BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration

Subject: Ashcroft Wins Villainy Award
From: Amos
Date: 07 Jul 04 - 09:20 AM

John Ashcroft has been named Villain of the month for yet further incursions into ordinary rights of privacy.

Somehow, his little face reminds me of certain 20-th century generals from Europe.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 06 Jul 04 - 07:00 PM

The OpEd page of the New York Times contains a scathing indictment, for two reasons.

One is the embarrassing things it says about the similarities between George today and the then-George of 1776 against whom the Declaration of Independence was written. It tries to be kind to our present George.

The other is because of the many direct things it pussyfoots around, as though it would be a shame to name his madness for what it is. And I am not referring to Hanover, here.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 30 Jun 04 - 12:35 AM

Iraq doubts keep Bush's popularity on the slide

George Bush's popularity fell to a new low yesterday in a poll which suggests that there is an increasing level of scepticism about the motives for the Iraq invasion and rising concern about its consequences.

Nearly 80% of the Americans questioned in the poll for the New York Times and CBS news thought he had been either "hiding something" or "mostly lying" in his statements on Iraq.

From The Guardian.

Regards,

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 29 Jun 04 - 11:47 PM

If you want a brief overview of the blatant stupidity of the US "plan" in dealing with the settling of Iraq after the overthrow of Saddam's military, look over this historical recapby an NBC correspondent. It shows up how uncoordinated and short on thoughtfuil analysis we have been overall.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Metchosin
Date: 27 Jun 04 - 11:58 AM

Whoa, I was going to comment "Sieg Heil!", but that directive could have just as easily eminated from the former USSR.... odd thing about totalitarian orders.

Subject: Suppression of Science by the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 27 Jun 04 - 10:18 AM

From the Times:

WASHINGTON — The Bush administration has ordered that government
scientists must be approved by a senior political appointee before they
can participate in meetings convened by the World Health Organization,
the leading international health and science agency.

A top official from the Health and Human Services Department in April
asked the WHO to begin routing requests for participation in its
meetings to the department's secretary for review, rather than directly
invite individual scientists, as has long been the case.

Officials at the WHO, based in Geneva, Switzerland, have refused to
implement the request thusfar, saying it could compromise the
independence of international scientific deliberations. Denis G.
Aitken, WHO assistant director-general, said Friday that he had been
negotiating with Washington in an effort to reach a compromise.

The request is the latest instance in which the Bush administration has
been accused of allowing politics to intrude into once-sacrosanct areas
of scientific deliberation. It has been criticized for replacing highly
regarded scientists with industry and political allies on advisory
panels. A biologist who was at odds with the administration's position
on stem-cell research was dismissed from a presidential advisory
commission. This year, 60 prominent scientists accused the
administration of "misrepresenting and suppressing scientific knowledge
for political purposes."

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 26 Jun 04 - 09:48 PM

An interesting perspective distributed by "From the Wilderness", a commentary of the inside of Washington. It appears there may be some serious explosions over the plame expose, with serious legal impact on Bush and his core courtlings. An excerpt:

>The June 3rd issue of Capitol Hill Blue, the newspaper published for members
>of Congress, bore the headline "Bush Knew About Leak of CIA Operative's
>Name" .
>That article virtually guaranteed that the Plame investigation had enough to
>pursue Bush criminally. The story's lead sentence described a criminal,
>prosecutable offense: "Witnesses told a federal grand jury President George
>W. Bush knew about, and took no action to stop, the release of a covert CIA
>operative's name to a journalist in an attempt to discredit her husband, a
>critic of administration policy in Iraq."
>
>A day later, on June 4th Capitol Hill Blue took another hard shot at the
>administration. Titled "Bush's Erratic Behavior Worries White House Aides"
> , the
>story's first four paragraphs say everything.
>
>President George W. Bush's increasingly erratic behavior and wide mood
>swings has the halls of the West Wing buzzing lately as aides privately
>express growing concern over their leader's state of mind.
>
>In meetings with top aides and administration officials, the President goes
>from quoting the Bible in one breath to obscene tantrums against the media,
>Democrats and others that he classifies as "enemies of the state."
>
>Worried White House aides paint a portrait of a man on the edge,
>increasingly wary of those who disagree with him and paranoid of a public
>that no longer trusts his policies in Iraq or at home.
>
>"It reminds me of the Nixon days," says a longtime GOP political consultant
>with contacts in the White House. "Everybody is an enemy; everybody is out
>to get him. That's the mood over there."
>
>The attacks have not stopped. On June 8th, the same paper followed with
>another story headlined, "Lawyers Told Bush He Could Order Suspects
>Tortured"
>.
>
>Journalist Wayne Madsen, a Washington veteran with excellent access to many
>sources has indicated for this story that the Neocons have few remaining
>friends anywhere. All of this is consistent with a CIA-led coup.
>

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 20 Jun 04 - 08:19 PM

An excerpt from the above:


"The Founders feared that the republic would succumb to corruption without republican citizenship—without citizens who could transcend privatism and hold elected officials to account, demanding probity and competence, and judging their performance against both the clamorous necessities of the time and the mute claims of posterity. They made property a criterion for voting because it secured a measure of economic independence. Property-less wage laborers, they feared, would vote as their employers instructed them to. The extension of democracy to those who could not rise to the responsibilities of republican freedom would corrupt the republic—hasten its decay into oligarchy or mob rule.

For all their worldliness the Founders were naïve to regard property as a shield of incorruptibility or the property-less as inherently corruptible. Their core insight, however, remains valid. A republic can be corrupted at the top and bottom, by leaders and led. The re-election of George W. Bush would signal that a kind of corruption had set in among the led. Our miserable failure as republican citizens would match his as President."

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Don Firth
Date: 20 Jun 04 - 02:57 PM

Pretty damned depressing. But let's hope that there's a glimmer of intelligence somewhere amoung a sufficient number of voters. Otherwise, fasten your seatbelt and hold your breath, because it's going to be a messy ride as we head down the drain.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 20 Jun 04 - 02:24 PM

Writing for the on-line edition of The Atlantic, Jack Beatty characterizes the Bush administration as the miserable failure it is. Click to read.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 18 Jun 04 - 10:41 AM

Bush behaving like Saddam, says Madonna

Subject: A Report Card for Wee Georgie...
From: Amos
Date: 17 Jun 04 - 11:56 PM

United States Grammar School Interim Report to Parents

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 14 Jun 04 - 09:57 AM

From a recent column in Slate on the incompetence of Richard Feith of the Bush administration, a reader makes incisive comment:

Remarks from the Fray:

…The neoconservatives deliberately cherry-picked intelligence that would help them make a case for a war that they just assumed was necessary. They didn't care if any of the reasons they cited were true or not; only that they'd be believed.

They deliberately avoided submitting the Iraq problem to the United Nations Security Council out of fear that they might solve it, peacefully, without the need for an invasion.

Feith emphasized the WMD justification because he obviously thought that the Army would find SOMETHING connected to a WMD program that could then be used to justify the war retroactively.

After the war, when no weapons and no links to al-Qaida were found, the emphasis shifted to "building democracy," and all the good America was supposedly doing for the American people.

Was any of this actually thought out? No.

The Administration decided, for no clear reason, that it wanted to invade Iraq, and did so.

The failure to come up with a post-facto rational justification for an inherently irrational action isn't a sign of stupidity or brilliance.

It's just what happens when insanity paints you into a corner.

--Thrasymachus

---

Somehow I just have to love that last line.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 13 Jun 04 - 01:22 PM

And for a lighter note, review ALL the Jon Styewart reports at Comedy Central. The man is a powerhouse!!

Thanks to Donuel for the original pointer!




A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: dianavan
Date: 13 Jun 04 - 12:51 PM

Amos - good link, thanks. Yes, if Bush gets away with this, it will change the face of America forever. The American people must see to it that he and his pals are punished or the scar on the face of America will remain. The question is, how will America redeem itself?

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 13 Jun 04 - 12:25 PM

Documents recently obtained by the press reveal White House anxiety
about how to protect President George W. Bush and members of his cabinet from
going to prison for ordering, authorizing or deliberately permitting
systematic torture of persons in their control, but technically outside
formal American legal jurisdiction. The question put to lawyers was how
the president and the others could commit war crimes and get away with
it.

This may be a much deeper scandal than originally thought. See this article from the International Herald Tribune.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: dianavan
Date: 09 Jun 04 - 09:46 PM

Amos - Thanks again for the links. It is amazing to me that America and as a result, Americans have shrunk in stature in such a short space of time. Its like watching the fall of the Roman Empire.

I am wondering, however, if the propensity for forging ahead with new ideas without looking at previous examples, isn't happening everywhere in our fast paced world. It certainly happens alot in my career. I have taken part in many 'pilot projects' in education and have kept careful records of the results. I am almost never asked for the data or my conclusions. The next thing I know, someone has put the program in a glitzy package and is marketing the program world wide as the latest and greatest. Seems that everything is marketable with or without a rationale.

It is especially frightening when governments start messing with science to further their political agenda. Yes, Korea and China, too, will soon outflank the U.S. when it comes to scientific breakthroughs. Why? Because they are unencumbered by religious dogma. It is especially destructive when religious dogma and political conviction become a single force.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 09 Jun 04 - 04:07 PM

Wired magazine summarizes how the Bush Administration has begun the process of undermining America's repute in scientific matters in this over view article examining the administration's policy on pseudoscience.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Ebbie
Date: 09 Jun 04 - 02:27 PM

Thanks, Amos. I'm forwarding that article to a number of people.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 09 Jun 04 - 10:35 AM

David Corn discusses Rumsfeld's falsifications about the Iraqi police status in this scathing article. These guys are such a bushel of crooks...I don't mean the Iraqis, be that as it may, but the fat Anglo warlords.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 27 May 04 - 06:39 PM

Extreme times bring out the extremes of character. Gore is suddenly exhibiting a capcity for articulate passion, while Bush is showing his for inarticulate destruction.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Don Firth
Date: 27 May 04 - 05:18 PM

Channel-surfing last night, I ran into the speech on CSPAN. Worst luck, I only heard part of it, but that was one helluva speech!! Who says Gore is "stiff and dull!???"

I wish Kerry would take a few vitamins and come on that strong!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 27 May 04 - 04:52 PM

Yesterday, former Vice President Al Gore called for accountability for the Bush team in light of the fiasco in Iraq.   In the speech, Mr. Gore took on the Bush administration, arguing that the "abuse of the prisoners at Abu Ghraib flowed directly from the abuse of the truth that characterized the Administration's march to war and the abuse of the trust that had been placed in President Bush by the American people in the aftermath of September 11th." To sustained applause, he then called for the architects of the Bush foreign policy – Donald Rumsfeld, Condoleezza Rice, George Tenet, Paul Wolfowitz, and others -- to resign, arguing that "the current team is making things worse with each passing day."

You can read a full transcript of the speech and watch a great five-minute video of the highlights at:
this page

Mr. Gore began the speech by focusing on the policy of domination which pervades the Bush Administration:


"An American policy of dominance is as repugnant to the rest of the world as the ugly dominance of the helpless, naked Iraqi prisoners has been to the American people. Dominance is as dominance does."

"Dominance is not really a strategic policy or political philosophy at all. It is a seductive illusion that tempts the powerful to satiate their hunger for more power still by striking a Faustian bargain. And as always happens -- sooner or later -- to those who shake hands with the devil, they find out too late that what they have given up in the bargain is their soul."

This policy, he explained, is making us less safe as a country:


"The unpleasant truth is that President Bush's utter incompetence has made the world a far more dangerous place and dramatically increased the threat of terrorism against the United States. Just yesterday, the International Institute of Strategic Studies reported that the Iraq conflict " has arguable focused the energies and resources of Al Qaeda and its followers while diluting those of the global counterterrorism coalition." The ISS said that in the wake of the war in Iraq Al Qaeda now has more than 18,000 potential terrorists scattered around the world and the war in Iraq is swelling its ranks."

To sustained applause, he then called for the resignation of the Bush foreign policy team:

"One of the strengths of democracy is the ability of the people to regularly demand changes in leadership and to fire a failing leader and hire a new one with the promise of hopeful change. That is the real solution to America's quagmire in Iraq. But, I am keenly aware that we have seven months and twenty five days remaining in this president's current term of office and that represents a time of dangerous vulnerability for our country because of the demonstrated incompetence and recklessness of the current administration."

"It is therefore essential that even as we focus on the fateful choice, the voters must make this November that we simultaneously search for ways to sharply reduce the extraordinary danger that we face with the current leadership team in place. It is for that reason that I am calling today for Republicans as well as Democrats to join me in asking for the immediate resignations of those immediately below George Bush and Dick Cheney who are most responsible for creating the catastrophe that we are facing in Iraq."

"We desperately need a national security team with at least minimal competence because the current team is making things worse with each passing day. They are endangering the lives of our soldiers, and sharply increasing the danger faced by American citizens everywhere in the world, including here at home. They are enraging hundreds of millions of people and embittering an entire generation of anti-Americans whose rage is already near the boiling point."

"We simply cannot afford to further increase the risk to our country with more blunders by this team. Donald Rumsfeld, as the chief architect of the war plan, should resign today. His deputies Paul Wolfowitz, Douglas Feith and his intelligence chief Stephen Cambone should also resign. The nation is especially at risk every single day that Rumsfeld remains as Secretary of Defense. Condoleezza Rice, who has badly mishandled the coordination of national security policy, should also resign immediately."

And, at the end, he called for us to hold Bush accountable in November:


"I want to speak on behalf of those Americans who feel that President Bush has betrayed our nation's trust, those who are horrified at what has been done in our name, and all those who want the rest of the world to know that we Americans see the abuses that occurred in the prisons of Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantanamo and secret locations as yet undisclosed as completely out of keeping with the character and basic nature of the American people and at odds with the principles on which America stands."

"I believe we have a duty to hold President Bush accountable -- and I believe we will. As Lincoln said at our time of greatest trial, 'We -- even we here -- hold the power, and bear the responsibility.'"

To read the whole speech and watch video highlights of the best moments, go to:
http://www.moveonpac.org/gore/

Here are the first few paragraphs of a good write-up in the Washington Post:

GORE CALLS FOR TOP OFFICIALS TO RESIGN
DEMOCRAT ASSAILS BUSH'S WAR CABINET
By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 27, 2004; Page A03

Former vice president Al Gore accused President Bush's war cabinet of reckless incompetence yesterday and called for the resignations of Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice and CIA Director George J. Tenet.

"George W. Bush promised us a foreign policy with humility. Instead, he has brought us humiliation in the eyes of the world," Gore said at a speech in New York sponsored by the liberal MoveOn PAC. "We simply cannot afford to further increase the risk to our country with more blunders by this team."

Gore, jabbing his fingers and raising his voice to a shout, called the horrors of the Abu Ghraib prison "the predictable consequence of policy choices that flowed directly from this administration's contempt for the rule of law." His broad critique of that policy ranged from its aims to its vocabulary, and he complained about Bush aides' "frequent use of the word 'dominance' to describe their strategic goal."

---

Regards,

Amos

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Metchosin
Date: 25 May 04 - 01:33 AM

The Devil Made Me Do It

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: dianavan
Date: 24 May 04 - 09:40 PM

Amos - It helps so much to know that there are still a few 'real' Americans left. Its so hard being in another country where the common belief is that most Americans support Bush. How will there ever be justice. Will the U.N. have the courage to push Bush out or will they wait until the reigns of power are transferred to the puppets.

And how will the American people ever redeem their reputation? I want America to be a beacon of hope for the world. How and when will Bush be held accountable? Will there ever be a way to try him for war crimes or crimes against humanity?

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 24 May 04 - 08:49 PM

May 12, 2004   (letter to the editor, as appeared in the Boston Globe)

THE BUSH administration seems to have a serious problem with reality. The most recent reality challenge is the policy of torture in both Iraq and Afghanistan, which the administration is frantically redefining as "abuse," "excesses," and "humiliation." We even have Secretary Rumsfeld describing footage of several American soldiers "having sex" with a female Iraqi prisoner. Let's have a little plain English here. "Having sex" with a prisoner is known as "rape." Systematic beatings are called "torture." Excesses that lead to death are called "murder." The hundreds of women and children in mass graves in Fallujah are the product of a "massacre." Taken together, all of these add up to "atrocities."

The dissemination of "incomplete information" from "imperfect intelligence" is called "lies." The billions of dollars that Halliburton and Bechtel have reaped in profits are called "war profiteering." The invasion of Iraq is called "illegal." The destruction of America's international standing is called "permanent." And Texaco/Phillips's high bid for Iraqi oil is called "why we are in Iraq."

ERICA VERRILLO Williamsburg

---

Did you notice when he spoke to the nation the slimeball had the nerve to say that the offenses committed at Abu Ghraib (which he could not pronounce) were the fault of "a few Americans who ignored American values" while sending troops in to blow up wedding parties, and unilateral invasions of foreign lands is obviosuly consistent with American values, I suppose? I spit!

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 24 May 04 - 08:45 PM

One sunny day in 2005 an old man approached the White House from
across Pennsylvania Avenue, where he'd been sitting on a park bench.
He spoke to the U.S. Marine standing guard and said, "I would like to
go in and meet with President Bush."

The Marine looked at the man and said, "Sir, Mr. Bush is no longer
president and no longer resides here."

The old man said, "Okay" and walked away.

The following day, the same man approached the White House and said
to the same Marine, "I would like to go in and meet with President
Bush." The Marine again told the man, "Sir, as I said yesterday, Mr.
Bush is no longer president and no longer resides here." The man
thanked him and, again, just walked away.

The third day, the same man approached the White House and spoke to
the very same U. S. Marine, saying "I would like to go in and meet
with President Bush."

The Marine, understandably agitated at this point, looked at the man
and said, "Sir, this is the third day in a row you have been here
asking to speak to Mr. Bush. I've told you already that Mr. Bush is
no longer the president and no longer resides here. Don't you
understand?"

The old man looked at the Marine and said, "Oh, I understand. I just
love hearing it."

The Marine snapped to attention, saluted, and said, "See you tomorrow."

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 23 May 04 - 08:42 PM

President quietly toasts 2 graduations

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 23 May 04 - 01:20 PM

In other news, the Guardian includes:

Terry Jones
Saturday May 22, 2004
The Guardian

Tony Blair tells us that we should do everything
we can to support America. And I agree. I think
we should repudiate those who inflict harm on
Americans, we should shun those who bring
America itself into disrepute and we should
denounce those who threaten the freedom and
democracy that are synonymous with being
American.

That is why Tony's recent announcement that he
wishes to stand shoulder to shoulder with George
Bush is so puzzling. It's difficult to think of
anyone who has inflicted more harm on Americans
than their current president.
...
If Tony Blair really were concerned about
helping Americans, he would surely be helping
them to reclaim their country and institutions
from this catastrophic presidency.
Terry Jones is a writer, film director, actor and Python

Full story at:

Guardian UK

Regards,

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: dianavan
Date: 21 May 04 - 01:46 AM

Thanks, Amos - I wish I had written that!

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 20 May 04 - 09:14 PM

The system is crashing

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST,noddy
Date: 11 May 04 - 11:43 AM

By now I thoght there was not a popular view of Bush possible.

well I know what I mean!

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Ebbie
Date: 10 May 04 - 12:56 PM

Ah, you can't trust even the most conservative people not to eventually stab you in the back:

"Conservatives have become unusually restive. Last Tuesday, columnist George F. Will sharply criticized the administration's Iraq policy, writing: "This administration cannot be trusted to govern if it cannot be counted on to think and, having thought, to have second thoughts." Two days earlier, Robert Kagan, a neoconservative supporter of the Iraq war, wrote: "All but the most blindly devoted Bush supporters can see that Bush administration officials have no clue about what to do in Iraq tomorrow, much less a month from now."

I've lost the URL on this.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 10 May 04 - 11:21 AM

"See, free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don't attack each other. Free nations don't develop weapons of mass destruction."—Milwaukee, Wis., Oct. 3, 2003

AN insensitivity to irony? This is a quote from W last October, leading a nation which possessed weapons of mass destruction and has used them to attack another nation, beginning war.

For a collection of Bush's best remarks see Bushisms.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 10 May 04 - 11:04 AM

From Slate

George W. Bush has governed, for the most part, the way any airhead might, undermining the fiscal condition of the nation, squandering the goodwill of the world after Sept. 11, and allowing huge problems (global warming, entitlement spending, AIDS) to metastasize toward catastrophe through a combination of ideology, incomprehension, and indifference. If Bush isn't exactly the moron he sounds, his synaptic misfirings offer a plausible proxy for the idiocy of his presidency.

Continued on this page...

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 01 May 04 - 02:52 PM

(If there's a clone out there who could change "Nush" to "Bush" in the above I would be grateful).

A

Subject: RE: BS: Bush a Dry Drunk?
From: Amos
Date: 01 May 04 - 01:54 PM

11 Hard Questions For Bush


Nush as Dry Drunk

Enjoy....

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 30 Apr 04 - 02:26 PM

Robo:

I appreciate your thoughtful argument.

I believe you give him too much credit, though. A moral center would surely flinch at falsifying major information; and surely would blanch at the needless deaths of American soldiers in pursuit of an enemy not clearly linked to the attack of 9-11. A moral center tends to generate more humility than arrogance. I don't see such a center at work in this man.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST,Clint Keller
Date: 30 Apr 04 - 02:19 PM

"You knew you had a weak leader. But, you could have sucked it in and helped him as best you could, and played a part in the war effort against the real enemy."

It seems like a false analogy to me. My belief is that Bush is not a weak leader, and not attacking the real enemy. Saddam and Iraq are not responsible for 911. But Mr Bush said some time ago that he didn't think about bin Laden very much any more.

Waist deep in the Big Muddy, as the folkies say.

clint

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: robomatic
Date: 30 Apr 04 - 02:07 PM

In Alaska I qualify as a liberal. Why? Because I only have three guns in the house, and one of them is an air rifle. All my friends in Alaska are gung ho for Bush. When I go back East it's the other way around. I'm the gun-loving ANWR desecratin' arch conservative. All my friends here are anti-war.

But I'm more tortured than that.

Herman Wouk wrote a novel "The Caine Mutiny" and a play called "The Caine Mutiny Courtmartial". The two were turned into a good 1954 war flick with Van Johnson, Fred McMurry, and a famous supporting role by Humphrey Bogart as Captain Queeg. The story was about a U.S. Navy minesweeper being captained by a fairly unsteady almost senile type, who impressed his crew as a chickenshit officer, a chickenshit being somebody who is both ineffective and domineering at the same time. During a tropical storm in which the ship is almost lost at sea, some officers take over the ship. In the resulting courtmartial they seem to be about to lose their case (which is potentially a capital one) when their lawyer, a slick one well aware of his own capabilities, puts their captain on the stand and leans on him so hard that some of his nervous traits appear (the famous ball bearings). The judges are swayed by his obvious instability to find the officers innocent.

That night the officers are celebrating their good fortune when their slick lawyer shows up having tied one on and very angry with everyone. He feels guilty as if he'd crucified Queeg. His message, and the author's, is: You guys had a choice. You knew you had a weak leader. But, you could have sucked it in and helped him as best you could, and played a part in the war effort against the real enemy. Instead you let pride and a poor knowledge of psychology lead you to create a dangerous legal mess and a drain on your country's resources. The lawyer felt sorry for the men because there was an additional character who had egged them into it, yet escaped being charged by the court.

George W. has his faults. He doesn't shine in debate, and he has a garbled way of expressing himself in public. I disagree with much of his domestic agenda and the folks he was working it. I personally think he does not have a deep background in foreign affairs.

But he is the leader of the U.S. and the free world at a time when we have a real enemy out there, and he deserves support no matter what we think of him personally. If our European allies out there were a bit less self-centered (and, yes, a bit more gutsy), they could have led us to a more cooperative effort that brought us under U.N. jurisdiction and it would have been better for everyone.

W is not a bad person. He is not a stupid person. He is no coward. He has a moral center. He is someone we can work with. That is the message that is not getting out, although I suspect that that could be Blair's perception of him and the situation, and the PM has been IMHO courageous and brilliant in putting the British into the fray on our side.

I think we will find out that France and Russia had their own more selfish Iraqi agendas. I think we are already finding out about major corruption in that paragon of ethics and upright standards, The United Nations.

The reality of the world is that it isn't just what you stand for but the way you stand. So the U.S. is up for justifiable criticism in how we have gone about what we've gone about. But the U.S. also deserves some help. Accusing W of being a worse menace than Osama or Hitler is just not on.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 30 Apr 04 - 08:18 AM

Twenty Nobel Prize winning scientists have joined a slew of others in condemning George Buish's anti-scientism. Scientific American covers the story in this article.

The man is a Ass.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 24 Apr 04 - 11:29 AM

In other news, today's New York Times has an op-ed piece describing unintended consequences of our obsession with security since 9-11. The character of America is less than it was.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: el ted
Date: 22 Apr 04 - 10:32 AM

Boring.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 21 Apr 04 - 04:42 PM

Sorry, Shlio -- I just hate to see mass hypnosis succeed when it is for dubious ends.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST,Shlio
Date: 21 Apr 04 - 03:56 PM

Ouch - remind me never to get in an argument with you, Amos

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 21 Apr 04 - 03:21 PM

I am sorry -- but not surprised -- to hear as much, T. Unless you are just being snide about my typos.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Teribus
Date: 21 Apr 04 - 04:53 AM

"Wm Shaxpere of ENgland"

Never heard of him or the place he come from.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 20 Apr 04 - 11:22 AM

But let me add thta many poeple would like to know more about their so-called President and often ask what he is really like. For those who really care, bo0rrowed from another thread and quoting Wm Shaxpere of ENgland, no less -- here is what he is really like, this aloof and secretive Mister Bush:

       MIster Bush is a knave; a rascal; an eater of broken meats; a
       base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited,
       hundred-pound, filthy, worsted-stocking knave; a
       lily-livered, action-taking knave, a whoreson,
       glass-gazing, super-serviceable finical rogue;
       one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a
       bawd, in way of good service, and is nothing but
       the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pandar,
       and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch.

USually we just abbreviate the last element of that tirade.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Teribus
Date: 20 Apr 04 - 10:22 AM

That would tend to explain a great deal.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 20 Apr 04 - 09:15 AM

T:

My remarks were limited to the observation about Cheney's mental state.

A