Guest blogged by Fin
Juan Cole puts it all in perspective:
In his appearances on Wednesday, President Bush said that it was a positive that Iraqis are even having elections, since three years ago it would have seemed out of the question. You know, if all you have to boast about is that you are better than Saddam Hussein, it isn’t actually a good sign. Can you imagine what would have happened to the Republican Party if its reply to Kerry’s criticisms of last summer had been, “Well, the American Republican Party is a damn sight more progressive than Hitler was.” Saddam was overthrown on April 9, 2003. It is 2005, and the US has been running Iraq for nearly two years. Now the question is, how does the situation in Iraq compare to the Philippines, or India, or Turkey. Answer: It sucks. There is little security, people are killed daily, there is a massive crime wave, and elections are being held in which most of the candidates cannot be identified for fear of their lives. So the conclusion is that the Bush administration has done a worse job in Iraq than the Congress Party does in India, or the AK Party does in Turkey. That’s the standard of comparison once Saddam was gone. And, by the way, veteran NYT journalist John Burns, who is nobody’s fool, told Tina Brown last Friday that he was taken aback when an Iraqi told him recently that he wished Saddam were back. This was an Iraqi who really had been delighted at the American invasion. So Bush should drop the cute sound bite about being better than Saddam.
Then again, our Dear Leader has always been graded on a serious curve, hasn’t he? From his humble upbringing as a poor little rich kid, to his drug filled days at Yale and beyond, to his ‘aw shucks isn’t it funny I can’t speak English’ act, Bush has always been cut a serious amount of slack for his actions and inactions. But it’s not cute or uplifting, it’s embarassing.
"Embarrassing," Fin? I could think of a few other choice words.
Not only is * humiliating us in front of the whole planet, he’s telling the world that we are all as stupid, deluded and cruel as he and his backers are. He even has an incompetent, craven, underendowed military to back up his claims. "Infuriating," "maddening," "horrifying," "revolting," "nauseating," …
But I think those words also apply to our purblind, pickled-in-delusion populace, who assume, wrongly, that eminence is its own justification and that a hideous fascist caricature could never succeed in taking over red-white-and-blue, God-blessed Amurka.
In an earlier comment I cite an article that points out that the Iraqi election office is hiding out in another country (Texas?).
That really puts the Iraqi standard behind those Juan Cole mentions in Fin’s quote.
How utterly pathetic that they would present this bushit to the world as anything other than demockracy of the criminal kind.
Does anyone know if the Diebold election machines are going to be used to count the Iraqi votes?
This complaint against Diebold points out known security problems.
Yes. It’s embarrasing. Infuriating. Maddening.
Horrifying. Revolting.
And hideous, disgusting and frikken sickening!
Word is, yesterday at his press conference he was bubbling with good cheer and confidence after learning that 35 soldiers had just died.
HE’S FUCKING INSANE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This 2nd "s" got lost. PLease paste.
And Peg C, you are so right about our pickled populace that coddles the monster and appoints a proven liar and part architect of an illegal war to the highest diplomatic post in the land.
Peg C-
I’ll second your comments! They are my thoughts exactly.
Peg C-
I’ll second your comments! They are my thoughts exactly.
"Freedom is just another word for nothin’ left to loose" (Janis Joplin)
WOW!!!
http://www.informationclearingh...rticle7831.htm
Cheryl #10 … way cool. I note this quote from it:
For the majority of the American public that has the attention span of a gnat and the memory of a fish the great fantasy-laden altruism of bringing freedom and democracy to Iraqis will be swallowed whole. Only America can bring an end to evil, they will be told, and only we have been blessed by the Almighty itself to end tyranny worldwide. To the easily manipulated, this bull fecal matter is manna from heaven, a justification to continue noble intentions and the fight against evil.
It has been told over and over in prose and songs of satire:
…
But now we got weapons
Of the chemical dust
If fire them we’re forced to
Then fire them we must
One push of the button
And a shot the world wide
And you never ask questions
When God’s on your side.
…
Bod Dylan(1964).
One interesting note is that the MSM never destroyed Dylan, even tho he told them what they were.
I love Valenzuela. I’ve referenced him here myself. Thanks, Cheryl. That incandescent anger will be kindling (figuratively, I hope) fires and lighting the murky skies all over America before long. Just let it be SOON…
Boy, can that man WRITE!!
Yes he can, Cheryl. Amen.
And in that same vein, I’d like to insert a Presidential quote here, as quoted in Gilbert Jordan’s piece at Common Dreams. See if you can guess who said this:
‘Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and not clothed. The world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children….This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from an iron cross.’
That was Eisenhower in his final speech in 1953. I was never much of an Eisenhower fan myself, but compared to the GeeOhPee-ers of today he sounded positively liberal. And he had had first-hand experience with *’s model, … what was his name now? Oh, you know: that other flaming Nazi.
Teresa says: "Word is, yesterday at his press conference he was bubbling with good cheer and confidence after learning that 35 soldiers had just died."
Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori. They died for Bush.
The Leader is not "insane" in the way usually meant these days in the United States. He is not, for instance, innocent of his war crimes. His malady is primarily the so-called Narcissistic Personality Disorder. In his book Bush on the Couch, Justin Frank calls it "megalomania," but I believe this term is not in common use in the United States.
The way I look at, yes, he is nutty as a fruitcake. He belongs in either a prison for the crazy or a hospital for the criminal, I don’t care which.
That’s it! I’m cleaning up my language!
OK. Here’s a quiz:
Guess who this was when asked about the pre-election violence in Iraq?(paraphrased)
"One has to accept that which is, in terms of what is intended to be at some possible future time. It may or may not be a necessity concerning the present situation at hand at the moment, in order to facilitate the intended future outcome at some forthcoming point.
CORRECT!! Gold Star!………Donald Rumsfeld.
Translation: I don’t have a #!%!??&#! fucking clue!
And these people are building a global empire????
Teresa #16,#17 … LOL.
That’s why we call him rummy.
hic …
He is drunk on his own bushit.
Teresa – What the hell was that? And this when he was *dialoguing* with whom? The things that come out of these Bushite’s mouths are designed to confuse people into believing that they know what they are talking about. I think many people think, "I didn’t understand a word of what he just said therefore he must be a really, really smart man". (Course, we all remember the emperor who wore no clothes.)
Thanks Winter Patriot. You’re a good man. Music and poetry are my life.
Ooh Winter. That gave me goosebumps. Hey, are you taken? You sound like a keeper to me. (Just kidding-got one already-after 22 years of training I have no desire to start again.) 😉
This is turning out to be my most heart-rending post in many weeks, and I can’t decide whether to blame it on Fin (for the title of the thread) or Dredd (for comment #9).
But regardless of who’s to blame, there’s this song going on between my ears and I simply cannot get out of my head. And I figure I might not be the only one so I might as well post the entire lyric and maybe we can all get it over with.
The song was made famous by Janis Joplin, but it was written by Kris Kristofferson, and this is the way he sang it. Janis sang it different, of course. Janis sang everything different. ;-).
That’s a beauty, Kris. No wonder she loved it so much. And it’s no wonder we loved her so much either, is it? RIP, Janis. Sob.
Hey Cheryl, I know what you mean. I had one for 25 until he got liberated. Found that beloved freedom. Tyranny over. Into the Promised Land he went.
Wonder who’s training whom.
in comment #23, Teresa wrote:
"Wonder who’s training whom."
Good question, Teresa. I’ve been wondering that myself … ever since Cheryl wrote:
"after 22 years of training I have no desire to start again"
hi po how r u
hi po how r u
hi po how r u