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The Subpoena Song Continues…

AP via MSNBC:

In rapid succession, congressional committees Wednesday ramped up their investigations of the Bush administration by approving a subpoena for Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and granting immunity to a key aide to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales.

By 21-10, the House oversight committee voted to issue a subpoena to Rice to compel her story on the Bush administration’s claim, now discredited, that Iraq was seeking uranium from Africa.



14 Responses to “The Subpoena Song Continues…”

  1. stevesturm says:

    Not that it matters to either the dems or the media (I know, they’re two arms of the same monster), but how does MSNBC say the Bush Admin claimed that (my bold) “Iraq was seeking uranium from Africa” (seeking=present tense) when Bush actually said was (again my bold) “…Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa (sought=past tense)? Is it too much to ask the media to get their tenses correct?

    And maybe I’ve missed it due to all the kool aid I’ve been drinking, but would someone tell me what was wrong with Bush saying (once again my bold) ““The British Government has learned that….”? Was it some other government Bush should have referred to? Did the Brits NOT feel that was true? Or is the major complaint that Bush somehow gave people the wrong impression?

  2. stevesturm says:

    oops

  3. Hey, there’s lots of bad grammar in the media!

  4. hanginjohnny says:

    …where’s the smoking gun now, Condi?

    I bet she waxes nostalgic for her days as a provost…

  5. DLS says:

    > was seeking

    Past progressive tense

    > sought

    Past tense

  6. stevesturm says:

    DLS: I bow to your superior grammatical knowledge. For little old me, adding ‘ing’ usually makes it current.

    and I am too cynical to think that the reporter knew this, and structured their sentence to make it sound in the present, while adding ‘was’ made it technically correct? a little bit of ‘true, but false”?

  7. Sam says:

    What was wrong about Bush’s statement about GB “learning” such important facts was that Bush knew by then that the statement was false. It was however one of the strongest arguments in support of the illusion that Iraq had a burgeoning nuclear weapon potential.

  8. DLS says:

    > For little old me, adding ‘ing’
    > usually makes it current.

    Ah, but the other word is “was,” not “is.”

    “Was seeking” and “sought” have different meanings. You may not think of this too much with English as opposed to if you must try to learn a foreign language (when the rules for tense are different than with English, either formally or informally), but it’s true here, too. “Was seeking” is less definitive and is weaker than “sought,” may mean the attempt was not completed nor a serious effort been made at all. (It’s an open question if this was known beforehand by the media when choosing what words to use.)

  9. DLS says:

    > a little bit of ‘true, but false�?

    Possibly, sir. The media would not be beneath that.

  10. White Agent says:

    I am convinced the war was never about anything except validating the neocon ugly American philosophy. They may not have planned and perpetrated 9/11, but they sure as hell use it as some sick vindication for their near doctorial takeover of the United States, not to mention mass murder in, and, the unnecessary invasion of Iraq.

    With each and every subpoena, we are one step closer to justice and the light of Liberty shines a little brighter.

  11. stevesturm says:

    Sam: what part of what Bush said was false? that it was the British? that they felt Hussein had sought uranium? in Africa? the way I understand this, the quibbles have come from those who claim Bush said Hussein HAD BOUGHT uranium… which Hussein never did… and which Bush never said he had.

  12. Rudi says:

    There was never any credible evidence that the yellowcake deal was true or plausible. SStrum parsing words doesn’t give any validation to “creative yellowcake intell”. The Wingnuts are foaming that Iraqis centrifuges are in Syria because some nutcase found a couple unopened bunkers. What flavor KoolAid are we gulping tonight. The subponeas could become excessive, but Roberts stonewalling bordered on “criminal”, so the subponeas are justified as long as theDimicrats don’t turn into moonbat Burtons.

  13. kritter says:

    Rudi- What about the report that the British had? (not talking about the forged documents that the Italians circulated)I’ve seen reports that they still believe in the yellowcake deal, but I’m not sure if its just more spin from the right???

  14. DLS says:

    > For little old me, adding ‘ing’
    > usually makes it current.

    Well, it is the present, not the past, participle!

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