from Anonymoses Archives - March 23, 2003
Rumspeak made its way onto FOX, NBC and ABC today, which made me think of a post I did a couple of years ago on the matter. When he says "there is no question but that..." does he mean "There is no question that" or "There is no question except that"? Cleverly ambiguous. Whenever he says it, I assume he is not being forthright.
Reprinted:
NO QUESTION BUT THAT RUMSPEAK IS PROLIFERATING
What's with all the "but that"s?
"There's no question but that Germany is an important contributor in the global war on terrorism. "
- Rummy (not Rumi)
"There’s no question but that the strike on that leadership headquarters was successful."
- Rummy
""There is no question but that regime is not going to be there in the future."
- Rummy
"“The read we get on the people of Iraq is there’s no question but that they want to get rid of Saddam Hussein."
- Dick Cheney
There is no question but that we are very close to the end."
-Colin Powell (Not Powell too!)
"There is no question but that anyone who looks at the threat matrix every day knows that there are threats all over the world..."
-Rummy
"There's no question but that you have Saddam Hussein who's been there and has not responded to political diplomacy... "
-Rummy
"there's no question but that there are risks to acting, and they're real risks..."
-Rummy
...and then there is the use of nexus. Another day perhaps...
equivocation
\E*quiv`o*ca"tion\, n. The use of expressions susceptible of a double signification, with a purpose to mislead.
Syn: Prevarication; ambiguity; shuffling; evasion; guibbling. See Equivocal, a., and Prevaricate, v. i.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
equivocation
n 1: a statement that is not literally false but that cleverly avoids an unpleasant truth [syn: evasion] 2: intentionally vague or ambiguous [syn: prevarication, evasiveness] 3: deliberate vagueness or ambiguity [syn: evasiveness] 4: falsification by means of vague or ambiguous language [syn: tergiversation]
Source: WordNet ® 1.6, © 1997 Princeton University
