Complete Lack of Trust

Bush hopes U.S.-Russia shield talks beneficial

SOFIA (Reuters) - President George W. Bush said on Monday said he hoped that a plan for U.S. and Russian experts to analyze each other's proposal for a missile defense shield would be beneficial.

"There's a process where we can collaborate, share information in a very transparent way which I think will be beneficial," for hopefully designing systems that "protect us all," Bush said.

Bush reiterated that he had told Russian President Vladimir Putin in talks at the Group of Eight summit in Germany last week that: "I simply do not view Russia as an enemy."

Well, hell. I see this, and I want to run somewhere. There is, sadly, nowhere to go.

Since I don't believe a damn word that GWB utters in public, I have now become resigned to the future Cold War II.

More Moral Quandries

I've been home a lot lately, which you may or may not know. I had a DVT that did the whole "travel to the lung" thing, which, when it doesn't kill you, makes you tired as hell for a long time. So I'm just not getting out and about like I used to. This means that I'm having more political discussions with my dad than usual, because, holy cow, that man is home a lot. Recently, there have been two things we've talked about that I wanted to mention here. I actually got off my butt and am mentioning them. It's a minor miracle.

First thing: "pension relief" in New Jersey. The concept that raising the retirement age will save money for the state because older retirees won't receive as much in pension money is a wash. Those people are working for the state at full salary, people. And the odds are that if they're at retirement age, then they're at the top of the earnings scale. Paying out their pensions would actually cost the state less, wouldn't it? Am I missing something?

Second thing: Gonzales, replacing US Attorneys, should he retire, etc, etc. My dad said to me, "At least Gonzales is better than what we had before". I'm not so sure, though. Yes, I think that Ashcroft is a bit of a loon who has firm beliefs about the world and how it works that I think do that whole "causal disconnect" thing. I admit it, I think the man is nuts. But I think that Gonzales is self-serving and anti-Constitution. I think he, in addition to plenty of other government officials, has been successfully undermining the document that is the foundation of American society the entire time he's held his position. I find that I can't make a better/worse comparison between insane and amoral.