President Bush: Is He a Liar?

You haven't answered a raft of the posts here, and you're focussing on this one simple statement--but worse, having only tackled the simplest accusation, you're already defining terms to suit your thesis. You now assert that a lie is only a lie if the one uttering the statement meant to lie. That will be very helpful to you, to be sure, but not conclusive.

You are way behind, Brandon, you have so many posts to answer, and you're dicking around with this one.

Indeed I do assert that a lie is only a lie if the speaker knew it was untrue when he said it.

No one has demonstrated that this statement is a lie. Not all statements which eventually turn out to be untrue were lies.

Ticomaya wrote:

boomerang wrote:

One of these statements is a lie:

Quote:

"The most important thing is for us to find Osama bin Laden. It is our number one priority and we will not rest until we find him."
- G.W. Bush, 9/13/01

Quote:

"I don't know where bin Laden is. I have no idea and really don't care. It's not that important. It's not our priority."
- G.W. Bush, 3/13/02

Priorities change, and it's reasonable to conclude that the number one priority changed in the intervening 6 months, particularly with Iraq taking the number one spot.

The invasion or Iraq did not take place for more than a year after the second quote. Do you assert that the number one priority to get bin Laden was abandoned within six months of the attack on the World Trade Center? Do you assert that within that space of time, this administration had already made an invasion of Iraq the first priority? I assert that your flailing around, clutching at straws. As Boom points out, one of those statements is a lie.

Care to tackle the "I am a uniter, not a divider." statement?

As Colbert has amply demonstrated through his insightful satires as a pretend political pundit, you and other Bush supporters are not interested in the truth (verifiable by facts). Your only concern is "truthiness."

Actually, I misread the date of the second quote and was thinking it was 2003 -- not really paying attention, I suppose. I don't know what the priority was in March, 2002, but my point remains that priorities do change, and frankly if I told you my number one priority was to drink a frosty root beer from the Nu-Way on the corner of Douglas and Seneca, but then turned around on claimed a different number one priority 6 months later, that doesn't render my prior statement a lie, assuming the statement was true at the time it was made.

Ticomaya wrote:

Actually, I misread the date of the second quote and was thinking it was 2003 -- not really paying attention, I suppose. I don't know what the priority was in March, 2002, but my point remains that priorities do change, and frankly if I told you my number one priority was to drink a frosty root beer from the Nu-Way on the corner of Douglas and Seneca, but then turned around on claimed a different number one priority 6 months later, that doesn't render my prior statement a lie, assuming the statement was true at the time it was made.

Of course, the response to the attack on 9/11 should be equated with a decision to drink a frosty root beer. How could one not see they are equivalent?

parados wrote:

Ticomaya wrote:

Actually, I misread the date of the second quote and was thinking it was 2003 -- not really paying attention, I suppose. I don't know what the priority was in March, 2002, but my point remains that priorities do change, and frankly if I told you my number one priority was to drink a frosty root beer from the Nu-Way on the corner of Douglas and Seneca, but then turned around on claimed a different number one priority 6 months later, that doesn't render my prior statement a lie, assuming the statement was true at the time it was made.

Of course, the response to the attack on 9/11 should be equated with a decision to drink a frosty root beer. How could one not see they are equivalent?

I didn't make such an equation, parados. Perhaps you should reread my post, this time more slowly.

But in any event, Nu-Way root beer is 'da bomb.

Debra_Law wrote:

As Colbert has amply demonstrated through his insightful satires as a pretend political pundit, you and other Bush supporters are not interested in the truth (verifiable by facts). Your only concern is "truthiness."

I've never before seen anyone quote Colbert to try and prove a point.

Ticomaya wrote:

Debra_Law wrote:

As Colbert has amply demonstrated through his insightful satires as a pretend political pundit, you and other Bush supporters are not interested in the truth (verifiable by facts). Your only concern is "truthiness."

I've never before seen anyone quote Colbert to try and prove a point.

Again, you evade the truth that my opinion of Bush is based on facts. In order to personally attack me for my opinion, you ignore the facts.

Ticomaya wrote:

parados wrote:

Ticomaya wrote:

Actually, I misread the date of the second quote and was thinking it was 2003 -- not really paying attention, I suppose. I don't know what the priority was in March, 2002, but my point remains that priorities do change, and frankly if I told you my number one priority was to drink a frosty root beer from the Nu-Way on the corner of Douglas and Seneca, but then turned around on claimed a different number one priority 6 months later, that doesn't render my prior statement a lie, assuming the statement was true at the time it was made.

Of course, the response to the attack on 9/11 should be equated with a decision to drink a frosty root beer. How could one not see they are equivalent?

I didn't make such an equation, parados. Perhaps you should reread my post, this time more slowly.

But in any event, Nu-Way root beer is 'da bomb.

If you meant no such equation then your statement has no meaning at all.

Bush didn't say Bin Laden was moved to the number 2 priority. His statement removed him completely from the list of priorities to consider.

A desire to drink a frosty root beer is a fleeting fancy. It is easy to complete that and remove it from your list or move something else up.

Bin Laden was the major job description of what Bush should have been doing.