by James Glaser
December 31, 2003

President Bush has told us that he never reads the newspaper, but has people tell him what is going on in the world every day at a briefing. What do you think these people want him to know? Do they only tell him things that are upbeat and keep him in a good mood or are they honest and tell him everything? I don't know the answer to that, but I do know that our President does not decide for himself what he is informed of.

It would stand to reason that after so long, the people feeding him information would know what he wants to hear. Those people would have to learn by George's reaction what is "good" and what is "bad" information.

Today the New York Times had a large story about a young soldier that was blinded by his wound in Iraq and how hard his life is now. Do you think the information people even mentioned that story to the President or for that matter any story from the Times. Maybe he only hears about news from a Right Wing perspective. We don't know.

What we do know is that the President of the United States does not take the time to read articles that catch his eye. We know that some inner circle controls what information he sees on a day to day basis. That story about the blind soldier and others of that ilk should be read to any President that starts a War. Presidents should not be insulated from what their Foreign Policies do to our troops and their families.

It does not matter if the war is "just" in everyone eyes or one like this war, that has many Americans against it. Every President should read about the consequences of their actions.

I often wonder if this lack of reading by George Bush is some life long aversion to the printed word? Because he had money, do you think he hired people to read for him in college and they then gave him the high points?

I would like to believe that the President of the United States would base his decisions on all of the information available to him. Making life and death moves based on filtered reports that are fed to a President by a small group of people, has no place in a real democracy. The White House is looking more and more like a old Hollywood movie, with the evil Chamberlain, who has the ear of the King making policy for the country.