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BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: Amos Date: 03 Feb 05 - 01:49 PM Some lines are just too good not to pass on. Here's an excerpt from Maureen Dowd's latest essay in the New York Times: "I misunderestimated this ambitious president. His social engineering schemes in the Middle East and America are breathtakingly brazen. He doesn't just want to dismantle the 60's. He wants to dismantle the whole century - from the Scopes trial to Social Security. He can shred one of the greatest achievements of the New Deal and then go after other big safety-net Democratic programs, reversing the prevailing philosophy of many decades that our tax and social welfare systems should equalize the distribution of wealth, just a little bit. Barry Goldwater wouldn't have had the brass to take a jackhammer to that edifice. The White House seems to think Social Security was corrupt from the moment it was enacted in 1935. It wants to replace it with private accounts that will fatten the wallets of stockbrokers and put the savings of Americans who didn't inherit vast fortunes at risk. Mr. Bush and his crew not only want to scrap the New Deal. By weakening environmental and safety protections and trying to flatten the progressive income tax, they're trying to eradicate not just one Roosevelt but two, going after the progressive legacy of Theodore. With their brutal assault on history and their sanctimonious manner, they give a whole new meaning to Teddy's philosophy of the presidency. Bully pulpit, indeed." |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: Bobert Date: 29 Jan 05 - 11:38 AM I liked the Ford Trimotor, myself 'cause it didn't drop nuthin' on no one... Now back to G.W., as in wuss... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: Amos Date: 29 Jan 05 - 11:37 AM Talk about being a thread creep, LH!!! A |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: Little Hawk Date: 29 Jan 05 - 11:27 AM You just reached post 1007. This will be post 1008. This gives me an opportunity to mention the Cant. Z 1007 Italian bomber of WWII! It was quite a nice looking plane, though not as famous as the Savio-Marchetti Sparviero, another Italian bomber of the day. Here's a picture of it: Cant. Z 1007 The Cant. Z 1007 was, like many Italian planes of the time, a trimotor aircraft. Like the English Mosquito fighter/bomber it was made almost entirely out of wood. It proved reasonably successful in North Africa and the Med. Over 500 were built. Thank you very much. Resume your discusssion of G.W. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: Amos Date: 29 Jan 05 - 10:20 AM Dougie: There well over 1000 opportunities to uncover hypocrisy, two-faacedness, rampant ignorantism, barbarian offenses against civilized codes, and plain old stupidness on the part of "the President". My stick-to-itness is equalled only by his dull-witted obdurance. A |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: Bobert Date: 29 Jan 05 - 08:57 AM Very kind words, Dougie, but, hey, you hung in their with the few of us that comprised the supporting cast so I congratulate you as well... Sniff... Bobert |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: DougR Date: 29 Jan 05 - 01:31 AM Congratulations Amos ( I guess). You managed to keep this thread going for a thousand plus posts. The fact that most of them were your own probably shouldn't enter into the equation I guess because you probably hold some kind of record. That record (a single contributor writing the most posts in a single thread)is ...ah ...laudable ...probably ...I guess ... At least it speaks well of your ...stick-to-it-ness. DougR |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: Bobert Date: 28 Jan 05 - 11:20 PM I'm so sick of hearing Bush and his peons tout "freedome & liberty" since they don't even know what those words mean, let alone have any particular interest in it... But they'll wave their flags and talk of grandeuos visions of freedom and liberty while stickin' their hands into working America's pocketbook. These guys are nuthin' more than rag team carnival pick-pockets... Meanwhile, if you needed a standardized national IQ test all you'd need to do was figure that anyone who is happy gettin' pick-pocketed by these thugs should be the standard for retardation... Bobert |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: Amos Date: 28 Jan 05 - 11:01 PM Taddddaaaaaa!!!! And to top it off, the last piece of masterful research and report for this thread is from Yale University, his old Skull and Bones stomping ground: http://www.yaledailynews.com/article.asp?AID=28052 Bush's lip service to liberty isn't serving anyone Most Recent Columns THE LOW-DOWN | ROGER LOW Bush's lip service to liberty isn't serving anyone (Thursday, January 27, 2005) E-mail this article Format this article for printing Comment on this article Most Read Articles This Week After eight years as top dog, Handsome Dan dies (Monday, January 24, 2005) Pornographic audio disrupts D.S. lecture (Thursday, January 27, 2005) Brawl breaks out in Gourmet Heaven 2 (Tuesday, January 25, 2005) Physics professor emeritus is hit by car (Monday, January 24, 2005) There was something nauseatingly depressing about George Bush's second inauguration -- and not just because it was George Bush's second inauguration. His face a studied mask of optimistic determination, our president looked into the cameras squarely and vowed, as he has vowed so many times before and as so many past presidents have vowed before him, to fight tyranny and champion liberty. The United States will use its influence to back democracy everywhere with the "ultimate goal of ending tyranny in our world," he said during a 20-minute speech in which he used the words "liberty" or "freedom" a total of 42 times. The assembled audience of Washingtonians, eager to get started on their weekend of schmoozing, clapped politely. I'm glad to know that the president really, really supports freedom. I do, too. Now that Bush has been safely re-elected and never has to run for another office in his life, however, I was naively hoping that he would drop his folksy platitudes for an hour, seize the national microphone and give the country some idea of how he intends to make the world safe for democracy. Because so far, his master plan seems to be blowing other countries up. This is not idle sarcasm. To those few, those happy few, Republican Yalies currently salivating over the prospect of four more years, I would ask one simple question: Can you explain what our president's foreign policy strategy is? Let us set aside, for the moment, the wisdom of invading Iraq. Even supposing that somehow, miraculously, a stable democracy does manage to crystallize in that country, surely we can all agree that the strategy is not repeatable. The Iraq mission, when all is said and done, will cost the United States hundreds of billions of dollars, thousands of American lives and will tie down vast portions of our military for years to come. With the United States already facing its largest deficit in history and with army recruitment at a dangerously low level, no serious politician can talk with a straight face about America undertaking another large-scale military venture in the foreseeable future. ... Well, thanks, boys and girls. It has been fun, I must admit, and I have really enjoyed being baited by the rednecks in these parts, accused of loose screws and obsessive compulsive what-nots. IF he acts up again, you can be sure I will let you know. :D A |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: Bobert Date: 28 Jan 05 - 11:00 PM Well, fittingly, I didn't. But at least it was to mah main man, Amos, and not to Martin... Now, on to 2000, Amos... Bobert |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: Bobert Date: 28 Jan 05 - 10:58 PM Beat ya |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: Amos Date: 28 Jan 05 - 10:58 PM George Bush Spin On Iraq Is Dizzying As 37 Americans Die In Iraq http://www.s5000.com/what_the_huck/718/george_bush_iraq.php 1/27/05: © www.s5000.com George Bush keeps spin on Iraq going. George Bush is in his own Iraq. George Bush doesn't have a clue about Iraq or what is going on there. George W. Bush tried to spin Wednesday's news in a positive light. George W. Bush is the one who is spun. George W. Bush must think that you and I are stupid, and will believe anything he has to say. As I listened to the reports and read George Bush's statements and representations regarding American losses, and the upcoming elections in Iraq, I couldn't help but think Bush is a candidate for the nut house. If George Bush believes even an eighth of what he's telling us, we're all in a lot of trouble. George Bush asked for your patience and understanding on what he claims was a "very discouraging day" of death and violence in Iraq for our soldiers. Wake up George. It's been a ridicules two years of "death and violence" in Iraq for everyone since you needlessly invaded that country. Tell Huck what your feelings are. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: Bobert Date: 28 Jan 05 - 10:57 PM Illegeal activities and these crooks go hand in hand... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: Amos Date: 28 Jan 05 - 10:56 PM http://www.pahrumpvalleytimes.com/2005/01/28/opinion/brummett.html By JOHN BRUMMETT If you didn't know better, you'd think that George Bush and his people admire Bill Clinton. For the last couple of weeks they've fallen over themselves quoting Clinton as having said in the 1990s the very thing Republicans are saying now to Democratic ridicule. You know, that Social Security is in a crisis, which it isn't, technically speaking. One of my favorite bloggers calls this "cherry-picking," meaning the selection of an occasional Clinton quote to suit one's purposes, never mind one's objections to the extensive balance of what the man ever said. If you call a guy a liar and impeach him, it ought to follow that you would impair your ability to embrace him credibly for your advantage later. Anyway, Social Security's actuarial projection was grimmer in Clinton's '90s than Bush's '00s. And on at least one of those occasions, and perhaps all of them, Clinton was talking specifically about a crisis not in Social Security itself, but in the federal budget owing to its obligations to Social Security. That came, you might recall, as Clinton was endeavoring without a single Republican ally to get the Reagan-Bush deficits down and save us from being bankrupted and owned lock, stock and barrel by foreign owners of our debt. The Bush administration talks of a Social Security doomsday in 2018. But the experts say Social Security will have plenty of assets for all its liabilities until sometime between 2043 and 2052. The problem in 2018 is specifically a federal budget problem, not a Social Security problem. That's when the federal general fund's IOUs to the Social Security surplus start coming due. So, Social Security would have a problem in 2018 only if a key asset was rendered worthless by the system's having involuntarily extended credit to the United States government. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: Amos Date: 28 Jan 05 - 10:54 PM http://mediamatters.org/items/200501270012 Media is advancing Bush administration's faulty argument on Social Security's race inequalities Reporters and commentators have unquestioningly presented, or even promoted, the Bush administration's faulty argument for Social Security privatization that blacks are disadvantaged under the current system and that Bush's proposal for private accounts would address that purported inequity. But the General Accounting Office (GAO) and two Social Security Administration (SSA) actuaries have undermined that claim. In covering President Bush's January 25 meeting with black leaders, several news reports repeated the administration's claim that the current Social Security program is unfair to blacks, but did not note any of the evidence debunking it. On January 25, Associated Press writer Nedra Pickler provided the administration's account while neglecting to report evidence refuting the claim that private accounts will especially benefit blacks; New York Times reporter Elisabeth Bumiller continued the trend January 26. Los Angeles Times staff writers Peter Wallsten and Richard Simon, on the other hand, noted in a January 26 article some of the reasons private accounts could hurt blacks: "[Congressional Black] Caucus leaders contend that blacks rely disproportionately on disability and survivors benefits paid by Social Security, and that Bush's changes would jeopardize the entire system -- hurting black beneficiaries far more than the private accounts might help them." In a January 25 report on FOX News' Special Report with Brit Hume, chief White House correspondent Carl Cameron reported the "administration selling point" that "because blacks on average do not live as long as whites, African Americans could get a fairer share of the retirement pie with the investment nest egg." On the January 24 edition of The Rush Limbaugh Show, nationally syndicated radio host Limbaugh declared: "If Social Security is all screwed up here because it discriminates on race and gender, it's broken! ... Can we all admit we need to fix it?" |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: Amos Date: 28 Jan 05 - 10:53 PM http://www2.townonline.com/winchester/opinion/view.bg?articleid=171390 Frenkel: Bush administration's use of Social Security trust unlawful By David Frenkel/ Guest columnist Thursday, January 27, 2005 At last we have found the dreaded WMD, and they are right here in the United States. WMD: Whoppers of Mass Disinformation. President George W. Bush and an entire army of GOP players, including Vice President Dick Cheney, are out shilling for the ultimate destruction of Social Security. They have perfected the art of dressing up, in a benign disguise, acts designed to favor their campaign donors, in this case brokerage houses. They even have the gall to use Department of Social Security trust funds to defray the depletion of the trust funds, as they promote this change - in spite of it not yet being law. This represents more unlawful use of public funds and it is enraging many staff members of the Department of Social Security. For those in Winchester who are dependant on Social Security, or plan to retire any time soon, you will be pleased to know that this "crisis" is just one more manufactured problem by the Bush conservative radicals, who have learned people will accept unpleasant solutions if they think that they must make an instant decision driven by a crisis. So when you want to pay off your brokerage campaign donors and please your ideologues - all in one post-election victory-glow glorious moment - here is the golden opportunity. Never mind that only 9 percent of the people polled by Associated Press last week felt that Social Security should be a high priority topic for the president. Never mind that the receipts from SS taxes are in surplus at present and for many years to come and that Bush is spending our contribution surplus while borrowing even more to pay for his Iraq war and to make up for his massive ill-timed tax cuts for the very wealthy. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: Amos Date: 28 Jan 05 - 10:52 PM http://www.kwtx.com/home/headlines/1363256.html Bush Administration Wants Another $80 Billion For War In Iraq The Bush administration will announce plans Wednesday to request another $80 billion to finance the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, congressional aides say, but won't be formally presented to Congress until after President Bush has introduced his new budget on Feb. 6. The announcement will come a day after the Congressional Budget Office projected that the government will run an $855 billion deficit over the next 10 years, excluding the costs of the war and the President's Social Security Plan. The Army said Monday it expects to keep its troop strength in Iraq at the current level of about 120,000 for at least two more years. The Army's top operations officer, Lt. Gen. James J. Lovelace, Jr. told reporters Monday that represents "the most probable case" |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: Amos Date: 28 Jan 05 - 10:46 PM http://www.worldscreen.com/newscurrent.php?filename=us128.htm Bush Administration Backs Off Media Ownership Rules WASHINGTON, D.C., January 28: President George W. Bush's administration has abandoned its challenge to a ruling that blocked the relaxation of media ownership rules, delivering another set back to companies that are seeking to expand their TV station holdings and own newspaper and TV assets in the same market. According to wire reports, the Justice Department will not ask the Supreme Court to consider a judgement by a Philadelphia federal appeals court last year that ordered the FCC to reconsider its plan to liberalize media ownership rules. The FCC, led by outgoing chairman Michael Powell, had sought to increase the television station ownership cap to 45 percent, from the previous 35 percent. The new ownership rules would have also allowed a media company to own television and newspaper assets in the same market. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: Amos Date: 28 Jan 05 - 10:44 PM http://www.smh.com.au/news/Business/Tensions-grow-with-Bush-Administrations-inertia-on-sliding-greenback/2005/01/28/1106850109364.html?oneclick=true Tensions grow with Bush Administration's inertia on sliding greenback By David Sanger, Mark Landler, and Keith Bradsher January 29, 2005 Page Tools Washington: After a first term in which terrorism and war dominated President George W. Bush's foreign policy agenda, his allies in Europe and Asia suspect that his next confrontation with the world could take on a very different cast: a potential monetary crisis, in which a steep plunge in the value of the US dollar touches off economic waves around the world. Already, the tensions about the US dollar are becoming a recurring source of friction, a conflict that does not reverberate as loudly as the differences over Iraq but may be as deeply felt. At a meeting in Paris on Monday, the finance ministers of Germany and France complained that Europe had unjustly borne the brunt of the US dollar's downward slide and called for co-ordinated action to stop it. "Europe has until now paid too big a share in this readjustment," Herve Gaymard, the French finance minister, said bluntly. His German counterpart, Hans Eichel, said the US needed to reduce its deficits, adding "each one has to play its role". Two months ago, similar sentiments came from China's prime minister, Wen Jiabao, whose nation is at the centre of a struggle with Washington about currency policy. He complained about the fall of the US dollar, asking, "Shouldn't the relevant authorities be doing something about this?" In an interview just before President Bush's inauguration, Treasury Secretary John Snow played down the tensions. "We understand that deficits matter," he said, insisting that the tight budget Bush is expected to send to Congress next month should give foreigners and the financial markets the solace they seek. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: Amos Date: 28 Jan 05 - 10:43 PM http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/209718_fccmedia28.html Bush administration quits fight over media ownership SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER STAFF AND NEWS SERVICES WASHINGTON -- Media companies hoping to expand their TV station holdings and to own TV stations and newspapers in the same markets suffered a setback yesterday when the Bush administration decided to abandon its challenge of a ruling that blocked the relaxation of media ownership rules. The Justice Department will not ask the Supreme Court to review a decision last year by a federal appeals court in Philadelphia that sharply criticized the attempt to deregulate and ordered the Federal Communications Commission to reconsider its action. The decision is a final slap at Michael Powell, the outgoing chairman of the FCC, who had advocated the changes. The dispute over media ownership rules has been closely watched in Seattle, where owners of the city's two major newspapers -- locked in a continuing legal dispute over their joint publishing agreement -- have expressed diametrically opposed views on the issue. In filings with the FCC, both The Hearst Corp., which owns the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and Hearst-Argyle Television Inc., which owns 25 TV stations and is majority owned by The Hearst Corp., have supported lifting restrictions on media ownership. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: Amos Date: 28 Jan 05 - 10:43 PM Another columnist was paid to help Bush administration agency SIOBHAN McDONOUGH, Associated Press Writer Friday, January 28, 2005 Printable Version Email This Article (01-28) 14:47 PST WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Department of Health and Human Services said Friday that a third conservative columnist was paid to assist in promoting a Bush administration policy. Columnist Mike McManus received $10,000 to train marriage counselors as part of the agency's initiative promoting marriage to build strong families, said Wade Horn, assistant secretary for children and families. The disclosure came as the Government Accountability Office sent a letter to the Education Department on Friday asking for all materials related to its contract dealings with a prominent conservative media commentator. That department, through a contract with the public relations firm Ketchum, hired commentator Armstrong Williams to produce ads that featured former Education Secretary Rod Paige and promoted President Bush's No Child Left Behind law. The contract also committed Williams, who is black, to provide media access for Paige and to persuade other black journalists to talk about the law. Federal law bans the use of public money on propaganda. (Excerpted from http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2005/01/28/national1747EST0661.DTL) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: Bobert Date: 28 Jan 05 - 07:32 PM Ten.... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: Amos Date: 28 Jan 05 - 05:08 PM EDITORIAL
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: Amos Date: 28 Jan 05 - 05:05 PM Little Black LiesBy PAUL KRUGMAN Published: January 28, 2005 ocial Security privatization really is like tax cuts, or the Iraq war: the administration keeps on coming up with new rationales, but the plan remains the same. President Bush's claim that we must privatize Social Security to avert an imminent crisis has evidently fallen flat. So now he's playing the race card. This week, in a closed meeting with African-Americans, Mr. Bush asserted that Social Security was a bad deal for their race, repeating his earlier claim that "African-American males die sooner than other males do, which means the system is inherently unfair to a certain group of people." In other words, blacks don't live long enough to collect their fair share of benefits. This isn't a new argument; privatizers have been making it for years. But the claim that blacks get a bad deal from Social Security is false. And Mr. Bush's use of that false argument is doubly shameful, because he's exploiting the tragedy of high black mortality for political gain instead of treating it as a problem we should solve. (See link for rest of article) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: Amos Date: 27 Jan 05 - 09:50 PM Which Way Out? Times Headlines Which Way Out? The Auschwitz Imperative A Response of Grit and Grace Rehearsal for Democracy A 21st Century Budget Process more > Most E-mailed Boxer's Spine Gets Her Cut Off at the Knees Privatizing Social Security: 'Me' Over 'We' Digging Into Seymour Hersh > more e-mailed stories On the deadliest day of the Iraq war, with 31 troops killed in a helicopter crash and six more in insurgent ambushes, President Bush's response was that the crash would be "very discouraging to the American people." The president has a gift for understatement when it comes to the war; discouragement has long since given way to anger, both at the Iraqi insurgents and the U.S. administration that got us into this mess. After nearly two years, the deaths of more than 1,400 troops and the expenditure of well over $200 billion, Bush still refuses to spell out an exit strategy. Instead, he speaks of bringing the troops home "as soon as possible" and hails Sunday's election for an interim national assembly. The onetime goal of ridding the country of weapons of mass destruction went by the boards when it turned out there were no such weapons. The new target is Iraq as a launching pad for democracy in the Middle East. But the more immediate result has been to create a new rallying point for Islamic fundamentalists. (Los Angeles Times Editorial) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: Bobert Date: 27 Jan 05 - 07:39 PM As does Laura but not George... But he'll strap on a flight suit, pretend to land on an aircraft carrier with a message of "Mission Accomplished" then lie about it all??? Like other than me and Amos and few others who frequent this thread, does Bush's pathological lieing bother you? If not, why? Bobert |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: Bobert Date: 27 Jan 05 - 05:50 PM Barbara Bush wears army boots... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: Amos Date: 27 Jan 05 - 02:35 PM From the BBC: Fox News 'propaganda' says mogul Ted Turner said media companies were not being critical enough CNN founder Ted Turner attacked US TV network Fox News on Tuesday, labelling it "propaganda" for its stance towards the Bush administration. Turner also likened the network's current popularity to Adolf Hitler's rise to power in 1930s Germany. "Just because you're bigger doesn't mean you're right," Turner said in a speech to the National Association of Television Programming Executives. Fox News, owned by Rupert Murdoch, is currently leading CNN in TV ratings. Mr Turner also attacked "gigantic companies whose agenda goes beyond broadcasting" for not criticising the Bush administration enough. 'Problems' "There's one network, Fox, that's a propaganda voice for them," the 66-year-old media mogul said. "It's certainly legal. But it does pose problems for our democracy when the news is 'dumbed-down'." Fox News issued a statement, saying: "Ted is understandably bitter having lost his ratings, his network and now his mind - we wish him well." During a question-and-answer session, Mr Turner, who stood down as the chairman of AOL Time Warner in 2003, said it was "not necessarily a bad thing" that CNN and other news networks were behind Fox in the ratings. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: Amos Date: 27 Jan 05 - 02:30 PM US doubts Bush's Iraq optimism By Jill McGivering BBC News, Washington The Iraq elections are being watched closely in the United States by both the Bush administration and the public. Americans are concerned about the violence in Iraq The White House is hailing the process as a milestone in Iraq's journey to greater freedom as evidence that life for ordinary Iraqis has improved since the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. But, with the continuing violence still causing concern and no signs yet of the US scaling back its presence, public optimism about the elections is not high. Upbeat administration Iraq still makes daily headlines across America. The violence is at odds with the endlessly upbeat message from members of the Bush administration. They justify the invasion by stressing the country's new freedoms. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice emphasised the importance of the elections not only to Iraq but also as a key part of the president's vision of spreading democracy across the Middle East: "The election later this month will be an important first step as the people of Iraq prepare to draft a constitution and hold the next round of elections, elections that will then create a permanent government," Ms Rice said. "The success of freedom in Afghanistan and Iraq will give strength and hope to reformists throughout the region and accelerate the reforms already underway," she added. Public pessimism But that optimism is not shared by the American public, which is increasingly concerned about the violence. The latest findings of the Washington-based Pew Research Centre found about half of those polled thought the elections would not do much to improve stability in Iraq. Carroll Doherty of Pew Research says the figures in part mirror the general political divide, with Democrats most anxious about Iraq and Republicans slightly less so: "Most people say that, even after the election, Iraq will be no more stable or no less stable for that matter, it'll be the status quo." The levels of support and opposition have remained stable for the past few months. "We haven't seen a big drop off in support for the war. Democrats still largely oppose the war, Republicans still largely support it," he said. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: GUEST Date: 27 Jan 05 - 12:07 PM Sorry -- the damn thing flipped into submit mode on its own, honest! A |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: GUEST,Amos Date: 27 Jan 05 - 12:06 PM January 27, 2005 E-mail story Print Most E-Mailed Margaret Carlson: Boxer's Spine Gets Her Cut Off at the Knees Recent Columns: Boxer's Spine Gets Her Cut Off at the Knees January 27, 2005 Money Can't Buy Happiness? That's Rich January 20, 2005 The Truth Shall Set You Back January 13, 2005 Forget Iraq and South Asia, It's Party Time January 6, 2005 'Hotel Rwanda' Should Open Our Eyes to the Genocide in Sudan December 23, 2004 Kerik Gave Us a Rudy Awakening December 16, 2004 When the Job Stinks, a Woman Gets It December 2, 2004 Most E-mailed SpongeBob and Friends: Splendor in the Kelp Man Faces Charges in Metrolink Collision Real fireworks > more e-mailed stories COMMENTARY You wouldn't know it from reading the newspapers, but Sen. Barbara Boxer served her country valiantly last week. In her grilling of Secretary of State-designate Condoleezza Rice, Boxer finally named the elephant in the hearing room, which is more than the war itself. It's the lies that got us there. Finally, a national television audience could watch a member of Congress ask tough questions in language that didn't pussyfoot around. From all the commissions, studies and news reports, we now know pretty much what Rice knew and when she knew it. What we don't yet have is an explanation for why Rice didn't tell us what she knew and at times even told us the opposite. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: GUEST,Amos Date: 27 Jan 05 - 11:51 AM This is an excerpt from an article in a web-page called The Arab News,www.arabnews.com, entitled "The New King George": "In his coronation speech, Bush promised to bring freedom and democracy to every corner of the world. No less, no more. He cited the two countries in which he has already achieved this aim: Iraq and Afghanistan. Both have been devastated by American planes that dropped the message from their bomb doors. Recently, the American soldiers wiped a large city from the face of the earth in order to convince the opponents of "American values". Now Fallujah looks as if it had been struck by a tsunami. It is no secret that the neo-cons intend to "bring democracy" to Iran and Syria, thereby eliminating two more traditional enemies of the USA and Israel. Dick Cheney, the vice president, has already said that Israel may attack Iran, as if threatening to unleash a Rottweiler. It could have been hoped that after the total debacle in Iraq and the less obvious but equally serious failure in Afghanistan, Bush would shrink from more such actions. But as almost always happens with rulers of this type, he cannot admit defeat and stop. On the contrary, failure drives him on to more extremes, vowing, rather like the captain of the Titanic, "to stay the course." There is no way to guess what Bush may perpetrate, now that he has been re-elected by his people. His ego has been blown up to giant proportions, reaffirming what the Greek fabulist Aesop said some 27 centuries ago: "The smaller the mind the greater the conceit." |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: GUEST Date: 27 Jan 05 - 11:40 AM The Best Coverage Money Can BuyPublished: January 27, 2005 New York Times Editorial President Bush says he has ordered his cabinet not to rent any more journalists to promote his policies, which was certainly the right thing to do. But he still seemed as much bemused as discomfited yesterday that administration officials have been caught making payoffs for positive "news coverage" from ostensibly independent journalists. At his news conference, Mr. Bush said that the White House had no knowledge of the arrangements with sellout members of the Fourth Estate and that he has reminded his cabinet secretaries that "our agenda ought to be able to stand on its own two feet." Still, we were puzzled as to why Mr. Bush had not said that earlier; his administration was caught hiring a public relations specialist last year to pose as a news reporter and peddle propaganda spots. The president also did not say whether his new policy of an "independent relationship" between the White House and the press corps extended to staff members who deny airplane seats and other access to reporters as punishment for their coverage. Mr. Bush was plainly irritated by having to field questions about administration officials who tapped taxpayers to finance spin-for-money deals. The most prominent sellout was Armstrong Williams, the conservative television commentator who took $240,000 to do administration bidding on behalf of the No Child Left Behind Act while making a show of tough-minded candor. The latest is the syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher, who did not disclose a $21,500 government writing contract for her promotion of Bush policy on strengthening marriage. Last year, there was the propaganda video on behalf of the Medicare drug program offered to budget-pressed TV stations. Full disclosure at signoff might have said, "Reporting live and in the tank!" Loss of credibility works both ways. The exposed spinners deservedly suffer shame. But the administration's believability comes into question when officials like Rod Paige, the outgoing education secretary, defend buying faked coverage. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: GUEST,Amos Date: 27 Jan 05 - 11:36 AM Editorial: Mounting War Bill 27 January 2005 From Arab News THOUGH Iraqis are paying the highest price by far for George Bush's invasion of their country, the United States is making its own significant contribution in both blood and coin. Yesterday's crash of a US Marine helicopter near the Jordanian border claiming 31 lives was the largest single casualty figure in Iraq. Even as detailed news of this latest loss broke, the administration in Washington was announcing the need for at least an extra $80 billion in funding, largely to pursue US policy in Iraq and Afghanistan. This amount will propel war spending since 9/11 to $300 billion. Is the world really $300 billion safer or are all those dollars simply being hurled by the fistful onto the blaze that Bush ignited in Iraq? Couldn't a good part of so vast a sum of money have been better used addressing injustice, despair and poverty, the very things on which terrorism feeds so hungrily? We shall of course never know. Yet it ought to give pause for thought that this very week, the world's richest man, Microsoft boss Bill Gates, has pledged $750 million of his own money to fund a global campaign of immunization against childhood diseases. He has pointed out that his contribution dwarves the combined total already offered by America and Europe. The Pentagon, whose 2005 budget this year — not including the extra money — is $400 billion, says that part of the cash is earmarked for the training and provision of equipment to Iraqi and Afghani forces to whom Washington intends to hand over when it is deemed that US troops have "completed their mission." |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: GUEST,Amos Date: 27 Jan 05 - 09:21 AM Thomas Friedman's advise to Bush in Europe deserves a good close read: Read My Ears By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN Published: January 27, 2005 Berlin Having spent the last 10 days traveling to Britain, France, Germany and Switzerland, I have one small suggestion for President Bush. I suggest that when he comes to Europe to mend fences next month he give only one speech. It should be at his first stop in Brussels and it should consist of basically three words: "Read my ears." Let me put this as bluntly as I can: There is nothing that the Europeans want to hear from George Bush, there is nothing that they will listen to from George Bush that will change their minds about him or the Iraq war or U.S. foreign policy. Mr. Bush is more widely and deeply disliked in Europe than any U.S. president in history. Some people here must have a good thing to say about him, but I haven't met them yet. In such an environment, the only thing that Mr. Bush could do to change people's minds about him would be to travel across Europe and not say a single word - but just listen. If he did that, Mr. Bush would bowl the Europeans over. He would absolutely disarm and flummox people here - and improve his own image markedly. All it would take for him would be just a few words: "Read my ears. I have come to Europe to listen, not to speak. I will give my Europe speech when I come home - after I've heard what you have to say." If Mr. Bush did that none of the European pundits would be able to pick apart his speeches here and mock the contradictions between his words and deeds. None of them would comment on his delivery and what he failed to mention. Instead, all the European commentators, politicians and demonstrators would start fighting with one another over what to say to the president. It might even force the Europeans to get out of their bad habit of just saying, "George Bush," and everybody laughing or sneering as if that ends the conversation, and Europe doesn't have to declare what it stands for. Listening is also a sign of respect. It is a sign that you actually value what the other person might have to say. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: GUEST,Amos at Dawn Date: 27 Jan 05 - 08:39 AM The reliable redhead rides again: Love for SaleBy MAUREEN DOWD Published: January 27, 2005 I'm herewith resigning as a member of the liberal media elite. I'm joining up with the conservative media elite. They get paid better. First comes news that Armstrong Williams got nearly a quarter of a million from the Education Department to plug No Child Left Behind. The families of soldiers killed in Iraq get a paltry $12,000. But good publicity? Priceless. Mr. Williams helped out the first President Bush and Clarence Thomas during the Anita Hill scandal. Mr. Williams, who served as Mr. Thomas's personal assistant at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission when the future Supreme Court justice was gutting policies that would help blacks, gleefully attacked Professor Hill, saying, "Sister has emotional problems," and telling The Wall Street Journal "there is a thin line between her sanity and insanity." Now we learn from media reporter Howard Kurtz that syndicated columnist Maggie Gallagher had a $21,500 contract from the Health and Human Services Department to work on material promoting the agency's $300 million initiative to encourage marriage. Ms. Gallagher earned her money, even praising Mr. Bush in print as a "genius" at playing "daddy" to the nation. "Mommies feel your pain," she wrote in 2002. "Daddies give you confidence that you can ignore the pain and get on with life." Genius? Not so much. Spendthrift? Definitely. W.'s administration was running up his astounding deficit paying "journalists" to do what they would be happy to do for free - just to be friends with benefits, getting access that tougher scribes are denied. Consider Charles Krauthammer, who went to the White House on Jan. 10 for what The Washington Post termed a "consultation" on the inaugural speech and then praised the Jan. 20th address on Fox News as "revolutionary," said Media Matters, a liberal watchdog group. I still have many Christmas bills to pay. So I'd like to send a message to the administration: THIS SPACE AVAILABLE. I could write about the strong dollar and the shrinking deficit. Or defend Torture Boy, I mean, the esteemed and sage Alberto Gonzales. Or remind readers of the terrific job Condi Rice did coordinating national security before 9/11 - who could have interpreted a memo titled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside the United States" as a credible threat? - not to mention her indefatigable energy obscuring information undercutting the vice president's dementia on Iraq. My preference is to get a contract with Rummy. It would be cost effective, compared with the latest $80 billion he needs to train more Iraqi security forces to be blown up. For half a mil, I could write a doozy of a column promoting Rummy's phantasmagoric policies. What is all this hand-wringing about the 31 marines who died in a helicopter crash in Iraq yesterday? It's only slightly more than the number of people who died in traffic accidents in California last Memorial Day. The president set the right tone, avoiding pathos when asked about the crash. "Obviously," he said, "any time we lose life it is a sad moment." |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: Amos Date: 26 Jan 05 - 11:16 PM Secret Documents Prove Bush Administration Wanted High Unemployment! (From Unconfirmed Sources...) Unconfirmed Sources report documents prove Bush wanted high unemployment. Secret files detail an amazingly successful plan called "Staying Home for America to keep Us Safe From Godless Heathens Forever!" Under the plan Bush and his economic team purposely depressed employment to keep people at home where they could defend America form terrorists! "It is a brilliant plan. A true master stroke!" said one Washington insider. "Who could have guessed that high unemployment is what has kept America safe and strong since 911. We didn't know it but the president gave us an army of 2.5 million people to defend our country." "Its true." said Karl Rove, who leaked the plan documents. "We knew we needed thousands of people to protect the country from terror so we launched the plan right after 911. Who could have guessed it would be so successful for so long. Fred Johnson, an unemployed auto worker, said the revelations put things in a whole new light. "Before I heard about the 'Staying Home for American' plan, I was pissed off at the president for letting the economy slide and causing me to get fired. But now I understand and i'm proud to be unemployed! It makes me feel good to know that this last year I've been doing my part for America. My friends and family have been telling me i'm a bum, but now I know i'm a hero!" |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: Bobert Date: 26 Jan 05 - 11:15 PM Yeah like here is the quesrioning of Gaonzalez in Congress: Senator Smith: "Mr. Gonzalez, do you believe that since internatinal law opposes torture that it is wrong?" Ginzalez: "Yeah" Senator Smith: Did you advise the president that torture was hunky dory just so long as it was the US doing the torturing?" Gonzalez: "Yeah" Go figure??? Bobert |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: Amos Date: 26 Jan 05 - 11:06 PM Demand Full Disclosure and Investigation of Bush Administration Torture Policies January 25, 2005 Email To A Friend Printer Friendly Take Action Action Alert Learn More Homepage Senate leadership is trying to steamroll the confirmation of Alberto Gonzales as Attorney General, but your senators still have an opportunity to demand that Gonzales appoint an independent special counsel to investigate the development and implementation of U.S. interrogation and torture policies and to fully release all torture-related documents. Until senators get those commitments, they should oppose voting on the Gonzales nomination. They cannot fully exercise their constitutional duty to "advise and consent" on the Gonzales nomination until they have critical information on his record on torture and until a commitment is made to an independent investigation. Otherwise the Senate would be setting up a situation where Gonzales would be investigating matters in which he himself participated. Last week, members of the ACLU Action Network generated tens of thousands of letters to Congress in support of freedom and equality. We need to keep up the pressure and ensure Congress commits to accountability and responsibility for the torture and abuse of prisoners. America is a land of laws and we cannot let the actions at Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay cripple our credibility and moral standing at home and abroad. Let Congress know that you consider the use of torture to be a grave injustice that needs to be stopped. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: Amos Date: 26 Jan 05 - 11:02 PM Bush Administration Shamed by Venezuelan Democracy by Stan Moore (Wednesday 26 January 2005) "...Venezuela's poor and needy are experiencing the good of democracy, while America's underclass are experiencing exploitation and intentional neglect because of the suppression of democracy in America at polling time." It should be no big surprise that Condoleeza Rice could find nothing good to say about President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela or the politics of that country in her recent confirmation hearings. Rice, a foreign policy protector of President George W. Bush, is shamed by the beautiful expression of democracy in Venezuela, resulting in the overwhelming confirmation of legitimacy of President Chavez, which stands in stark contrast to the willful suppression of democracy, by the Bush cabal. President Chavez was rewarded with a landslide victory by Venezuelan voters because of his support of the underclass, the neglected, and the needy in Venezuelan society. Chavez has earned the ire of the greedy for aiding the needy. Chavez has enacted programs to aid the needy at the expense of Venezuela's greedy. Chavez has withstood U.S.-backed attempts to drive him from power because the U.S. ALWAYS supports the greedy at the expense of the needy, and often seeks to drive populist rulers from power who follow the opposite course. Just ask President Aristide of Haiti. On the other hand, George W. Bush and his political supporters attempted with great success to suppress expression of democracy by the American underclass, the neglected, and the needy in places like Ohio and Florida in the past two U.S. presidential elections. The underclass was purged from voter rolls. The needy were challenged regarding their eligibility to vote at the polls, resulting in their being forced to vote on provisional ballots that were discarded or not counted. Bush' Brain engineered campaign and election tactics designed to disenfranchise the underclass so that they could not express their franchise by voting in national elections. As a result, Venezuela's poor and needy are experiencing the good of democracy, while America's underclass are experiencing exploitation and intentional neglect because of the suppression of democracy in America at polling time. America's underclass is scorned and held in derision by the ruling class, as if their needs and desires are irrelevant -- just witness the spoken remarks at the Congressional challenge to the electoral vote in Ohio. However, rather than confess to shame, Condoleeza Rice, true to character, resorts to character assassination of President Chavez in order to save face. Rice' tactic of lying under oath is nothing new. The gullible may actually believe her, because America's gullible public is easily deceived and rarely has access to accurate information. Much of the world now understands the feeble nature of American democracy. Much of the world now understands that any apparent altruism by America is always conditional -- we will help you if it is perceived in our interest, and we will harm you if that is perceived to be in our interest. America does no good in this world based on principle, except for the principle of self-interest. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: Bobert Date: 26 Jan 05 - 11:01 PM Bad arithmaticin', Martin. Accordin' to the Wes Ginny Slide Rule it's 9 folks havin' oral sex, which means that one of them must be a dog, or radical contortionist... B;) |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: Amos Date: 26 Jan 05 - 11:00 PM Bush Administration Paid Media Supporter of Gay Marriage Ban Just weeks after accusations surfaced of the Bush administration paying a conservative commentator to plug education policies, a second commentator has now been discovered to have taken funds for work on promoting the administration's marriage policy. In a Tuesday report in the Washington Post, it was revealed that columnist Maggie Gallagher was paid $21,500 in 2004 by the Department of Health and Human Services to write magazine articles on the administration's program encouraging marriage and to help promote the program. Gallagher also received $20,000 in 2002 and 2003 to write a report on government initiatives to strengthen marriage. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: Once Famous Date: 26 Jan 05 - 10:53 PM Post number 969 represents three people together having oral sex. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: Amos Date: 26 Jan 05 - 10:16 PM Rumsfeld Quits Trip to Germany: Human Rights Groups ask German Government to prosecute him for war crimes. By News Report Jan 22, 2005, 00:57 Rumsfeld cancels trip after accusations Friday 21 January 2005, 13:23 Makka Time, 10:23 GMT US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld cancelled a planned visit to Germany after a US human rights organisation asked German authorities to prosecute him for war crimes, Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa) has learned. Rumsfeld has informed the German government via the US embassy that he will not take part in the Munich Security Conference in February, conference head Horst Teltschik told dpa on Thursday. The New York-based Centre for Constitutional Rights filed a complaint in December with the Federal German Prosecutor's Office against Rumsfeld accusing him of war crimes and torture in connection with detainee abuses at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison. Rumsfeld made it known immediately after the complaint was filed that he would not attend the Munich conference unless Germany quashed the legal action. German legislation violations The organisation alleges violations of German legislation, which outlaws war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide independent of the place of crime or origin of the accused. The prosecutor's office in Karlsruhe reportedly is examining the roughly 170-page complaint to see whether an investigation is warranted. The Centre for Constitutional Rights said it and four Iraqis allegedly tortured in US custody filed a complaint with German authorities against Rumsfeld, former CIA director George Tenet and eight other senior military and civilian officials over abuses at Abu Ghraib and elsewhere in Iraq. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: Little Hawk Date: 26 Jan 05 - 08:11 PM Sad but true. Kind of like the Sonderkommando (Jewish executioners) at the Nazi death camps. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: Bobert Date: 26 Jan 05 - 08:08 PM Yup. That's what I meant by pointing out that the house negtoes were ofter the most cruel people on the plantation.... |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: Little Hawk Date: 26 Jan 05 - 07:55 PM Point well taken, Bobert. People of privilege is what they are, all right, and that is the key to it all right there. O.J. was a person of privilege too, and he got away with murder because of it. If he'd been some poor unknown schmuck from the ghetto they would have executed him. It doesn't matter much what skin color you have if you're a person of privilege, except for this: if it's a discriminated-against skin color then you can even be a crook or a murderer and still use that skin colour to emotionally blackmail people into looking the other way...for fear they might be accused of racism if they go after you! Very handy to be the right colour when one is a person of privilege, to be sure. Too bad for Martha Stewart that she wasn't black...she would've got a lot more sympathy, I'm sure. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: Bobert Date: 26 Jan 05 - 07:42 PM Not to split hairs, LH, but I think that "token" is a tad threadbare. And it really doesn't covey how Condi and Colin have served the massa. They are "house negroes", very much in the tradition of the Old South. They are like white people in that they are of privildge. During the days of slavery they were generally the cruelest people on the plantation. Token I'd take. "House negroes" is a differnt story becuase they themselves are dangerous people... Bobert |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: Little Hawk Date: 26 Jan 05 - 07:12 PM The colour of a person's skin is not relevant in any way to whether or not one should point it out when that person has lied on the public record. If you think it is, Doug, then you are the one who is encouraging racism, not Senator Byrd. When people are deemed to be above criticism (regardless of their own actual behaviour) due merely to their membership in a race or a group of people that has suffered notable discrimination in the past...such as a Negro, a Native American, a woman, or a Jew, for example...then what is actually occurring is an Orwellian form of thought control which is tantamount TO racism, bigotry, and prejudice of the worst sort. And that appears to be what you are recommending Doug. You want Condoleeza Rice to be excused for what a white person would (I hope!) not be excused for, merely because she is black! That is asinine and totally wrong, and it does not enhance your credibility one bit to put forward such a viewpoint. It is ironical that a Republican Party which has virtually NO support among American blacks found 2 key blacks to put high in its administration. My, my, WHAT a coincidence! Can anyone say "token"? Well, one can always find a token person of the right political category AND color/etc to betray their own, if one looks hard enough, Doug. Yes indeed. Hitler found his Quislings, don't forget. He found them everywhere that he took over. He even found Jews who willingly helped exterminate other Jews. It proves nothing but this...people of any race, culture, or other distinguishing outer characteristic are capable of the worst acts. No one is sacrosanct on the basis of colour or anything else like that. If they were, my, wouldn't it be a simple little World! You could just line up all the "bad" people and exterminate them, on the basis of their obvious outer distinguishing features. Hmmmm...where have I heard of that before? At Nuremberg? Or at Dachau? Your defence of Condoleeza Rice on the basis that she is black, of all things, is really astounding to me. Sounds like O.J. Simpson all over again. A liar is still a liar, regardless of the color of her skin. |
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Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration From: GUEST,Clint Keller Date: 26 Jan 05 - 06:47 PM " I thought it was heartwarming to see a former member of the Ku Klux Klan, who now occupies a seat in the United States Senate, voting to block the nomination of the first Black woman to the office of Secretary of State." I like that kind of thinking. I think it cute to see a former three-year-old like Doug attempting to post to an adult forum. clint |
