Bush Says Nothing

David Frum's Diary on National Review Online - By now it should be clear that President Bush's words on the subject of Iraq have ceased connecting with the American public. His speech yesterday to the Veterans of Foreign Wars is the latest - and one of the most serious to date - manifestations of the problem. The polls tell us that the American public is losing heart. A substantial majority (56%) now say that the war is going either 'very badly' or 'moderately badly.' More than 50% now regard the war as a mistake. One-third want an immediate and total withdrawal. Maybe most fatefully: a plurality now say that they believe that the president deliberately misled the country into war.

Supporters of the war can argue that the public is mistaken, overly influenced by biased news reporting. Yes, yes. But mistaken public opinion is just as powerful as sound public opinion.

Again, supporters of the war can do our bit to try to change minds. But the biggest megaphone in the country belongs to President Bush - and much depends on whether he uses it well or badly.

He is using it very badly indeed.

Let me mention just one single but maybe decisive problem. Again and again during the Bush presidency - and yesterday most recently - the president will agree to give what is advertised in advance as a major speech. An important venue will be chosen. A crowd of thousands will be gathered. The networks will all be invited. And after these elaborate preparations, the president says ... nothing that he has not said a hundred times before.

If a president continues to do that, he is himself teaching the public and the media to ignore him - especially when the words seem (as his speech yesterday to the VFW seemed) utterly to ignore the past three months of real-world events."

You should really read the entire thing becase David Frum makes some excellent points. Keep in mind, these criticisms are coming from a NeoCon website, not some crazed out Democratic moonbats.

Definitely thoughts worth pondering.

NRA Calling for Boycott of ConocoPhillips

IDABEL, Oklahoma (AP) -- The National Rifle Association in the U.S. has begun a boycott of ConocoPhillips over the energy giant's attempt to block a state law preventing employers from firing workers who keep guns in their cars on company lots.Story

I am down for the second amendment.  I believe that people should be able to own guns.  I don't own a gun and might not ever.  I also believe that their are certain types of guns that people shouldn't be able to buy because they have nothing to do with hunting-well not game hunting anyway.  However, this is an entirely different issue.

Most of us have had THAT co-worker who you were worried would do something if he ever got fired.  I know I have.  There was one guy I had an escape route planned for.  For reasons just like that, I think ConocoPhillips is in the right. To me it is just good sense that you don't want employees bringing firearms on to company property unless you are the police department.

The contrarian in me wants to buy all of its gas from Phillips 66 stations from now on. 

This Divided State

From the looks of things this is the type of movie that fits in with exactly what we're talking about here at "The Political Middle."

Remember, Sean's the centrist with leftist leanings. I'm the bleeding heart liberal that owns all of Michael Moore's books and is upset that one of them isn't signed by Moore. Adam is the Republican that truly believes that the party should be about personal responsibility.

Sean doesn't always agree with me and I don't always agree with him. Sometimes I think Adam is full of shit and he thinks the same of me (but he's wrong *wink*), but we all agree on the fact that there must be a public dialogue. We might not agree with each other, but we all believe in the basic human right to be heard. I'm not going to force them to live my way and they're not going to force me to live theirs. That's what America is SUPPOSED to be about.

Anyway, I think come September 27th I'll be picking this DVD up. Please be sure to check out the site and watch the trailer. It's some powerful stuff.