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Something in the Way He Moves
This Way Lies Madness: A Movement Analysis of GWB's "Speech"
Last night George Bush stilled his usual side-to-side rocking, reduced his smirk to an almost-unchanging grimace, read his speech as a recitation of mere facts, and frightened the world.
What could possibly lie behind that blank stare that opened the speech? Was he nervous? Anxious? Was it guilt overridden by anger? As he read the monitor, only the merest of shifts took place; it was as if he was running a marathon and he needed to preserve all his energy for the long haul; no point in conveying any expression or communicating any real information.
What he said mattered little for his case; he ran through the homilies and platitudes without belief. This speech was all about conveying intention without serious rationale.
At one point he stated that the mistakes "rest with me." It was a moment of profound disconnection; he almost edged away from the words and his mouth grimaced a little more. When he damned the Iraq Study Group with faint praise, his eyes blinked rapidly; a little too obviously disingenuous.
There was not a moment of heartfelt or gut-level rhetoric. The entire speech consisted of George Bush reading a statement that escalates an already insane situation.
It reminded me of an alcoholic father who comes home after a binge and tells the family that they must leave the house and move because they have not paid the bills. As the world sits here today and contemplates the path laid before the United States last night, they must wonder at our complicity in the madness.
As observers of human behavior, all thinking people need to speak up and state the truth. We cannot go down this track. It must stop.
This analysis is also cross-posted at Daily Kos.
I only heard on radio so could not see the body language. I tried to separate delivery from content. The intonation pattern was flat but it sounded like he'd advanced a little for "Hooked on Phonics" or whatever oral remedial reading program he uses. Could also imagine the speechwriter(s), crossing out and rewriting, in terms of euphemism and propaganda, trying to make the unpalatable convincing and plausible.
Wow, the application of that song to GWB may have actually just ruined my life.
Just kidding. I'll get over it.
Thanks for this analysis. It's pretty much exactly how I feel every time I see the president speak. I find myself wondering if he even wants what he says he wants - or knows what he's saying.
Day after day, alone on the hill,
The man with the foolish grin is keeping perfectly still.
But nobody wants to know him,
They can see that he's just a fool.
And he never gives an answer .....
But the fool on the hill,
Sees the sun going down.
And the eyes in his head,
See the world spinning around.
Well on his way, his head in a cloud,
The man of a thousand voices, talking perfectly loud.
But nobody ever hears him,
Or the sound he appears to make.
And he never seems to notice .....
But the fool on the hill,
Sees the sun going down.
And the eyes in his head,
See the world spinning around.
And nobody seems to like him,
They can tell what he wants to do.
And he never shows his feelings,
But the fool on the hill,
Sees the sun going down.
And the eyes in his head,
See the world spinning around.
Another day, another foreign policy trainwreck. This is what Americans have been watching the last six years.
Custer analogy:
http://silencedmajority.blogs.com/silenced_majority_portal/
Dems finally pick Denver for their '08 Convention-way to go Howard Dean. He finally recognized that the Rockies are the way to taking back the Whitehouse.
La colère du sénateur démocrate Ted Kennedy
LE MONDE | 10.01.07 | 15h15
eut-être fallait-il quelqu'un qui ne soit pas candidat à l'élection présidentielle de 2008 ? La voix caverneuse du sénateur Ted Kennedy s'est élevée, mardi 9 janvier, dans la grande salle du National Press Club. "L'Irak est le Vietnam de George Bush, a-t-il dit. Et comme au Vietnam, la seule solution rationnelle est politique, et non pas militaire. Injecter plus de troupes dans une guerre civile ne changera rien."
Accédez à l'intégralité de cet article sur Lemonde.fr
http://www.lemonde.fr/web/article/0,1-0@2-3222,36-853733,0.html
Bravo Kennedy!!
Was it guilt overridden by anger?
Posted by Karen at January 11, 2007 11:35 AM
He is angry, I believe, likely angry because he no longer has the support he had after the most fortunate day in his life: 9/11 (and people didn't line up at recruiting offices to enlist for his already-proposed war that we now know he was planning before 9/11).
Guilt... I don't personally believe he is capable of feeling guilt, because IMHO he does not have a conscience, and is therefore incapable of feeling guilty for having botched his war (and everything else he's ever touched). The lack of guilt doesn't show up in his body language, but the lack of guilt, the lack of conscience, does show up in his eyes.
Absent in the usual endless propaganda last night: a timetable, a date of withdrawal of his current escalation.
Haven't our troops already "sacrificed" enough? Over 3000 have died; thousands of others are physically harmed for the rest of their lives and/or psychologically scarred for the rest of their lives. Of guard troops there already, some have had their tours of duty extended, other guard units are going back for the second or third time. That puts a horrendous strain on their families, especially those who have children. It's one thing for guard units to be called out in emergencies to help their neighbors (and, as you know, I applaud that kind of everyday help and heroism to the point of maudlin sentimentality), and be here, on our own soil, to defend us if/when they would ever be needed to do so - here, on our own soil. That's the purpose of having guard troops.
But to ask our military personnel (regular military, guard, reserve) to potentially sacrifice their lives for lies and oil in an illegal war, a military invasion that was a war crime under the Geneva Convention and the US Constitution, is too much to ask! Starting with the Chickenhawk-in-Chief, the power-mad warmongers owe our military personnel a profound apology for asking them to die for their greed and ignobility.
The Surge: Just Enough to Lose
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1576676,00.html
So..generals reluctantly supporting this in exchange for getting a bigger military later on. It'll be easier to get Guards & Reserves on active duty than ever, and somehow, thousands of young are still able to be recruited. Insane.
I think America saw a very different George W. Bush last night then we've seen before.
Gone were the smirk and the swagger. Gone were the mannerisms and mangled syntax that we've come to expect from him. Gone were the aggressive body language and the condescending air of superiority.
This wasn't the macho man wearing a flight jacket and falsely proclaiming 'Mission Accomplished' on the deck of an aircraft carrier. This wasn't the so-called average-guy candidate leaning over a podium in his shirtsleeves while mouthing false platitudes. This wasn't the bully president making threats from his bully pulpit.
No, this was a man trying his best to look and sound presidential while knowing all along that he was failing at both. He did do a little better job of that towards the end of his speech, when he was back on familiar ground with his pet platitudes about Al-Qaeda and 9/11 and the global war on terra.
But especially at the beginning of what he knew to be a critical speech proposing a desperate strategy to an unforgiving audience who didn't want to hear a word of it, the George W. Bush we saw on our television screens last night looked more like a deer caught in the headlights of history.
Bush was tired, he was apprehensive, and it showed in every expression on his face. He looked less like a leader and more like a lame duck than he's ever looked before.
Last night Bush was staring his failed legacy right in the face. He didn't like what he saw there. And neither did America.
disarm the bushi'ite militias,
Otter
Senate opposition to Bush plan grows
Republican Hagel calls it 'blunder;' Democrats expect to pass resolution
NBC, MSNBC and news services
Updated: 18 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - President Bush’s decision to deploy 21,500 additional troops to Iraq drew fierce opposition Thursday from congressional Democrats and some Republicans — among them Sen. Chuck Hagel, who called it “the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam.”
The Nebraska Republican vowed to “resist” the plan, but the Senate’s top Republican, Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., threatened a filibuster to block any legislation expressing disapproval of Bush's strategy.
Democrats, who number 51 in the Senate, plan to offer a nonbinding resolution that would make clear where each senator stands. “I think that (bipartisan passage) will be the beginning of the end of the war in Iraq,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said Thursday.
“We expect to have 60” votes needed to block a filibuster, Reid said, noting that at least a dozen Senate Republicans have come out against the troop increase.
The war has cost more than 3,000 American troops their lives and played a major role in the Democratic takeover of Congress in last fall’s elections.
Testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice described the current situation as “a time for a national imperative not to fail in Iraq.”
Escalation or augmentation?
In a heated exchange with Hagel, a potential presidential candidate in 2008, Rice disputed his characterization of Bush’s buildup as an “escalation.”
“Putting in 22,000 more troops is not an escalation?” Hagel, a Vietnam veteran and longtime critic of Bush’s Iraq policy, asked. “Would you call it a decrease?”
“I would call it, senator, an augmentation that allows the Iraqis to deal with this very serious problem that they have in Baghdad,” she said.
Hagel told Rice, “Madame secretary, Iraqis are killing Iraqis. We are in a civil war. This is sectarian violence out of control.”
She disputed that Iraq was in the throes of a civil war. To that, Hagel said, “To sit there and say that, that’s just not true.”
Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, a Democrat who ran as an independent, reiterated his support for Bush’s war strategy, while Florida Democrat Bill Nelson withdrew his backing.
“I have not been told the truth over and over again by administration witnesses, and the American people have not been told the truth,” Nelson said.
more...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16579285/
Voices of the troops on Bush's plan.
Fort Lewis Soldiers, Community React to Iraq Plan
Listen here: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6806011
Monkey
I opened your link from 2:03 PM and also watched the video of Kerry grilling Rice. He obviously has done his homework and also been over to the middle east alot, and he was giving her about 5 new wrinkles in her forehead. Watching the body language, not just her face while she was listening, but his expressive hands - he was very spontaneous and seriously curious why there wasn't a plan, she was on the defensive and anxious.
Kennedy speaking on CPAN-2 (online) now...
(today's quotes from the AP feeds)
"To ask our young men and women to sacrifice their lives to be put in the middle of a civil war is wrong. It's, first of all, in my opinion, morally wrong. It's tactically, strategically, militarily wrong." - Sen. Chuck Hagel, R-Neb.
"The president has a plan. He's vetted it with his military leadership. He has requested reinforcements to Anbar and to Baghdad to make this plan work. And I think it's incumbent upon us, in light of the fact that we are engaged in combat right now, that reinforcements have been requested, that they are needed." Rep. Duncan Hunter, R-Calif.
"Last night the president chose, fundamentally, to ignore the foundation built by the Iraq Study Group, the foundation built on a bipartisan basis here, and knowingly and willfully has divided the country yet again, and the Congress over this issue." - Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass.
"Americans broadly agree - and we in the administration count ourselves among them - that the situation in Iraq is unacceptable." - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
"We can't afford to continue this course. I have consistently called for the redeployment of our military from Iraq, but now Congress must use its main power - the power of the purse - to put an end to our involvement in this disastrous war." - Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis.
"American patience is limited, and obviously if the Iraqis fail to maintain their commitments we'll have to revisit our strategy." - Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
"I fear that what the president has proposed is more likely to make things worse." - Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joe Biden, D-Del.
"It seems as though a solution to the problem is always six months away." - Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.
"We've got a mess on our hands in Iraq. The time for a so-called surge in troop numbers was back in 2003." - House Armed Services Committee Chairman Ike Skelton, D-Mo.
Congressman McDermott: (I'll attend a citizen town meeting with him in two days - I'm in his district)
"The President had no plan when he ordered the invasion of Iraq over 25,000 U.S. casualties ago, and his "New Way Forward" is nothing less than another way to fail. Almost four grim years later, there are at least 21,500 new reasons to oppose this--- that's the number of additional U.S. soldiers the President intends to needlessly put in harm's way in his latest Iraq pronouncement.
"The President seems determined to make Iraq the Vietnam of the Mideast, no matter what top U.S. military commanders tell him behind the scenes, no matter what the American people tell him at the polls, and no matter what the Iraqi people tell the world every new and bloody day across Iraq.
"The President's determination to escalate his Iraq War demonstrates just how much he is out of touch with Iraq's grim reality. Risking more U.S. lives in Iraq will only produce more U.S. casualties, at a time when the President should strategically re-deploy U.S. soldiers to a new mission that can succeed, beginning with sealing the porous borders with Iran and Syria from which guns and hatred are flowing into Iraq.
"The President has turned the U.S. into an occupying force in Iraq, and the President's claim that the Iraqis are behind his proposal is just like the President's earlier claim that the U.S. had irrefutable evidence that Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction.
"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is absolutely right to call for a vote on the President's intention to escalate this war. The American people told the President last November to change course and end the Iraq War. It's time for the new Congress to acknowledge that we, at least, heard the message, because, clearly, the President hasn't. And it's time for the new Congress to acknowledge the common sense of the American people who are demanding that we make decisions that put U.S. soldiers in harm's way based on our national security and not the intransigence of a stubborn President.
"The American news media has uncovered and disclosed that the President didn't even bother to wait to deliver his speech to the American people and the Congress before sending the first installment of his escalation to Iraq. This undermines his credibility and underscores the need for Congress to act immediately to hold this President accountable."
"The responsibility of Congress should be to continue our support for U.S. soldiers in harm's way in Iraq today by providing funds for food, medicine, body armor, etc., and by demanding a plan to strategically redeploy out of harm's way before the end of this year. The responsibility of Congress is not to waste new money and accept putting more U.S. lives at risk so that this president can escalate a war without a shred of evidence that his rhetoric has any basis in fact. This painful lesson was learned in Vietnam a generation ago. The President would do well to learn from history rather than repeat its mistakes.
"The only thing the Iraq War has done for the real war on terror is to make it worse. Escalation will not make Iraq safer, but it will cost more U.S. lives and waste billions more in U.S. money."
FORT BENNING, Ga. - President George W. Bush, Thursday, told soldiers that his strategy of sending more U.S. troops to Iraq would not yield immediate results in clamping down on sectarian violence.
One day after proposing to increase U.S. forces by 21,500, mostly to help secure Baghdad, Bush appealed for patience.
"The new strategy is not going to yield immediate results. it's going to take a while," Bush said at Fort Benning, an Army base in Georgia from which about 4,000 more soldiers will soon deploy to Iraq.
He said U.S. commanders believed there was a good chance to defeat the insurgency in Anbar province. The 4,000 extra U.S. troops in Anbar, and the added forces in Baghdad, would help, he said.
"The purpose really is to crush these insurrections now so that the democracy in Iraq can develop, has a chance to make it," Bush said.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16580983/
Bush says U.S. will clamp down on Iran, Syria as part of Iraq strategy:
He said the United States would expand intelligence cooperation in the Middle East and deploy Patriot missile defense systems to help allies. He also said he would deploy an additional carrier strike group to the region.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article16135.htm
Distracting Congress from the Real War Plan
By Paul Craig Roberts
The Bush administration has recently doubled its aircraft carrier forces and air power in the Persian Gulf. According to credible news reports, the Israeli air force has been making practice runs in preparation for an attack on Iran.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article16121.htm
Excerpt:
The only purpose of the surge is to distract Congress while plans are implemented to widen the war.
100,000 mercenaries, the forgotten "Surge"
By Barry Lando
What is striking about the current debate in Washington - whether to "surge" troops to Iraq and increase the size of the U.S. Army - is that roughly 100,000 bodies are missing from the equation: The number of American forces in Iraq is not 140,000, but more like 240,000.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article16130.htm
The Kucinich Plan For Iraq
By Dennis Kucinich
There is a compelling need for a new direction in Iraq, one that recognizes the plight of the people of Iraq, the false and illegal basis of the United States war against Iraq, the realities on the ground which make a military resolution of the conflict unrealistic and the urgent responsibility of the United States, which caused the chaos, to use the process of diplomacy and international law to achieve stability in Iraq, a process which will establish peace and stability in Iraq allow our troops to return home with dignity.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article16123.htm
{{{Interesting.... Kucinich actually has a plan all written out. I'm sure the neoCons would blow holes all over it, but someone actually has plans to get OUT of Iraq....}}}
Democrats Plan Symbolic Votes Against Bush’s Iraq Troop Plan:
Senate Democrats decided to schedule a vote on the resolution after a closed-door meeting on a day when Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts introduced legislation to require Mr. Bush to gain Congressional approval before sending more troops to Iraq.
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article16120.htm
{{{Symbolic...???}}}
Headlines: Click on links for more.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/fisk/article2144057.ece
Robert Fisk: Bush's new strategy - the march of folly
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6252305.stm
Guantanamo scenes recreated at protest
More than 300 protesters gathered outside the US embassy in Grosvenor Square, central London to mark the fifth anniversary of the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/6248669.stm
Somali herders hit by air attacks
Following US air strikes in southern Somalia targeting suspected al-Qaeda leaders, several herding areas have been hit by bombs.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/6251167.stm
US north Iraqi raid angers Iran
US forces have stormed a building in the northern Iraqi town of Irbil and seized six people said to be Iranians, prompting a diplomatic incident.
{{{After threatening Iran and Syria in last night's speech and in previous speeches, DimWit is just determined to get one or both of those countries in his war, one way or another.}}}
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070111/ts_nm/guantanamo_un_dc
U.N. chief wants Guantanamo prison shut down
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - New U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon believes the U.S. prison at Cuba's Guantanamo Bay should be shut down, he said on Thursday.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070111/ap_on_re_as/pakistan_warlord_interview
Insurgents play role in bin Laden escape
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan - Afghan insurgent leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar said in a television interview broadcast Thursday that his fighters helped al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden escape intense U.S. bombing in the Tora Bora mountains in 2001.
What a stupendous, what an incomprehensible machine is man! Who can endure toil, famine, stripes, imprisonment & death itself in vindication of his own liberty, and the next moment ... inflict on his fellow men a bondage, one hour of which is fraught with more misery than ages of that which he rose in rebellion to oppose.
Thomas Jefferson
"For in a Republic, who is 'the country?' Is it the Government which is for the moment in the saddle? Why, the Government is merely a servant -- merely a temporary servant; it cannot be its prerogative to determine what is right and what is wrong, and decide who is a patriot and who isn't. Its function is to obey orders, not originate them."
Mark Twain [Samuel Langhornne Clemens] (1835-1910)
Posted by: NonnyO at January 11, 2007 04:10 PM
Nice setta quotes ya got there.
A childhood friend from SD sent this, out of the blue - the writer is a religion writer from Newsweek, WA Post etc.
Sally Quinn: Let's not squander more U.S. troops in Iraq
WASHINGTON - I am an Army brat. I have seen the effects of war firsthand. My father fought in World War II and in the Korean War. I lived on Army posts and saw or heard about the human devastation of war each day.
During the Korean War my father served on the front lines, leaving us behind in Tokyo. Every day I read in the newspaper Stars and Stripes about soldiers being killed. I fell ill because of the emotional stress of having him at war, and at age 10 I ended up in Tokyo General Hospital.
The hospital was filled with severely wounded soldiers who had been airlifted from Korea. It was decided that having parents visit their sick children would be too disruptive, so my mother wasn't allowed to see me for months at a time.
Finally, after nearly nine months, I was transferred to Brooke General Hospital in San Antonio. My mother, younger brother, younger sister and I were placed on an Army hospital plane with the most seriously wounded soldiers, who were to fly back with us. There were no seats on the plane, only three rows of litters, five high, all filled with badly wounded and dying soldiers, most of them still kids themselves. I was strapped to my litter, as they were, but my mother, brother and sister were ambulatory.
The thing I remember most vividly is the soldiers screaming in pain and crying out for their mothers. My mother went up and down the aisles holding their hands, stroking their brows, giving them sips of water. My sister helped light their cigarettes. Many of them were amputees. Some had no stomachs, some had no faces.
The soldiers in the litters above and below me both died, blood dripping from their wounds. Many other soldiers died while we were in the air. We had to stop in Hawaii overnight to refuel and to leave the bodies.
I hope that when President Bush discusses sending more troops to Iraq, knowing that we will have to pull out sooner rather than later, that the conversation comes around to the human suffering. Does anyone at the table ask about the personal anguish, the long-term effects, emotional, psychological and financial, on the families of those killed, wounded or permanently disabled?
When I hear about the surge, all I can think of is those young soldiers on the plane to Texas. We have already lost more than 3,000 soldiers, and many more have been wounded and disabled.
We have three choices here. All three are immoral. We can keep the status quo and gradually pull out; we can surge; or we can pull out now. When I think about those young soldiers on that plane coming back from Japan years ago, I believe pulling out now is the least immoral choice.
Monkey
I added the Mark Twain quote onto our Custer analogy.
(click my name)
quagmire v., in pass. to be sunk or stuck in a quagmire; also fig. quagmirist, one who makes a quagmire of himself. quagmiry a., of the nature of a quagmire; boggy.
1637 WINTHROP New Eng. (1825) I. 233 A most hideous swamp, so thick with bushes and so quagmiry [etc.]. 1655 R. YOUNGE Agst. Drunkards 4 These drunken drones, these gut-mongers, these Quagmirists. 1701 Laconics 120 (L.) When a reader has been quagmired in a dull heavy book. 1846 LANDOR Imag. Conv. Wks. II. 42 A man is never quagmired till he stops.
I'd expand the meaning of quagmirist to include men like Bush, who single-mindedly walk further into the bog, ignoring the warnings the while.
"The Battle Hymn of the Republic, Updated was written in 1901 by Mark Twain, as a parody of American imperialism, in the wake of the Philippine-American War. It is written in the same tune and cadence as the original Battle Hymn of the Republic.
The Battle Hymn of the Republic, Updated
by Mark Twain
Lyrics
Mine eyes have seen the orgy of the launching of the Sword;
He is searching out the hoardings where the stranger's wealth is stored;
He hath loosed his fateful lightnings, and with woe and death has scored;
His lust is marching on.
I have seen him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps;
They have builded him an altar in the Eastern dews and damps;
I have read his doomful mission by the dim and flaring lamps--
His night is marching on.
I have read his bandit gospel writ in burnished rows of steel:
"As ye deal with my pretensions, so with you my wrath shall deal;
Let the faithless son of Freedom crush the patriot with his heel;
Lo, Greed is marching on!"
We have legalized the strumpet and are guarding her retreat;*
Greed is seeking out commercial souls before his judgement seat;
O, be swift, ye clods, to answer him! be jubilant my feet!
Our god is marching on!
In a sordid slime harmonious Greed was born in yonder ditch,
With a longing in his bosom--and for others' goods an itch.
As Christ died to make men holy, let men die to make us rich--
Our god is marching on.
* NOTE: In Manila the Government has placed a certain industry under the protection of our flag. (M.T.)
Nyc @ http://www.apenwarmedinhell.blogspot.com
It's not our fault - BushCo
US: Iraq PM is 'on borrowed time'
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6253285.stm
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said that Iraqi PM Nouri Maliki is living "on borrowed time", but that she is confident he can give Iraq security...
Also, (January 11, 2007 04:59 PM link):
Earlier, Ms Rice warned that the US would take action against countries destabilising Iraq.
Also, (January 11, 2007 04:59 PM link):
Senator Chuck Hagel, a Republican on the committee, also said the plan was a mistake.
"I think this speech given last night by this president represents the most dangerous foreign policy blunder in this country since Vietnam if it's carried out," he said.
Heading to the White House for a 6:00 protest; will take photos and blog later on.
PLEASE call your Members--the mood on the Hill is clearly turning and every call counts!!
From one of the WashPo's insider blog feeds:
----------
Excellent employment opportunity for nation-builders! The State Department has contracted DynCorp International, which has accumulated vast experience running that nifty police training program in Iraq, to create an army for the government of Liberia.
DynCorp, the job announcement says, "is to assist . . . in recruiting, training and equipping an armed military force from the ground up beginning with 2,000 personnel the first year, consisting of . . . two light motorized infantry battalions and a support battalion."
The specific job is for a "ministry of defense technical writer mentor," where you'll "write standard operating procedures for proposal to the ministry of defense" and do various other writing and communications tasks. The pay is "unspecified," but we're certain it will be competitive.
They're looking ideally for retired military or Defense or State department officials with "experience in Africa." Some places in the continent can be a bit dangerous at times, but not to worry. The ad highlights that "full medical and death and dismemberment coverage available." Dismemberment?
-------------
wow sounds like fun where do I sign up,
Otter
"One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors." -Plato
http://pledgetoimpeach.org/
Sign the pledge.
Posted by: monkey at January 11, 2007 04:14 PM
Found those quotes on the ICH newsletter. I forgot to say that before.... Mea Culpa.
I do like ol' Tommy and ol' Twain for some of their succinct turns of phrase. I had a whole collection of their quotes (and others) at one time, and while I don't remember deleting them, I also can no longer find the quotes in my computer system....
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/01/11/daily-show-is-bush-the-new-lincoln/
The Daily Show: Is Bush The New Lincoln
Caveat: Splutter Factor!
http://wcco.com/politics/politicsnational_story_011140142.html
GOP Leader Threatens Filibuster On Iraq
Sen. Mitch McConnell Warns He May Block Legislation Expressing Disapproval Of Bush's Plan
http://www.wcco.com/video/?id=23210@wcco.dayport.com
Video: Protesters in Minn. React to Bush Plan
{Wow! A couple of people actually made it on camera in 'speaking roles'! And the reporter also mentioned more protesters may be seen in the next few weeks... etc. Amazing! This is in-state Lamestream Media! I might have to do some channel surfing and find out if the other in-state TV media has taken cameras to the protests....}
http://www.wcco.com/video/?id=23208@wcco.dayport.com
Video: Protester Removed from Condoleezza Rice Hearing
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070111/ap_on_go_pr_wh/medicare_drugs
GOP: Bush would veto Medicare reforms
WASHINGTON - President Bush promised on Thursday to veto Democratic-drafted legislation requiring the government to negotiate with drug companies for lower prices under Medicare.
{More on link.}
Posted by: Bert/DiAnne at January 11, 2007 04:31 PM
I know of a few peat bogs I'd like him to wade into....
Matt Renner | Bush's Speech Sets Stage for Showdown With Congress
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011107A.shtml
Matt Renner reports, "In stark contrast to the recommendation put forth by the Iraq Study Group last month that the White House enter into a dialogue with Iran and Syria, President Bush said he would authorize the use of military force against those countries if they continued to empower insurgents."
Excerpts:
University of Illinois law professor Francis Boyle stated that "this is a situation the War Powers Act was intended to deal with." After Vietnam, Congress passed the War Powers Act to close loopholes that were exploited by President Johnson to escalate US involvement in Vietnam without Congressional approval.
Ohio State law professor John Quigley agrees. "If President Bush wants to send more troops, he is subject to the War Powers Resolution, which allows him to commit troops for only 60 days without an authorizing resolution from Congress," Quigley said.
~~~~~
Congresswoman Barbara Lee's reaction took the form of a question: "The question that Congress and the American people must now answer is how many people should die so the president can avoid admitting he has staked his presidency and his legacy on an unnecessary war whose implementation his administration has botched at every turn? How many have to die so the president can save face?"
Poll: Americans Oppose Iraq Troop Surge
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/011107S.shtml
Americans overwhelmingly oppose sending more US forces to Iraq, according to a new AP-Ipsos poll that serves as a strong repudiation of President Bush's plan to send another 21,500 troops.
{{{70% OPPOSE DimWit's escalation... Seventy percent...! Hey, Georgie... Got that?}}}
Opponents of Nevada Bomb Test Fault Impact Studies
http://www.truthout.org/issues_06/011107HA.shtml
Officials from the Department of Defense say they hope to detonate a bomb - a $23 million experiment known as Divine Strake - sometime in the first half of this year. Groups opposed to the test due to health hazards were successful in filing a lawsuit that postponed the experiment indefinitely, but the Department of Defense is attempting to follow through with its plans.
Online Poll:
Should we increase the number of American troops in Iraq to stabilize the country?
http://www.pbs.org/now
Posted by: NonnyO at January 11, 2007 06:47 PM
Re: Nevada Bomb Test ... Just watch the opening credits of "The Hills Have Eyes", and if that doesn't skeeve the living crap out of you, nuthin' will.
Hot pizza, extra mushrooms.
Hindsight Question du jour...
If you were president of the United States on Sept 12, 2001, how would you have led the matters of this nation in accord with the abundance of global goodwill extended upon us at the time?
What could have been done to bring people together rather than tear them apart... and is it too late to go that route now?
Peace It Back Together
wonderful piece, Karen.
If you were president of the United States on Sept 12, 2001, how would you have led the matters of this nation in accord with the abundance of global goodwill extended upon us at the time?
Posted by: monkey at January 11, 2007 07:28 PM
Since I knew the hijackers were criminals from the get-go, the first thing I would have done is get our law enforcement agencies on the case and then I would have asked international law enforcement agencies for assistance in tracking down any criminals who might have assisted the hijackers who died with their victims that day....
That's where my logical thinking processes took me on the afternoon of 9/11, actually....
When the "leaders" of this country went off on this insane tangent and started talking about war, I was just dumbfounded, kept on wondering when someone with logical thinking processes would start talking....
Now DimWit is escalating the current illegal war, and talking in threatening tones to widen his illegal war to Iran and Syria, and who knows where else (and what's with the Somalia escapade and killing innocents, and the attack on the Iranian embassy in Iraq?)...? He is seriously deranged, mentally unhinged, and must be stopped!!!
... and I still can't climb out of this danged surreal painting!!!
M A Y D A Y S O S
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070111/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_iraq_military
Pentagon abandons active-duty time limit
WASHINGTON - The Pentagon has abandoned its limit on the time a citizen-soldier can be required to serve on active duty, officials said Thursday, a major change that reflects an Army stretched thin by longer-than-expected combat in Iraq.
~~~~~
Until now, the Pentagon's policy on the Guard or Reserve was that members' cumulative time on active duty for the Iraq or Afghan wars could not exceed 24 months. That cumulative limit is now lifted; the remaining limit is on the length of any single mobilization, which may not exceed 24 consecutive months, Pace said.
In other words, a citizen-soldier could be mobilized for a 24-month stretch in Iraq or Afghanistan, then demobilized and allowed to return to civilian life, only to be mobilized a second time for as much as an additional 24 months. In practice, Pace said, the Pentagon intends to limit all future mobilizations to 12 months.
{{{More on link. This decision already impacts at least one guard unit from MN whose tour of duty has been extended - they were due back in March, but now will be in Iraq until at least July (our neoCon governor isn't happy about that, either - 2600 MN guard troops are affected, several have been killed, three from IEDs from one unit just within the last month, and funeral arrangements are still being made for the last one). Mention was made once again about increasing the numbers in the military, but I still see nothing that says HOW they will 'persuade' people into volunarily enlisting.... Short of reinstating the draft OR making private mercenaries part of the US military (which I don't think will happen because of the salary discrepancy - mercenaries make a heckuva lot more money), I don't see how increasing troop levels will be accomplished. Well, there are several possible scenarios, but they all involve someone actually attacking us militarily on US soil, not another 9/11 'ter-rist' attack. Short of a military attack on US soil, they're stuck with reinstating the draft. All of which means the current troops, especially guard and reserve troops, will still be forced into extended tours of duty to fight Georgie's illegal war based on lies for oil.... I wonder if the sheeple are running out of kool-aid yet...? I can recommend an eye doctor to change the prescription on those rose-colored glasses....}}}
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070111/pl_nm/usa_congress_senator_dc
Sen. Johnson able to talk, begins therapy
{Go Tim Johnson!!! :-)}
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/01/11/barney-frank-kicks-patrick-mchenry-around-the-house-floor/
Barney Frank kicks Patrick McHenry around the House floor
LOL!!!
Principal in the film "Billy Madison", coulda been talkin to W
"... what you've just said is one of the most insanely idiotic things I have ever heard. At no point in your rambling, incoherent response were you even close to anything that could be considered a rational thought. Everyone in this room is now dumber for having listened to it. I award you no points, and may God have mercy on your soul."
Billy Madison: Okay, a simple "wrong" would've done just fine.
I got a group letter from Ted Kennedy thanking people for signing his petition... don't think I can post the whole thing, but it asks for those who have not signed his petition to sign it, his staff posted 12 minutes of the video from his speech before the National Press Club, not just the shorter sound bytes I've heard before (this one's one of the best speeches he's ever made!), and he recommends joining a MoveOn rally.... These are the three links provided in the letter:
http://www.tedkennedy.com/nothisdecision
Video:
http://www.tedkennedy.com/escalationvideo
http://pol.moveon.org/event/escalation/
NonnyO
I am so thrilled about Tim Johnson, and not just because he's a US Democratic Senator. I'm a speech/language pathologist, and know how much work goes into rehabilitation, and that things could have been much worse. I had just been thinking about him today.
I set off to go to the UW protest and stopped by the bakery where my son works for coffee and somehow lost my car, house and work keys and never did find them! So I missed that protest but am still determined to get to another one tonight. This is a freak day anyway - I normally would have been working but we have alot of black ice.
Some loud crazy vehicle is flying overhead - doesn't sound civilian .. Seattle Times had a groveling headline which echoed the White House - something about the Iraqis following Bush's plan. Seattle P-I had one with numbers to be added in the escalation, in a font that screamed outrage. Yet the Seattle Times couldn't deny the unanimous opposition of our elected lawmakers to the "insanity surge." They are even exposing having been directly lied to!!! Even Hagel today called BS on the lies of Condi.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/nationworld/2003519381_localcong11m.html
State Democrats Line Up Against Bush
WASHINGTON -- All eight Democrats from Washington's congressional delegation said they oppose the increase of U.S. troops in Iraq outlined by President Bush Wednesday night and said they'll likely support a nonbinding resolution against the plan.
"There are no weapons of mass destruction, Saddam Hussein is gone, and this is now a civil war," Rep. Norm Dicks, of Bremerton, said. "This escalation is absolutely the wrong way to go. I have this gut instinct that this is the start of the end."
(snip)
Rep. Jay Inslee, of Bainbridge Island, struck a more defiant tone. "We have to take every step we can, including using the constitutional power of the purse, to deny the president the power to go off on this half-cocked escalation." Inslee said Democrats were exploring ways to block money for additional troops. "Thousands of names were added to the Vietnam Wall because Democrats did not have the guts to stop the war when they needed to, and they let more soldiers die while they worried about the politics," he said.
Rep. Rick Larsen, of Lake Stevens, said Bush's plan to added 21,500 U.S. troops is a terrible mistake. "The president ought to be telling the American people that we reached a plateau and are going to work our way down," he said. Moreover, he said, "We are letting the Iraqis call the shots."
(re Al-Maliki)
"This is a prime minister who can't control anything," Larsen said. "If 7,500 Iraqi troops are supposed to show up in one area, we'll be lucky to see 6,000." Several members of the delegation also questioned whether the plan really originated with al-Maliki in November, as Bush has said. "Whose plan is this?" Dicks asked, after hearing reports that al-Maliki himself WAS DENYING (my caps) he had proposed the addition of U.S. troops. "It sounds like they got so much push-back in earlier meetings with members of Congress last week that some clever adviser said, 'Let's make it Maliki's idea,' " Larsen said.
The distinction matters because Bush said the plan will give American forces "a green light" to go into neighborhoods that are home to those fueling the sectarian violence. However, al-Maliki himself has stopped U.S. troops from crushing insurgents in his own Shiite area. "He functionally kicked us out of his Shiite area in Baghdad" a few months ago, said Larsen, a member of the House Armed Services Committee.
Sen. Patty Murray said NO ONE MENTIONED A NEW IRAQ PLAN when she visited the White House on Dec. 8 to discuss Bush's ideas for strategy in the war. After Bush's speech Wednesday, she said in a statement, "Despite the warnings of his top generals, and the message sent by the American people, the president has again decided to go it alone." She indicated she is ready to vote for a nonbinding resolution against the troop increase next week. "This could change history," she said.
Rep. Jim McDermott, of Seattle, who has opposed the war from the start, warned that the president would keep troops there longer UNLESS DEMOCRATS TOOK A STRONGER ACTION than a nonbinding resolution.
(the conservatives from across the divide)
Rep. Cathy McMorris, R-Spokane, said Bush's proposal "is worth our consideration," and Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Pasco, said he was encouraged by the new plan. Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Auburn, said through a spokeswoman that he wasn't available to comment Wednesday.
(note: Reichert also made himself unavailable when Bush came to fundraise for him)
FYI, Keith Olbermann's 'special comment' tonight was in reply to Shurb's speech from last night and boy howdy, did it kick serious asterisk!
Good! (Olbermann)
I found a protest that's within a mile of here - it's directed mostly at traffic, I think. People honk supportively and perhaps they stop to think about why people would leave the comfort of their homes on a cold night after working all day. I can't leave til my husband gets home or he'll be locked out of the house (due to the lost keys). This has been a crazy day!
It looked like there were about 10 events today - not large but really, even conservatives didn't think this war would drag on and on and on, accomplishing nothing - with people being expected to passively swallow weekly changes in rationale, each one more vague and confusing than the next. All this talk about "victory" and "sacrifice," measured in oil and dollars and blood.
local fundamentalist wacko parent gets local school to stop showing Al Gore's movie
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/299253_inconvenient11.html
From the parents who wanted "An Inconvenient truth Banned" =
"Condoms don't belong in school, and neither does Al Gore. He's not a schoolteacher," said Frosty Hardison, a parent of seven who also said that he believes the Earth is 14,000 years old. "The information that's being presented is a very cockeyed view of what the truth is. ... The Bible says that in the end times everything will burn up, but that perspective isn't in the DVD." "From what I've seen (of the movie) and what my husband has expressed to me, if (the movie) is going to take the approach of 'bad America, bad America,' I don't think it should be shown at all," Gayle Hardison said.
============
Some good responses (there are many more that are scientific and detailed - I have sampled those who find the whole thing unbelievably ludicrous just from a basic perspective of common sense): (This is the dumbest thing since the airport banned Christmas trees and people freaked)
==Where do we draw the line on presenting opposing views? Does that mean that we can no longer teach about the moon landings because a few people don't believe it ever happened?
==Maybe we can get the pro-smoking lobby into health class.
==Or how about bringing in NORML as a counterpoint to the DARE program? Sounds good to me!
==I have a problem with Gravity. I find the science behind it too hard to understand and complicated. Nowhere is there a 'theory of gravity' in the Bible. So, it must not exist.
==As previous posters have said, should we give equal time to the holocaust deniers, the flat earth society, etc? It's been 75 years since the Scopes trial, yet we're still fighting the battle to teach evolution in public schools.
==Perhaps there is a global thermometer conspiracy or some evil treachery involving mercury? And perhaps this "temperature cabal" is conspiring to make us focus on global warming in an effort to distract us from their true goal of ridding the world of religion.
==This decision also makes about as much sense as Pat Robertson saying evangelicals support Israel in order to hasten the coming of Christ.
== I also have a problem with Newton’s theory of Gravity. Rebuke gravity and then I wouldn’t have to diet after the christmas gluttony.
==I just got back from the store and I forgot to check - Is Seven-Eleven in the Bible? I hope so, otherwise my chili cheese dog and Big Gulp don't exist.
==Well, we don't want to leave any children behind.
==Wait til John Stewart gets ahold of this.
==Opps , there goes another ancient ice shelf breaking off Canada. My stock tip for the day. Buy any company who makes scuba gear and rafts.
==WHo is building the ark this millenium? Spoke woth Noah. He turned union. We may have to outsorce it to China or have those Mexican folk help out.
==Hey, Tacoma, guess what? The Bible isn't a science text book. If you want a religion class, send your kids to a religious school.
== As a Christian, I think what this parents beliefs are dangerous and will lead to the destruction of one of God's kindest gifts to us, the Earth.
==I ride the bus with a man who believes with complete conviction that "the Aztec calendar predicts the end of the world in 2012--and they've been right about everything else, so the end is near." Shall we teach this man's delusions in science classes, too, alongside pseudo-Christian creationism? That we have five years left and then boom? ==Maybe we are going to hell in a handbasket, but I don't believe it's God's will.
==The person of Jesus Christ is once again dragged through the mud by someone claiming to be His follower but acts like a ignorant barbarian.
==Aren't the schools supposed to be teaching our students to thoughtfully evaluate the messages they get from any media?
==Our schools are raising a generation of idiots who feel good about themselves. And it starts with the adults.
==Do they present balanced views on birth control as opposed to abstinence per this policy?
==Maybe if the Federal Way school board puts their head in the sand, Global Warming will just go away!
==Should "An Inconvenient Truth" have to be balanced if it's shown in school? Balanced with what? Superstition? Corporate polluter propaganda?
==Was this story lifted from The Onion?
==Let’s face it, if schools allowed Muslim children to pray to Mecca, and the teaching of Buddhist creationism myths along side of the charming tale of the Garden of Eden, these hypocrites would be outraged.
==If this school district requires teachers to discuss Judeo/Christian creation stories, then they should be required to also present Native American, Zoroastrian, Hindu and all other creation myths to “counter-balance” hard scientific facts and scientific theory.
==Don't take candy from strangers, and don't take science lessons from politicians.
==When the Federal Way School District teaches Newton's Law of Gravity, do they open the floor to those who think Newton's theory is a crock?
==Quote from Mark Twain
"In the first place God made idiots. This was for practice. Then he made School Boards."
==I still think Al Gore is hot. I'd watch anything with him in it. MMMMMMMMM He's got my vote, still.="Federal Way Federal Way Minds are small And skies are grey
==In Federal Way"
==As usual, the kids are not fooled.
==Critical thought: America's second largest deficit.
==Anybody remember former Secretary of the Interior (under Reagan) James Watt?
==Oh yeh, James Watt, Secretary of Interior, who believed the Second Coming was imminent and so we might as well use everything up fast 'cause Jesus was a'com'in.
==King James had a lifelong fear of witches and demons. He also believed that women were slightly above farm animals. Yes, it is true. Read up on the history of Scotland and learn some very interesting things..
==Let a hundred flowers bloom. Let a hundred schools of thought contend. Chairman Mao.
==Christian beliefs should be taught in school.Sunday school.
==Thank God I've taken my kids out of the Federal Way School District. Do they teach their kids to stay in school and stay away from drugs? Do they present opposing views to that?
==In some readings the bible says that there will be massive warfare in the end times. Maybe we should go start World War 3!??
Some opposition:
==I guess, VP Gore must have gotten the science degree sometime after the engineering degree where he went on to invent the Internet!
==Letting VP Gore's film be illustrative of a scientific study is like having the actress from "Debbie does Dallas" teaching a class in biology.
A good science-based answer:
==There is NO credible opposition to the teaching of global warming. About the only organized opposition is funded by Exxon-Mobil, who hired some of the same PR "scientists" that testified in the early '70's for the Tobacco Institute, arguing that smoking had not been proved harmful. Exxon-Mobil even enlisted the help of the same PR firm that had worked for Big Tobacco. Amazing!
==I must say, the same goes for the teaching of Evolution. There is NO credible alternative to it. Darwin's natural selection IS a theory (and the best to come along) as to how evolution took place, but evolution itself is NOT a theory, it is a FACT, and is the absolute rock-solid foundation upon which all life science, medicine, and geology are based.
==Even the oil industry is based on this: If the Earth is only 6000 years old (as expounded by many flat-earth fundamentalists), how did all that oil get in the ground? Where did it come from? Did God just take giant hypodermic syringes and inject it in the ground for man to find? Scary....about half the US population believes this garbage.
To the school board:
I am shocked that people in a position of leading the education of our children would pander to the lowest common denominator regarding the SCIENCE of global warming. There is no CREDIBLE opposing view much as there was none for the tobacco debate. The extreme minority of scientists who present themselves as skeptics are nothing more than unethical guns for hire from the energy lobby just like the tobacco lobby hired their own “scientists”. There is no legitimate debate about this issue. There are naysayers about any number of topics taught in school but it is impractical and irresponsible to present all of these opposing views with the implication that they are equal in the scientific, historical, or ethical worlds to the views taught which are supported by overwhelming evidence and consensus. Perhaps you need to educate yourselves on the science before you allow yourselves to blindly make decisions for our children’s education. You are an embarrassment.
Another letter:
I believe that the Earth was created by the Sun-God and that it will pass into a new dimension in exactly 932 more revolutions (what you refer to as years) and there is nothing humans can do to influence the environment until that time. If you don't give equal time to my belief then you cannot allow scientists to impression the young minds in your care with this "global warming" nonsense. Or maybe I can refer to "Utopia", "Mien Kemp", the Bible or some other moral code or book of fiction to advocate that these "scientists" are distorting the views (subject to my interpretation) as expressed by Sir Thomas More, Adolph Hitler, or the powerful Europeans responsible for the last that list. Please tell that it's apparent that we cannot allow science to be gagged in the name of one man's beliefs.
A study about what will happen in WA w/global warming concluded that:
Increased carbon dioxide will mean bigger trees, while higher temperatures increase the incidence of wildfire. The number of acres burned will increase by 50 percent by 2020 and by 100 percent by 2040, so the annual cost of fighting wildfires may exceed $75 million by 2020 -- 50 percent higher than the current expenditures. That cost will double by 2040. Lost timber sales, lost recreational and tourism opportunities, and health problems stemming from fires could be "many times higher" than the cost of fire control, Doppelt said.
The warming could cause unquantified public health costs through an increased spread of West Nile virus and increasing incidence of asthma, which already costs the state $400 million a year, and through heat-related illnesses and mortality. Winters will bring more rain and less snow in the mountains, leading to a reduction in the snowpack essential for the summer water supply in Seattle and numerous other parts of the state. The cost of offsetting that decline through conservation measures could exceed $8 million per year by the 2020s and double that by the 2040s. Communities such as Spokane, Wenatchee and Walla Walla also will face increased costs for drinking water.
Puget Sound is likely to rise between 1 and 5 inches per decade, affecting mainly the land adjacent to the south part of Puget Sound. A 2-foot sea level rise would inundate 56 square miles of the state, affecting at least 44,000 people -- larger than the current population of Olympia. These rises could trigger costly upgrades to shoreline protection and to bridges and culverts. Sea-level increases also will affect low-lying agricultural areas such as Willapa Bay and the Skagit River delta. Ports within reach of tidewater will feel the effects, as will the outer coast area,
Surge of Anger
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/01/12/condoleezza/
This is amazing .. about Condi at the Senate
Chuck in Houston for All:
I guess this is a thread where we can comment on the Bush speech. The part that gets me is the inability to think other than in "labels."
Here's an excerpt (courtesy of www.foxnews.com):
"Succeeding in Iraq also requires defending its territorial integrity — and stabilizing the region in the face of the extremist challenge. This begins with addressing Iran and Syria. These two regimes are allowing terrorists and insurgents to use their territory to move in and out of Iraq. Iran is providing material support for attacks on American troops. We will disrupt the attacks on our forces. We will interrupt the flow of support from Iran and Syria. And we will seek out and destroy the networks providing advanced weaponry and training to our enemies in Iraq."
Those "enemy networks" are, I am almost positive, part and parcel of every Iraqi political and social institution today, which makes absolute and perfect sense if you think about it for a minute. In other words, they are meshed with the Iraqi political parties and the police and the army. As "Iraqis stand up," so do they. It's like labelling one third of a person the "bad third" and killing it to save the rest. An, to continue to physiological metaphor, that "bad third" isn't cancerous, it actually does carry out vital functions for the other two thirds. I hope that made sense. I can see it but it's hard to verbalize. Oh well, maybe I should just learn to love the labels.
Chuck in Houston
Oure bulwark for democracy in the Middle East: The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Chuck in Houston
By the way, anybody get the allusion in the closing of the speech? Here it is:
"We go forward with trust that the Author of Liberty will guide us through these trying hours."
Who does he mean by the Author of Liberty? Thomas Paine? John Stuart Mills Jr. "On Liberty?" Or is it something more mystical?
Chuck in Houston
PS: I really don't know ... Off to check DiAnne's link on our Secretary of State and to google (great new verb) "Author of Liberty."
Hah! So I googled "Author of Liberty" and got a NewsMax dude! Here 'tis:
http://www.meridianmagazine.com/ideas/040721liberty.html
Chuck in Houston
I like this; reminds me of parsing "Pravda" in my old Soviet Studies days....
Chuck in Houston
Wow. Googled "author of our liberty" and it got real thick....
Would like to know the original provenance (as opposed to all these googled fanatics).
Chuck in Houston
Matthew Carnicelli, where art thou? Veritable philologist that thou art! Help me unravel this allusion!
Chuck in Houston
Secretary Rice quote from DiAnne's link above with respect to "Plan B:"
"I want to be not explicit about what we might do because I don't want to speculate...."
Great answer for a Provost of Stanford University. Horrible answer for the Secretary of State of the United States testifying before the United States Senate. Diplomats must send signals. Her job is to speculate. And to speculate in a reasonable way that allows other actors on the international stage to get cues and begin adjusting postures. She seems to me to be very far out of her depths. We need a real Secretary of State, not an enabler. At least Rumsfeld had some Elvis in him and could pull of a joke. I actually think Rice as NSA and SOS is the greatest foreign policy personnel disater we've had since I don't know when.
Chuck in Houston
Chuck
When I heard the speech on radio, I envisioned the draft as thus:
"God" had been x'd out by a speech writer and "Author of liberty" substituted.
Seems I heard that phrase used in one of his other speeches.
It's from his 2nd Inaugural - I thought it was a euphemism then and now, but still not sure if it's his ultimate "higher power" that he answers to that is, in any event, higher than his earthly father that he does not listen to (nor to friends of his earthy father, such as Baker or Kissinger or Powell).
GWB 2005:
When our Founders declared a new order of the ages; when soldiers died in wave upon wave for a union based on liberty; when citizens marched in peaceful outrage under the banner "Freedom Now" - they were acting on an ancient hope that is meant to be fulfilled. History has an ebb and flow of justice, but history also has a visible direction, set by liberty and the Author of Liberty."
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2007/01/11/special-comment-on-the-presidents-address/
Special Comment on the President’s Address
I still love Keith Olbermann.... Zin-n-n-n-n-g!
BTW, I sent the list of bumper stickers posted on the previous thread to a list of people today. The one person whose political persuasions I've been uncertain about sent me a reply... "I love them!"
Think I'll take a chance and send her the link to Olbermann's latest.... ;-)
More on Bush and his "God-drenched" speeches:
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0122-05.htm
The article I just posted was written by Julian Borger of the Guardian. That's great because he's one of my favorites, along with Simon Tisdall.
Anyway, Bush's speechwriter was so overcome when writing the 2nd Inaugural that he suffered a heart attack. & Reagan's former speechwriter found it far too religious and talked about it in the Wall Street Journal - imagine that.
(from the Common Dreams article by Borger:)
In a column headed Way Too Much God in yesterday's Wall Street Journal, Ronald Reagan's former speechwriter Peggy Noonan described the speech as "somewhere between dreamy and disturbing" and suggested that the Bush White House might be suffering from "mission inebriation".
"It was a God-drenched speech," she wrote. "This president, who has been accused of giving too much attention to religious imagery and religious thought, has not let the criticism enter him. God was invoked relentlessly."
The main thrust of the speech was that America's founding principle, that all people "bear the image of the maker of heaven and earth" and thus have inalienable rights, should now be extended around the globe with the help of the US.
The spread of democracy and defeat of tyranny was a calling ordained by "the author of liberty".
Mr Bush has reportedly told aides and supporters in private that he feels he was chosen by God to lead America in its hour of need, and he raised eyebrows earlier this month with the observation that he did not "see how you can be president without a relationship with the Lord".
DiAnne:
I think it's code in the way of citing "Dred Scott" as a comparison to "Roe v. Wade." Try googling "Author of our Liberty" and take a gander at the kind of sites that use that language. I bet the phrase has an older provenance, though, like a George Washington speech or something.
Chuck, deconstructing, in Houston
Yep, Washington's farewell address:
"In his inaugural address, George Washington made his own references to 'the Invisible Hand which conducts the affairs of men more than those of the United States,' and in his farewell address noted of '[n]o greater enemy of the state is there than those who labor to hide from man a view of whence cometh freedom, or who likewise labor to subvert the moral codes and Higher Laws that the very Author of our Liberty has laid down to keep us free.'"
Source: http://www.the-mass-media.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticle&ustory_id=5de6633c-b71e-414c-baee-b466b684e8cb
Chuck in Houston
Bush's Brand of Christianity
http://www.counterpunch.org/domke02022005.html
Bob Woodward, in his book about the administration's push toward Iraq, Plan of Attack, includes this quote from Bush: "I say that freedom is not America's gift to the world. Freedom is God's gift to everybody in the world. I believe that. As a matter of fact, I was the person that wrote the line, or said it. I didn't write it, I just said it in a speech. And it became part of the jargon. And I believe that. And I believe we have a duty to free people. I would hope we wouldn't have to do it militarily, but we have a duty."
The Hidden Passages in Bush's Inaugural Address
http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/25/1458234
You know, this speech was just coated with messages to his base, and also suggested he believes them, that he is somehow deluded in thinking that God put him in the Oval Office and he is God's agent. The clip that you just played with the words, "good measure," Bush was thanking the American people, really, for giving him time, ridiculous amounts of time for that matter, to go after Osama bin Laden, but he was echoing Luke 6:38, “Give and it shall be given unto you, good measure.” And then there are a whole range of other ones. I mean, he talked and you played a passage there about -- at the beginning – “Freedom is the permanent hope of mankind, the hunger in dark places, the longing of the soul.” Well, that's almost straight out of Psalm 107. “He satisfieth the longing soul and filleth the hungry soul with goodness. Such as sit in darkness.” If you look at these passages carefully and compare the text of Bush's speeches with the Biblical references, what Bush is doing is he is cloaking the best parts of American civic values or civic values of freedom and liberty and justice, he is cloaking those in distinctly Christian garb, and he's making all sorts associations. I mean, if freedom is the hope of mankind and Jesus is the hope of mankind freedom and Jesus are one and the same. That's not what we should have here in this so-called secular democracy.
Bush talked about the -- this was probably the creepiest section in the whole speech -- the untamed fire of freedom, where Bush was almost rubbing his hands together when he said, “This untamed fire will burn those who fight its progress.” That's pretty lurid, isn't it? Anyway, he talked about the untamed fire of freedom in a passage that included the phrase, "hope kindles hope." And this echoes a couple passages in Jeremiah. “I will kindle an unquenchable fire in the gates of Jerusalem.” Or, “I will kindle a fire in her towns that will consume all who are around her.” This is just all over the place. I mean, Bush talked about the day when the captives are set free. In Ephesians, it says, "He led the captives free.” The closer you look at it, the more you can see these parallels, and they are very disturbing to me.
(Mathew Rothchild of The Progressive, on Democracy Now)
It's not new, the Bush policy of messianic militarism, nor is it new the way that he phrases it. I mean, he has said in speech after speech, Amy, that we are delivering the gift of freedom to the people of Iraq, but it's not our gift to deliver; it's the gift of God almighty. And so he sees himself as God's efficient little delivery boy, God's UPS man, replete with brown shirt. He talked about God as the author of liberty in his inauguration address, and if God is the author of liberty, Bush thinks he's that author's agent, because he talks about America as the one that is going to bring liberty to the people all over the world.
--God's little delivery boy --
Did you see this part? (from the Amy Goodman interview)
Bush himself thinks that God put him in the Oval Office. After 9/11, he gave a speech by the same speechwriter, Michael Gerson who wrote this inaugural address, and after the speech Gerson called up Bush and said, “Oh, you gave a great speech, Mr. President. I knew right then that God wanted you to be in the Oval Office.” And Bush responded to Gerson, “God wants us all to be where we are.” And during the campaign just past, he told, Bush did, some people in Pennsylvania, some Amish people that “God speaks through me.” This is a man who is so deluded, it goes back to almost divine rites of kings. That's how far back this delusion goes. And at the prayer breakfast that you mentioned, Amy, Bush also said, "We have a calling from beyond the stars to stand for freedom." I mean, he really does believe that he is on a crusade. Finally, the White House has got him not to use that word, but that's what he's talking about.
From: The Revealer: Just Another Word for Everything Left to Lose
Indeed, scholar R. Scott Appleby in 2003 declared that the administration’s omnipresent emphasis on freedom and liberty functions as the centerpiece for “a theological version of Manifest Destiny.” Unfortunately, this twenty-first century adaptation of Manifest Destiny differs little from earlier American versions: The goal remains to vanquish any who do not willingly adopt the supposedly universal norms and values of Protestant conservatives. The result, by implication in the president’s rhetoric, is that the administration has transformed Bush’s “Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists” policy into “Either you are with us, or you are against God.”
http://www.therevealer.org/archives/main_story_001520.php
The article also makes some parallels between the thinking of Bush and the thinking of "the enemy."
Actually, I went on here:
http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/facts/speeches.htm
and searched the first and second inagurals and the farewell of President Washington on "author" and found no match. Confused again.
Chuck in Houston
I did also find articles in the conservative press that considered Bush's idea of liberty to be a betrayal of the ideas of Ayn Rand and his speechwriter to hold an insincere and selfish version of Christianity. It seems that he does not represent any part of the spectrum consistently. Despite all the recent exposure, spin and publicity - he and his ideas are getting stale on the shelf and he is really so 2001.
I meant 2nd Inaugural of Bush himself, as opposed to his 1st Inaugural.
...in the well known patriotic hymn "My Country, 'Tis of Thee," we sing, "Our father's God, to thee, Author of Liberty . . .
http://www.liberty1.org/seven.htm
I learned it as "My Country, 'Tis of Thee, Sweet Land of Liberty, of thee I sing"
???
Blast rips through U.S. embassy compound in Athens
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070112/ts_nm/greece_explosion_dc_2
An explosion ripped through the U.S. embassy compound in central Athens on Friday, a police source said
It was not clear what caused the blast and there was no immediate word on whether there were any casualties.
Police cordoned off all roads around the embassy.
Police officials at the scene said that whatever caused the explosion damaged the official embassy sign outside the mission, but there was little other indication of the extent of damage inside.
DiAnne:
http://www.contemplator.com/england/godsave.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_Save_the_Queen
DiAnne:
I also can't find the bit in the government sites on Washington's inaugurals and farewell? Holy Apocrypha, Batman? Ayn Rand and Pat Robertson -- consistency is the hobgoblin of small minds!
By the way, don't you think that Rice is looking more and more like Jeane Kirkpatrick?
Chuck in Houston
Chuck
I must restrain myself - too few degrees of separation on the internets and I'm starting to end up on these obscure but scary wingnut blogs!
Oh, and by the way --
The guy holding his head in his hands while watching last night's speech on TV in the picture at the head of this thread is a soldier sitting in the rec room of his base in Iraq. I kid you not.
oh the irony,
Otter
Otter
I prefer the Sex Pistols' version
Heil Dir in Seigerkranz
Otter
That is the hand pressure for when one has a pressure headache and wants relief, I think! Should have noticed the fatigues. He is subconsciously protecting his head. I had to fight the urge to do the same thing but I was driving.
By the way, I looked for tonight's protest to join and couldn't find anyone at the site I'd read about - I ended up driving on black ice in the dark. Oh well
Did you see this in the Wikipedia? They LITERALLY meant God Save the King.
A tale, widely believed in France, that the tune ("Grand Dieu Sauve Le Roi"), was written by Jean-Baptiste Lully to celebrate the healing of Louis XIV's fistula.
DiAnne:
I'm telling you, google "Author of our Liberty" and somehow in a few clicks you are so through the looking glass (never read that book). Unsettling but telling. It's not that you keep getting "Amazon.com" suggesting "The Federalist Papers," or Paine, or Burke, or anything uplifting like that. Weird, huh?
Chuck in Houston
Oh well, just goes to show. If it sounds like mumbo-jumbo it's probably mumbo-jumbo.
Chuck in Houston.
PS: Gosh, this is addictive. Now I have to google "Mumbo-Jumbo"!
Well, that was easy, and with all due respect to the Mandigo, I think I used it about right:
http://www.m-w.com/cgi-bin/dictionary?va=mumbo%20jumbo
Chuck in Houston
Posted by: DiAnne at January 11, 2007 11:49 PM
I have to wonder what "history" books Gerson and others are reading to get those references on the first colonial ancestors to this continent nearly two hundred years before the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution and the Bill of Rights were even thought of. They're obviously not reading the same historical stuff I'm finding when I do genealogy research on my colonial ancestors (Mayflower, Winthrop's Great Migration a few years later, New Amsterdam, among others).
There were some religious zealots who did come on those ships, yes, and they proved to be just as intolerant of others' religion as their home countries had been toward theirs. But they were not in the majority. Most came here for capital gains and profits, and their reasons for coming here didn't have one single solitary thing to do with religion (in fact, they were criticized and hounded, sometimes ostracized, for not being religious - and Rhode Island was set up as a place of religious freedom when some broke away from their former religions because of the intolerance). Some of the writing indicates the fact that the original investors in England who financed the journeys had to be paid back; still others came here as indentured servants (before the days of slavery).
The first settlers (invaders to Native Americans) didn't have idyllic religious lives when they got here. Of those who were educated, some did a lot of writing when they had time, but the fact remains that the majority of the first colonial inhabitants were not all that religious - or not more than to pay lip service to religious worship, since Sunday would have been the only day they didn't work hard (for the most part - farmers likely excepted since they still, to this day, really don't get much in the way of days of rest).
Modern revisionist history by the reich-wingnuttia fundies makes the Puritans sound like idyllic, devoutly religious, monastic figures who happened to have wives and children to take care of their other needs while they engaged in religious studies. The FACTS just don't support the modern mythological fairy tales....
If any of them ever had colonial ancestors, all they'd have to do is research their genealogy to separate the facts from the modern myths. What I learned in grade school about the first colonialists just doesn't jive with the historical documents I've unearthed (some documents had not been found by previous researchers who wrote the genealogy books 75-125 years ago).
The reality is ever so much more interesting in multiple ways....
Posted by: aimzzz at January 12, 2007 12:21 AM
Oh, goody. US invades the Iranian embassy (think they took prisoners, not sure - if they did, they're likely at Gitmo by now) in northern Iraq.
The US bombed places in Somalia looking for people who blew up US embassies many years ago and killed and injured civilians in the process.
Now "someone" (Dumbya will say it's al Qaeda, even if it's not) blows up the embassy in Greece.
So, because embassies are at least honorary territory of the country that houses the people, they are part of another country. And Dumbya will say "we wuz attak'd by al Qaeda ter-rists who had connections to Iran - or Syria!" (or whatever country he hits with a dart that day).
He is SO itching for a world war to justify his existence and his legacy as a 'war president' - and the criminals who commit terrorist attacks play right into his hands with low-tech weapons that are vastly more effective than the high tech weapons used by our military....
So, can we IMPEACH the bam dastards yet so we can put some grown-up sane people in the White House?!?!?
UPDATE 9-Suspected Greek militants fire rocket at US embassy
Reuters- http://tinyurl.com/yxbxeq
Suspected leftist guerrillas fired a rocket-propelled grenade at the U.S. embassy in Athens on Friday in the boldest attack staged by leftwing militants in years.
The blast shattered windows and woke up nearby residents in in the central Athens area at 5:58 AM (0358 GMT) but no one was hurt, police said.