This is clever.

“What Bush Hears” by Eric Williams

Listening to the President's press conference on Wednesday morning, I was struck by the following exchange:

REPORTER: As you know, a growing number of troops are on their second, third or fourth tour in Iraq. There have been a growing number of reports about declining morale among fighting men. I spoke personally to an infantry commander -- tough guy, patriot -- who says more and more of the troops are asking, questioning what they're doing here. Does this come as a surprise to you? Are you aware of this? Is it a minority opinion, is it a growing opinion, and does it concern you?

THE PRESIDENT: What I hear from commanders is that the place where there is concern is with the family members; that our troops, who have volunteered to serve the country, are willing to go into combat multiple times, but that the concern is with the people on the home front. And I can understand that... I haven't heard deep concern about the morale of the troops in Iraq.

The words which struck me were "What I hear", because we're notoriously dealing with a president who only hears what he wants to hear, and anyone who says or thinks anything contrary to his beliefs is whisked away to the cornfield.
He's the Decider, and he's already decided how he's going to decide.
…
But it was those three words, "What I hear", which stood out most starkly to me. They immediately reminded me of the classic panel from Gary Larson's "The Far Side", depicting what we say to dogs vs. what they hear.

And so, with apologies to and deep appreciation of Mr. Larson, I'd like to present my own version. Call it "The Far Right Side".

I wish I’d thought of it.

Oh wait a minute.

I did.

Why I remember it like it was yesterday, even though it was back in December…

(Insert hazy flashback visuals and theremin music here.)

Heck, I even sprang for the towing package, the undercoating and extra sweat needed to pimp out the actual Larson cartoon

instead of dropping a thought-bubble into a pic of Dubya looking obtuse.

Please understand this is not in any way to cast aspersions on Mr. Williams, who I have no reason to doubt is anything other than a delightful human being. Given similar stimulus, background and cultural referents, similar ideas will always occur to different people.

As Charles Fort put it, when "railroad-time" comes, lots of people we will build railroads.

Rather it is to note this simple object lesson: Often what separates A-List blogs from Z-list blogs has nothing whatsoever to do with the superior timeliness, ingenuity, or facility with language of the former.

Or the lack of these aptitudes in the latter.