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‘Daily Show’ Digests Latest Bush Puzzler

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Posted on Sep 12, 2006
Jon Stewart

George Bush recently said “America is safer than it has been, but it’s not yet safe.”  Attempting to make sense of this seemingly contradictory statement in a post 9/11, post “mission accomplished,” post Katrina world, “The Daily Show” came up with this rationale: “George W. Bush is the right man to lead us in the era post whatever horrible calamity he leads us into next.”


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By Staffan, November 22, 2006 at 1:38 pm Link to this comment
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Where is the clip, is it anywhare else?

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By Donovan, September 18, 2006 at 1:52 pm Link to this comment
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“God I wish I could actually wake up from this stupid nightmare….”

amen

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By Average American, September 18, 2006 at 2:40 am Link to this comment
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God I wish I could actually wake up from this stupid nightmare….

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By Frankman, September 17, 2006 at 2:08 pm Link to this comment
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Funny. Althou what what Bush said was (for once!) gramatically and semantically correct.

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By Donovan, September 14, 2006 at 2:41 pm Link to this comment
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Like I said, it was a campaign slogan, not an honest assessment of our safety.  Not including 9/11, terrorism on average takes 400 lives/year… on par with lightning strikes.  Bush hasn’t succeeded at making me feel any safer with North Korea shooting weapons in our direction.

I look at the Bush Administration as a collection of people who know how to go through the motions of their duties, but really have no idea what they’re doing.  I see it everyday, as you probably do, at work—some people you can just tell don’t know what’s going on.  He/his people have made mistakes in how they’ve done their job, and when they get called on it they attempt to downplay it followed by trying to change the laws that they’ve crossed.

I see the Administration as incompetent.  That alone is reason enough to fire someone in the commercial sector, so why not with the most important job an American can have?  I’m not even insinuating his possible criminal actions, just his inability to catch the guy he says did 9/11.  He’s admitted that Iraq had “nothing” (his words) to do with 9/11, but he went to war with it.  That was a pretty damn big mistake.  People get fired for being late to work too many times.  Why does he still have his job?

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By dawn, September 13, 2006 at 7:49 pm Link to this comment
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How can you NOT understand ‘safer, but not yet SAFE’?  Things are better than they were, but we are not yet at a point where we no longer have to worry about terrorists.  Not to mention, IMHO, natural disasters, Katrina, and terrorists driving planes into our buildings have NOTHING to do with each other….Am I missing some link between terrorism and hurricanes?  OOPS, I have it, the terrorists CAUSED hurricane Katrina….

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By Jason, September 13, 2006 at 5:47 pm Link to this comment
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I understood the political ramifications of Bush’s claim that America is safer but not yet safe when I posted my comment.  I recognize the possibility that Bush said this without regard to an actual state of affairs but rather in the interest of preserving his party’s run in office.  However, it might also be true.  Nothing in the Daily Show segment demonstrated that it was not.  Furthermore, Stewart had to misrepresent what Bush said in order to make it seem sillier (near the middle of the clip Stewart says “So we’re safe, but not safe.  How is that possible?”).

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By Donovan, September 13, 2006 at 2:14 am Link to this comment
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Jason: look at it from a linguistic perspective. It was a campaign sentence. In one breath Bush said “I’m doing a good job, and I’m not done.” We’re safer—Bush has done what’s necessary to protect us—but we’re not safe—you’re still not protected enough to relax, so keep your eyes open for terrorists on your way to work.

If you get people to fear something, then they’ll support your efforts because people have a strong sense of self-preservation—we’re very motivated to protect ourselves. Unfortuneately that often results in the loss of a rational questioning attitude.

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By Jason, September 12, 2006 at 10:02 pm Link to this comment
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Seems to me that what Bush said there was logically coherent and far from puzzling.  America is safer than it has been, but not yet safe.  Security is a continuum, admitting of degrees.  I don’t think this Daily Show segment should qualify as brilliant.

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By Donovan, September 12, 2006 at 1:22 pm Link to this comment
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I laugh more in the 30 min of The Daily Show than in the combined amount of time of all the episodes of SNL and Mad TV I’ve ever seen.  Eqally funny is Bill Maher’s Real Time.  Not only funny, but informative.

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By Thomas Green, September 12, 2006 at 9:46 am Link to this comment
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Thems what know what made the USA unsafe before 9/11 are now almost sure they know what makes us unsafe after 9/11.

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By ib, September 12, 2006 at 8:49 am Link to this comment
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As always a brilliant satarist!!!

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