I'MMA LET YOU FINISH
shabaa doo shabba dee
shabba dee shabba doo
shabaa doo shabba dee
My email to Atrios today
Signal to noise ratio on Eschaton is getting out of control.
Good news: The Repukes are becoming desperate so have 'jacked up' their presence
Bad News: The threads are becoming a chore to churn through and the quality of the discussion iin comments have dimished.
( note: This thread is a proof positive )
Suggestions:
1. Require a registration for users. Webmaster or equivalent can delete the most obnoxious trolls.
2. Have someone closer monitor the threads where he/she can make call to delete comments.
Bottom line: You're going to have to make some changes
Good luck !
An avid Echaton reader
Bush channels God, and other nooz you can't afford not to use.
"Bush channels God, and other nooz you can't afford not to use."
If this is indeed true, God really does have a sense of humor.
Hardcore kids, remember: George W. Bush is a punk.
Anon Again:
I wrote to him last night about the same thing. Let's hope something gets done. There's debate, and then there's just nonsense.
Bush: I'm God's Delivery Boy
The disturbing part is Bush believes that he's a 'messiah of sorts',
The good news: More Americans see what a loon he is and the need for sane and intelligent adults in the WH i.e. Kerry/Edwards
This is interesting/disturbing:
please checkout www.torontostar.ca
under "'Here you go. Here's Iraq. Take it'", by Mitch Potter (July 17 edition)
A snippet:
"Leaning in close, the mid-level American administrator speaks more in a hiss than a whisper. His tone is confessional, drenched in frustration.
"We didn't hand over power to the Iraqis. We threw it at them," he confides, casting a guilty glance toward the many eyes filling the chandelier-lit room. Nobody else heard him. Good. This kind of talk could cost him his job.
"There was no orderly transition. Nothing gradual. Just, `Here you go. Here's Iraq. Take it'."
"None of us had any idea sovereignty was going to switch two days early," he continues, speaking on the promise of anonymity. "So we didn't even get the last contracts finished. It was chaos. More than a billion dollars in plans never went through. Huge appropriations were just left on the table, undone."
Brutal, but I guess not terribly surprising...
Just heard on CNN that the 5 PA miners who were trapped in the mine in 2000 for days are suing the mine operator. They charge the mine owner/operator should have known the mine was unsafe.
So my question is, are they using TRIAL LAWYERS to file this suit? Someone like John Edwards maybe? Don't get me wrong, I don't know anything about the political persuasion of the miners in question. But I'd betcha that some of their friends and neighbors might have been soaking up the bile thrown John Edwards' way. People who hear the repugs say "trial lawyer" and go "oooooh...bad.... trial lawyers." Hmmm, things look a little different when you look at actual cases, don't they? I'm just sayin'.
I wonder if those miners will hire the same trial lawyer Bush and Ken Lay retained?
Bother, bother, bother, bother, bother....
re "Bush channels God", alternate Title: Bush finds a blogosphere-immune constituency.
I read the Progressive article, standa, and while I agree that it's appalling that he's that delusional, I disagree with the suggestion that he might be moved to take on North Korea as part of his self-proclaimed "mission from God." The bottom line is, GWB is a bully. He will not take on anyone who's capable of fighting back. Think back to the pre-Iraq war days, when Bush was really going all out to push the nation to war with Iraq. We had one nation that kicked out the weapons inspectors, that admitted to having nuclear weapons, and that talked about the U.S. as its enemy, and then we had another country that let the inspectors in (and pretty much let them go wherever they wanted), a nation that didn't have nuclear weapons (even Bush himself couldn't go that far with his projections), and that had, moreover, a broken army. Which one would any sane person have thought was a greater threat to the U.S.? And which one did we go to war with?
He may like to think of "liberating" North Korea, but he doesn't have the cajones to fight any country that would give him a real fight. He wouldn't do it in 2002, when the U.S. armed forces weren't already seriously committed, and he can't do it now.
Which is a good thing.
The Presidential Debate Schedule Dates, locations for the first two. Will post more as I learn more.
What matter the results, so long as our hearts are pure? The British version, courtesy of Robert Fisk:
But we acted in good faith. Invading Iraq was the right thing to do. And over and over again, in London Wednesday, officials and ministers referred to the Iraqi war in the past tense. About the only thing Iraqis could have agreed with was Lord Butler's remark about the search for Saddam's weapons, that "Iraq is a very big place and there is lots of sand. ..." The al-Yarmouk hospital, needless to say, was the one place not to quote Blair's assertion that although terrorists were killing Iraqis today, "people were being killed in Iraq, thousands of them, under Saddam."
Forgetting that up to 11,000 Iraqis appear to have been killed since our invasion, it seems that it's better to be killed post-Saddam than pre-Saddam. So that's all right then.
Rebecca quoted:
'"None of us had any idea sovereignty was going to switch two days early," he continues, speaking on the promise of anonymity. "So we didn't even get the last contracts finished. It was chaos. More than a billion dollars in plans never went through. Huge appropriations were just left on the table, undone."'
This is the style of the current White House to a "t" -- it's wierd, as if everything were one big stage set with nothing behind it. And that's the problem with this Administration, they can't do anything for real. For instance, take the Dept. of Homeland Security. Just the name is indicitive (as are alot of the names of things in the Bush administration) of it's political, rather than its real-life, goal. The PATRIOT act, No Child Left Behind, all of it. They're hollow names with nothing to back up what they're supposed to do. The most business-like name for anything was the Coalition Provisional Authority, which at least seemed to be busy most of the time. I don't own a television, but I still feel like I've been watching a bad b-movie of the real America, where the President is confronted with some crazy crisis (or maybe Godzilla...) and is trying to save the world. But it's all just a set, there's no real dedication to it, nothing is going on behind the curtains.
If my house were built by this Administration, it'd have four walls but no floors, and pictures in the windows to make it look like the house was complete.
I love this argument, by the way, that Saddam killed people, and so he was a bad ruler who deserved to be overthrown.
As if death is somehow good or bad, depending on who does it, and why. We unleashed the terrorists on the Iraqis, and now the only way to stop the mayhem is to impose the very authoritarian system Saddam maintained.
At least, that's what Allawi is pursuing, and who really thinks Negroponte is going to oppose his efforts?
But, as Mr. Fisk says, it's a "good thing," because the people dying now are dieing at the hands of terrorists, not a brutal dictator.
It's all a matter of who's responsible, you see.
Ahhh. Robert Fisk. Next to vaporizing several thousand Islamoscum the best news out of the war was a few Afghans kicking the crap out of Fisk, and Fisk saying he deserved it.
It may be a lazy weekend for Bush, Kerry, and all the other nogoodnicks, but I'm out working my tushie off to elect Ralph Nader
Meet the new boss, same as the old boss (from The Toronto Star:
The soft-spoken fear among those letting go is that the new Baghdad may well emerge as every bit the omnipotent, power-wielding monolith it was before the war. However clumsy the effort, the U.S.-led coalition clearly had hoped all these months of idea-farming might gently nudge Iraq toward an almost Canadian model of decentralized democracy.
But the new government's first instinct, clearly, has been to revert to the tried-and-true formula of the larger Arab world aggressively corralling power toward a strong (and strong-armed) central government, with the powers of Baghdad second to none.
[snip]
The right to random searches, seizures, closures, eavesdropping, curfews all tools of the modern police state are now in the hands of the small and unelected Baghdad leadership; and in the fine print, the establishment of a half-dozen new security agencies, each with a name, acronym and marching orders reminiscent of the decidedly undemocratic Mideast norm.
With near-unanimity, Iraqis welcomed the crackdown. Whatever doubts they may have about who really is in charge, the sight of Iraqi leaders standing up and announcing Iraqi solutions to more than 15 chaotic months of lawless behavior won instant favor on the streets of Baghdad.
The response spoke volumes about how dramatically downsized the expectations of Iraqis have become. In April, 2003, the nation, then still numb from a generation of U.N. sanctions interspersed with three wars, was giddy with the promise that life was about to improve. If America has the technology of pinpoint bombing, surely it also has the technology to bring instant affluence, the thinking seemed to go.
But that better life remains a distant illusion. Iraqis today seem grimly resigned to buy into anyone with the leadership to restore law and order. Never mind freedom and democracy, whatever that is.
Glad to know the world is better off. Too bad Iraq isn't. Too bad nothing has really changed.
The Brits seem to have less patience with their whitewashes than we do. The Hutton Report is starting to unravel already, as even Blair admits to a cover-up (for security reasons, of course). Here's an article in the Independent:
http://tinyurl.com/6kx8u
I love this argument, by the way, that Saddam killed people, and so he was a bad ruler who deserved to be overthrown.
Yeah, like it's all about why people died, not the fact that they were killed. "But we only killed the same number of Iraqis in a year as Saddam did, on average, for a good cause!" Oh, sorry for doubting you. Mea culpa, I'm a heel, etc.
Ahhh. Robert Fisk. Next to vaporizing several thousand Islamoscum the best news out of the war was a few Afghans kicking the crap out of Fisk, and Fisk saying he deserved it.
Fuck you.
Ahhh. Robert Fisk. Next to vaporizing several thousand Islamoscum the best news out of the war was a few Afghans kicking the crap out of Fisk, and Fisk saying he deserved it.
A fine ad hominem response.
You never studied logic, did you? Don't know anything about it, do you?
It shows. (Ad hominem, if you don't know, is a fallacy of reasoning. Your argument, in other words, is unsound. A non sequitur. Quite literally, a meaningless response.)
"The Hutton Report is starting to unravel already, as even Blair admits to a cover-up (for security reasons, of course)"
The cover-up is unravelling?
Hey, look over there--John Kerry's wife is rich!
The Presidential Debate Schedule Dates, locations for the first two. Will post more as I learn more.
For a sneak preview of what a vice presidential debate between Sen. Edwards and Vice President Cheney might look like, click here
You need to turn on your sound before you click on the link.
Wait until both the Cheney video and the Edwards video load. Edwards speaks first. To hear Cheney's response, click "play" after listening to Edwards.
"Let us explain.
Kikko punch
The power of the punch which
comes form Kikkoman's unnecessarily-built body is far more than what you imagine.
In addition,since Kikkoman is always using his gloves for brewingsoysauce,you'd be itchy when you get punched by him!"
Glad to know the world is better off. Too bad Iraq isn't. Too bad nothing has really changed.
Robert M. Jeffers
The only thing that has really changed is the only thing that matters to the misadministration. Namely, how much treasure flows from the public coffers into the pockets of corporate scumsuckers.
Kerry Backs Much of Pre-Emption Doctrine
This will help win over more independents and swing votes.
I must say the Kerry campaign strategists are taking the very overrated Karl Rove to school.
I am smelling victory for Kerry/Edwards more and more.
PS - the trolls hate articles like this because they think Bushie boy owns the 'terrorist position'.
Sorry, Kerry has staked out the high ground so he can pound you into oblivion.
An ad hominem response would be pointing out that were you an asshole rather than pointing out that your use of the term is incorrect.
So what ever happened to the story of the gun slinging Iraqi PM?
Hey, where are the trolls? Must be time for their daily download of Unka Karl's talking points. Hopefully Karl will give them something better to work with today, because the ludicrous "Joe Wilson is a liar" thing is getting really stale. Not to mention that the Bush administration has admitted that Wilson told the truth.
Kerry said the intelligence needs to be improved so that the word of a U.S. president "is good enough for people across the world again."
IMO, a laser missle 'direct hit' scored against Bush's laying total blame on the CIA for his endless lies and incomptence.
Yes, let's talk about Fisk. Here's some real reporting, for those who might have forgot what a real journalist does:
'"I studied at the technical institute in Baghdad and all we wanted to do was avoid the war with Iran," he said. "When the war started, they closed the river between the presidential palace and the ministry of defence but all we were hearing were the stories coming back from the front. We knew that so many of our men were being killed fighting the Iranians. We studied very hard to avoid the call-up. And we succeeded. The front meant death. I never got sent to the front. But we lived in fear. In just my area of Baghdad alone, Saddam's men killed 55 of our people, just for praying in the mosque. That is because they were Shias."'
'Saleh's voice rises in pitch as he turns on the old boat's engine to avoid collision with a tree that is moving gently over the water towards us. "It was a gift from America to Saddam at the beginning of the Iran-Iraq war - an American Johnson engine - and still it is working." I suggest that this is a compliment to American technology. "All the world knows how good that technology is," Saleh replies. "But you foreigners must not leave us alone with the Americans. Please don't leave us with them and let them dominate us. Bring your countries to do business with my land and share our benefits."'
[from 'Tales from the Tigris riverbank']
These two paragraphs come from a recent story Fisk filed for the Independent. The man speaking is Saleh Mohamed Fawzi, a ferry-boat operator who used to be a member of Saddam Hussein's Republican guard. I picked these two paragraphs because they demonstrate how complex the reality, and the sentiments, can be in Iraq. Are these paragraph pro-Iraq war? Is it anti-Iraq war? Fisk reports, you decide. It's nice to read the work of journalists who knows how to do the job right (and are fluent in the local language).
Somebody on here about a month before the Iraq war broke out (sorry, forget his/her name) said... "would it not be cheaper to offer Saddam $100 million and a villa in the south of France, just to leave Iraq?"
Oh, how right you were!
Lets see, $150 Billion spent, 900 American and British service men killed, 10,000 Iraqis killed, and huge parts of the country destroyed. All so that a frat boy with a low IQ could pretend that he was 'strong.'
In other news, a friend of mine went to see Simon & Garfunkel in London, and said that just before they sung ......'America'... they said the country they wrote about no longer exists.....I bet Clear Channel will be sending out the ban orders as I write.
Kerry's position is only rational...if you have intelligence that an attack is brewing...you don't wait, you deal with the issue asap.
But...that is not what Bush did. Bush HAD no intelligence that Iraq was a threat...so they cooked up the intel to support the war scare. They've as much admitted it, and all these comissions and investigations are just whitewashes to get them off the hook.
If it had all gone well, it wouldn't have mattered. But...success has a thousand fathers and failure is an orphan...except for the fact that all signs point to Bush and his crew of cronies and their need to scare America into a war before the sanctions against Saddam ended.
There was much talk the summer Bush took office in the UN that Europe wanted the sanctions lifted...they were killing hundreds if not thousands of children every year, and, once lifted, would have greatly benefitted the European companies that had long ties to Iraq.
THAT is the reason for the push to war...not WMD...not Bin Laden...not 9/11. Those were just boogeymen to scare people into supporting this madness.
It worked, too. Fancy that.
Something is bugging me about the story that the 9/11 commission is going to
report that several of the hijackers had connections with Iran. Consider this:
the 9/11 commission has no intelligence gathering operation of its own. It is
solely dependent upon the product of other intelligence organizations (CIA, DOD,
foreign services, etc.). Whatever it reports has to be based on information that
is already available to those who should be able to do something about it.
The thing that bugs me is this: why is it only now that we are
hearing about these connections between Iran and the hijackers? Didn't the CIA
already know about these connections? Certainly the evidence suggests that Iran
had much closer ties to al Qaeda and the hijackers than Saddam ever did. Yet,
other than a brief inclusion of Iran in Bush's "Axis of Evil", there hasn't been
that much talk about this. Instead, we have devoted a major portion of our
offensive capability against Iraq. Was it all just a typo?
Why did it take the 9/11 commission to figure this out?
Hello?
Guess how many fingers I have in my ass right now?
An ad hominem response would be pointing out that were you an asshole rather than pointing out that your use of the term is incorrect.
Being referred to by someone who uses schoolyard language, doesn't even arise to the level of an insult.
Warthog:
Six?
This is totally OT, but does anyone else wonder what the elections are really about? I mean that sometimes when I read articles about the administration and the war and even blog comments about them, I smell a game, a big game of winning where it matters if you are dead because of Saddam or because of Americans, and then other times I read things and it seems that some people really do get it that politics is ultimately about our lives and even about our deaths.
The two approaches are not necessarily always divergent, but I'd like to see the political game less stressed and the political questions more emphasized. I mean, who cares what Kerry's values are if he gets us out of this mess?
Don't forget to eat strawberries!
Warthog:
No, no, ixnay on the six--seven?
Name stealing is so cute.
Reading this site is like raking the bars on the monkey cage. You know you shouldn't do it but the little critters get sooo excited.
Watch that you don't give yourself anal warts, you know, with you being a warthog and all.
Oh, I should have pointed out that "warthog" did neither: make an ad hominem response (nor, being so childish, really even an insulting one), nor correctly define, in the least possible way, ad hominem.
Smarter trolls, please.
An ad hominem response would be pointing out that were you an asshole rather than pointing out that your use of the term is incorrect.
Correct, because his use of the term was correct. Asshole.
How does one "rake" bars?
Just curious.
---
Speaking of asshole. Any of you guys interested in getting a cup of coffee?
Okay, I have to go out for dinner--is Warthog going to tell us how many fingers he had up his ass or not?
I mean, was this all a big tease?
I feel so violated.
---
Speaking of asshole. Any of you guys interested in getting a cup of coffee?
Totally! Where and when, baby?
Because spirited conversation over a steaming cup of joe makes my tender, tight little mangina pucker and quiver with delight.
Fabulous!
Feel free to email me, guys!
I should probably have known better. Never roll in the dirt with the pigs. You get dirty and the pigs like it.
Was it seven?
My wife is in the car, beeping the horn.
I have to know.
I've noticed that the tactic is distraction. Anything that distracts from the thread and focuses attention om the troll. This is an open thread so you just spew out any sexual shit or anything insulting to get the attention right?
Slim Whitman
Actually, "raking the bars" is a legitimate term. If you drag your hand horizontally across a set of vertical bars (or vice versa), it is known as raking the bars. That being said, however, a troll is still a troll; an asshole is still an asshole; and a troll is an asshole, too.
Ooooh, I bet Warthog has a nice mangina.
Yesssss.
Mmmmmm.
1967: Bush shows sadistic side
New York Times Nov 8, 1967. pg. 80
reagrding recently talked about in comments Bush-hazing-branding-sado-side...
Was it seven?
I'd wager another 100 bucks for Kerry that it was eight.
Bottom feeders got to eat too!
Well, this thread broke down in a hurry...
Echidne--Yes, the gameplaying can be depressing and disheartening, and sometimes I think that is the point. Bore and annoy people so they stop participating, and the Powers That Be can short circuit democracy in favor of retaining their power.
And all the talk of "values" always amounts to the ultimate empty game-playing.
Anyway: Strawberries!! (Scroll down...)
It was only 4. But it was two from each hand. Spread properly for some good gaping action.
amaral@adelphia.net
Email me fellas for some and dirty pig sex.
Takeshi Kovacs
Yes, distraction is the whole purpose of trolling -- to disrupt and, if possible, hi-jack the discussion in a thread. That's why the smarter trolls (a relative term) use lots of long posts. Dumber trolls just use profanity and insults. Now, let's find something interesting to talk about...
Bore and annoy people so they stop participating
That's what's been happening more and more in the last few weeks. Panic is setting in I guess. Even the bought off media can keep a ship this full of shit from sinking.
""Forgetting that up to 11,000 Iraqis appear to have been killed since our invasion, it seems that it's better to be killed post-Saddam than pre-Saddam. So that's all right then. --Robert M. Jeffers"
Based on the new study in the New England Journal of Medicine, 14% of troops report killing at least one civilian. Which someone said works out to over 20,000 civilians IN FACE TO FACE ENCOUNTERS ALONE. Nevermind the bombing. When whole blocks are leveled, and they were, there's no one left to go to the hospital.
Since Allawi just executed six men on sight recently, since he ran Hussein's Secret Police, since Hussein was himself Secret Police, I'd say that Henry Kissinger is running the 911 Commision after all.
--
The Hawking thread last night was interesting. Start talking science. The trolls scatter from it.
Uncle $cam, congrats on embedding the link.
Toldja it was easy!
The 11,000 number does seem a bit low; reportedly 4,000 Iraqis were killed in the month of April alone.
"There was much talk the summer Bush took office in the UN that Europe wanted the sanctions lifted...THAT is the reason for the push to war...not WMD...not Bin Laden...not 9/11. Those were just boogeymen to scare people into supporting this madness.--Monkey"
No, the sanctions are not why they attacked.
Bushliarco was fullfilling their long term intention of creating a puppet state with 16 permanent US airbases in the security resource area.
Since Hussein refused the Jordanian pipeline, he had to be replaced anyhow, so the sanctions and the warcrime slaughter of the retreating Iraqi conscripts, the illegal bombing on false pretexts, the reneging that killed the Marsh Arabs, the ax-murdering of the country's cultural wealth, and all the impunity of George Worthless Traitor Bush, the torturing, the swaggering leer of, the threats against the Constitution and the traditions of our country---that all comes under the category of softening up the new footprint.
It's the Bases, stupid. That's why McCain is on board, and it's probably why Kerry is as well.
--
How is Warthog going to drink his coffee with all twelve of his fingers stuck up his ass?
The 11,000 number does seem a bit low; reportedly 4,000 Iraqis were killed in the month of April alone.
I think Fisk was deliberately underplaying it, to inoculate himself against distracting and pointless claims of wild exaggeration.
Whatever the "accurate" number, it's bad. From now on, I'll see the scene in "F 9/11" of the woman in Baghdad shrieking at God and America for bombing her family's house, and killing innocent civilians. Juxtaposed, of course, with Rumsfeld's assertion of how "precise" the bombing is.
From the perspective of Washington, perhaps so. From the P.O.V. of Baghdad, however...(setting aside entirely the question of the "intelligence" used to target said bombs. No doubt they struck their intended targets. The question now is, on what data did we pick targets? Chalabi's grudges? Chalabi and Perle throwing darts at a map? Sarcastic of me, but one wonders how much more efficacious the "intelligence" was than that.)
Just a question: has anyone seen the recent David Mamet film "Spartan"? I'm not sure when it was released it the States (it couldn't have been long ago), but I just saw it today in Spain and it seemed to me a pretty fierce criticism of the Bush Administration and the tactics it uses to keep up the illusion of the so-called war on terrorism. Since I saw it in Spanish I may have missed a few things, so I'd be interested in opinions from anyone who's seen it (it doesn't seem to have done much box office, but I thought it quite good).
aww, tanks Chris, that was pretty easy after I made a fool of myself...lol
I am so lonely. My family all hates me because I'm gay. My boyfriend left me after beating me up.He took my t.v. and $40 I had hidden in my shoe.
Instead, we have devoted a major portion of our
offensive capability against Iraq. Was it all just a typo?
Why did it take the 9/11 commission to figure this out?
Chris Andersen
Two things: Either CIA wanted to develop that intelligence which would probably had been blown if it were revealed and/or the WH didn't want the anti-war left asking prior to the Iraqi war why weren't we going after Iran with their actual connections to the 911 hijackers instead of Iraq, which didn't.
pest control? try Troll-be-gone
And then a dreadful hetero beat me up because of my sexuality.
I would love to see GWB's application forms to Harvard Business School.
Wonder if they still exist somewhere.
Does anybody have a link for that New England Journal of Medicine study on Iraqi civilian deaths.
Incidentally, the SF Chronicle recently published a civilian casualty figure of 1,771. It was a shocker since the Chron has pretty good coverage of the war. Turns out they used a Brookings Institution figure that doesn't cover the initial months of the war and - as even the person who put the Brookings statistics on post-Saddam Iraq admitted to me when I called them, is a very low figure based on cherry-picking certain specific and verifiable figures from Iraqbodycount.com's raw data. Meaningless number, but it made it's way into a major daily. It amazes me that a "liberal think tank" would publish an estimate that they know is low, end it in a specific digit, and only stipulate in a footnote that it's an estimate that uses a methodology that inevitably counts only a fraction of likely casualties. And they criticize Michael Moore as playing fast and loose with facts...
would love to see GWB's application forms to Harvard Business School.
Wonder if they still exist somewhere.
Written out on the back of a check with a lot of zeros on the front, no doubt.
I like science, and math, so here's a math question. If anyone out there is into number theory, you can help me out on this. Let's define a function, called Omega, that represents the number of indistinct factors of an integer. For instance, Omega(
= 3, because 8 is equal to 2 * 2 * 2. If we apply Omega to all the integers, we get a pattern (the sequence). Now, let's say we consider only the integers that are multiples of 3, i.e. 3, 6, 9, etc. If we apply Omega to this sequence, it's the same sequence we got when we applied Omega to all the integers, plus 1.
My question is, is this a fractal sequence? If so, is there a generating function for it (aside from Omega{n, n + 1...})?
It seems to satisfy most of the conditions for a fractal sequence, but I haven't found anything (yet) about that particular sequence as a fractal seqence on the 'net. Consider it a healthy diversion from politics for a few minutes, heaven knows I could use one.
re Iran:
Bet Judy Miller is salivating for the potential new scoop.
Seriously, sensing the whiff of likely ignoble downfall, the chickenhawk set is capable of almost anything , in a desperate bid to retain power.
It would be seriously unwise to put anything past these people.
"What? Plame? Office of Special Who? No,no; Look Over Here!"
I would like to see internal Harvard Business School memos about why they accepted him.
anybody know the difference between a million and a billion besides the zero's? one million seconds is 12 days as one billion seconds is 32 years...
and they talk about millions and billions as if they were right next to each other ...and the pentagon has lost and unaccounted for over one trillion...put that in your pipe and smoke it...
In case anyone wants to polish up their tin foil hat.....
Did the Trilateral Commission boot Whoopi Goldberg from her role as spokesperson for Slim Fast for criticising George W Bush?
Slim Fast is owned by Unilever. Board of Directors for Unilever which is a UK company.
Niall FitzGerald Chairman, Unilever PLC and vice chairman, Unilever N.V.
Outside Unilever, [Fitzgerald] joined the board of Reuters as a non-executive director on 1 January 2003. Other activities include president of the Advertising Association, vice chairman of the Conference Board, member of the Council of the World Economic Forum, member of the International Advisory Board of the Council on Foreign Relations, trustee of The Leverhulme Trust, a governor of the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, a council member of Co-operation Ireland and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. He also serves as a member of the Trilateral Commission, the US Business Council and the EU-China Committee. He is a member of various advisory bodies, including president of South Africas International Investment Advisory Council and the Shanghai Majors International Business Leaders Council.
Truth is stranger than fiction.
Trolls must be tracked to their source,
And flushed from their hovels by force.
We must thrash their sad asses
In front of the masses,
And ban them from further discourse.
I would like to see internal Harvard Business School memos about why they accepted him.
I'm sure "legacy" and $$$$$ explains it all.
Seriously.
Robert M. Jeffers
You forgot connections to power. Seriously, I'm sure you are right. I just want to see it in writing to help break this inexplicable "common touch" myth that has built up around the Chimperor. He's nothing but the worst kind of silver spoon-fed jerk who has always gotten everything he's wanted with minimal or no effort. He pisses on common people at every opportunity.
It's funny. The trolls are here specifically to get attention and poison the dialogue (i.e. make people turn away) but they only solidify our cause now.
The Repubs are dying a slow, painful death as a party, and this is their last pathetic grasp at power. At least we'll hopefully have true Republicans like John McCain around to rebuild it when the thugs and NeoCons are frog-marched out of the White House.
If I were a REAL Republican, I'd be more pissed off than anyone else. Look at the harm the last few Republican administrations have done to their party by pandering to their extremists. It's really a shame, and I'd be among the first to be voting Bush and his kind OUT if I were one of the Republicans. It's the only chance they have of ever being taken seriously as the party of small government and fiscal conservatism again.
Things you have to believe to be a Republican today
Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him, a bad guy when Bush's daddy made war on him, a good guy when Cheney did business with him and a bad guy when Bush needed a "we can't find Bin Laden" diversion.
Trade with Cuba is wrong because the country is communist, but trade with China and Vietnam is vital to a spirit of international harmony.
The United States should get out of the United Nations, and our highest national priority is enforcing UN resolutions against Iraq.
A woman can't be trusted with decisions about her own body, but multinational corporations can make decisions affecting all mankind without regulation.
Jesus loves you, and shares your hatred of homosexuals and Hillary Clinton.
The best way to improve military morale is to praise the troops in speeches while slashing veterans' benefits and combat pay.
If condoms are kept out of schools, adolescents won't have sex.
A good way to fight terrorism is to belittle our longtime allies, then demand their cooperation and money.
Providing health care to all Iraqis is sound policy. Providing health care to all Americans is socialism.
HMOs and insurance companies have the best interests of the public at heart.
Global warming and tobacco's link to cancer are junk science, but creationism should be taught in schools.
A president lying about an extramarital affair is an impeachable offense.
A president lying to enlist support for a war in which thousands die is solid defense policy.
Government should limit itself to the powers named in the Constitution, which include banning gay marriages and censoring the Internet.
The public has a right to know about Hillary's cattle trades, but George Bush's driving record is none of our business.
Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you're a conservative radio host. Then it's an illness, and you need our prayers for your recovery.
You support states' rights, which means Attorney General John Ashcroft can tell states what local voter initiatives they have the right to adopt.
What Bill Clinton did in the 1960s is of vital national interest, but what Bush did in the '80s is irrelevant.
Feel free to pass this on.
Friends don't let friends vote Republican.
A BUZZFLASH READER CONTRIBUTION
It's funny how there aren't many trolls around right now. They must all be jacking off to internet porn or at the arcade playing Dance Dance Revolution *chuckles*
An amusing thought: Did you ever wonder if anyone's ever had the nerve to tell the Chimperor that he is called the Chimperor (and other things -- i.e. Commander Bunnypants) on these blogs? Can't you see his smirking grimace just twist and writhe in fury?
"anybody know the difference between a million and a billion besides the zero's? one million seconds is 12 days as one billion seconds is 32 years..."
And the Universe itself is somewhere in the neighborhood of (we think) 15 billion years old. It's interesting to consider that the "order of magnitude", from the tinyest of subatomic particles to the size of the whole universe, only spans about 10^60, in meters (i.e., the smallest particles (if they are acting as particles, anyway) are on the size scale of about 10^-33 meters (the estimated size of a "string" in string theory, I think). The detectable Universe's size is on the order of 10^30 meters. I could be off by a bit, but that's not actually that big of a number when you consider what a computer can handle with arbitrary precision calculations -- crazy numbers like 2^(24,036,583-1)
It's hard to fathom a number like that, but for comparison's sake most estimates put the number of atoms in the universe at around 10^80.
Someone should tell Bush the phrase
The Only Thing We Have to Fear is Fear Itself
Not
The only we have to fear is ourselves
You forgot connections to power. Seriously, I'm sure you are right. I just want to see it in writing to help break this inexplicable "common touch" myth that has built up around the Chimperor.
Having seen "F 9/11" last night, and coupling it with Molly Ivins' repeated complaint about the national media, that they refused to consider Bush's record, either in business or politics, that "inexplicable" myth is the product of media laziness, inattention, and complicity.
And won't begin to crumble until Moore's facts become the common basis of discussion for Bush. For now, as many even Jon Stewart has started pointing out, the "myth" (or rather, "talking points") rules the discourse.
As Durante used to say: "Dese are de conditions dat prevail!"
It's funny how there aren't many trolls around right now. They must all be jacking off to internet porn or at the arcade playing Dance Dance Revolution *chuckles*
I'd be doing that right now if I weren't drunk.
Robert M. Jeffers
I call it inexplicable because, SCLM aside, how fucking in denial do people have to be to remember that HIS FATHER WAS VICE PRESIDENT AND PRESIDENT. He's about as common as Prince Charles, but not even as smart.
I should have said "to NOT remember."
I'd be doing that right now if I weren't drunk.
NTodd
There might be some underground clubs where you can do both at the same time. I Wonder if that's why the rethug con is in NYC this year?
Have been doing a lot of thinking about what is driving the Christian Right to foist their religious views on the country and make it the law of the land, A Biblical Sharia of sorts. This can be seen in the Gay Rts Amendment & its jurisdiction stripping little brother, the doubling of funding for 'Abstinence Only' Sex Ed & failure to contribute to the UN Population Fund pruportedly because of chinese abortions.
I have come to the conclusion that a lot of the Religious Right, are probably normal folks, who just happen to be following the fad of the day. Un fortunately the fad of the day happens to be Millenarial Christianity, you know the La Haye, end times variety. I think a lot of people go to those 'non-denominational' churches, out of boredom, or some sense of community, the way our parents generation would join the Lion's Club, or Rotary.
The problem is that these Millenarial Churches have become a political recruiting ground. Though modern mass media they have become indoctrinated, that they need to prepare the world for the second coming ,yadda yadda.
The whole thing is a Fraud, they get these middle class folks to join their little cults & subsequently guilt them into "Tithing" their income to the church. NB Something the middle class can ill afford in this day & age. They turn around & use the "tithing money" to elect fundamentalist apparatchiks like DeLay, to Washington.
To repay their patrons, these politicos reward their Fundamentalist Patrons with Governmental Largess. For instance, who was by in large the Single Greatest Beneficiary of School Vouchers? WHO do you think is going to get the Lion's Share of the now doubled "Abstinence Only" education funding? You guessed it.
This is a subject that few in the Media have dared tackle. But I think, if there were some great expose' shining a light on the "End Times Industry", that many who now flock to the fundamentalist banner would would remove their proverbial tin foil hats & return to earth for a while.
In summation, for anyone who has bothered to read this meandering rant & also happens to be an author, film maker, ect. Please save us from ourselves....... Gracias
I call it inexplicable because, SCLM aside, how fucking in denial do people have to be to remember that HIS FATHER WAS VICE PRESIDENT AND PRESIDENT. He's about as common as Prince Charles, but not even as smart.
People don't pay much attention, and frankly depend on the media to connect the dots for them.
I knew almost everything presented in "F 9/11" because I get my news from "alternative" sources, and I'm obsessive about it.
My lovely wife, who isn't nearly so obsessive, was quite stunned by the information presented in the film. Not that she's ever confused Dubya for "common folk" (among others things, we both know the private school Dubya attended here in Houston; even the cleaning crew are not "common" folk in that snooty place). But it's a short step from her relative disinterest to the complete ignorance and complacency of most people.
Who, in their defense, are mostly just trying to get by; trying to stay above the absolute devastation (in the movie's terms, again) of Flint, Michigan (most of us in the middle class are only a few paychecks away from that, or feel that way) and get out from under the crush of the wealthy who live off our efforts.
Tryin' to get by, in other words, and not payin' that much attention to issues like these. They've got their own problems. They no more notice Bush's sincere insincerity than they realize he only knows 3 words, at best, of Spanish (I remember in 2000 how many journalists imagined Bush was fluent in the tongue. Their ignorance, which mirrors and reinforces the ignorance of the populace, is amazing.).
Remember, (to steal a line from Jeff Danziger): "Wreckage begins with 'W.' "
Your Repuke should no longer exist.
By Satan himself they've been kissed.
They torture small frogs
And have congress with dogs.
The Good Lord must surely be pissed.
There might be some underground clubs where you can do both at the same time. I Wonder if that's why the rethug con is in NYC this year?
Sweeeet! I'm going GOP this year!
Isn't it about time Dumbya or Dick
did or said something stupid so we could make some new jokes. It's been two or three days.
Anonymous: It's funny how there aren't many trolls around right now. They must all be jacking off to internet porn
I doubt that could account for more than 20-30 seconds, tops.
.
An amusing thought: Did you ever wonder if anyone's ever had the nerve to tell the Chimperor that he is called the Chimperor (and other things -- i.e. Commander Bunnypants) on these blogs? Can't you see his smirking grimace just twist and writhe in fury?,
I think Bush has far exceeded Nixon, Reagan and Clinton in numbers of unflattering names applied to him.
Which is why he's also exceeded all predecessors in the efficiency of the bubble in which he exists...his ego being by far the most fragile I've seen in the White House, he has to keep himself nicely insulated.
I'm George "it's only a ciggrette burn" Bush, and I approve these lies.
Look. See. The Bible told me so. [applause]
Do you want me to finish this speech?
Even Nixon went out one night and talked to anti-war protestors on the mall.
Remember, (to steal a line from Jeff Danziger): "Wreckage begins with 'W.' "
I was fantasizing about an ad campaign a while ago that would say "What does 'W' Stand For?" And each ad would have a different word--War, Worst Job Creation Record, Welfare for the Wealthy, Wrong About WMD, Without Leave--and a fact that would explain the accusation being made.
I liked it because I thought it'd get people playing the mental game of trying to think up similar 'W' words...almost without meaning to.
Only Nixon could go to China.
--Spock
Ref: trolls. I think our buddy warthog revealed a lot more than he meant to on this thread.
He starts off by rejoicing in the "vaporization" of thousands of human beings (the brown, icky kind of course) and the beating of a journalist. After being targeted by a few homoerotic taunts, he bleats about us being "pigs" and disappears in a stinky little puff of smoke.
The arc perfectly demonstrates neocon cognitive dissonance. Acceptable to be a murdering sociopathic racist, but non-missionary sexual references? That's waaay out of line!
Philalethes: I was fantasizing about an ad campaign a while ago that would say "What does 'W' Stand For?" And each ad would have a different word--War, Worst Job Creation Record, Welfare for the Wealthy, Wrong About WMD, Without Leave--and a fact that would explain the accusation being made.
I liked it because I thought it'd get people playing the mental game of trying to think up similar 'W' words...almost without meaning to.
That rocks. Hey, send it over to those cats at that blog. You know... they do all the Flash animation (the last one I saw was a retrospective of the U.S. relationship with Saddam from "back in the day" to now; wish I could remember whose... Blah3?).
.
Phila--That is a very good idea. My mind started casting about for words even before I go to your list, so your theory seems to be sound!
The mindless trolls are off feeding on Rove's latest talking points.
Or
I'm George "Hans Blix is a figment of your imagination" Bush, and I approve those zombie spells Karl Rove casts on Joe Sixpack"
Even Nixon went out one night and talked to anti-war protestors on the mall.
____league
You know, I never thought I'd be saying this...but there was a real person somewhere inside Nixon. Having read a three-volume, far-from-adoring biography about him, there was a lot to admire about him, very early on...and a lot to pity, up to a point. You could actually follow where he went awry, and how someone who was so intelligent and driven could have been a pretty good president if he weren't such a paranoid, bitter lunatic.
Bush, on the other hand, is hollow to the core. While Nixon's virtues were trampled and perverted by his ambition, GW Bush never had a better nature to lose. If there's ever been a smaller man in American politics, I can't imagine who it'd be. Bush is such a pipsqueak, on every level, that he makes Dan Quayle look like Lincoln.
Whomever called him "The Texas Souffle," way back in his twenties, spoke a truth so profound that it should've ended all discussion as to whether Bush were a viable human prospect. Maybe we need to start throwing that phrase around more...
What would a W contest be without Worts Preznit Ever.
Some bad news: The pro-war denizens of the blogosphere will have more fodder over which to foam at the mouth.
The video of an American beheaded by al Qaeda militants in Saudi Arabia last month is apparently up on the internet as of today.
I wish all the militants on both sides would stop the spreading of this death porn...
Philalethes -- Name-stealing trolls have no grasp on their strategy when they target you. ROCK AWN!
.
Worst!
My friend found a nice parody of what the GOP stands for:
"The Republican National Committee announced today that the Republican Party is changing its emblem from an elephant to a condom. Governor Marc Racicot, RNC chairman, explained that the condom more clearly reflects the party's stance today, because a condom accepts inflation, halts production, destroys the next generation, protects a bunch of pricks, and gives you a sense of security while you're getting screwed." -Anonymous
I think that about sums it up.
You know, I never thought I'd be saying this...but there was a real person somewhere inside Nixon.
He was raised by his Quaker mother, for crying out loud! Granted, she believed in a sort of weird form of Quakerism, but still. Hey, we're not perfect: my godfather, Euell Gibbons, was a naturalist, an alcoholic, and died of heart disease. But we get to wear cool hats...
The video of an American beheaded by al Qaeda militants in Saudi Arabia last month is apparently up on the internet as of today.
For all your snuff porn, go to ogrish.com. I'm going to got bathe in boiling bleach now...
Philalethes -- Name-stealing trolls have no grasp on their strategy when they target you. ROCK AWN!
.
Jeffraham Prestonian
Thanks! But that's equally true of everyone here, I think. Can you imagine a fake Backslider or Rorschach or Holden or Pie or anyone? I mean, apart from the fact that everyone's got his or her own syntax, the fact remains that the only way to impersonate these people is to tell GOD'S HONEST TRUTH about BushCo...which'd be kind of counterproductive for a troll.
Hey, we're not perfect: my godfather, Euell Gibbons, was a naturalist, an alcoholic, and died of heart disease.
Did you eat a lot of pinecones growing up?
Many parts are edible!
Did you eat a lot of pinecones growing up?
Nope. Cattails. And I hate grape nuts.
BTW, my last memory of Euell was when he visited our duplex in Perrysburg, Ohio--I made him a fan from construction paper (I was 6 at the time). He died just 2 days later, after eating my mom's lasagne. It's sort of a family joke.
Philalethes: Thanks! But that's equally true of everyone here, I think. Can you imagine a fake Backslider or Rorschach or Holden or Pie or anyone? I mean, apart from the fact that everyone's got his or her own syntax, the fact remains that the only way to impersonate these people is to tell GOD'S HONEST TRUTH about BushCo...which'd be kind of counterproductive for a troll.
Good point, and you're welcome.
Yeah, there are a lot of informed folks here, which makes it a favorite online hang, of course. Still, the line "... he makes Dan Quayle look like Lincoln" is entirely priceless. It's so obvious! Man, I don't know how many times over the last week I've seen a GOP attack on Edwards' youth or looks, and thought, "Uh... Dan Quayle, guys?" But your line was the tree I missed, heading through a forest one day...
.
Hey, we're not perfect: my godfather, Euell Gibbons, was a naturalist, an alcoholic, and died of heart disease.
I s'posed I should clarify one thing: Gibbons was a clerk in our Quaker Meeting in Lewisburg, PA.
George will always be "WhistleAss" to me. God Bless that old lady that labelled him in her will. That was a point of light in a real dark time in our national soul...
Only Nixon could go to China.
--Spock
Jeffraham, thanks for posting this. It got my head in an interesting direction, a lot in the same way as Philalethes, only different.
See, we're here, realizing that even Nixon had his good points... but there's another aspect, the Star Trek aspect.
Hear me out.
That quote, from Star Trek VI, was completely impossible during the original run of the show. We had a different world then, a world with Us and Them, and they were behind an Iron Curtain, a Berlin Wall, the Ring of Fire, you name it.
And then Nixon went to China.
From that moment, the distant and terrible enemy became more human. And we've spent most of the thirty years between then and now reacquainting the United States with the rest of humanity, not perfectly by a long shot but with more success than probably could have been hoped for.
Until now.
Now, we're demonizing and dehumanizing enemies -- including some of our own citizens -- on every level, on a daily basis. You're with us, or you're with the terrorists. You Liberals. You Right-Wingers. You fuckin' Dems. You Freepers.
Even a despicable slug like Nixon wanted to make the world better, and recognized that there were others in the world that we had to deal with. So did Ford, Carter, Reagan, and even to an extent Bush I (the proof being the very successful coalition to remove Saddam from Kuwait). Clinton tried to do too much at once, and was attacked on all sides from 1991 until today, three-and-a-half years out of office, but he too -- perhaps he especially -- had worked his way up from little or nothing, and remembered that the world was made of a whole bunch of people, some of whom didn't have it well at all, and dreamed of a better world.
Dubya hasn't got the smallest clue of what a better world would be like. His world is already great. He's rich as hell, when he gets in trouble his daddy's friends bail him out, and he gets to posture and puff his chest and play Macho Cowboy With Nukes.
My God. By comparison to Dubya, Nixon was a fuckin' tree-huggin' Teamster.
Now this is the kind of conversation I come to Eschaton for. 
Anonymous' analogy rocks. NTod, your godfather was Euell "ever eat a pine tree" Gibbons? My grandfather was a natural foods devotee and organic gardener back in the day. Sadly, he died of stomach cancer many years ago at age 63.
" would like to see internal Harvard Business School memos about why they accepted him."
Toonscribe 07.17.04 - 6:11 pm
I doubt if it the evidence still exists. I'm sure that it has all been spent.
How a serial liar suckered Dems and the media
July 18, 2004
BY MARK STEYN SUN-TIMES COLUMNIST
Well, the week went pretty much as I predicted seven days ago:
BUSH LIED!! Not.
BLAIR LIED!!! Not.
But it turns out JOE WILSON LIED! PEOPLE DIED. Of embarrassment mostly. At least I'm assuming that's why the New York Times, MSNBC's Chris Matthews, PBS drone Bill Moyers and all the other media bigwigs Joseph C. Wilson IV suckered have fallen silent on the subject of the white knight of integrity they've previously given the hold-the-front-page treatment, too.
And what about John F. Kerry? Joe Wilson campaigned with Kerry in at least six states, and claims to have helped with the candidate's speeches. He was said to be a senior foreign policy adviser to the senator. As of Friday, Wilson's Web site, restorehonesty.com, was still wholly paid for by Kerry's presidential campaign.
Heigh-ho. It would be nice to hear his media boosters howling en masse, "Say it ain't so, Joe!" But Joe Wilson's already slipping down the old media memory hole. He served his purpose -- he damaged Bush, he tainted the liberation of Iraq -- and yes, by the time you read this the Kerry campaign may well have pulled the plug on his Web site, and Salon magazine's luxury cruise will probably have to find another headline speaker, and he won't be doing Tim Russert again any time soon. But what matters to the media and to Senator Kerry is that he helped the cause of (to quote his book title) The Politics Of Truth, and if it takes a serial liar to do that, so be it.
But before he gets lowered in his yellowcake overcoat into the Niger River, let's pause to consider: What do Joe Wilson's lies mean? And what does it say about the Democrats and the media that so many high-ranking figures took him at his word?
First, contrary to what Wilson wrote in the New York Times, Saddam Hussein was trying to acquire uranium from Niger. In support of that proposition are a Senate report in Washington, Lord Butler's report in London, MI6, French intelligence, other European agencies -- and, as we now know, the CIA report, based on Joe Wilson's original briefing to them. Against that proposition is Joe Wilson's revised version of events for the Times.
This isn't difficult. In 1999, a senior Iraqi "trade" delegation went to Niger. Uranium accounts for 75 percent of Niger's exports. The rest is goats, cowpeas and onions. So who sends senior trade missions to Niger? Maybe Saddam dispatched his Baathist big shots all the way to the dusty capital of Niamy because he had a sudden yen for goat and onion stew with a side order of black-eyed peas, and Major Wanke, the then-president, had offered him a great three-for-one deal.
But that's not what Joe Wilson found. Major Wanke's prime minister, among others, told Ambassador Wilson that he believed Iraq wanted yellowcake. And Ambassador Wilson told the CIA. And the CIA's report agreed with the British and th
filkertom: Now this is the kind of conversation I come to Eschaton for.
I'll take "springboard credit" (or just yell, "Frist!"). 
.
and the Europeans that "Iraq was attempting to procure uranium from Africa."
In his ludicrously vain memoir The Politics Of Truth, Wilson plays up his knowledge of the country. He makes much of his intimacy with Wanke and gives himself the credit for ridding Niger of the Wanke regime. The question then is why a man who knew so much about what was going on chose deliberately to misrepresent it to all his media/ Democrat buddies, not to mention to the American people. For a book called The Politics Of Truth, it's remarkably short of it. On page 2, Wilson says of his trip to Niger: "I had found nothing to substantiate the rumors." But he had.
That's what lying is, by the way: intentional deceit, not unreliable intelligence. And I'm not usually the sort to bandy the liar-liar-pants-on-fire charge beloved by so many in our politics today, but I'll make an exception in the case of Wilson, who's never been shy about the term. He called Bush a "liar" and he called Cheney a "lying sonofabitch," on stage at a John Kerry rally in Iowa.
Saddam wanted yellowcake for one reason: to strike at his neighbors in the region, and beyond that at Britain, America and his other enemies. In other words, he wanted the uranium in order to kill you.
The obvious explanation for Wilson's deceit about what he found in Africa is that his hatred of Bush outweighed everything else. Or as the novelist and Internet maestro Roger L. Simon put it, "He is a deeply evil human being willing to lie and obfuscate for temporary political gain about a homicidal dictator's search for weapons-grade uranium."
Technically, it's weaponizable uranium, not "weapons grade." But that's the point. Simon isn't the expert, and, as Ambassador Wilson trumpets loudly and often, he is. This isn't a case of another Michael Moore, court buffoon to the Senate Democrats, or Whoopi Goldberg, has-been potty-mouth to John Kerry. They're in show biz; what do they know?
But Wilson does know; he went there, he talked to officials, and he lied about America's national security in order to be the anti-Bush crowd's Playmate of the Month. Either he's profoundly wicked or he's as deranged as that woman on the Paris Metro last week who falsely claimed to have been the victim of an anti-Semitic attack. The Paris crazy was unmasked within a few days, but the Niger crazy was lionized for a full year.
Some of us are on record as dismissing Wilson in the first bloom of his unmerited celebrity. But John Kerry was taken in -- to the point where he signed him up as an adviser and underwrote his Web site. What does that reveal about Mister Nuance and his superb judgment? He claims to be able to rebuild America's relationships with France, and to have excellent buddy-to-buddy relations with French political leaders. Yet anyone who's spent 10 minutes in Europe this last year knows that virtually every government there believes Iraq was trying to get uranium from Africa. Is Kerry s
Is Kerry so uncurious about America's national security he can't pick up the phone to his Paris pals and get the scoop firsthand? For all his claims to be Monsieur Sophisticate, there's something hicky and parochial in his embrace of an obvious nutcake for passing partisan advantage.
Any Democrats and media types who are in the early stages of yellowcake fever and can still think clearly enough not to want dirty nukes going off in Seattle or Houston -- or even Vancouver or Rotterdam or Amman -- need to consider seriously the wild ride Yellowcake Joe took them on. An ambassador, in Sir Henry Wootton's famous dictum, is a good man sent abroad to lie for his country. This ambassador came home to lie to his. And the Dems and the media helped him do it.
NTod, your godfather was Euell "ever eat a pine tree" Gibbons?
Yup. I actually lived with him and his wife Freda for several months when I was a toddler.
My grandfather was a natural foods devotee and organic gardener back in the day. Sadly, he died of stomach cancer many years ago at age 63.
As I've since learned, a lot of the early healthnut types still did stuff that was bad for them. I know Euell was a heavy drinker (he crashed at our pad many times during his lost weekends), and IIRC he might have smoked too (so did my dad until I told him to stop on Father's Day, 1976).
Since this thread brought Euell to mind, I've since done a brief post on my blog, which I'll blogwhore here since I'm bored, my wife is on the air at VPR, and I've been drinking Pinot Noir while watching LOTR and Raiders of the Lost Ark.
Mark Harden: Master of the cut and paste.
Thought I'd mention this, as briefly as I can. I'd been having what I thought was perhaps a UTI...so I went to the doctor and whattaya know...it was a stress-related muscle spasm!
There's actually very little stress in my life that isn't political. My personal life is just fine...money could always be better, but is no emergency...so basically, when I look for stress in my life, pictures from Abu Ghraib, and Dick Cheney's scowl, are as big a source as anything.
Anyway, I ended up spending the night getting drunk in the wilderness with a bunch of latterday hippie kids half my age. I'm not ANY kind of hippie, and I can't say I was looking forward to the conversation. However, I spent a lot of my adult life having to fit in with Republicans at social gatherings...it's ten times as exhausting, and the only payoff is that you can say you met a bunch of clueless assholes. These kids were very nice, however. Which led to epiphany number one: There is MUCH more life in a group of lefties than in a group of Republicans. It's like the effort Repubs put into maintaining a rigid social posture leaves them with that much less life to share with anyone else. The ones I've dealt with, at least, are human black holes.
So then I stumbled down the cliff and lay around on a desolate rock watching the waves, and actually felt, for the first time in what seemed like a long while, like I was actually alive. Which led to epiphany number two: Get away from all this bullshit once in a while and put it as far from your mind as you can.
Having done so, I actually feel pretty sane today. I think I was getting completely overwhelmed. There's a lot to be said for going someplace pretty, and relaxing. Who'd of thunk it?
Mark Harden - you are dumber than a Washington apple. Less tasty, too.
W. stands for: "Wimpy Pretzel Wrangler"
Phila--Sounds like a very good night. Hope the spasm subsides...and glad it's not UTI (I had one of those once, and it was the most severe pain I think I've ever felt, and I've got tattoos).
I could use an oceanside epiphany myself, I think. It's been a year since I was able to get out of this country and away from all the American bullshit...
W. stands for "Whistle Ass."
Mark Harden
You forgot to say Abra Cadabra at the end.
Someone, I forget who, commented earlier this week that the ramped-up amount of postings/commentary due to the multiple guest bloghosts was a good thing, in that trolls seemed to be burning out in the process of unsuccessfully trying to keep up. (I paraphrase.)
I had my doubts then, and now I'm sure that trolling hasn't diminished since Atrios relinquished the helm. Personally, I don't see an obvious correlation between multiple bloghosts and troll activity, but the trolls are hardly peeling off.
In fact, as this thread unhappily illustrates, not only are The Rest of Us generally unable to resist feeding the trolls, now we're at a point where we can't stop talking about them even when they're not sliming up the place.
Not a good sign, people. When absent trolls dominate the discourse, the Terrorists Have Won...
Hypnosis=Rove speak
1 : a state that resembles sleep but is induced by a person whose suggestions are readily accepted by the subject
I have to confess that I'm not keeping up day to day on the Plame case lately. My assumption is that the flurry of "Joe Wilson's a liar!" posts has to do with the pending indictments? Because obviously Wilson could've lied from here to Betelgeuse and the person who outed his wife still goes down, legally speaking. So is this just the usual "muddy the waters" tactic in advance of a crushing blow, or what? Because none of the evidence from the "Wilson lied" people has any substance at all, as far as I can tell...unless you're impressed with those whitewashed reports at which Britain--a country lacking freedom of speech, or anything approaching FOIA--excels.
Anyone help me out here?
Mark Harden
You forgot to say Abra Cadabra at the end.
Chauncey Gardner
or Fnord.
I have to confess that I'm not keeping up day to day on the Plame case lately. My assumption is that the flurry of "Joe Wilson's a liar!" posts has to do with the pending indictments?
Nah, the Senate Intel Cmte report indicates that the GOP believes Wilson lied about his wife's recommending he go to Niger. A minor issue even if true, it's false anyway, and is clearly an attempt to distract people from the FUCKING ILLEGAL OUTING OF HIS CIA AGENT WIFE!
Jeffraham -- absolutely. And then Phila ran with it, and it's fun.
See, bridge-dwellers? This is called polite conversation, and intellectual discourse, and reexamining your position based on new evidence, and trying always to speak the truth. It's pretty cool, actually. Give it a shot -- the worst that can happen is... well, nothing, actually.
Phila--Sounds like a very good night. Hope the spasm subsides...and glad it's not UTI (I had one of those once, and it was the most severe pain I think I've ever felt, and I've got tattoos).
It basically has, thanks. It didn't really hurt much anyway, and I was mainly getting it checked out as part of a larger check-up. But of course, once you find out that this nagging pain is caused by clenching your entire body with rage, it's easier to tune it out. I was responding to the worry more than the discomfort, and even THAT was probably deflected from some other, more pertinent aggravation. The mind plays strange tricks!
Ha Ha to the Whistle Ass "W". To this day, the thought that an old Granny would say of Chimpy, "He's such a whistle ass" never fails to crack me up.
I think Bush has far exceeded Nixon, Reagan and Clinton in numbers of unflattering names applied to him.
I wish I could find one of those "Nixon Now" buttons. I miss old Dick.
At least he could undertake a policy initiative every once in a while and not TOTALLY fuck it up.
Nah, the Senate Intel Cmte report indicates that the GOP believes Wilson lied about his wife's recommending he go to Niger. A minor issue even if true, it's false anyway, and is clearly an attempt to distract people from the FUCKING ILLEGAL OUTING OF HIS CIA AGENT WIFE!
Thanks, NTodd. I had a sneaking suspicion it was something like that. Shakespeare's gag about "Methinks he doth protest too much" seems never to have percolated into the arid soil of Rove's brain. I don't know why Rove believes that the American people have a bottomless appetite for endless, shrill, phony outrage. Most people I know get tired of hearing it pretty quickly.
Oh man. I just came across this story, and it just makes me miserable to think these geniuses are in charge of our security.
The FBI's weekly alert bulletin, sent to 18,000 law enforcement agencies nationwide, focused this week on the possibility of al Qaeda recruiting non-Arabs to carry out attacks in the United States.
"Finding operatives with U.S. [citizenship or legal residency] status would greatly facilitate al Qaeda's ability to carry out an attack within the United States," the bulletin said.
Not a good sign, people. When absent trolls dominate the discourse, the Terrorists Have Won...
I agree. And although I've been guilty of feeding the mindless ones, too, it is better to ignore their ravings. If they can't provide evidence, through a reputable link, to back up their claims, then they're just not worth the bother.
Ignore them. They will go away.
We're all Americans. Although it's all part of our growing pains, it's quite sad to see what's happened in this country. The divisive and hateful rhetoric has been taken to dismal depths, through the Clinton years and now, with Bush, even lower. (Thanks, media, for your help.)
I'm really quite sick of it, and that, more than anything else is the reason he must be defeated in November. He hasn't brought us together. He's *brought on* another Civil War...in America.
That fact should make everyone take a step back, reevaluate priorities, and decide what we have in common. It's not going to happen with Bush.
He doesn't *get it*.
Dear Mark Harden,
Just a reminder: Joe Wilson is not the president, John Kerry is not the president (yet). Neither of them were in charge of the WH when the war happened. Neither Kerry nor Wilson went to congress to ask to go to war. If Bush is not responsible for anything that happens during his presidency who is? Let's see so far:
1. It's the CIA's fault
2. It's John Kerry's fault.
3. It's the terrorists fault.
4. It's Saddam Hussein's fault.
5. It's Richard Clark's (sp?) fault.
6. It's the SCLM's fault.
7. It's Chalabi's fault (he gave us bad intel and bad informants).
8. It's the democrats fault (because they believed the bad intel that was good intel until everything fell apart).
9. It's the "they don't support the troops because they don't want more of them to get killed" liberals fault.
10. It's the easter bunny, santy claus, and the tooth fairy's fault.
Gee, it's great to have a president in the WH that isn't responsible for anything that happens during his term in office.
Joe Wilson lied eh? Then I guess all of our troops have been killed by that uranium from Niger he "lied" about. What's that? They've been killed by conventional(often homemade) bombs and weapons? Oops!
I've still got my "Get Down America! Vote Howard the Duck in '76" button.
I wish I could find one of those "Nixon Now" buttons. I miss old Dick.
He was a hell of a piano player, too!
That reminds me, some lefty site was selling "Nixon's the One" buttons to make (I assume) a similar point. If I can find the URL, I'll post it here.
I think part of the thing with Nixon is that he was a worthy foe, on some levels. Having to fight for your country against a braindead cipher like GW Bush is just degrading, I think. It's like they're saying, "We've got this country so locked down that we can forcefeed you the Texas Souffle and make you like it." The whole thing makes me embarassed...like getting swindled at three-card monte by a retarded twelve-year-old.
That bit about being swindled at three-card monte just reminded me, for some reason, of Elisha Cook Jr in "The Maltese Falcon."
If there's anyone who's seen that movie here...isn't that character an AWFUL lot like GWB?
COOK: "You keep riding me, mister, they're gonna be picking lead out of your guts."
BOGART: "The cheaper the hood, the gaudier the patter."
Maltese Falcon.
My great uncle Miles Archer
"my godfather, Euell Gibbons"
NTodd,
OMG! My mother loved his books! I had to eat more poke weed as a child than any other human on the planet! Small world!
I didn't have to eat any pine cones, but i did inherit a mentor. John Huston
Ok, who here is hosting a Moveon.org screening of Outfoxed tomorrow?
Letter to the editor, WP, from Wilson himself:
Debunking Distortions About My Trip to Niger
Saturday, July 17, 2004; Page A17
For the second time in a year, your paper has published an article [news story, July 10] falsely suggesting that my wife, Valerie Plame, was responsible for the trip I took to Niger on behalf of the U.S. government to look into allegations that Iraq had sought to purchase several hundred tons of yellowcake uranium from that West African country. Last July 14, Robert Novak, claiming two senior sources, exposed Valerie as an "agency operative [who] suggested sending him to Niger." Novak went ahead with his column despite the fact that the CIA had urged him not to disclose her identity. That leak to Novak may well have been a federal crime and is under investigation.
In the year since the betrayal of Valerie's covert status, it has been widely understood that she is irrelevant to the unpaid mission I undertook or the conclusions I reached. But your paper's recent article acted as a funnel for this scurrilous and extraneous charge, uncritically citing the Republican-written Senate Select Committee on Intelligence report.
The decision to send me to Niger was not made, and could not be made, by Valerie. At the conclusion of a meeting that she did not attend, I was asked by CIA officials whether I would be willing to travel to Niger. While a CIA reports officer and a State Department analyst, both cited in the report, speculate about what happened, neither of them was in the chain of command that made the decision to send me. Reams of documents were given over to the Senate committee, but the only quotation attributed to my wife on this subject was the anodyne "my husband has good relations with both the PM (Prime Minister) and the former Minister of Mines (not to mention lots of French contacts), both of whom could possibly shed light on this sort of activity." In fact, with 2-year-old twins at home, Valerie did not relish my absence for a two-week period. But she acquiesced because, in the zeal to be responsive to the legitimate concerns raised by the vice president, officials of her agency turned to a known functionary who had previously checked out uranium-related questions for them.
But that is not the only inaccurate assertion or conclusion in the Senate report uncritically parroted in the article. Other inaccuracies and distortions include the suggestion that my findings "bolstered" the case that Niger was engaged in illegal sales of uranium to Iraq. In fact, the Senate report is clear that the intelligence community attempted to keep the claim out of presidential documents because of the weakness of the evidence.
The facts surrounding my trip remain the same. I traveled to Niger and found it unlikely that Iraq had attempted to purchase several hundred tons of yellowcake uranium. In his 2003 State of the Union address, President Bush referred to Iraqi attempts to purchase
W is for White powder.
The first spanish word young Georgie learned was yeyo.
He's on the level if he's inclined
The son of a devil, he wants mine and more
Ooh, he's a high, high climber
Not just a clinging vine
He made the grade, he made his marks, Senor
And guess who's keeping score?
Rush Rush, got the yeyo?
Bush Bush, gimme yeyo
Rush Rush, got the yeyo? Uh oh
Yo yo, no no yeyo, uh oh
The GOP smear job on Wilson worked....for the moment. They smear everyone while lying themselves.
We have to call them on this. This "Wilson lied" smear was utterly fake, totally illogical and infuriating.
Why anyone fell for this is amazing. Why the Dems didn't attack the GOP for trying this...infuriates me.
Jack--My friends are, and I am going there. They're bringing in an extra TV and a splicer so more can watch comfortablY!
Ok, who here is hosting a Moveon.org screening of Outfoxed tomorrow?
Jack | Email | Homepage | 07.17.04 - 8:56 pm
Not me, but I have ordered the DVD.
NTodd,
OMG! My mother loved his books! I had to eat more poke weed as a child than any other human on the planet! Small world!
George Bush
Somehow I'm guessing you're not GWB. He was into other plants, I believe...
Regardless, it is indeed a small world! I have a signed copy of Stalking the Wild Asparagus in my library, inscribed thus:
To my little friend and Friend...
Yet my wife is the organic/natural food person. I eat lots of red meat and drink lots of red wine. But I do feel sufficiently guilty, and love the Gardenburgers she buys at the co-op.
Guys,
Nixon was a crazy mofo and he came THIS close to turning this country into a doctatorship. W's really bad, too, but Nixon was nuts.
For people who give a crap about the law only:
Im studying for the bar exam right now, and so Im looking at constitutional provisions that one doesnt have to know in real life, and something occured to me. Rightwingers love to say Scalia is the only one on the court that knows what he's doing, and his unbelievably simplistic "strict textualism" is the only way to interpret the law.
Well, Article I only gives power to raise armies and a Navy. It says nothing about the Air Force. And lest someone want to lump the AF into "armies", it further provides: "To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval forces."
So is it me, or in Scalia's world is the Air Force unconstitutional? And if so, why does he hate America?
Can you be off topic on an Open Thread?
Has anyone seen Hackworth's bit on the outfitting of the Iraqi Security forces compared to the deficiencies the US G.I. has been facing?
Pitiful.
Sorry, no link but I will go looking.
Nixon was a crazy mofo and he came THIS close to turning this country into a doctatorship.
Doctors are smart, so wouldn't this be a good thing?
During the 1st presidential debate, John Kerry should ask...
"Mr. Bush, is that you talking or am I debating God right now? ANSWER THE QUESTION MR BUSH OR WHOEVER IS IN THERE!!!!!"
D, my sympathies for your studying for the Bar Exam; it's a crazy time and you'll feel a major sense of relief when you pass the bar, though that's hard to imagine right now.
I believe the air force comes under the necessary and proper clause; just about anything that's not named directly as a power in the Constitution can be derived from that.
And I'm not so sure that Scalia's such a "strict constructionist" as he claims to be.
Can someone help me? Anybody got a link to the report that dispoved Bush's claim that the war in Iraq is fought by foriegners? I tried google and americanprogresss.org. I just think I am using wrong keyword.
Here's a link, George.
Nixon was a crazy mofo and he came THIS close to turning this country into a doctatorship. W's really bad, too, but Nixon was nuts.
Nixon, stoned on megadoses of Jack Dreyfus' Remarkable Drug, was still five times as competent as W.
like W, he did a pretty fair job of fucking up the economy, but, to be fair, he was mostly just applying the received wisdom of his day.
*Im studying for the bar exam right now,*
*Im studying for the bar exam right now*
No, nobody is risking their popularity. Krugman has a sweet gig as a NYT columnist. Jadakiss will sell more albums because of this. Michael Moore is making tens of millions of dollars for his criticism of the administration. Sean Penn and Tim Robbins are winning Oscars.
When one of these people actually has to make a sacrifice for a substantive criticism of the administration, let me know.
Dixie Chicks lives threatened.
Read Krugmans book.
Tim Robbins son was stalked.
Moore is smeared and spammed daily.
Hollywood IS mostly liberal.
Mainstream news media is NOT.
but all of this is beside my main point (none of these ppl claim "bush did it" anyway) why I brought up Feingold (only one who voted against PA?)and Krugeman is that they say and do "radical" things and survive even though they are no longer popular with the in-crowd.
But I claim that it looks like he had something to do with it and I'm a liberal, one who will soon be looking pretty smart.
Skeptical. Reporters. Now.
*Im studying for the bar exam right now*
Sorry for the triple whatever-thing that happened. H youre not studying for the bar right now -- youre on a blog. Let's get some easy exercise and some sleep, forget blogomania, and study easy and consistent. Your blogboys are behind you
Nixon was a crazy mofo and he came THIS close to turning this country into a doctatorship.
At least it would've been a dictatorship with stringent environmental laws. That's more than you can say for W's.
The bar is easy! You just walk up, order, and drink.
"From the perspective of Washington, perhaps so. From the P.O.V. of Baghdad, however...(setting aside entirely the question of the "intelligence" used to target said bombs. No doubt they struck their intended targets."
Again, nope. We now know that the first 5 flights missed ALL their targets, hitting civilians instead.
Since there were hundreds/thousands of flights, since JDAMs are vastly overrated rudders on dumb bombs, and since the amount of JDAMs used was not as large as claimed, the civilian losses are probably in the 50,000+ range.
As you say, Robert, the intel used to target the bombs was as shakey as the rest of the lies in this for-profit farrago. It's all warcrime, all the time, back at Bushliar Central, and Racism Party headquarters.
--
"Mr. Bush, is that you talking or am I debating God right now? ANSWER THE QUESTION MR BUSH OR WHOEVER IS IN THERE!!!!!"
ROTFL! Thanks for the laugh, just read that story where Bush told a group of Amish people that god speaks through him...and A.Friend...wow, a Disclosure reference! Oh yeah, the Republicans (and their paid trolls) can GO F**K THEMSELVES!!!!!! Wow, I feel better already.
Bumper sticker I saw driving home yesterday:
Rush for Drug Czar --
Because Experience Matters
"Nixon was a crazy mofo and he came THIS close to turning this country into a doctatorship."
"At least it would've been a dictatorship with stringent environmental laws. That's more than you can say for W's.--Philalethes"
Oh, yeah, Nixon was a REAL environmentalist. His bombing campaign against SE Asia permanently altered the landscape, destroying much of the ecosystem, salting the land with UX andAgent Orange. Our hero.
Since we're on an open thread, here's my little contribution. APA findings on gay/lesbian parents. Sure, it's a limited study, but there are others.
This is just meant to address the talking point that was thrown all over the senate floor this last week about the proper form of a family.
As this summary will show, the results of existing research comparing gay and lesbian parents to heterosexual parents and children of gay or lesbian parents to children of heterosexual parents are quite uniform: common sterotypes are not supported by the data...
Summary
Overall, then, results of research to date suggest that children of lesbian and gay parents have normal relationships with peers and that their relationships with adults of both sexes are also satisfactory. The picture of lesbian mothers' children that emergesfrom results of existing research is thus one of general engagement in social life with peers, with fathers, and with mothers' adult friends--both male and female, both heterosexual and homosexual. Studies in this area to date are few, and the data emerging from them are sketchy. On the basis of existing research findings, however, fears about children of lesbians and gay men being sexually abused by adults, ostracized by peers, or isolated in single-sex lesbian or gay communities are unfounded.
Sorry, I messed up the cite tags...I took the last two paragraphs from the research summary.
Nixon was a crazy mofo and he came THIS close to turning this country into a doctatorship. W's really bad, too, but Nixon was nuts.
Nixon, stoned on megadoses of Jack Dreyfus' Remarkable Drug, was still five times as competent as W.
True enough.
But Bu$hCo is closer than many believe to establishing a dictatorship here.
It doesn't matter that almost 60% of America oppose him now.
More than 50% did during the 2000 debacle.
I don't believe these guys are going to let go of power even with a massive electoral loss.
They control the executive, legistlative, judical, and intelligence branches of the government. They have built a massive covert and corporate shadow government with international roots. In addition, many powerful individuals and corporations not directly part of the private shadow government have strong financial incentive to keep things as they are.
Unlike Nixon's, this $yndicate is not controlled by one man. It's a beast with many heads, any of which can keep it alive. Many of which, if lobbed from the body, can sprout legs to crawl off into some dark corner and grow to awful proportions again.
Friends, if we do get Kerry in office, we will have won a battle, but the war will continue.
Fear of terrorism almost kept Swifty, the officials Democratic Ass, from attending the Democratic National Convention. Fortunately, our John Kerry -- the former swift boat capatin -- and his team stepped in for Swifty and found him some accomodations.
Now that is decisive leadership in times of change!
Fear of terrorism almost kept Swifty, the officials Democratic Ass, from attending the Democratic National Convention. Fortunately, our John Kerry -- the former swift boat capatin -- and his team stepped in for Swifty and found him some accomodations.
Now that is decisive leadership in times of change!
Anecdotally, you can hear stories of wage stagnation in the face of inflation in any suburban or city neighborhood where people live from paycheck to paycheck and struggle to put something away for retirement. But today in the Sunday Times we find out that this trend is real and documented.
Can someone help me? Anybody got a link to the report that dispoved Bush's claim that the war in Iraq is fought by foriegners? I tried google and americanprogresss.org. I just think I am using wrong keyword.
George (another one) | Email | Homepage | 07.17.04 - 10:38 pm |
This is a better one!
Bush goes on to say that "desperate attacks on innocent civilians will not intimidate us". What he really means is that nobody in the US gives a fuck about a few dead ragheads and they can't even vote for me so why should I give a fuck.
Anecdotally, you can hear stories of wage stagnation in the face of inflation in any suburban or city neighborhood where people live from paycheck to paycheck and struggle to put something away for retirement. But today in the Sunday Times we find out that this trend is real and documented.
I scan CNSNews.com every once in a while just to see what the crazies over there are saying, and occassionally I get a gem. It appears that the AOL "Smarter Child" software that engages in conversations via Internet Messaging was programmed to support John Kerry and to oppose President Bush.
They changed it to reflect the average users' feelings based on an unscientific ballot, and it still prefers Kerry!
*
Artificial Intelligence
was the first thing they got wrong.
when i woke up Gaiaa was there
with memories of others......
we all are concious.
love you all!
*
"we all are concious. love you all!"
We all are couscous, if the Bushliar coup continues.
Loving racists is ridiculous. Get out the lead pipe and prepare for action.
--
ever been hit with a pipe
on the head by somebody?
creates instant hate everytime!
or you kill them with it, end game
N the story stays the same'
time for better responses
to threats and planning
you saying you can't
come up with an
alternative?
course not
violence is
the problem eh?
racism is just a symptom
No, racism is a real force, a stepping-over into dangerous evil if practiced.
Racists are not merely confused or 'in need of love.' They are bigoted, vile, antisocial bullies. Preventing them from rising up into groups or gathering unopposed is a fundamental matter of social hygiene.
You have probably not spent much time face-to-face with racists. Thus the soap-bubble peacefulness.
"If we knew in 1933 what we knew in 1945, we would have been out in the streets fighting instead of in our synagogues." (Rabbi after the Holocaust)
--
paylaşım için çok teşekkürler / very very thankss
For sharing thank you very much good very beautiful work
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