Wampum

Cheetos of Freedom

President Bush’s radio address this morning made me think of standardized tests, Fred Clark (the Slacktivist), and Cheetos. Bear with me, this will all come together in a minute.

In his radio address, Mr. Bush said:

We have combated terrorists on the home front by disrupting terror cells and their financial support networks. We're fighting the terrorists in Afghanistan, Iraq, and around the world, striking them in foreign lands before they can attack us here at home. And we're spreading the hope of freedom across the broader Middle East.

Mr. Bush used to talk about spreading freedom. Now he talks about “spreading the hope of freedom.” That reminded me of the standardized tests in which a progression of numbers is presented (say “0-1-1-2-3-5-8") and one is asked to find the next entry. “Ah,” I would say to myself, “a Fibonacci Sequence, the next entry is 13.” Or, at least, that is what the smart kids would say.

The thought of a sequential progression, in turn, reminded me of Fred Clark because of this classic post (which I have “borrowed" in its entirety. Sorry, Fred):

Cheetohs of Mass Destruction

Kevin Drum has a nice rundown of the Bush administration's incredible shrinking claims about Iraq's alleged weapons and the lack thereof:

March 2003: Weapons of mass destruction.

June 2003: Weapons of mass destruction programs.

October 2003: Weapons of mass destruction-related programs.

January 2004: Weapons of mass destruction-related program activities.

I've mentioned this before, but this reminds me of the Cheetoh-factor, in which every additional adjective makes the noun in question less true:

"Cheese" = cheese

"processed cheese" = cheese, sort of

"processed cheese food" = cheese, sort of, plus other stuff that's not cheese

"processed cheese food snack product" = the food in question is orange, but contains no actual cheese.

The question is what is the next entry in the “Cheetos of Freedom” sequence?

“Spreading thoughts of hopes of freedom?”

Update:

From Reuters:

U.S. diplomats have conceded ground to Islamists on the role of religion in Iraq, negotiators said on Saturday as they raced to meet a 48-hour deadline to draft a constitution under intense U.S. pressure.

U.S. diplomats, who have insisted the constitution must enshrine ideals of equal rights and democracy, declined comment.

Shi'ite, Sunni and Kurdish negotiators all said there was accord on a bigger role for Islamic law than Iraq had before.

But a secular Kurdish politician said Kurds opposed making Islam "the", not "a", main source of law -- changing current wording -- and subjecting all legislation to a religious test.

"We understand the Americans have sided with the Shi'ites," he said. "It's shocking. It doesn't fit American values. They have spent so much blood and money here, only to back the creation of an Islamist state ... I can't believe that's what the Americans really want or what the American people want."

Posted by Dwight Meredith at August 20, 2005 01:01 PM