, known today primarily for providing a forum for jokes. To some, that may sound like the Democratic Party.

You hear this constant refrain from our critics that Democrats don't stand for anything. That's really unfair. We DO stand for anything.

Some folks say the answer for the Democratic Party is to stop being so calculating, and start standing up for principle. In fact, Harry Reid's appointed a task force to study this option.

But really, they say our party doesn't have ideas? We have ideas.

Take John Edwards. He's leading a new war on poverty… from his Chapel Hill estate. And he's educating us. I had no idea there was so much poverty in New Hampshire!

Speaking of New Hampshire, a lot of speculation that that 2008 campaign could come down to Senator McCain and Hillary Clinton. The thing I don't think people realize is how much John and Hillary have in common: They're both very smart. Both very hardworking. And they're both hated by the Republicans!

A lot of folks want to be President, but, I mean, wow, it really has been a rough period for you, Mr. President. I missed the Oscars, so when I picked up the paper the next morning and saw “Crash” in the headlines, I just assumed it was another Bush poll story.

And how about that ports deal? I feel for you, sir. It's tough getting trapped in a storm, when no one comes up to help!

And then there's the flap about global warming. You know, the Bush Administration's been a little skeptical about the whole concept of global warming. It's actually not the warming part they question. It's the globe.

The President was so excited about Tom Friedman's book, The World is Flat. As soon as he saw the title, he said, “You see, I was right!”

But when people say the administration is hostile to science, that's really a bad rap. Just last week they asked for a hundred million dollars for the NIH to fund new research into leech therapy.

I was told that this dinner is off-the record… no taping or recording of this event, unless, of course, secretly authorized by the President.

I completely trust the President with that authority, by the way. But just out of an abundance of caution, and not implying anything, I've asked my staff to conduct all phone conversations in the Kenyan dialect of Luo.

Truth is, this domestic spying has all kinds of useful applications for Homeland Security. And I have a suggestion, in this regard, Mr. President: You can spy on the Weatherchannel, and find out when big storms are coming.

You all watch the winter Olympics? Mrs. Bush was there, representing our country, and that was great. I'm sure a lot of us in politics were following that figure skating, because we can identify with performers who spin wildly and sometimes fall on their butts.

And the curling. Wasn't that something? I hear Andy Stern from the SEIU loved the curling so much he's trying to organize the sweepers.

I also enjoyed that biathlon, where they ski and shoot at the same time. Probably not your sport, Mr. Vice President.

Hey, it's been great fun to be a part of this tonight. But before I go, I want to say a few words about the work you do.

For a democracy to succeed and flourish, people must have full and free access to information about what's going on in their world and, yes, in their government.

The framers of the Constitution understood that, which is why the very first amendment deals with the indispensable freedoms of speech and press. Those rights, those freedoms, the access to information citizens absolutely require in a democratic society are no less important today.

Pursuing that information is not always easy. Sometimes you meet resistance from powerful institutions that would sooner operate in secrecy. And sometimes, as in Iraq, you literally risk your lives to keep the American people informed.

Tonight, even as we laugh together, I want to thank you for that important and often courageous work and extend my prayers to those journalists and their families who have made and continue to make great sacrifices to fulfill this essential mission.

And most of all, I want to thank you for all the generous advance coverage you've given me in anticipation of a successful career. When I actually do something, we'll let you know.

Thanks for having me!

I Wish I Lived in CT

Then I could vote for the guy who says:

"I doubt that anybody will call me 'George Bush's favorite Democrat.' "

I am so SICK of Joe Lieberman! I hope he gets his ASS handed to him the primary.

Somebody needs to start listening to Molly Ivins!

Must See TV

All courtesy of Crooks and Liars.

Olbermann on "The Colbert Report."

O'Reilly on "Letterman."

Franken on "Letterman."

Assorted Links

I am busy at work writing and assembling documentation, so I thought I’d share some interesting links I’ve gotten recently.

Talking Dogs. Are they really talking? I don't know, but it is a cute video.

Man juggles to Beatles Medley. I think this was taken down once before due to copyright infringement, so I hope you get to see it.

O’Reilly NOT engaging in personal attacks. What a shitbag.

Beautiful rendition of “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” by Jake Shimabukuro.

The late great Mitch Hedberg on Letterman. My favorite comedian to come along in years. Figures that he had a drug problem. Why are all our heroes so imperfect?

Jill Sobule asks the same question here.

Heroes
Jill Sobule, Robin Eaton

Why are all our heroes so imperfect
Why do they always bring me down
Why are all our heroes so imperfect
The statue in the park has lost his crown

William Faulkner drunk and depressed
Dorothy Parker mean, drunk and depressed
And that guy in Seven Years in Tibet turned out to be a nazi
The founding fathers all had slaves, the explorers slaughtered the braves,
The Old Testament God can be so petty

Paul McCartney jealous of John, even more so now that he's gone
Dylan was so mean to Donovan in that movie
Pablo Picasso cruel to his wives
My favorite poets took their own lives
Orson Welles peaked at 25, ballooned before our eyes
and he sold bad wine

Heard Babe Ruth was full of malice
Lewis Carroll I'm sure did Alice
Plato in the cave with those very young boys
T.S. Eliot hated Jews, FDR didn't save the Jews
All the French joined the resistance after the war
Raymond Chandler drunk and depressed
Tennessee Williams drunk and depressed
Think I'll just get drunk and depressed.

***
And finally, the Democratic Underground reminds us that there is no shortage of Conservative Idiots.

There's Still a Place

It’s Friday. Nice day here. Easy weekend on paper. A friend of mine asked me to play bass on a couple of tunes he had lying around. I’ll probably burn them to a CD and sit up in my room tomorrow and work out some parts. Funny, but I haven’t shaken the my room concept even as I’ve landed firmly in middle-age. When I was a kid, my parents’ room was for sleeping and changing clothes. My mother’s sewing machine was in there, so when she had something to sew she’d spend time in her room, but she wished we lived in a bigger house with a sewing room.

Not so with me.

I shared a bedroom with older brother (2.5 years my senior) until our older older brothers moved out. I must have been about 14. Man, I was thrilled to have my own damn room! Finally. My parents let me set it up the way I wanted. I could move my bed and my dresser to my liking. My own closet. A cheap little scratch-box stereo. No TV. While I wanted one, I really didn’t care. This was my room. When things got too intense I would slip away into my room and shut the door. Crank the scratch-box until my mother banged on the wall and then I would turn it down just a little.

I started out on the guitar. All three of my older brothers played the guitar, so I had been hacking on the thing since I was about 5. I was taught to play riffs. TV theme songs like “Peter Gunn,” “The Twilight Zone” and “Man From Uncle.” I learned a few chords, but for years I struggled with “F”. I used to ask my brothers, “Can you teach me a song that doesn’t have ‘F’ in it?” “I’ve Just Seen A Face.” I can’t remember if there were any others.

When I was about 15, one of my best friends decided to make a band. He played piano. Another kid played guitar, (we hadn't met Sound yet) and while he wasn’t very good, he was better than I was. Still, we got together a few times and he played “lead” and I played “rhythm.”

I was in the 10th grade. By then, I was allowed to take the bus to Roosevelt Field. That was a cool thing to do. Go to Roosevelt Field with your friends and without your parents. I know it is a cliché now, but back then it was all just starting up. We didn’t even use the word “mall” in those days. It was just Roosevelt Field. We weren’t rich kids, but round-trip bus-fare was about a $1.50, so if you had a few bucks you could go there on a Saturday, get a pretzel, and spend an hour in the record store drooling over all the albums you were going to buy one day when you had a job. You could go to the head-shop (it was in the back of a store called "World Imports" -- we hadn't really started up smoking yet) and look at the all the hippy stuff. Pipes, cherry-flavored rolling papers, lava lamps, and black light posters. And there were girls there, and not the same snooty girls that we knew from school. Girls that didn't know us.

Even the bus-ride was fun. We felt like we were growing up, riding a real bus that adults took to do adult things instead of the yellow school busses packed with stupid kids that could kick my ass then but would end up working at a McDonald's as adults.

It was there at Roosevelt Field that I had my epiphany. There was a music store, (I think it was called Matthews Music) and one day I went in with a few friends and we looked around. All sorts of band instruments, sheet music, a couple pianos -- and guitars. 40 or 50 guitars. All kinds. On one rack were the bass guitars.

A bass? I don’t think I’d ever seen one up close. I was looking at this one, it was a ¾, but I didn’t know that at the time. I noticed it was smaller than the others, so I figured it was cheaper. Turned out I was right. This cool guy with long hair, (I wasn’t allowed to have long hair – but that is a-whole-nother story!) said something like:

“You want to check it out?”
“How much is it?”
“I can let you have for $49.99.”

“Hmm” I thought. "I get $4 a week allowance. I started caddying the previous summer, and could make $7 per day when the summer comes." While it seemed like a lot of money, I thought I could raise it.

“Awright.”

He handed it to me and I probably played the riff to “Peter Gunn” on the E string. With my thumb on the right hand and first two fingers on the left.

You could have stuck a fork in me, because I was done. It just felt right! "I can do this!" I thought.

I became obsessed with the idea of buying that bass. No one else played bass. Kids wanted to play guitar, or drums. Drums were out of the question, and everyone I knew who played the guitar played it better than I did. But nobody wanted to play bass!

I scrimped and saved, cajoled, bargained and scared up the money and bought that exact one. It probably was about 6 months later, and I must have been back to that store 3 or 4 times since then. I marched in there and said, “I want to buy that bass!” One of the sales guys said, “Don’t you want to play it first?” and I said, “Nope. I already did!”

Man, I wish I still had it today. I don’t know what happened to it, but I know I sat in my room with the door closed, and I learned to play the bass on that little no-name. In my room. No, don’t cue the Beach Boys. How about, “There’s A Place?” I like many Beach Boys songs, and love some of them, but I don’t revere Brian Wilson and his teen angst the way some do. For me it is John and Paul. Brian Wilson was great, but I didn’t want to BE him. I felt sorry for him. I wanted to BE John and Paul.

33 years later and I share my room with The Viscountess, and that suits me better. It is our room, but it is also my room. It isn’t just a place to change my clothes and be in bed. I have an excellent stereo in there, and when it is time for me to work out bass parts, I set up my amp, plug up my fretless, put the CD in the stereo, sit on the bed and get lost in the creative process.

And that is what I am looking forward to this weekend...

Coping With Dissonance

How many of us consistently say to ourselves after reading or discussing someone’s opinions on an issue, “But that just doesn’t make sense!” I know I do it all the time, even though I think I understand.

When we look at ourselves as a whole, we know we comprise more than just two groups, so I’ll concede that up front. For instance, there are people who really don’t care about politics, or who are so uninformed that their opinions can’t possibly count. We know this one woman. Her daughter is good friends with one of our kids. She was on the phone with my wife one day, and said something about “these liberals” with more than just an air of disdain. Then she went on to talk about how we need socialized medicine, more money for education and higher taxes on rich people.

Among the educated and reasonably well-informed, I can see a clear delineation between two groups of people. One group tends be intellectually honest. This group wants to avoid cognitive dissonance. They want the world to make sense. They want their actions to be in congruence with their beliefs, and they want their beliefs to be in congruence with reality. In essence, they believe that truth trumps everything. If some new fact contradicts a current belief, they will change that belief. If the truth gets in the way of an agenda, they will adjust that agenda accordingly. This group generally comprises the intellectuals, the artists, the musicians, the scientists, the open-minded. The forward, free-thinking people.

The other group is the Republicans.

Crack in the Rain

I had very little time this weekend. The Duchess LaCarte has been blessed with a singing voice (as well as a sharp wit) in spite of the fact that my X couldn’t fake her way through “Happy Birthday,” and I can’t even lip-synch to it. She was named to the 2006 State Chorus, and I had to drive 4 ½ hours each way so I could be there. They were excellent and it was worth the trip, but it effectively reduced my Sunday to grocery shopping, laundry and little else.

I'm also quite busy at work at the moment. This means I don’t have a lot of time for the blog, but there’s always time for a song.

I have recently become acquainted with the music of the cult band known as The Negro problem. I had been hearing about them since the late 90’s, and thanks to Simon, I was able to get a hold of their debut album, “Post Minstrel Syndrome.” It is quirky, challenging, and ultimately brilliant – and it includes the best ever rendition of “Macarthur Park.”

Listen to this.

And, if you insist, here is the original version as "sung" by Richard Harris.

***
Don't forget this week's Top 10.

I Was HOPING for an Easy Winter

New song by Bobby Lightfoot. Download it free right here.

Great tune, with jangly guitars, hooky melody and excellent lyrics. Another example of Bobby's fine talent. He knows how to make a record.

If you skipped the matinee last time, you can still catch it here. It is my other favorite Bobby song.

A Momentary Lapse

I have an older relative I'll call Peter.

When I was a kid, Peter was my hero. Handsome, confident and charismatic -- he went through his young life certain that he was destined to be rich. And he was correct. He isn’t in the club with the Bushes and the Cheneys, but he has done quite well for himself. I loved him then and I love him now. He has been very good to me my whole life. He invested in my band, buying us equipment and studio time even though he knew the odds of seeing any return were slim. That was 20 years ago and he has never even mentioned it. He loaned me money early on in my first marriage when I had some financial trouble. There is much common ground between us, and we share a similar observational perspective -- except when it comes to politics.

He is the type that sends out e-mails bashing Cindy Sheehan and Hillary Clinton the day after New Orleans drowns in the ocean of this administration’s incompetence. He seems immune to facts that contradict his political beliefs. For about two years I was relentlessly ignoring the wisdom of Jonathan Swift (quoted at the top of this blog,) spending hours surfing the net in order to respond to him, accumulating evidence to back up my arguments -- only to be disappointed by his fallacious responses, rife with hyperbole and invective.

So I gave up. I had to accept that aspect of his personality and move on.

That is until yesterday.

I’ll pick up the e-mail correspondence here, slightly edited for privacy.

Me:
Bush got the entire country all fired up about terrorism and effectively tied Iraq to 9/11 when they weren't involved. Maybe we really did need to invade Iraq, (but I'm less convinced now then I was a year ago and I didn't think we needed to then) but if we did need to then Bush should have A) Made the real case for war instead of tying them to 9/11, etc. B) listened to his own military leaders who warned that we didn't have enough troops to win the peace, C) listened to what his detractors were saying - any good leader will do that. Bush is notorious for not wanting to hear any dissension among the ranks and D) listened to the experts. Even I knew once you removed Sadaam the Shiites, The Sunnis and The Kurds were going to start in with each other. The same thing happened when the Soviet Union collapsed.

Now he is surprised when people are against the UAE (or any Arab nation) having any presence whatsoever in our sadly unprotected ports? The only one I would trust would be the Turks, and even then it would make me uneasy. We have years and years of unrest, distrust, upheaval etc. to look forward to with the Arab world, and while Bush didn't do all this himself (it was a mess since at least the 60's if not earlier) he is going to leave it worse than he found it.

Peter:
Bush never tied 9/11 to Iraq.

Me:
Are you splitting hairs here? You are technically correct. Technically, Bill Clinton didn't have sexual relations with Monica Lewinsky either, but we all know what he DID do. They were very careful choosing their words. In my opinion, the intention was to link Iraq to Al Qaeda without saying outright that Iraq was involved with 9/11, but the implication is obvious. Why else would they say these things?

These are exact quotes from Bush, Cheney, and Rice.

Judge for yourself.

"There clearly are contacts between al-Qaeda and Iraq that can be documented; there clearly is testimony that some of the contacts have been important contacts and that there's a relationship here. ... And there are some al-Qaeda personnel who found refuge in Baghdad."

"We know too that several of the detainees, in particular some high-ranking detainees, have said that Iraq provided some training to al Qaeda in chemical weapons development," Rice said.

"So, yes, there are contacts between Iraq and al Qaeda. We know that Saddam Hussein has a long history with terrorism in general. And there are some al Qaeda personnel who found refuge in Baghdad," she said. "There clearly are contacts between al Qaeda and Iraq that can be documented."
- Condaleeza Rice Sept 25th 2002


"Senior members of Iraqi intelligence and al-Qaeda have met at least eight times since the early 1990s. Iraq has sent bomb-making and document forgery experts to work with al-Qaeda" and "Iraq has also provided al-Qaeda with chemical and biological weapons training."

"I continue to believe — I think there's overwhelming evidence that there was a connection between al-Qaeda and the Iraqi government. I'm very confident that there was an established relationship there."
-Vice President Dick Cheney Jan, 21st 2004

“It’s clearly established in terms of training, provision of bomb-making experts, training of people with respect to chemical and biological warfare capabilities, that al-Qaeda sent personnel to Iraq for training and so forth…”
-Vice President Dick Cheney June 4th 2004

"Evidence from intelligence sources, secret communications and statements by people
now in custody reveal that Saddam Hussein aids and protects terrorists, including members of Al Qaida."
- President Bush State of the Union Address – 1/28/2003

"We know that Iraq and the al-Qaeda terrorist network share a common enemy — the United States of America. We know that Iraq and al-Qaeda have had high-level contacts that go back a decade" and "we've learned that Iraq has trained al-Qaeda members in bomb-making and poisons and deadly gases."
- President Bush, Oct. 7th 2002

Peter:
Al, you’re really reaching here. You jump from “contacts with Al Qaeda” to Bush’s “intention” to link Iraq to 9/11. This despite repeated statements from the Bush administration at the time that they had no evidence of a link between Iraq and 9/11. How could you possibly know what Bush’s “intentions” were ? You say here that it’s your “opinion”. That’s quite a different thing than your previous statement that Bush “effectively tied Iraq to 9/11 when they weren’t involved”. That’s your interpretation but I never thought Bush “effectively tied Iraq to 9/11.” In fact I thought he made it quite clear that there was no evidence whatsoever that they were involved in 9/11. None of the statements below even mention 9/11. At least that’s how I see it. There’s plenty of shit that Bush has done that I take issue with, but he never, in my opinion, tried to say Iraq was involved in 9/11 and he certainly went out of his way to say he had no evidence that there was such a connection. Is that splitting hairs ???

Me:
And that is where we disagree. We'll have to as was always do, agree to disagree. I stand by my original statements. They deliberately wanted to give the impression that Iraq was involved with 9/11 by linking Iraq to Al Qaeda. I know that isn't your opinion. I accept it and move on.

Peter:
Agreed.

So, now I’m back to trying to concentrate upon our common ground and following the advice of Jonathan Swift.