For this I missed Sting?

While watching “The Ellen Degeneres Show” just now, I discovered that TiVo had recorded today’s Presidential news conference.
The first few minutes were taken up by Mr. Bush rambling on, mumbling almost incoherently about a meeting he had with an Iraqi government representative on health care. He at times became inaudible while trying to put word to thought. Then, he went back on script, and could actually speak again. Even then, he seemed as if he was on some kind of psychotropic drug.
I just can’t stand this man. Each and every one of the measured, calculated phrases he reads infuriates me. He complains about the “obstructionist” Democrats in Congress, and I yell at the TV, “how do YOU like it? They manage to block you even though you have a majority, you putz!” He says some treacle about taking care of our troops, while he spends huge sums of money on flying to see them rather then sending them more protection and armor. He answers every question about Iraq by throwing in the phrase “rape rooms.” He insists that we have “a large coalition involved.” Cripes. I don’t see a lot of troops from Micronesia getting killed there.
This administration, more than any other, speaks only in sound bites, carefully designed to keep him on message and deny the press any actual answers. Every question is answered with a combination of the same sentence fragments — about how there are 60 countries in the coalition; how Saddam Hussein will face justice unlike how he treated the Iraqi people; September 11; how he has made America more secure. This hewing to the lines written by Karl Rove is dangerous — we’ve already seen it with the continuing attempts to connect Hussein with al Queda. And again and again, he makes a connection that’s not there:

My job is to keep America secure. That’s my job. I’ve got a solemn duty to do everything I can to protect the American people. I will never forget the lessons of September the 11th, 2001. Terrorists attacked us, they killed thousands of our fellow citizens, and it could happen again; and therefore, I will deal with threats. Threats that, uh, uh, that, uh, are, emerging, and real. Uh, we gave Saddam Hussein plenty of time. To, uh, uh, t- t- to heed the demands of the world. He chose defiance, he said, uhh-uh, forget it. I don’t care what the United Nations has said over a decade.

You see how he’s been trained to always talk about September 11 in conjunction with Iraq, even though the White House admits there is no link? One more time, folks — Iraq was no threat to America. But it sure as hell is now.