I agree...there's no way that he could *not* know he's mispronouncing it, so he's obviously just decided to say it any way he wants.

Of course, now that the president says "new-kew-lur", it will be officially validated, and so be mainstreamed.

I thought the POTUS was supposed to be an educated guy?

Nah, he went to Yale. :)

I would go for mid Feb ... around the 15th ..

this will allow the Iraq lovers to enjoy valentine day ..

George and Tony to have a moon lit dinner ....

and me to take my free 7day all expenses paid holiday touring palaces in the middle east ,which i won one morning entering a competition on the back of my morning cerial box.

The heaviest of British units, the 7th Armour, also known as Montgomery's Desert Rats, are at least 6 weeks away from being ready and in position. They have not even begun departure.

An attack in late February would not leave ground units enough time to prepare for their actions. They require extensive time in position to prepare for assault. However it is possible that a ground attack would be during some other moon phase. Once air assults begin, the attack must be swift and immediate. Any prolonged war would be disasterous for American and British supply lines. Even in Turkey, a strong American ally, public opinion is a solid 80% against George Jr's invasion. This is nothing like a Gulf War where everyone in the world bend over backwards to help. The world even paid the US for that war. This war will be fought only with passive cooperation even from Canada.

The initial air assault must be during new moon - absolute darkness. Since time is against Anglo/American forces, then ground assault probably must procede immediately afterwards - probably within a week.

I just want to know what a peninchula is.

On the surface, that speech sounded fantastic:

--We need to help seniors.
--We need to help Africans with AIDS.
--We need to help the economy.
--Saddam Hussein is a bad bad man. Iraq, we just want to help you.

Had I taken that speech word for word, I might have choked up.

Now if you'll excuse me, I need to catch the last bus running to Reality for the night...

Greetings from KL International airport all ;) If you're ever here the Pan Pacafic hotel is rather nice indeed.

I'm jetlagged to hell so excuse any more typos than usual.
This Feb5 revealing of intel that aparantly links Al Queda to Iraq as well as WMD info will be the killer, i'll be tuning into that one. CNBC Asia did a good cover of the State of the Union address if anyone caught it.

It's too early to speculate on when an attack will take place, the blustering about going in minus the UN was mostly for a domestic audiance, such a move would raise absolute hell. This feb 5 announcement i think is going to be a resonse to no smoking guns from the inspectors, they held back as long as they could but now they need to release that info to prove those links as well as the existance before reality interupts carefuly made warplans. If they can, well, there may be some real justification for such an attack after all, but i'm leaning towards hyperbolic bullshit rather than conclusive evidence. Time shall tell.

What are people's thoughts on the tax retusn for companies and families? (that was the drift i picked up from CNBC - i missed the speach itself) Seems to be too little too late and badly aimed according to most of the heads CNBC threw up. As you can tell my news sources have been kinda limited. The Straits times here leans so far it's in danger but put it this way - I've seen a number of Iraqi flags flying from windows here. (here being malaysia)

I'm torn on the tax break. As a matter of principle, I generally support any reduction in taxes. We know, however, that GWB is not being terribly conservative if we look at his spending desires. We are going to increase spending dramatically, while cutting taxes. This will be sold to us by misrepresenting the Laffer Curve. Lower rates will increase economic activity but without putting a hold on spending we'll probably be back to running deficits.

Politically its not a winner either since ending the double tax leaves you defending tax free income for folks in the market, while those who work for money, rather than having money work for them, pay income taxes. So lets be fair and dump the income tax.

the text
 

Here is the text of the State of the Union Address. GWBs spending goal is a 4% increase.

This week is jacking up my schedule. Tuesday night is for "NYPD Blue" and Wednesday night is for "The West Wing" and "Law & Order." If the prez needs to say something to Congress, let him do it between 8am and 5pm, or just mail them a copy of what he needs to say. I'm sure they could throw in a few grammarticular errors for him, and maybe a little twang or so, but ruining my TV watching for something that's going to be reprinted and analyzed 500,000 times in the next week is unamerican (and therefore must be eradicated).
And what's with the patriotic show that killed my programs last night? Jeff Goldblum? C'mon! Someone at NBC has a great sense of humor.

Rush probably dusted off his Y2K shelter, grabbed a couple of female interns, and is making ready to emerge from the upcoming apocalypse ready to repopulate the world with 'true conservatives'.

Y'all have probably heard this one before...
 

If You're Happy And You Know It Bomb Iraq
by John Robbins

If you cannot find Osama, bomb Iraq.
If the markets are a drama, bomb Iraq.
If the terrorists are frisky,
Pakistan is looking shifty,
North Korea is too risky,
Bomb Iraq.

If we have no allies with us, bomb Iraq.
If we think that someone's dissed us, bomb Iraq.
So to hell with the inspections,
Let's look tough for the elections,
Close your mind and take directions,
Bomb Iraq.

It's pre-emptive non-aggression, bomb Iraq.
To prevent this mass destruction, bomb Iraq.
They've got weapons we can't see,
And that's all the proof we need,
If they're not there, don't believe it!
Bomb Iraq.

If you never were elected, bomb Iraq.
If your mood is quite dejected, bomb Iraq.
If you think Saddam's gone mad,
With the weapons that he had,
And he tried to kill your dad,
Bomb Iraq.

If corporate fraud is growin', bomb Iraq.
If your ties to it are showin', bomb Iraq.
If your politics are sleazy,
And hiding that ain't easy,
And your manhood's getting queasy,
Bomb Iraq.

Fall in line and follow orders, bomb Iraq.
For our might knows not our borders, bomb Iraq.
Disagree? We'll call it treason,
Let's make war not love this season,
Even if we have no reason,
Bomb Iraq.

(One more time!)

*That* was excellent!

Nah, he's just playing golf in the Bob Hope Classic Celebrity Pro/Am or something like that.

I can't wait until he's back. I can't take another day of Roger Hedgecock ...