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Cliche of the Year: "To Surge"
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Thinking back, it was an ominous portent when Rove orchestrated a "surge" of conservative fundamentalist Ohio voters at the eleventh hour on election day 2004. I suppose they thought it worked so well that they'd try that wording again in order to add a level of magnitude to their warmongering. So we had a "surge" of troops. I always thought that, by definition, a surge was an increase in force that occurred over a short period of time, resulting in momentum. It's been at least six months, hasn't it? According to recent media, "the surge is working." Which means exactly, what?
As if that wasn't bad enough, the word "surge" or "to surge" or "surging" becan to appear all over the place during this last year. This seemed to be perfectly acceptable, despite its lack of originality and sometimes semantically questionable application.
2007 was the year of the "surge."
One day last week I found that the following had occurred:
A Surge in copper prices helped drive gains in mining
A Surge helped McCain at the polls in New Hampshire
A Surge in demand at food pantries feeding the poor was seen at the holidays
A Surge in shares of Umbro, maker of UK jerseys, occurred, boosting stocks
A Surge in crude oil prices followed a US consumer spending binge
A Surge in tech stocks was seen after taking a breather
A Surge in Polish asylum seekers needing housing was experienced
A Surge in visits to Edwards and Huckabee websites was tabulated
A Surge in online retail rescues sales
AND, THE Surge is working in Iraq, says Bush
Checking today, there is still no letup in the general surging as:
A Surge in global energy announces review of Canadian Tax Reserves
A Surge in UK shoppers post-Christmas makes up for disappointing pre-sales
A Surge masks growing concern over New Year slump
A Surge of shopping occurs on Boxing Day
A Surge of holiday travellers crowds airports
A Surge is seen for Edwards, who had the right message at the right time
A Surge is also seen for Obama
A Surge in Iowa is hoped for in Iowa
A Surge Boosts McCain's campaign with success of Iraq
A Surge is seen in rainwater tanks applications
A Surge is seen in soybeans pricesA Surge for the holiday leads to crowded airports
A Surge is seen in solar stocks as oil spikes
AND THE SURGE is still working in Iraq.
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Google Results 1 - 10 of about 49,800,000 for surge [definition]. (0.10 seconds) on 12/21/07 at 10:44:02 PM.
Definition Poem
Surge
a billowing or rise, waves
a movement, of an army
Surge
rapidly, the dollar against the yen;
rushing forcefully forward, as a crowd
Surge
a sudden or abrupt increase,
speculation, emotion, crime
Surge
a heaving upward, vessel's movement
fore and aft, ebbing and flowing of the sea
Surge, a citrus soft drink introduced in Norway
by Coca Cola under the name Urge
to compete with Pepsi's Mountain Dew
Surge, a fictional character, a Marvel Mutant
of the student body of Xavier Institute,
leader of the new X-Men
Surge
a glacial velocity of substantial advance
most commonly in Alaska and Canada
Surge
an oversupply of voltage, rise of pressure,
momentary to several seconds
can damage electronic equipment
Surge
a rise in water pressure, in bays and harbors
atmospheric fluctuations, more rapidly than usual
said of a glacier
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Such amazing visuals! Brilliant! Thank you, DiAnne.
Happy New Year, everyone. We are in Buffalo, where it is snowy and beautiful, albeit economically depressed--even more so than last year.
No one likes Bush here anymore. That is progress.
It seems to me there's been somewhat of a news blackout on Iraq, ever since "the surge" started - suppression of negative news. Maybe I've just started to tune out more. I did see that fatalities for troops were at 3900 something, putting us closer to the 4000 mark. Anyone talking about it? Is it a "psychologically important" number as were 1000, 2000, 3000? What about wounded? IEDs? Most of what's been getting through my filters makes McCain "surge" and the lame duck keep squawking (as I see he's on the cover of Parade magazine, with his own summary of 2007). Maybe I'm just tuning out bad news around the holidays (but some things get through), just tired. Seriously, I have noticed a difference in coverage that seems disproportionate to what 40,000 extras placed anywhere could have sustained. Curious minds are wondering.
Google Iraq. & it looks like a "mixed day" as they say on Wall Street - violence down/attacks up, progress made/deadliest year etc.
Sunni forces targeted in Iraq
Suicide truck bomber kills nine in Iraq: police
No place in Iraq is safe, says US military
Bin Laden warns Sunni Arabs in Iraq to back Al Qaeda
2 Killed in Iraq Roadside Bomb
Suicide Bomber Kills 4 in Iraq
Three UK drugs firms investigated over alleged Iraq bribes
2007 is America's deadliest year in Iraq
Iraq Attacks Fall 60 Percent
Iraq violence drops to summer 2005 levels
Despite drop in violence, suicide bombings make comeback in Iraq
Despite Success, Iraq's Future Uncertain
Baghdad women defy extremists
2007 Deadliest for US Troops in Iraq.
Kurdish rebels in Iraq vow to carry out more attacks
Economy Nudging Iraq Aside As Issue
Six-Year-Old's Letter About Dead Father Was a Lie to Win Free Ticket
to Hannah Montana
Speaking of surge....
I had dinner with a congressman friend the other night, and, while he and I don't always see eye to eye, it's always an interesting view into the mindset.
He believes that the far left (that would be us) need to back off the troop withdrawl thing, because it appears that the surge is being somewhat successful, and if that continues, he sees it as possible that Bush might declare victory in the early fall and begin the withdrawal himself.
That scenario means that the thugs could then say they were right all along, and whoever our candidate is who has been calling for troop withdrawal since before the surge would then be seen as wrong, and it could have a huge impact on the election.
That smacks of politics to me, but like I said, an interesting look into their thought processes. Meanwhile, our troops and iraqis keep dying.
Good one nmp!
December 31, 2007 11:15 PM
Carol said
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Republican wishful thinking. I think I would tell your Congressman friend that if Bush declares victory and starts withdrawing troops, the Democrats can then claim, that since nothing has changed in Iraq, we were victorious since before the surge and that Bush allowed nearly 4,000 American citizens to die in vain.
With so much surging going on, I am getting a whiplash.
I feel a surge of optimism for this is the beginning of the last year of Bush's stranglehold on this country.
oncall,
I agree about the optimism--no one we have spoken with in this middle-America town does not understand how criminally this administration has behaved.
But we also hear so much of what Carol heard from the Washington insiders. I cannot believe how massively stupid they are, but I also understand that those out in middle-America have failed to convey the deep sense of shame and disgust that is felt for the "surge".
The surge is a wave thrown upon the beach, in which a lot of energy was strewn about and where it was concentrated and focused, a little organization resulted, with some decent results for the local folks on THAT BLOCK. It shows that such efforts to build peace would have worked well back in 2003. It also shows that one wave upon the beach is not enough to build peace--that the insurgents moved over to another part of the town and we will NEVER EVER win the peace for the whole country. A wave retreats, and takes a good deal of energy back with it, into the sea.
We have no more material for ensuing waves.
I do not believe that the little signs of peace-building that have resulted from the addition of troops and some sort of actual PLANNING are going to result in EITHER: peace OR a troop withdrawal. Think about it.
We don't have enough for more of the same, and withdrawing troops in the fall is a signal of defeat the Bushies cannot tolerate. I do not see them willing to sacrifice their faith in their own actions in order to promote any of the current Republican candidates for President. I could be wrong, but it would be a shift in behavior.
As for Congress, well, we all know the definition of insanity...Carol, I hope you were able to share it with your friend.
January 1, 2008 9:40 AM
Karen said:
I do not believe that the little signs of peace-building that have resulted from the addition of troops and some sort of actual PLANNING are going to result in EITHER: peace OR a troop withdrawal. Think about it.
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I have thought about it. I suspect that come this fall, as we approach the general elections, Bushco will withdraw a small portion of troops as a ruse that we are going to further reduce the number of troops in Iraq. Bushco has no intention of ever completely leaving Iraq. A huge complex has been built in central Iraq (the green zone), there is too much oil for them to walk away from, and we are beholden to the Saudis who believe they need us to maintain order, while the Iraqi government does little to fix their own problems.