Daily Show Good

Jon Stewart had John Bolton of UN fame on tonight and it was very fun. I wish Stewart was in the White House Press Corp.

Bolton had a few points but I think they're bull. He talked about the entrenched bureaucracy in Washington and when they disagree with the president's policies they should work within the system. Apparently that's only true sometimes. If you're a US attorney and they don't like what you're doing, they just fire you, and don't even give you the real reason, let alone tell you they have concerns and give you a chance to correct them. Then there are the claims of changing the scientific reports to match policy, there's something wrong with that.

To some extent, his point of having people who aren't comfortable in the bureaucracy is a good thing to keep it minimized. But to use it as the excuse to put someone opposed to arms control in charge of it or opposed to the UN as ambassador to it (both Bolton) is ridiculous. The argument is that Bolton was to supposed to fix the UN, I don't see him being even remotely successful at that. Instead, his positions made it almost a guarantee that he would fail when working with others.

He mentioned that the president should be able to have an executive branch that executes his policies because the people elected him, otherwise there's a problem with the democratic theory. First off I think using the term democratic theory is interesting given the irregularities of the 2000 and 2004 elections. Otherwise I agree, we get what we elect. It's interesting that he is blaming Bush's failures (at the leaks) on the entrenched bureaucracy of the executive branch. This poor president, even his own branch of government is against him.