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April 1, 2004
Get Out Of My Garden, George

Jon Stewart is a genius. If even a few of the interviewers in the "serious" media were as astute, fair, and ballsy as he is, we would have a very different debate going on.

Tonight his guest was Karen Hughes, a former top advisor to president Bush. She seems very nice, she has a new book, the discussion was very polite.

Then Stewart asked her why, if Bush is such a great guy as she says, is it that so many people in the world have such a completely different impression of him.

HUGHES: Well, I think he challenged the world to do something that was very hard to do, and that was to face up to the threat that was posed by Saddam Hussein and his defiance of the U.N. Security Council. I think that was hard, I concede that that was hard, but I think that it was absolutely right. And I think that we're beginning to see that it's going to lead to a more peaceful world, when leaders like Mohammar Qaddafi voluntarily come forward and say, "Ok, I'll dismantle my nuclear weapons program." So I think we're beginning to see that, but, you know, I think it was a hard thing, and some of the world didn't want to have to face that.. that moment of decision.

(emphasis mine)

Now, you could just feel Jon biting his tongue during this little stream of non-reality. I mean, really, we're beginning to see that it's going to make the world a more peaceful place? Is she nuts? Because of Qaddafi? Please. He wants sanctions lifted, and so he made a public relations move. It's good that his weapons will be gone, but it's not that good. It certainly doesn't discount the rest of the world errupting in an orgy of violence more ghastly each day. Not to mention her little crack about the U.N.

Anyway, after a very pregnant pause, Stewart responds:

STEWART: Is there ever a concern that.. that you feel that you're so certain you're right -- that you know where the treasure is buried -- but you forget that you're stepping on other people's gardens?

Exactly. Exactly fucking right. Their conviction that what they're doing is right is so fierce that it can never allow for any dissenting information. They will sit there and argue that the world is a safer place while the walls literally crumble around them, fiddling while Rome burns.

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