BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 17 Nov 04 - 06:02 PM

The War in Iraq Cost the United States
$145,626,209,182 as of 14:58 PST today.

Robert Scheer discusses the moral profile of Dick Cheney in this article entitled The Man Behind the Oval Office Curtain. He says, inter alia:

"Lately, as the war has become an unmitigated disaster for the United States and Iraq, Cheney and the President have been on the defensive against charges by numerous terrorism experts--and presidential candidate John F. Kerry--that the invasion of Iraq was a dangerous distraction from the fight against Al Qaeda and its affiliates.


Undaunted, Cheney tells us the Jordanian-born terrorist Abu Musab Zarqawi, who has been blamed for many anti-American attacks in Iraq, originally entered Iraq with Hussein's permission; thus Cheney tries to post facto justify the invasion as a legitimate pillar of the war on terror. But it's just another lie, with the CIA stating the opposite: The fundamentalist Zarqawi first sneaked into Hussein's secular and nationalist dictatorship using a false identity.


That Cheney clearly has a huge personal interest in the war makes all of this that much more sickening."

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: RichM
Date: 17 Nov 04 - 04:46 PM

American taxpayers-even bushitters- are soon going to start getting uneasy about the cost of all these foreign expeditions!

Wave goodbye to your dollars

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 16 Nov 04 - 11:57 PM

It would appear from this piece that Tony Blair is (a) distancing himself a bit from the US and (b)encouraging the US to adapt Kerry's platform.

Hmmmm. Why?

"London, England, Nov. 16 (UPI) -- British Prime Minister Tony Blair urged the United States to reach out to the rest of the world and adopt a more multilateral approach to international affairs."

(Washington Times/UPI)

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 16 Nov 04 - 10:48 PM

Robert Scheer writing for the Los Angeles Timers in an article called

The Peter Principle and the Neocon Coup discusses " the wholesale political revenge campaign being waged by the hard-liners in the Bush administration against anybody and everybody inside the government who challenged the way the second Persian Gulf war in a decade was marketed and run".

Excerpt:

Out: Secretary of State Colin Powell, whose political epitaph should now read, "You break it, you own it" for his prescient but unwanted warning to the president on the danger of imperial overreach in Iraq.

Out: Top CIA officials who dared challenge, behind the scenes, the White House's unprecedented exploitation of raw intelligence data in order to sell a war to a Congress and a public hungry for revenge after 9/11.

Out: Veteran CIA counterterrorism expert and Osama bin Laden hunter Michael Scheuer, better known as the best-selling author "Anonymous," whose balanced and devastating critiques of the Iraq war, the CIA and the way President Bush is handling the war on terror have been a welcome counterpoint to the "it's true if we say it's true" idiocy of the White House PR machine.

---

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 16 Nov 04 - 10:16 PM

The Guardian offers a rather pessimistic view of Bush's record of broken promises contrasted with Blair's optimism regarding same and Middle East peace.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST,Werner
Date: 16 Nov 04 - 08:48 PM

US President George W. Bush has invited his Sudanese counterpart Omar al-Beshir to sign an expected peace accord with the country's southern rebels in Washington

WVB

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST,Opie
Date: 16 Nov 04 - 08:00 PM

US President George W. Bush urged both President Omar el-Bashir of Sudan and that country's main rebel leader to reach a peace deal when negotiations resume in late November, the White House said.


O

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 16 Nov 04 - 07:51 PM

Martin:

The majority of the posts on this thread are pointers to articles in the public media, you half-witted sociopath.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Once Famous
Date: 16 Nov 04 - 07:31 PM

It is time to hijack this thread, or at least send it to the FBI so they can see one man's obsessivness with a hate of a president.

Amos, you could frighten a lot of people, nore than half of the voters in this country with this obsessive ranting.

I am going to contribute something useful to this thread and that is whether the Cubs will or will not trade Sammy Sosa.

Sosa, the Cubs all-time home run leader is now very unpopular with the fans.

Do you think any team would be interested in him?

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST,Amos
Date: 16 Nov 04 - 02:16 PM

Mark Geibert raves about corruption in high places in an article entitled George W. Bush Is The Most Corrupt President In History .

He feels the country has gone a bit mad, and I certainly sympathize.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Nov 04 - 11:31 AM

You are mistaken, Guest. I am in the mode of persisting toward truth in the presence of great and redundant and multiplexed falsehoods.

I appreciate the Freudian definitions, Siggy, but I assure you I am as capable or more than the average bear at discriminating between Now and Then.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST,Siggy
Date: 16 Nov 04 - 10:02 AM

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder is defined as a disorder that compels a person to commit ritualistic actions that prevent them from functioning in normal society. Though many speculate about the origin of such a disorder, the most prominent of "arguers," namely Sigmund Freud and Judith Rapoport, claim two such distinct theories for the cause of such a disorder. Comparatively, though Freud's theory of "psychological trauma" shows many examples and probable answers to the origins of OCD, Rapoport's "physiological stimulus" also gives compelling information.

-----Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, or Obsessive Neurosis (as Sigmund Freud refers to it), is seen (by Freud) as an effect of past traumatic experiences. According to him, a person with such a past is then liable to go through unexplainable ritualistic motion often times unconsciously which then debilitate the person from functioning in a normal society.

S. Freud

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST
Date: 16 Nov 04 - 09:32 AM

Holy shit Batman! Amos is in meltdown mode!

Robin

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 16 Nov 04 - 09:07 AM

President Chirac makes a series of subtle Gallic observations that essentialy call the Bush boys a bunch of banderlogues not to be trusted.

But he does it in classically indirect French style. Interview and report in the London Times

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 16 Nov 04 - 12:46 AM

?

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 16 Nov 04 - 12:45 AM

Some interesting background on the intermingled roles of Dick Cheney, Rumsfeld, George H. W. Bush, and Saddam Hussein and weapons of mass destruction can be found at this site which documents some little-known aspects of American support for Saddam Hussein.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 16 Nov 04 - 12:03 AM

Thanks, Martin, for your usual helpful and insightful post.

I am persistent, but only a one-eyed fool would confuse that with obsession.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Once Famous
Date: 15 Nov 04 - 09:50 PM

Amos

You are a complete sick in the head idiot and if you say that you are not obsessive, just count how many times you posted to this thread.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST,Opie
Date: 15 Nov 04 - 09:14 PM

"President Bush is aiming to use his second term to work with other countries to secure and dismantle nuclear weapons and halt the black market in nuclear materials to prevent startups by other countries."

O

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 15 Nov 04 - 09:06 PM

"WASHINGTON - President Bush (news - web sites) has selected Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites), his national security adviser and trusted confidant, to replace Colin Powell (news - web sites) as secretary of state, officials said Monday, in a major shakeup of the president's national security team. Three other Cabinet secretaries also resigned.


Powell, a retired four-star general who often clashed on Iraq (news - web sites) and other foreign policy issues with more hawkish members of Bush's administration, said he was returning to private life once his successor was in place."


HOLY MOLY!! No wonder Condi did such a dumbass job -- she was in the wrong position!! She was diplomacy, not security!! Wow -- isn't it great we got that cleared up?? Now we'll see international relations fly!!!

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Nov 04 - 08:39 PM

The cut and paste was for whining idiots who cannot reach the URL on their own and then complain.

"In his first trip abroad since winning a second term, US President George W. Bush heads to an Asia-Pacific summit in Chile hoping to revive global trade talks and kill off North Korea's nuclear program."

O

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 15 Nov 04 - 07:59 PM

In The Ultimate Felony Against Democracy Thom Hartman cries out against the corruption of a sacrosanct basic public process: voting. And for good reason.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 15 Nov 04 - 07:54 PM

According to Knut Royce of Newsday the White House is ordering the CIA to purge anyone not loyal to Bush from its ranks.

Well, that's only fair, seeing as how he has such a compelling mandate from the nation.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 15 Nov 04 - 04:15 AM

Oy, vey!! Wot kinda shmuck would do such a thing as cut and paste so much stuff?

Better HTML you should learn.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST,Opie
Date: 15 Nov 04 - 02:25 AM

J F Kerry Divorced.

G W Bush not divorced.

"George Bush`s America: Moral Beacon in a Dark World
Posted 11/10/2004
By Rabbi Shmuley Boteach
The American people have once again demonstrated that they are the most glorious on earth.

The entire world ganged up on them to dump a moral president whose signature issue was a belief that people have a right to be free. Europe mobilized its millions in the streets to show their hatred of this man and his ideals. The UN frowned at his speeches and treated him with contempt. Hollywood and the recording industry unleashed its superstars to prevail upon the American people that they dare not reelect a monster. And Osama bin Laden released a video tape informing individual states that if they voted against Bush they would be free from terrorist attack.

In the end, even American Jews abandoned this steadfast friend of Israel and gave John Kerry 75 percent of their votes.

Never in the history of the United States has more pressure been brought to bear on the American electorate to dump a leader whose values the world so loathed. But in the end, not the glamour of Hollywood, nor the threats of terrorists, nor the alienation of Europe, nor the condescension of the UN, could break the American people̓s commitment to a moral presidency.

With all the pressure in the world to become like the rest of the world — overlooking genocide and making deals with tyrants — the American people voted to retain a faith-based presidency, even if it meant going it alone. Exit polls showed that morality, even more than security, was the single biggest issue animating American voters.

The rise of the moral voter is an earthquake that has forever changed the American political landscape. Who would ever have seriously believed that morality would be the single biggest consideration for politicians? But there it is. Gone are the days when politicians can seek office merely by pandering to voters by promising them jobs, health care, and pork. Now, politicians who want to connect with the electorate will be forced to articulate a powerful moral vision of something worth fighting for. Bush did this with his constant focus on the fight for human freedom and his pledge to protect the family.

This election was never really about Bush, Kerry, or even Iraq. Nor was it a referendum on conservative verses liberal. Rather, it was a challenge to the very notion of whether faith-as-policy had any place in a modern, technologically-advanced republic. And the victory was not for a man and his followers but for a belief in right and wrong and how religious conviction must be first translated into protecting human life through a fight against tyranny and state-sponsored murder.

Those Bush supporters who gloat over the blow inflicted on Bush̓s opponents betray an arrogance which in turn betrays a lack of commitment to moral principles, thereby eroding the cause for which the victory was sought. Michael Moore and Al Gore can rant all they like that Bush is a religious fraud, that he went into Iraq for oil and power rather than security and humanitarian concerns. Why vindicate their meanspiritedness with a meanspiritedness of our own? Why trivialize a moral victory by making it a personal victory?

Right and wrong does not belong to President Bush or any of the people who voted for him, but is rather the eternal inheritance of all of God̓s children, and in that sense, even those who voted against Bushshare in his victory.

I am well aware that many Americans approach the increasing religiosity and moral commitment of the body politic with foreboding. They fear a theocracy that will be oppressive and infringe upon their rights. It is for Bush supporters to refute this unjust fear by demonstrating not only magnanimity in victory but a deep commitment to harmony and unity.

In behaving modestly in victory, Bush̓s supporters have no better example than President Bush himself. Many things have impressed me about this president over the past few years, but perhaps none more so than his refusal to respond in kind to those who called him a liar and compared him to Hitler. Here was the most powerful man on earth who consistently ignored the savage attacks on his character and instead went humbly on with his work. The American people have rewarded this humility with a considerable mandate which I trust he will continue to use over the next four years to fight evil and pursue justice.

Israel Can Learn From America

Although they have become the most hated nation on earth for doing so, Americans chose another four years of a faith-based presidency and were happy to continue with their pariah president, even if that meant being rejected by the international community for their commitment to a moral foreign policy.

If only Israelis would follow their close ally̓s example and behave more like a chosen nation themselves. Unfortunately, the United States and Israel could not be headed in more different directions.

President Bush̓s stunning victory was a mandate from the people for a more moral nation. The contrast with Israel could not be more stark; an Israeli prime minister speaking about God is the certain kiss of electoral death.

Most Americans would find it shocking that the political leaders of the Jewish nation, who gifted the Creator to the world, would never consider mentioning G-d for fear of alienating a majority secular electorate who are deeply distrustful of faith. In this respect, Israeli leaders are more like European leaders who are about as likely to invoke the name of God as they are the name of Zeus.

Then there is the fact that the majority of Americans just don̓t care about being cut off from the rest of the world. In this election the American people made a resounding judgment: If America is right and the world is wrong, we will show them our contempt.

John Kerry̓s central campaign platform was the need to rebuild frayed alliances with Europe and the UN that he said were damaged by Bush administration "arrogance." In the end, Americans decided that their strength lay not in being popular but in being moral. An America that finds Europe and the UN arrogant, dishonorable, and condescending is content to live in splendid isolation. Kofi Annan can stick up for Saddam, and Jacques Chirac can visit Arafat in the hospital. We̓d rather not be invited to that party.

Yet Israel continues to grovel before the Europeans for acceptance and has always been a supplicant for UN approval. I am well aware of the old argument, that America is a superpower that can go it alone but Israel is a tiny country in need of friends.

But that argument is unpersuasive, first because Israel has a phenomenal friend in the United States and can easily be strong and secure with that friendship alone. And second, because Israelis should have learned by now that no matter how many concessions they make to the Arabs, they will forever be rejected by the international community in favor of the Palestinians.

Since that is the case, better to build your walls, protect your people, and proclaim your contempt for the world̓s amorality, just as Americans have.

Finally, there is the colossal discrepancy between how the United States and Israel have decided to deal with a terrorist insurgency. American soldiers are being attacked and killed in greater number in Iraq than even Israeli soldiers in Gaza. The pundits were convinced for this eason that the American people would choose John Kerry̓s "wrong war" philosophy over George Bush̓s "no retreat" pledge. In the end, the American people decided they would not be pushed out of Iraq by a bunch of murderous thugs, because that would only produce more murderous thugs.

But Sharon̓s withdrawal from Gaza under fire is sure to vastly increase terrorist pressure on Israel in every corner of its land. Any terrorist leader who sees the shrinking borders of Israel that began with the Camp David accords twenty-five years ago can only conclude that the goal of pushing Israel into the sea is slowly becoming a reality.

Nobody wants to see Israeli soldiers die in Gaza, just as no one wants to see American soldiers die in Iraq. But while the Americans understand that withdrawing the troops will lead to more American deaths at home, Sharon mistakenly believes that withdrawing the troops will lead to international acceptance of Israel̓s claim to most of the West Bank and partial pacification of the Palestinians.

By retreating under fire, Sharon has proven himself to be the John Kerry of Israeli politics when what Israel really needs is its own George Bush.

From the earliest days of the American republic, the patriots who built this nation drew upon the biblical idea of a chosen nation as the inspiration behind the struggle against British tyranny. Yet, since its founding, Israel̓s leaders have totally missed the universality of Israel̓s chosenness to the rest of the world. Ever week hundreds of American Christians write to me about how much they love Israel and see in its founding the fulfillment of a biblical prophecy for the Jews to bring blessing to the world from their ancient homeland.

How ironic that while 70 million born-again Christians believe that with all their heart, the average secular Israeli would scoff at such a notion.

Why I Love Evangelical Christians

The impact the American evangelical voting block has had on world affairs is incalculable and explains why there has been a revolution in the way the world does business. The staunch support of evangelical Christians has enabled George W. Bush to pursue a foreign policy based not on expediency or realpolitik, but on a deep-seated morality wherein tyrants are punished and the oppressed liberated. These policies would have been unthinkable without the steadfast support of Bush̓s die-hard constituency of evangelical Christians who comprise one-quarter of the American electorate.

I am a Jew who is deeply in love with evangelical Christians. Although I am at odds with them on various issues, they today constitute the most potent force for good in America, and the most influential constituency who consistently demands that America be a nation of justice, standing up for the persecuted and living up to its founding ideals of serving as a global beacon of freedom.

To be sure, I am devoted to Judaism. Wild horses and iron combs could never pry me away from my Jewish identity and I have devoted my life to the dissemination of Jewish ideas in the mainstream culture and to bringing wayward Jews back to their heritage. But I must give credit where credit is due. And evangelical Christians, more than any other group today, are responsible for America being a godly country.

Whenever I am in the company of evangelical Christians, I feel completely at home, among true brothers and sisters of faith. More so, I feel inspired. When evangelical Christians talk to me about God, they speak with an immediacy and sense of intimacy which is both inspiring and impressive. To the evangelicals, God is a loving father rather than a distant relative. And unlike secularists who love making up their own morality, evangelical Christians humbly submit to the Divine will. The potency of evangelical faith is manifest in their being at the forefront of feeding the hungry, curing the sick, and giving clothing to the poor.

Unlike so many Americans, evangelical Christians utterly reject materialism. They raise godl children who are open-hearted and uncorrupted. Evangelical Christian parents protect their children from a corrosive culture that is so harmful to America̓s youth. The evangelicals have created their own music, TV and film industries which promote values-based entertainment as opposed to crude sexual exploitation. Their women are taught to value themselves and would never contemplate surrendering their bodies to a man who has not committed to them in marriage. And their men are taught to value women and to work to be worthy of them.

This is not to say I don̓t have serious disagreements with evangelicals. It is on the subject of Jesus, especially, and other related theological questions, that I am, of course, most distant from my evangelical brothers and sisters. I have had many televised debates against leading evangelicals forcefully rejecting Jesus as the Jewish messiah. But for all that, I have never felt any emotional distance from the evangelicals.

Many of my Jewish brethren reject evangelical Christians as dogmatic and intolerant. In so doing they are guilty of themselves of rejecting one of Judaism̓s most seminal teachings: to judge a man by his actions rather than his beliefs. Just try to find kinder, more compassionate people who are more willing to assist their fellow man in a time of crisis, than the evangelicals. And this is especially true of the evangelical love for Israel.

As an American Jew, I have two great loves: the United States and Israel. The Talmud says that what makes Israel unique is that God̓s presence is a tangible reality in the Holy Land. In Israel, one can sense and feel God̓s holy presence. Thanks largely to evangelical Christians, the same is true today of the United States. God is alive and well in America. And it is primarily for that reason that this great country is so blessed.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach is a nationally syndicated radio host daily from 2-5 p.m. EST on the Liberty Broadcasting Network, and was named by Talkers magazine as one of America̓s 100 most important talk-radio hosts. A bestselling author of 14 books, his latest work is "The Private Adam: Becoming a Hero in a Selfish Age" (HarperCollins)."

O

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST,Harpo
Date: 15 Nov 04 - 02:21 AM

Why Democrats got boost from sex offenders
By John Patterson Daily Herald State Government Editor
Posted April 07, 2003
SPRINGFIELD - A former state worker with Democratic ties at a Joliet treatment center for the state's most dangerous sex offenders registered more than 125 of them to vote last fall.
Voting patterns show the child molesters, rapists and other sexual deviants overwhelmingly supported Democrats.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 01:09 PM

The International Herald Tribune calls for a spirited public debate on the US Commission on Human Rights report on the Bush Administrations record on civil rights in this editorial.

Excerpt:"The report, which is still available online, is a scathing 166-page assessment of an administration that has, at best, neglected core civil rights issues. It cites numerous examples of administration attempts to replace affirmative action with "race neutral" alternatives, or to recast taxpayers' support for religious institutions as a civil right for people of faith, rather than as a constitutional issue involving the separation of church and state."

"In telling research into the way that Bush uses talk of civil rights to promote his own agenda, the report says that of Bush's public statements on civil rights, only 17 percent have outlined plans of action. It criticizes the president for using the See more of the world that matters - click here for home delivery of the International Herald Tribune.
< < Back to Start of Article


In a rare gesture of transparency, a majority of the eight commissioners on the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights voted in 2002 to put the agency's staff reports on the Internet as soon as they are completed (www.usccr.gov). That way, the public can read them before the commissioners hold public hearings to discuss the staff's findings.
.
The latest report - an assessment of President George W. Bush's civil rights record - was put on the agency's Web site in September. But at their October meeting, the commissioners declined to discuss it. The four commissioners appointed by Bush and the congressional Republican leadership managed to put off any discussion until the postelection meeting, scheduled for Friday.
.
Now, the commission owes the public a spirited debate, especially if, as the report indicates, the apparent aim of the Bush administration is to break with long-established civil rights tactics and priorities.
.
This question takes on a new urgency with the appointment of the White House counsel, Alberto Gonzales, as the next attorney general because he was deeply involved in the formulation of administration policy on these issues in the first term.
.
The report, which is still available online, is a scathing 166-page assessment of an administration that has, at best, neglected core civil rights issues. It cites numerous examples of administration attempts to replace affirmative action with "race neutral" alternatives, or to recast taxpayers' support for religious institutions as a civil right for people of faith, rather than as a constitutional issue involving the separation of church and state.
.
In telling research into the way that Bush uses talk of civil rights to promote his own agenda, the report says that of Bush's public statements on civil rights, only 17 percent have outlined plans of action. It criticizes the president for using the language of civil rights - terms like "remove barriers" and "equal access" - to frame his case.



A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 12:53 PM

The Alameda times laments the atmosphere of fear surrounding the refusal to air Saving Private Ryan, and attributes it to the rampant conservatism espoused by the President and the Congress. They suggest Saving the First Amendment.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 12:05 PM

The LA Times offers a heart-breaking survey of the mental damage done to veterans in Iraq, and the lack of preparedness of the administration to deal with it.

It is a deeper and more important question as to why the Bush administration ignored this known factor in its decision to initiate a brutal, violent war in the first place.

The insanity bred by an insane decision, arguably made by an insane man, will be taking its toll from the nation for decades in lost lives, broken families, scarred children, and disabled men and women.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 11:56 AM

From t he New York Times:

The Department of Defense has identified 1,150 American service members who have died since the start of the Iraq war. It confirmed the deaths of the following Americans this week:

BABBIT, Travis A., 24, Specialist, Army; Uvalde, Tex.; First Cavalry Division.

CORNELL, Todd R., 39, Staff Sgt., Army Reserve; West Bend, Wis., 339th Infantry Regiment.

JAMES, William C., 24, Cpl., Marines; Huntington Beach, Calif.; First Marine Division.

LARSON, Nicholas D., 19, Lance Cpl., Marines; Wheaton, Ill.; First Marine Division.

SEGURA, Juan E., 26, Lance Cpl., Marines; Homestead, Fla.; First Marine Division.

SLAY, Russell L., 28, Staff Sgt., Marines; Humble, Tex.; Second Marine Division,

TROTTER, John B., 25, Sgt., Army; Marble Falls, Tex.; Second Infantry Division.

WELLS, Lonny D., 29, Sgt., Marines; Vandergrift, Pa.; Second Marine Division.

WOOD, Nathan R., 19, Lance Cpl., Marines; Kirkland, Wash.; First Marine Division.

SLAY, Russell L., 28, Staff Sgt., Marines; Humble, Tex.; Second Marine Division.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 11:03 AM

Several comments on the Fallujah battle currently (I hope) beingbrought to a successful end, from a BBC survey:

"War is the ultimate expression of temporary insanity. But it happens nevertheless. Had the UN settled this more than 10 years ago, things would not be as they are. Nothing good comes without sacrifice and dedication."
Eduardo, Menorca, Spain

"As a US citizen I feel the weight of this type of action heavily on my mind. To me it is a barbaric action that leaves the United States looking like no more than a muscled bound bully in the world playground. I send my apologies and regrets to those who suffered greatly in this unjust assault on the city of Falluja."
Stephen Hauskins, Santa Cruz, California, USA


"I don't hear any outrage about the innocent civilians that have been killed or wounded, and the devastation that has resulted from this senseless assault. It looks like the rebel leaders have run away, to fight another day. We are alienating the Iraqi people by prolonging their suffering."
Roseanne, NJ, USA

"I spoke with an Iraqi woman in Ireland yesterday who was no lover of Saddam Hussein and who lost a sister in a bomb attack in August. She said that what is going on is international bullying and the needless ruin of a beautiful country. Not for one second does she see what is happening as being in any way for the good of her people. What can we do to rid the world of this soul-less imperialism with its "kick ass" culture and philosophy?"
Brian Smyth, Meath, Ireland

(It is probably inaccurate to describe what we are doing as imperialism. We are certainly not retaining colonized sub-nations nor requiring citizenship of them as both Rome and England did in their empires. And it is always going to be laid at the feet of "necessity", when failures of sanity produce concatenations of violence. My vehement disagreement with the process is when we begin to exalt rather than vilify those whose internal dramatizations lead to external destruction and shame.)

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 09:58 AM

How come the Counterpoint Singers are afraid to be identified? Opie's link just above seems to be broken when I click on it, but to call Bush a moral beacon is about a wild as I have heard. There's nothing moral about unilateral aggression.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST,Opie
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 08:55 AM

George Bush`s America: Moral Beacon in a Dark World

O

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST,Johnjohn
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 08:39 AM

AP - US President George W Bush, honouring Allied sacrifices of World War II, has appealed to a new generation of Europeans and Americans to pull together on Iraq and said the war against terror "is the challenge of our time."

Putin: Bush Must Win or Terrorists Will Triumph

Putin: Bush Win Shows US Voters Not Scared

JJ

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 14 Nov 04 - 12:29 AM

Slapping the Other Cheek
By MAUREEN DOWD

Maureen is her usual sharp and articulate self tearing a strip off the unforgiving un-Christian right, and their brutal politics as usual. With specifics.

An excerpt:



You'd think the one good thing about merging church and state would be that politics would be suffused with glistening Christian sentiments like "love thy neighbor," "turn the other cheek," "good will toward men," "blessed be the peacemakers" and "judge not lest you be judged."

Yet somehow I'm not getting a peace, charity, tolerance and forgiveness vibe from the conservatives and evangelicals who claim to have put their prodigal son back in office.

I'm getting more the feel of a vengeful mob - revved up by rectitude - running around with torches and hatchets after heathens and pagans and infidels.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 13 Nov 04 - 11:48 PM

An Associated Press writer takes a dim view of Ashcrofts condemnation of checks and balances applied to the Bush administration.

I hope the fallacy inherent in Ashcroft's rationale does not need to be spelled out.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST,Harpo
Date: 12 Nov 04 - 10:06 PM

"Legitimate victory makes for peaceful election"
http://www.orion-online.net/vnews/display.v/ART/2004/11/09/41919d24bb95d

"President Bush said Friday that there was now a "great chance" to establish a Palestinian state and that he would invest the authority of the United States to try to accomplish that goal during his second term."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/13/international/13prexy.html

"Democrats need to overcome bitterness to win"
http://www.desertdispatch.com/2004/110026967876168.html

"Bush's approval up in post-election survey"
http://washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20041112-120611-2229r.htm

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 12 Nov 04 - 11:42 AM

Bush continues to polarize the nation
By Heidi A. De Vries
UCF News
Thursday, November 11, 2004

John Ashcroft, the gospel-singing son of a preacher, is leaving the White House. No longer will the most vocal champion of the Patriot Act be the attorney general of the Bush administration.

Detractors have said that Ashcroft, who encouraged his staff to participate in daily prayer meetings, blurred the line between religion and the government. In particular, Democratic Sen. Charles Schumer of New York told the Associated Press that he hopes "the president will choose a less polarizing attorney general as his successor."

If the president's acceptance speech on Nov. 3 is any indication, Bush has a desire to do precisely that.

He seemed to express a genuine desire to bring the two nations together: to marry the red states and the blue states into the United States yet again.

It could be construed that even Ashcroft was thinking that a more moderate man should be his replacement.

"The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved," he wrote in a five-page, handwritten letter to Bush dated Nov. 2, Election Day. "Yet I believe that the Department of Justice would be well served by new leadership and fresh inspiration."

After Bush's announcement yesterday nominating Alberto Gonzales as Ashcroft's replacement, it would seen he has done a bad job in trying to unite the nation.

Gonzales, a former White House counsel, is one of the most prominent Hispanics in the administration.

Gonzales has been linked with Bush for the past 10 years. He was a Bush-appointed justice on the Texas Supreme Court and a Texas secretary of state. The organization Texans for Public Justice also reports that Gonzales has accepted contributions from Vice President Dick Cheney's former company, Halliburton.

He was once a partner in a Houston law firm that represented Enron.

While serving as a general counsel for then-Texas Gov. Bush, Gonzales wrote 57 memos to Bush about the death penalty. The counsel that Gonzales provided "repeatedly failed to apprise the governor of crucial issues in the cases at hand: ineffective counsel, conflict of interest, mitigating evidence, even actual evidence of innocence," wrote reporter Alan Berlow in The Atlantic Monthly.   (Continued on original site).

---

Thanks, EP, for your kind post.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Ellenpoly
Date: 12 Nov 04 - 04:45 AM

Lots of great stuff here, Amos, keep it rolling.

And though it might feel at times as though you're either preaching to the choir, or casting pearls before swine...

Both are well worth the effort to get the truth out.

Thank you.

..xx..e

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 11 Nov 04 - 10:19 PM

The highly intelligent Maureen Dowd discusses the current developments in the strutcure of the Administration in this piece entitled Moveable Feast of Terrorism which remarks how much safer we ar enow that the election is over, despite missing half of the insurgent forces in Fallujah.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 11 Nov 04 - 06:35 PM

Ashcroft's dismal legacy: Attorney general put his beliefs above the law

A Register-Guard Editorial (From this Oregon paper_)  



 




Tuesday's resignation of John Ashcroft, one of the most divisive attorneys general in U.S. history, briefly opened a door for President Bush. He had a chance to reach out to the nation's political center and name a replacement who would put enforcement of the law and respect for civil rights above ideology.

Bush closed that door one day later by appointing White House counsel Alberto Gonzales as Ashcroft's successor, passing over less controversial candidates such as C. Boyden Gray, a White House counsel to the first President Bush, and Larry Thompson, who served as Ashcroft's deputy until last year.

While Gonzales is not nearly as polarizing a figure as Ashcroft, the Senate should think long and hard before confirming the longtime Bush ally. Gonzales played a pivotal role in developing the administration's relentless post-Sept. 11 push to curb civil liberties with the justification of enhancing national security.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Nov 04 - 05:12 PM

"Morality justifies Bush policy"
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/198265_sanchez05.html

"Bush policy is reason bin Laden didn't attack"
http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/columnists/view.bg?articleid=82288

"Bush's economic vision is better suited to modern times"
http://www.suntimes.com/output/otherviews/cst-edt-barone19.html

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 11 Nov 04 - 01:19 PM

"Everything about the election results - and about American culture itself - confirms an inescapable reality: John Kerry's defeat notwithstanding, it's blue America, not red, that is inexorably winning the culture war, and by a landslide. "

So writes Frank Rich in the Times.

Interesting perspective on the groundswell in progress.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Nov 04 - 11:32 PM

AMOS

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 10 Nov 04 - 12:48 AM

Then there's humorous perspectives such as this one from the Borowitz Report:

BUSH CANCELS AGREEMENT BETWEEN NOUN AND VERBS


'I Has a Mandate, and I Intends to Use it,' Says President


President George W. Bush announced the first major initiative of his second term in office today, canceling the agreement between nouns and verbs.

The president, who had been widely expected to announce a series of faith-based initiatives, surprised Washington insiders by kicking off his second term with a grammar-based one.

Mr. Bush left little doubt that he intended to consign the agreement between nouns and verbs to the dustbin of history, telling reporters, "I has a mandate, and I intends to use it."

In world capitals, heads of state responded with a mixture of shock and dismay to the president's decision to back out of the noun-verb agreement, long considered a cornerstone of human communication.

"It was one thing to back out of the Kyoto Protocol and the Geneva Conventions, but if Mr. Bush intends to break the agreement between nouns and verbs he is going it alone," said French president Jacques Chirac.

But President Bush was quick to correct Mr. Chirac, responding, "I think what my good friend Jacques Chirac means is, I 'are' going it alone."

The president noted that his proposal had received a vote of confidence from British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who earlier in the day said, "He have my full support."

Mr. Bush went on to announce a series of other bold initiatives, such as imposing a moratorium on complete sentences and eliminating the letter "g" from the end of most words.

Elsewhere, the Pentagon announced that U.S. fighter jets missed a target in southern Iraq today, strafing a middle school in New Jersey.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 10 Nov 04 - 12:34 AM

In all fairness it is only meet that some views from the far corners of Iraq, such as Kurdistan, be included here even if they don't reflect my point of view.   This is a blog focused on Kurd viewepoints. http://kurdo.blogspot.com/

It is amusing what the translation problem does for CARE and Kerry!

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 09 Nov 04 - 10:20 PM

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Ten U.S. troops and two Iraqi troops fighting alongside them have died in the assault to take control of rebel-held Falluja, but senior insurgency leaders probably escaped the city, the U.S. military said on Tuesday.

"I think we are looking at several more days of tough urban fighting," Lt. Gen. Thomas Metz, in charge of day-to-day U.S.-led military operations in Iraq, told reporters at the Pentagon, as thousands of U.S. and allied Iraqi forces pressed their assault to gain control of Iraq's most rebellious city.

Subject: An Open Letter from Ramsey Clark: Impeach!
From: Amos
Date: 09 Nov 04 - 09:30 PM

President Bush can run, but he cannot hide from the Constitution of the United States. The election does not pardon the President for past, or future "high Crimes and Misdemeanors."

Impeachment is not a partisan political issue. The House of Representatives, possessed of the "sole power of impeachment," is required to consider a bill of impeachment on the facts even if every Member were of the same party, or political persuasion, as the President. The seven specific provisions of the Constitution setting forth the powers and duties of the Congress in considering impeachment intend that any President or other civil officer of the United States who has committed a high Crime or Misdemeanor "...shall be removed from Office."

The power of impeachment assures the people against criminal acts and despotic ambitions by government officials.

We, the People have the power to require the House of Representatives to do its duty and act on a bill of impeachment after full investigation and consideration. If it fails to do so those House members who failed to perform this Constitutional duty can and should be voted from office. Remember that President Nixon resigned under threat of impeachment for Watergate less than two years after his landslide reelection in 1972.

IMPEACHMENT IS IMPERATIVE

For the American people who support and defend the Constitution of the United States, who want to prevent further crimes by a lawless administration, who believe we can redeem our country in the eyes of those we have assaulted and those who have witnessed this brutality and who dare to demand of future government leadership, NEVER AGAIN, Impeachment is Imperative. A decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that we Americans should declare the causes which impel us to impeach.

President George W. Bush chose to wage a war of aggression against Iraq, which had not attacked the United States and presented no imminent threat to our people, or legitimate interests. A small cabal, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Wolfowitz, Feith, Libby and Rove wrested decision making processes from established institutions of government to reinforce President Bush's desire to seize Iraq, defying international institutions, the opinions of humankind and the rule of law to commence a disastrous criminal military adventure.

A CAMPAIGN OF DECEIT AND FALSE PROPAGANDA

War of aggression is the first offense listed in the Nuremberg Charter as a Crime against Peace. The Nuremberg Tribunal after hearing evidence of Nazi crimes in World War II convicted the leaders of waging wars of aggression, which it called "the supreme international crime."

At Nuremberg, the Chief U.S. Prosecutor, Robert H. Jackson, promised posterity that in the future all nations, including our own, would be held accountable for such crimes.

President Bush and key administration officials engaged in a lengthy campaign of deceit, concealment and false propaganda to create support for, and acceptance of, its war of aggression by claiming Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, harbored terrorists, had close ties with and supported Al Qaeda and intended to attack the U.S., U.S. citizens and U.S. interests. A free society, democratic institutions and constitutional government cannot survive such deceit by its own government.

The U.S. has made civilians and civilian facilities its direct object of attack. It has pursued assassination and summary executions as official policy. President Bush boasted of summary executions in his State of the Union message in 2003. Excessive and indiscriminate force and illegal weapons have been used. Many thousands of Iraqi citizens, whole families, women, children, elderly Iraqis have been killed as a result.

U.S. military casualties exceed 10,000 including more than 1,100 deaths with many additional thousands returned to the United States for physical and mental illnesses.

The U.S. has employed torture, including torture to death, rape and sexual assault and humiliation, as approved and ordered policy from Afghanistan and Guantanamo to Iraq, inflicted on thousands of prisoners, many, if not most, without any evidence of wrongful conduct. An admitted 37 human beings have been murdered while being held in captivity by the United States under these conditions. We know not how many more. All the mounting evidence makes clear that this program of torture and death is not aberrational conduct of rogue or undisciplined soldiers but is rather the policy adopted at the highest levels of the Bush/Rumsfeld chain of command. All this in violation of the Geneva Conventions, the International Convention Against Torture, the laws of all nations and common human decency.

Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution of the United States provides: The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, Shall Be Removed From Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.

MORE THAN 100,000 DEAD BASED ON A LIE

We learn from the prominent medical journal Lancet of the report by researchers at John Hopkins University, Columbia University and the Al-Mustansiriya University in Baghdad that the U.S. war of aggression against Iraq and military occupation has cost "at least" 100,000 Iraqi lives already must civilian, women and children. Already President Bush has launched a massive aerial and ground assault on Falluja which may kill thousands of defenseless civilians.

Haiti, where President Bush forced the elected President Jean Bertrand Aristide from office, is in chaos with many thousands killed by widespread daily violence committed by U.S. supported paramilitaries against Aristide supporters.

Nearly 500,000 have voted to impeach. Help us increase that number into millions the Congress cannot ignore.

Every American should choose whether to vote for impeachment entirely on the facts, straight up, or down, without political, or partisan fear, or favor. We owe this to the country, its future, the Constitution and our common heritage. Impeachment is Required Now.

Impeachment now is the only way we, the American people, can promise ourselves and the world that we will not tolerate crimes against peace and humanity by our government. Knowing what we know, to wait longer is to condone what has been done and risk more.

Sincerely,

Ramsey Clark

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST,Johnjohn
Date: 09 Nov 04 - 09:28 AM

Bush and Kerry walk into a barber shop not knowing the other is there. Both get a haircut and a shave.

After the shave, the barber ask's "Would you like aftershave, Mr. Kerry?", too which he replies, "Oh no, I don't want my wife to think I was in a whorehouse!".

So the barber ask's the President "Would you like aftershave sir?", too which he replies, "Sure, put it on good! My wife has never been to a whorehouse!"

JJ

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 09 Nov 04 - 02:26 AM

WASHINGTON -- A federal judge shut down the first American military commission since World War II yesterday, ruling that the Bush administration violated the Geneva Conventions in its handling of prisoners at the Guantanamo Bay prison.

The ruling, the first test of a US Supreme Court decision in June granting legal recourse in civilian court to the 550 or so ''enemy combatants" being held at Guantanamo, delivered a new legal blow to President Bush's unorthodox war on terrorism policies.