BS: A good day for Bush

Subject: BS: A good day for Bush
From: DougR
Date: 02 May 03 - 01:12 AM

Today was a terrific day for George W. Bush, and for the men and women of our armed forces. I don't know if any of you saw the landing on the aircraft carrier, and listened to GWB's speech this evening, but I thought it was just terrific. The young men and women obviously admire our president very much!

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: CarolC
Date: 02 May 03 - 01:23 AM

They were interviewing people on our local news tonight about Bush's speach. This is a pretty pro-Bush area. One of the people they interviewed was the mother of someone serving currently in the armed forces. She was in tears. She said she thought Bush only made that speach to help his election campaign. She said that even though Bush tried to make it sound like the war is pretty much over in Iraq, it is in reality far from being over. I guess she's worried about her kid.

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: GUEST,Boab
Date: 02 May 03 - 03:05 AM

More than Bush had a "good day" ---the British National [neo nazi] party attracted the votes of a fair number of eejits in the English municipal elections. Some of their candidates made terrific speeches too---pro-"coalition" to a man.

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: catspaw49
Date: 02 May 03 - 03:19 AM

A good day? Well no shit Sherlock!

Oh the campaign photos!!! There he is, the leader of the entire world, emerging from his own jet combat aircraft after a carrier landing.....togged out in a flight suit (much like the one he elected NOT to wear during VietNam) and with helmet under arm, striding across the carrier's deck!!! No Doug, we ain't gonna' see those pics appear in any of the campaign promos are we?

And the speech....one of his better diplomatic efforts at saying jack fuckin' shit nothing and sounding good. How the hell long did he have to rehearse this one to come off so well? And the following from the AP explains the lack of content:

Bush avoided the word "victory" in his speech, aides said earlier, because of political and legal considerations. A formal declaration of victory carries with it certain obligations under the Geneva Conventions, and using the word could invite questions about the continued U.S. presence in Iraq.

There are several reasons. For one, although major combat is over, skirmishes in Iraq continue as exemplified by deadly exchanges in the city of Fallujah between protesters and U.S. soldiers. Also, although Saddam Hussein's regime was toppled, the former Iraqi president and members of his inner circle, including his two sons, remain unaccounted for.

Scholars familiar with laws governing war say that a formal declaration of victory would complicate efforts by coalition forces to track down the former members of Saddam's regime.

"If we say the war is over, it makes it more difficult to pursue these individuals," said Anthony Clark Arend, professor of government and foreign service at Georgetown University. He has written a book on international law and the use of force.

The Geneva Conventions also call for the release and repatriation "without delay" of prisoners of war at the close of hostilities.

"Generally, that means you repatriate them to the existing government," Arend said. "Well, there's no place to repatriate them to."

Pentagon officials said last week there were about 7,000 Iraqi prisoners of war.

Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: Cluin
Date: 02 May 03 - 03:25 AM

So it was a good day to lie?

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: alanabit
Date: 02 May 03 - 04:47 AM

Yes it was a good day. Your pious hood of a president has begun the campaign which will inevitably see him installed in the White House for another four years - which was always the whole point of this sordid little war.

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: kendall
Date: 02 May 03 - 04:51 AM

He's almost as good an actor as Ronald Raygun.
Now, if he had LANDED that plane...

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: Trevor
Date: 02 May 03 - 04:55 AM

You've got to take a look at this, which Yorkie has just sent!

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: Greg F.
Date: 02 May 03 - 07:42 AM

obviously some gullible people are easily impressed- by nowt.

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: Peter T.
Date: 02 May 03 - 09:09 AM

Didn't Cher do this with a much more interesting costume? yours, Peter T.

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: Alba
Date: 02 May 03 - 09:16 AM

ROFLMAO
A

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: Sam L
Date: 02 May 03 - 09:31 AM

Oh. This thread is about politics. Darn.

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: Gareth
Date: 02 May 03 - 09:37 AM

As opposed to Pornography !!!!!

Gareth

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: Jim the Bart
Date: 02 May 03 - 09:53 AM

It was a good day for GWB - a man who has made a career out of being the image of success. In that way he is a lot like Ronald Reagan, another man who was more medium than message. Unfortunately, there were too-many half-truths and outright lies (the Afghanistan reference comes immediately to mind) in this performance for it to give too much comfort.

My real problem with this event was that he gave the wrong speech. He insists on bragging when he should be conciliating. He continued to beat his chest and rattle his saber when a real statesman would have begun the healing process. Having displayed his capacity for whoop-ass to his enemies in no uncertain terms, a gracious leader would have been holding out the olive branch to those in the world who might still be our friends. But Bush is a small man with a small vision.

But maybe that's just me.
After all
I'm just a liberal.
Bart

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: GUEST
Date: 02 May 03 - 09:54 AM

I really enjoyed the cheers and applause after Bush said "...the end of the civilized world."

Dead brilliant, and I'm passing it on.

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: TIA
Date: 02 May 03 - 10:39 AM

More of the same old outright lies and innuendo... talking about Iraq and Al Quaeda in the same breath, 9/11 and Iraq in the same sentence, quoting a 9/11 murderer in the same paragraph as a comment on the war in Iraq, talk of the "hundreds of sites" for WMD's in Iraq. No wonder so many Americans now think that the airliners were hijacked by Iraqis. Next year at this time we will all be convinced they were Syrians, and that we actually did find WMDs in Iraq.

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: GUEST
Date: 02 May 03 - 10:45 AM

It isn't just the Americans. The British have fallen into lock step as well, if the polls are to be believed.

Which helps expose the lie that this is about right or left, liberal or conservative, Republican or Democrat, Labour or Tory.

This is the Global Reach nightmare come to fruition--fundamentalist nationalist fervor on all sides being used to justify the elimination of all barriers to the creation of a global corporate market empire, ruled by the wealthy elite.

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: kendall
Date: 02 May 03 - 10:47 AM

It was a great day for resident Bush.
However, it is nothing more than a typical well done sound bite. He is running for re election; otherwise, he would have made this speech from the oval office.

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: catspaw49
Date: 02 May 03 - 11:17 AM

Anybody listen to the speech? reminded me of Joe McCarthy when he said that they have "located hundreds of WMDs and we have the list!"



Spaw

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: GUEST,Dreaded Guest
Date: 02 May 03 - 11:22 AM

Americans aren't buying it. The 'polls' are conducted by the govt-owned media. Viewership of the evening news programs fell off drastically during the 'war'. Americans chose not to watch the lowest point in our history as a 'free' nation. The average American knows things are badly out of kilter and the solution won't come from watching the latest diversions and lies from the network news.

A really good day for Bush will be when he murders a hundred school kids in Oct of 2004. He has signalled his approval to renew the 'assault weapon ban' in Sept of 2004. The un-American law he should logically, as a conservative gun-rights advocate, allow to expire. But he is going to renew it and extend it to .22s and 'long rifles', which means your collectible flintlock. He will lose his base of support, you would think, but there is always an 'October surprise' to boost one candidate or another just before a presidential election. So next year, when Repubs are fuming and screaming about being betrayed on weapons, the BATF will again go to work in a public school. Only in October of next year, we'll see a hundred dead in a public school, not just a dozen. And the nation will go into the election in shock with GWBush smirking and defying voters to contradict him on the gun issue.

Or at least that's the way I would do it if I was from a psycho family and didn't give a damn about human life. And when those kids get killed and the Repubs in congress point out how proud they are their president tried to prevent it, THAT will be a good day for Bush.

Remember this in Oct 2004. And watch the newsclips for the men in the black ski masks (BATF...worst of the worst...the old backwoods murderers of moonshiners). THEY will be the people gunning down the kids in the building, and the 'killers' will be dressed just like them, so the traumatized students won't really know WHO they saw. Kids are being conditioned to this right now with 'lock downs' and 'drills' where 'mock terrorists' run up and down the hallways in ski masks. It's coming, folks, but it'll be at an opportune time, and what better time than when it will get a killer elected AND lead to the banning of guns in America? You liberals better buy guns, because once they're gone, you will be the FIRST to go under a fascist regime. Buy guns and ammo.

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: GUEST
Date: 02 May 03 - 12:15 PM

But Dreaded Guest, little guns can't ever defeat the big guns. Which is why I'm relying on people of intelligence and a passionate commitment to protecting our constitutional rights, which, BTW, doesn't include the right to own an arsenal and raise your own militias to fight the government or your neighbors.

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: GUEST,pdc
Date: 02 May 03 - 12:33 PM

I'm confused. Perhaps someone from the right wing can clarify something for me. (This is not sarcasm; it is genuine confusion.)

I would assume that most of the people who post here are not among the top 5% of America's wealthy: I would assume they are middle-class, upper or lower.

Bush is allowing the American economy to go into a decline which may well be unprecedented. The middle class will be paying much higher taxes, for fewer services. Health care/education/infrastructure -- all are deteriorating rapidly.

Why, then, do the middle-class right wing people support Bush? They are not gaining any benefit from his presidency -- indeed, their lives will be diminished by his domestic policies.

I don't get it.

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: kendall
Date: 02 May 03 - 12:52 PM

They are blinded by party loyalty, and they choose to not see the cracks.

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: leprechaun
Date: 02 May 03 - 01:00 PM

I'm thinking if the economy can make even slight gains before the election, George W. Bush will win by a landslide. He's got my vote, and I didn't even hear the speech. But, what the hell, I'm a wealthy man!

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: GUEST,Dreaded Guest
Date: 02 May 03 - 01:01 PM

Trauma-based mind control. Turn off your TV. Nazi death-camp psychologists were torturing for a specific reason...mind control. The US gave those guys safe-haven after WW2 and started up the CIA so they could continue their work secretly (at the same time TV was coming on the scene). 55 years later we have an absolute control system in place. Americans can be taught to buy anything if it is sold with fear. Clinton/Bush killed 3,000 on Sept 11, and they won't let us forget it. It will be the factor which pushes us over the next ten years toward a fascistic slave-state. The middle class will be shown a clip of the towers falling anytime we object to a tax to 'fight the war' or a tax cut for the wealthy 'anti-terrorists'. Americans have been hooked on special effects and soap operas and reality TV...

The Justice Dept, for example, has 40 million bucks per year budgeted for 'idea placement'. Like coke and Pepsi using product placement in movies, Ashcroft's people insert lines/characters/story ideas in TV and movie scripts. I expect, because of this, you'll start seeing a lot more Iranian and Syrians as bad guys on TV before long. Because that's where the 'perpetual war' is going. And when the invasion of Iran comes, you'll support it because that guy on Oprah last week said some Iranians hurt a puppy. Simple as that. Americans buy what they are sold on TV, including politics.

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: GUEST
Date: 02 May 03 - 01:08 PM

Many people feel more secure with authoritarian rule, a fact which has always vexed social democrats, liberals, and progressive thinkers. Knowing that fact is one reason why all the Western democracies have majoritarian rule built into their constitutions.

Also, people who feel more secure with authoritarian rule (and these are the people who love Bush as Commander in Chief, Bush the military man, etc while remaining skeptical of him as a peacetime president who will restore our rapidly fading era of economic prosperity) vote Republican. The Neo-Cons are masters at manipulating these sorts of people who want the world to be black and white, so they don't have to be bothered with thinking about the complex political problems. These people usually don't vote their pocketbooks, the way the wealthy or the poor do. They cast their votes based upon who makes the best emotional appeals to their sense of security.

DougR is our resident who best reflects this sort of voter, so maybe you could ask him why he supports the Neo-Cons so stridently, and everything they do without blinking an eye. DougR is the kind of guy who just follows orders, because that is what makes him feel good, feel safe, and feel emotionally fulfilled by appeals to patriotism, etc. But we all know people like this. Hell, we have family members like this. They often define themselves as "independents" in terms of political affiliation, but most often vote for Republicans, and secondarily, for Libertarians. DougR isn't the only one here at Mudcat--there are a number of folks who form their political worldviews this way. We went from the John Wayne folk to the Tom Cruise/Bruce Willis folk generationally, but it is all the same mindset.

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: CarolC
Date: 02 May 03 - 01:11 PM

GUEST,pdc, you live in a country whose media is (relatively) free and open. We in the US do not have a free and open media. All we have is a well oiled propaganda machine that is owned and run by special interests. One of the psychological tactics that is used fairly successfully by this propaganda machine to manipulate people into being silently complicit with the government, whatever it does, is the promotion of the idea that it is unpatriotic to criticize or in any way question the government, and most particularly, the president.

(Except if the president is Bill Clinton, or anyone else who is not a right-wing Republican, and then it's unpatriotic to not criticize the president ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: GUEST
Date: 02 May 03 - 01:18 PM

BTW, I meant to add that people who identify themselves as 'independents' in the US but vote Libertarian, in my experience, are people who want everyone else to submit to authoritarian rule, but themselves. That way they personally benefit from sidestepping all those nasty, conscience troubling democratic ideals that make people who are 'looking out for number one' not seem so crassly selfish.

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: TIA
Date: 02 May 03 - 01:19 PM

pdc:

I share your confusion. I have never seen so many people voting against their own interests and rabidly supporting politicians who are actively working against them. I know it's a loaded word, but I can only conclude that people have been brainwashed. They have been conditioned to so detest anything that is branded "liberal", or "left-wing", or "DemocRAT", or "elite", or "socialist" that they cannot or will not contemplate the actual issue and its ramifications. Even if a program or policy would actually be good for them (i.e. middle-class or lower people), they reject it if it has been branded as liberal by the right-wingers and their propaganda machine. The same damn program or proposal can be trotted out at another time and place by a right-wing politician, and it is embraced! (Actual example of this type of double standard - yesterday, I actually heard Rush Limbaugh ranting against "...the constant drumbeat of criticism directed at the President..." Holy Sh_t! Who WAS the constant drumbeat of criticism for 8 years?!?)

It seems that folks care more about party lines and labels than substance, they don't bother to get information from differing sources, and they often don't make up their own minds - just spout the propaganda.

I find it truly scarey.

If I've got this all wrong, I'd welcome clarification too.

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: GUEST
Date: 02 May 03 - 01:34 PM

A good example of this is the lukewarm support for Bush's second tax cut. Now, the only people his second tax cut would benefit is the very wealthy, because it is intended to wipe out all taxation of dividend income, which is something only the upper middle class and extremely wealthy benefit from. It helps bring them down into the lower income tax brackets, effectively allowing the richest people to pay taxes as if they are in the same economic circumstances as the poorest people in the country.

Remember, the tax system overhaul was intended to make the system more fair--that those who had much, much more than the majority of citizens, would pay a higher percentage of their income in taxes, than those who have much, much less than the majority of citizens. Hence the two tiered income tax bracket solution, which was bi-partisan.

Well, ever since it was passed, you've heard the Republicans screaming for capital gains tax relief, ending of what they call 'the marriage penalty' (Republicans got even richer when their wives went to work), any loop hole they can think of that will put them in the lower income tax bracket. Those people always vote Republican, because the only thing they care about is themselves and their money. The could give a shit about public education (for one example), because they don't send their children to public schools like the rest of us do.

No one from left or right, Democratic or Republican parties is raising the question of why we are passing a tax cut for the rich, when the people we should be helping right now are the exploding ranks of the unemployed. Has anyone heard any talk lately about addressing the now 6% (and growing by leaps and bounds every month) unemployment rate?

I agree it doesn't make any rational sense that so many people will vote against their own enlightened self-interest. But you have to understand just how many people are 'go along to get along' type folks, who will never rock the boat, no matter how bad it gets for them. They are too afraid of losing the little they have, if they step out of line. A very wise South Dakota rancher friend of mine calls this the 'hired hand' mentality. Others call it the 'right to work for less' mentality. These sorts of people 'know their place'. They are often in the majority in places like the Deep South and the Old West. Also the regions who vote Republican without thinking, just as they used to vote Democratic without thinking until the Democrats became the party associated with changing the race laws.

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: GUEST,Dreaded Guest
Date: 02 May 03 - 01:49 PM

All national-level leaders are on the same tyrannical team. GWBush and Ted Kennedy want the same thing...total social control. The far left and far right have found common ground in the bankrupting of America (benefits the rich Republicans and makes 99% dependent on Democratic social-control measures), so there is no longer any debate on economics in Washington. Both parties have the pedal to the metal driving us to financial collapse. These are NOT our leaders. They have violated their oaths to the Constitution. They are traitors and organized criminals.

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: Ebbie
Date: 02 May 03 - 02:11 PM

Tia said something I think bears repeating: More of the same old outright lies and innuendo... talking about Iraq and Al Quaeda in the same breath, 9/11 and Iraq in the same sentence, quoting a 9/11 murderer in the same paragraph as a comment on the war in Iraq, talk of the "hundreds of sites" for WMD's in Iraq. No wonder so many Americans now think that the airliners were hijacked by Iraqis. Next year at this time we will all be convinced they were Syrians, and that we actually did find WMDs in Iraq.

I suspect that is exactly what will happen unless we are somehow able to educate the people NOW as to what actually did happen, and since the 'people' are already buying the canard there's not much hope of waking them up LATER. Man. I think I see the handbasket.

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: GUEST
Date: 02 May 03 - 02:25 PM

OK, if people aren't watching the news anymore, just how exactly is it that they hear the propaganda?

Nah, this isn't about what anyone is actually saying. People don't watch the news anymore. This is about what people want to believe. They don't want to believe the American sky is falling, so any time we kick some brown skinned ass militarily, it gives them the security fix they think they need. Our leader is strong. The brown skinned hordes will not invade us and destroy our way of life.

Voting Republican has much more to do with race issues than class issues. People who vote Republican would much rather believe that our economy going to hell is the fault of brown skinned fanatics, than the well dressed white men in suits cynically plundering the nation in the name of a white capitalist god and homeland.

I mean think about it. Isn't it just easier to go along and say it was the 9/11 terrorists who destroyed this great nation's economy, rather than have to think about the fact that those handsome, strong men who say they love and care about us and the patriotic sacrifices we make for our fatherland?

Remember, in places with good education systems, getting an education is your ticket out of poverty. Everywhere else, especially in the South where the generations of poverty still dictates peoples' thinking, you enlist just like you papa did, believing that Uncle Sam will take care of you for life. That is a pretty damn strong incentive to vote Republican, especially in the southern states where the public education system is a joke.

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: Beccy
Date: 02 May 03 - 02:27 PM

Hey GUEST, anon... You sure sling a lot of ideological arrows for being too wussy to identify yourself.

Did it occur to you that perhaps DougR thinks for himself and ends up agreeing with the hated "neo-cons" that you detest so much? Do you know him personally to be a strict follower or do you make assumptions based upon your ideological differences with him? Hmmmm????

Beccy

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: Ebbie
Date: 02 May 03 - 02:34 PM

Incidentally, I agree that it was obvious that the president had a 'good day', he was beaming like a kid whose wildest dreams have come true. The problem is that this is the PRESIDENT and if our PRESIDENT is not more in touch with the realities than that, the whole country cannot be less confused.

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: GUEST
Date: 02 May 03 - 02:37 PM

Beccy, I base my opinions of DougR on what he has written over time in this forum, nothing else. The great thing about the anonymity offered by the Internet is we actually get a chance to know each other based upon our ideas and opinions, rather than superficial things like appearance, where we live and work, who we associate with/are related to, that sort of thing.

Which is why I enjoy my time getting to know people by their ideas and opinions, rather than whether they wear fancy or shoddy looking clothes, or if they are related to THOSE people.

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: Nerd
Date: 02 May 03 - 02:39 PM

GUEST--I love the so-called "marriage penalty," but my favorite piece of right wing bullshit rhetoric is the "death tax." They like to make it sound as if you have to pay money for dying! In fact, you have to pay money in order to leave more than $600,000 in unsheltered wealth behind, to which the vast majority of Americans should say "boo hoo f*ck you."

The GOP hammers away at the unfairness of the "death tax," by claiming that it "taxes your money twice" since you already paid income tax. Well, doesn't sales tax also tax my money twice? I paid income tax on that money too! Who said I'd only pay one tax on each dollar? Where do they get this BUSHit? Then they make it sound like the primary people affected by the "death tax" are "family owned farms and small businesses," which have a net worth above the limit but maintain a number of family members. No one thinks to say: well, make a law exempting family farms, but leave the part where rich tycoons pay some taxes when they pass billions on to their playboy heirs. It's sickening how cynical and nakedly greedy this rhetoric really is!

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: GUEST
Date: 02 May 03 - 02:46 PM

Well, they already got away with stealing everyone's pensions didn't they? Now they are busy looting Social Security. First, they told worker clones to buy into the stock market through mutual fund pension plans--we were told that savings plans and CDs were for dumb poor people. So many of those barely with a foot in the middle class door bought into them, and poof! Their retirement savings disappeared in a NY Stock Exchange fraud minute!

Now they are telling us to use Social Security savings to invest in--you guessed it--the same ole privateers who looted their retirement IRAs and pensions. The right wing is so much better at this than UMW and AFL-CIO ever was, don't you think?

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: CarolC
Date: 02 May 03 - 02:52 PM

;-)

Where's the AARP when you need them?

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: GUEST
Date: 02 May 03 - 02:57 PM

CarolC, don't tell me you haven't joined yet? :)

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: CarolC
Date: 02 May 03 - 02:59 PM

I've got another three years before I have to decide ;-)

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: GUEST,Dreaded Guest
Date: 02 May 03 - 04:22 PM

Americans get their news from sit coms and 'dramas'. Not the news. The news is kind of peripheral...an obligatory thing to have rattling away in the background...so some of the propaganda is spread that way, but mostly the 'news' programs mislead by emphasizing the wrong stories or wrong aspects of the stories. Sure there's been no investigation of Sept 11, but a woman lost a son in the WTC, news at eleven.

Some people consider the Hollywood tabloid shows to be 'the news', and I know quite a few folks who display no knowledge of a news story unless Jay Leno mentioned it the night before.

The MASS brainwashing is done by the tube, and then there are the lesser forms like radio, print, disinformation on the internet, so on. Americans are slaves to television. The Justice Department knows the score and spends 40 mil a year making sure the characters on 'Friends' crack jokes about the militia and 'conspiracy theories'.

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: Don Firth
Date: 02 May 03 - 05:53 PM

Two articles worth reading.

Coagulation.
How to Stir the Soup.

Let's get crackin', folks!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: Ebbie
Date: 02 May 03 - 06:51 PM

Don, that's a great article. The problem is in knowing which comes first. If the Democratic party gets a flood of recruits, who's to say it won't believe that it's already on the right track?

What I've been doing in answering each fundraising plea is to return it to them along with a letter in which I say that I will not donate another dollar to the Democratic party until it wakes up and goes back to being the party of the people, that right now it is 'Republican Light" and that is not what we need from them.

I even got a call from Washington DC headquarters regarding my letter; he said that I can't abandon the party when the stakes are so high. I said that I can, because the party is not thinking for itself...

So how do we get started?

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: GUEST,pdc
Date: 02 May 03 - 10:47 PM

To Don Firth:

The article in your second link "How To Take Back America" should be required reading for every American who thinks.

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: GUEST,pdc
Date: 02 May 03 - 10:51 PM

Sorry, hit the wrong button. The following are opinions only:

The reason that the far right Republicans were able to take over the country is because they were cohesive. The reason they were/are cohesive is because they only have one issue: what is good for them.

People on the left are far more diverse than people on the right -- they are concerned about a great number of issues, many of them involving others: poverty, civil rights, equality . . . you get the picture. Trouble is, that very diversity prevents the left from forming a cohesive group to challenge the right. They simply have too many areas of focus.

Two solutions: 1) both sides swing toward the center, like the US used to be. Probably impossible. 2) Somehow Democrats have got to unite in one aim, which is to rid the country of Bush. I think that would involve putting aside all other issues until this is accomplished. Probably improbable!

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: Don Firth
Date: 03 May 03 - 02:23 AM

pdc, exactly so.

And Ebbie, the trick is don't just donate money, but actively participate. Attend meetings, caucuses, speak out. Tell them to their faces firmly and often until they get it. You'll probably find that there are others there who agree with you and will back what you say. Sometimes it just takes one person. If this is important to you, be that person.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: DougR
Date: 03 May 03 - 04:37 AM

Geeze! I'm shocked! I thought all of you would grasp the significance of GWB's speech but I guess not. Oh well.

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: GUEST
Date: 03 May 03 - 08:44 AM

I'm curious DougR, as I didn't see the speech. What do think the significance of the speech was? I ask because the mainstream media is spinning this as the greatest 6 hour free commercial for the opening of a presidential election campaign of all time. A sitting president opening his election campaign for a second term doesn't seem to be particularly significant, as it happens every couple of years, on schedule, with much more fanfare than it deserves. The script to his speech was given to the media the day before, and there was nothing of substance in it.

But I don't watch TV news, especially not the cable networks, which I understand were the networks that carried the 6 hour photo op as "news" when what it amounted to was a Khadaffi-style show of military pomp and circumstance for international propaganda purposes, and to get that footage for the upcoming election campaign paid for by our tax dollars, here at home.

So I'm curious to hear what you think the significance of this was, as there was no major policy announcement. There was a lot of breastbeating, war whooping, and victory gloating. And a grown man dressed in jet fighter clothes looking ridiculous. I was embarrassed for him, when I saw him trying to get his footing on deck, idiotic childish grin on his face, with everyone around him looking tense and uncomfortable.

BTW, I saw that on the Daily Show, my regular source for American mainstream television news.

Subject: RE: BS: A good day for Bush
From: CarolC
Date: 03 May 03 - 11:54 AM

I had a bit of a realization this morning. It occurs to me that for most of US history, our goal has been democracy and freedom. And it is those principles that we have fought for and defended. I think somewhere along the line, the focus of the US shifted away from democracy and freedom. Now the principle the US is focusing on, its real goal, is power. And it is that principle that we are fighting for and defending, even at the expense of democracy and freedom. This celebration of our military might by Bush on the aircraft carrier being a small example of this. It reminds me of the mentality behind the Soviet Union's big display of military might in its May 1 parades.

With that in mind, I don't think it would matter which party was in control. I think the only thing that will shift this focus back to what is good for humanity rather than what is good for power, will be when the majority of people in the US see what is happening and they decide that it's not what they want for their country.