language interpreters/ interpreted languages weaknesses?

[Martijn Faassen]

William Tanksley <wtanksle at dolphin.openprojects.net> wrote:
[snip]
> Java's not interpreted, though -- I've never seen ANY Java interpreter.
> Java is always compiled, usually to bytecode, and then the bytecode
> machine is emulated.

Um, I was under the impression that this is what a modern interpreter
actually does? Parse the source to bytecode and execute the bytecode.
After all, Python does the same, right?

Regards,

Martijn