:: NEWS COCKTAIL aka BlahBlahBlog ::
"Everything is being compressed into tiny tablets. You take a little pill of news every day - 23 minutes - and that's supposed to be enough." -Walter Cronkite, RE TV news. The Web has changed that for many, however, and here is an extra dose for your daily news cocktail. This prescription tends to include surveillance and now war-related links, along with the occasional pop culture junk and whatever else seizes my attention as I scan online news sites.:: 10.09.2004 ::
:: Rematch: Dubya V. Long Face ::
Bush and Kerry differ sharply on Iraq and taxes
ST. LOUIS (Reuters UK) - President George W. Bush and Democratic challenger John Kerry have differed sharply on Iraq, jobs and taxes in their second debate, with Kerry questioning Bush's judgment and the president accusing Kerry of crumbling under political pressure.
In a sometimes testy confrontation, the White House rivals roamed the stage to battle over the decision to go to war in Iraq and repeatedly accuse each other of misleading Americans.
"The world is more dangerous today because the president didn't make the right judgements," Kerry said at the debate at Washington University on Friday, adding Bush "took his eye off the ball" in shifting his focus to Iraq while Iran and North Korea developed nuclear programs.
Bush defended his decision to go to war and aggressively attacked Kerry's record, saying the Massachusetts senator's willingness to shift in the political winds made him an unsuitable leader.
"I don't see how you can lead this country in a time of war, in a time of uncertainty, if you change your mind because of politics," Bush said.
Kerry denied that he had shifted his position in Iraq and said Bush was running a campaign of "mass deception."
"Let me tell you straight up: I've never changed my mind about Iraq. I do believe Saddam Hussein was a threat. I always believed he was a threat," he said.
"This president rushed to war, pushed our allies aside, and Iran now is more dangerous, and so is North Korea, with nuclear weapons. He took his eye off the ball, off of Osama bin Laden," Kerry said.
An angry Bush at one point cut off moderator Charles Gibson to upbraid Kerry for criticising the size of the coalition backing the United States in Iraq, saying it denigrated allies like Britain and Poland.
Kerry responded that if all the citizens of the state of Missouri were a military force in Iraq, they would be the third largest bloc behind the United States and Britain.
"That's not a grand coalition," he said.
Read more here.
posted by me
:: 12:51:00 AM [+] ::
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