BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST,Poindexter
Date: 01 Dec 04 - 08:22 AM

This guy has the same opinions as Amos:

"Despite entering the fourth year after September 11, Bush is still deceiving you and hiding the truth from you and therefore the reasons are still there to repeat what happened"

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Peace
Date: 01 Dec 04 - 01:17 AM

Thought Wernher von Braun passed away in the late 1970s.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Ellenpoly
Date: 01 Dec 04 - 01:09 AM

Ah Amos, if only.


..xx..e

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 01 Dec 04 - 12:11 AM

Canadians Authorities Arrest U.S. President Bush On War Charges
By Paul K. J.
Nov 30, 2004, 19:22


(Excerpted from Axis of Logic)

Canadian authorities have arrested US president George W. Bush in Ottawa. He has been charged with several offences under Canada's War Crimes Act. Vice-President Dick Cheney has mobilized the American military and all border crossings between the two nations have closed. Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin has urged for calm in a short radio and television broadcast to the Canadian people immediately after the arrest. Part of the Prime Minister's broadcast is included here: 

"This decision was not made lightly. But, it was also a decision that was impossible not to make. The United States is not outside the rule of law, and cannot expect to get an unlimited "free pass". This decision puts a grave strain upon both our nations, and I urge calm and restraint from our American neighbours, as well as from Canadians. I have met with the cabinet, and with our colleagues in the House. This is a time of great crisis for us as a nation. But as people, we will survive this test. Earlier I enacted the Emergency War Powers Act. This is necessary to guarantee our domestic security. This is not a time for panic, for lawlessness, for anything other than a responsible and sobre focus on what lies immediately ahead." 

Prime Minister Martin also said, "President Bush has been arrested under the Canadian War Crimes Act and the charges against him are being processed. He is being treated in accordance with the Geneva Convention and he will be treated fairly." 

(Click link for a picture of Dumbya in a penal jumpsuit!)

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST,Werner
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 11:33 PM

Polling Data

Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president?

        
          Nov. 2004 Oct. 2004

Approve      51%          45%

Disapprove   43%          47%

Do you approve or disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling the economy?

           Nov. 2004 Oct. 2004

Approve      45%         40%

Disapprove   50%         53%

WVB

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Bobert
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 11:27 PM

Yeah, but polls are also saying that 52% think America is on the wrong track??? Only 44% say it's on the right track...

Sooner or later, being liked will be trumped by policy...

Bush cannot continue to think that he can continue stupid policy can be covered by his life-of-the-frat-party-likabaility...

Remember that prior to 9/11 he had the lowest approval ratings in the last 50 years...

The American working class is getting a royal scrwing from Bush and will figure it out sometime in the nest 4 years and then it will be the end of Repub *rule*.....

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST,Andy
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 11:19 PM

Bush's job approval rating has now inched up to 51 percent, the highest it has been since March, the New York Times/CBS poll found.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST,Calhoun
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 11:00 PM

Bush begins another push for intel reform

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 10:59 PM

Opie:

You're a piece of work, for sure. The title of the thread and my repeated posts over and over and over have made it clear what this thread is about. Read the title at the head of every post in it. And get yer darned ole meds adjusted, wouldja? Yer putting out slime again.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Bobert
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 10:53 PM

In spite of this so called mandate only 44% of the American people think we're on the right course with 52% saying the wrong course...

No, I ain't into polls all that much but lets just set this mandate crap aside fir now. Okay?....

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 10:48 PM

A German Journalist named Dirk Laabs, writing for the Los Angeles Times in an editorial entitled "A Dwarf Known as Al Qaeda" suggests that the far-reaching and terrifying arm of organized militant Muslimism founded by Osama Bin Laden may be something of a bogeyman, or a paper tiger.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST,Opie
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 10:44 PM

By Zell Miller
Cox News Service
Friday, November 05, 2004

America's faith in freedom has been reaffirmed. With the re-election of President Bush, America recommitted itself once again to expanding freedom and promoting liberty. Only the 1864 re-election of Abraham Lincoln, the 1944 re-election of Franklin Roosevelt and the 1980 election of Ronald Reagan rival this victory as milestones in the preservation of our security by the advancement of freedom.

this thread is about the current administration
I thought it was about poetic bullshite from Pinkola Estes and other airheads.

O

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 10:40 PM

To the Editor:

Since the election, hardly a day seems to go by without someone in the Bush administration claiming that the mandate it received indisputably vindicates one of its policies ("The Real Environmental Mandate," editorial, Nov. 26).

President Bush won with only 51 percent of the vote, not by some overwhelming landslide. On many key individual issues, including the environment, polls repeatedly show that the public doesn't support his policies. Certainly, his victory does not mean that his administration now has a mandate for invading foreign countries based upon erroneous justifications, presiding over a continued rise in people without health insurance, or increasing the federal deficit to record new heights.

I would hope that the president and his advisers start recognizing how limited is the depth of Mr. Bush's mandate. Otherwise, this nation faces the prospect of becoming even further divided.

Russ Weiss
Princeton, N.J., Nov. 26, 2004

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Don Firth
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 09:52 PM

Keep 'em comin', Amos!

A famous man once said, "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

But it seems that for some people, it works out as, "You shall hear the truth, and the truth shall piss you off!"

Too bad. So sad. If the truth hurts that bad, you sort of wonder what their values are.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 09:14 PM

From UPI:

Washington, DC, Nov. 30 (UPI) -- A major Hispanic interests group praised U.S. President George Bush Tuesday for picking Kellogg's chief executive Carlos Gutierrez for commerce secretary.


The Latino Coalition, a non-partisan group formed to address issues affecting the well-being of Hispanics, said Bush's choice "sends a clear message" the president is "serious about expanding economic opportunities for all Americans."

...


A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 09:05 PM

In three FLorida counties, an unofficial recount has confirmed the voting that gave the state to George Bush in 2004. Full story in the New York Times.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 08:49 PM

http://deargeorgeletters.blogspot.com/

Siamese twins
Dear George,

You are the worst president of my lifetime, and probably of this country's
history. You led us into war under false pretenses. You have taken us from a
record budget surplus to a record deficit. Your policies have cost us jobs.
Access to health-care has not improved under your administration, and
probably worsened. You have pandered to the elite, the super-wealthy, and
the large corporations. You have turned your back on the environmental
standards and treaties. You have offered up give-aways to the energy and
timber industries with Orwellian names like "Clear Skies" and "Healthy
Forests." You have ham-strung AIDS work around the world by tying funding to
the promotion of abstinence at the exclusion of condom distribution. You
have played the politics of divisiveness, using the constitution as a wedge.
I could go on and on, but you know what you have done. And so do we.
Unfortunately, there are a lot of people who seem to be asleep at the wheel.


America is like a pair of Siamese twins, where one of the twins has a
genetic defect resulting in low IQ and a mean disposition. We can't kill our
mongoloid brother, or we kill ourselves. There was the opportunity for
separation, back in the 1800's, and perhaps, we should have taken it, but
its too late now. So, we are doomed to life with an idiot appendage dragging
around next to us, picking fights, drooling and spouting biblical passages.
In the end, our idiot brother will be our undoing. We are stuck.

So, what is the answer? Let the healing begin? No, I don't think so. This is
war. But you already knew that also.

I hope you choke on a pretzel, you pampered, inbred, dimwit.

Glenn
Age 39
Somerville, MA

---

A little harsh, I agree, but you can understand how he feels.


A

As for Gardner, I feel sorry for him. I don't trust his recollections, though. But again this thread is about the current administration.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST,Poindexter
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 07:39 PM

Amos:

He did get elected. He won by a comfortable margin. Are you going to impeach Bush or knock him off or just keep whining because you are in the minority?

If you want to keep covering the same ground, here is a real story: Kerry's Victim

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Bobert
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 06:32 PM

Heck, if I were gonna throw a big fraternity party, I'd want Bush in on the planning... Hey, he's likable nuff guy... Just has these personality disorders so he ain't the guy you're gonna trust to drive yer wife home 'er invest yer money...

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 06:19 PM

Poindexter,

Your eyes are brown, right?

Things are not all bad. In fact many things are very good.

The President, however, is not one of those things.

And I am sure he is not all bad. But he is a liar and an incompetent leader, which is bad enough. If he were running a used flower stand on the roadside in Central Texas, I would find him praiseworthy, I assure you. As President of my country he is a mockery.

When you grow up all this will make more sense to you.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST,Poindexter
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 09:57 AM

According to Amos:

"Things are either ALL good, or ALL bad, a person is either TOTALLY evil, or TOTALLY good. The individual can unconsciously re-act to life, people and information with this rigid and uncompromising approach. They either love a person, or hate them. A piece of information is either perfectly true, or all lies."

Everything has good and bad points. Amos can see only one or the other. Kerry was all good and Bush is all bad. Quite a defective thought pattern.

Yesterday Bush picked a new cabinet member. Is he all bad or all good Amos? Why don't you start a rant on him and attack him the way you accuse others of attacking you?

Why don't you rant about Rice and the others? The must be ALL BAD if Bush wants them.

Never mind looking for or mentioning anything good that might be happening, just dwell on anything that you perceive as wrong and never acknowledge anything positive.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Bobert
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 09:04 AM

I trust you are reading all these links, aren't you, Doug? That's what I like about you. Though you are a knothead their is hope. You don't stay glued to Fox TV all day...

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 05:39 AM

I am mostly adding in the general views I find in various places, Doug. I don't expect all these folks to seek out the Mudcat and post to it, naturally. Even you can understand that.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: DougR
Date: 30 Nov 04 - 01:09 AM

I think I have it now. Amos is shooting for the record of writing more posts to a thread he/she has started than any other poster. Uh, Amos, I think you have done it already with this one. Congratulations!

DougR

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Bobert
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 08:31 PM

You be da' man, Amos... Rant on and know as long as yer posting stuff that tells the truth about what jerks Bush and thugs are, I am in total agreement...

Bobert

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 08:13 PM

Dear Guest:

In addition to refusing to speak to the actual issues raised in this thread; in addition to refusing to sign your name to your communications; in addition to refusing to learn how to do simple HTML, thus distorting the appearance of your own slimy posts;in addition to insisting on distorting everything you write into an ad hominem attack; in addition to accusing me of the ordinary curiosity of a healthy mind, as though it were some defect, when the only mental defect in evidence here is your own hidden and underhanded hate; you now pretend to know a thing or two about Scientology, a subject in which you have no reading nor any experience.

If you did, you would know that one of their principals is that bi-valued logic is primitive and inadequate for most purposes. If you would like to start a discussion about the tenets of the subject, which I did in fact study some forty years ago (a fact which you seem to think is condemnatory rather than merely minimally interesting) by all means start a thread on the subject. But it has nothing to do with this thread or its subject, which is the atrocious inhumanity of a gang of thieves in Washington operating a different and more rabid cult, that of neoconserrvative imperialism. You want to talk about bi-polar logic? Whooeeee! But in any case it pains me to the extreme to think that in a time when children and women are being riddled with shrapnel and lead and bleeding to death, all you can do is raise rhetorical questions about whether it should be pointed out or not. I suppose if you heard someone screaming murder outside your window you would take notes on their grammar -- that's the kind of pusillanimous little shit you are.

Anyway, please crawl back in to your gutter, or under your rock, or wherever it was you thought you should crawl out from. Your constant irrelevance and underhanded droolery is vaguely nauseating, and below the standards of normal discourse.

In other news, Osama's right hand man has released a tape asserting that the United States is not treating Muslims with respect and thereby is causing all its own troubles.

Hmmmmm......

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST,Poindexter
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 06:58 PM

A darling article about why Amos is mentally ill:

Post-Scientology Behavioral Patterns

Given that the Scientology world view is very rigidl defined, in both cases, the departure is traumatic to the individual. The degree of trauma varies according to the intensity of the circumstances surrounding the departure, how long the person was in, and how deeply involved they were, and the personality of the individual. As with any trauma, the individual experiences depression, dislocation with the world they suddenly find themselves in, rage, anger, sometimes a desire for revenge. This paper is not intended to be an "exit counselling", since there are experts who specialise in this, and the literature listed at the conclusion adequately identifies these aspects, and suggests strategies for dealing with them.

Rather, what is being highlighted here is the often undetected behavioral patterns, learned while in Scientology, that manifest in an individual long after they have left, even when they feel that they have fully recovered from Scientology. These behavioral patterns can be traced back to specific aspects of Scientology teaching, and what will be outlined is intended as a starting point, and guide, which can be modified, or added to, depending on the reader's own experience and perception.
1. POLARISED THINKING:

By polarised thinking, I am referring to extremist thought patterns, which could even be compared to totalitarian rigidity. Things are either ALL good, or ALL bad, a person is either TOTALLY evil, or TOTALLY good. The individual can unconsciously re-act to life, people and information with this rigid and uncompromising approach. They either love a person, or hate them. A piece of information is either perfectly true, or all lies.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 06:26 PM

A Charming Review of Bush's life in the White House


A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 06:23 PM

You Can't Get Here From There
By JOSEPH S. NYE Jr.

Published: November 29, 2004


Cambridge, Mass. — Last year, the number of foreign students at American colleges and universities fell for the first time since 1971. Recent reports show that total foreign student enrollment in our 2,700 colleges and universities dropped 2.4 percent, with a much sharper loss at large research institutions. Two-thirds of the 25 universities with the most foreign students reported major enrollment declines.

---

While Nye discusses primarily the impact on our economy and repute resulting from this sorry decline, he only slightly indicates the actual cause of the situation: the paranoid responses by the Ashcroft and Bush crowd in improving security.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST,Siggy
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 06:18 PM

Scientology:

      STANFORD, Calif. - For decades, scientists have known that eminently creative individuals have a much higher rate of manic depression, or bipolar disorder, than does the general population. But few controlled studies have been done to build the link between mental illness and creativity. Now, Stanford researchers Connie Strong and Terence Ketter, MD, have taken the first steps toward exploring the relationship.

      Using personality and temperament tests, they found healthy artists to be more similar in personality to individuals with manic depression than to healthy people in the general population. "My hunch is that emotional range, having an emotional broadband, is the bipolar patient's advantage," said Strong. "It isn't the only thing going on, but something gives people with manic depression an edge, and I think it's emotional range."

      Strong is a research manager in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Science's bipolar disorders clinic and a doctoral candidate at the Pacific Graduate School. She is presenting preliminary results during a poster presentation today (May 21) at the annual meeting of the American Psychiatric Association Meeting in Philadelphia.

      The current study is groundbreaking for psychiatric research in that it used separate control groups made up of both healthy, creative people and people from the general population.

      Researchers administered standard personality, temperament and creativity tests to 47 people in the healthy control group, 48 patients with successfully treated bipolar disorder and 25 patients successfully treated for depression. She also tested 32 people in a healthy, creative control group. This group was comprised of Stanford graduate students enrolled in prestigious product design, creative writing and fine arts programs, including Stegner Fellows in writing, students in the interdisciplinary Joint Program in Design from the Department of Mechanical Engineering and studio arts master's students from the Department of Art & Art History. All subjects were matched for age, gender, education and socioeconomic status.

      Preliminary analysis showed that people in the control group and recovered manic depressives were more open and likely to be moody and neurotic than healthy controls. Moodiness and neuroticism are part of a group of characteristics researchers are calling "negative-affective traits" which also include mild, nonclinical forms of depression and bipolar disorder.

      Though the data are preliminary, they provide a roadmap for psychiatric researchers looking to solve the genius/madness paradox depicted in the movie A Beautiful Mind, which tells the story of Nobel Laureate John Nash. The existing data need further review, Strong said. "And, we need to expand this to other groups," he said. How mood influences the performance of artists and genius scientists will be the subject of future research at Stanford. "We need to better understand the emotional side of what they do," Strong said.


Freud

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 06:16 PM

To the Editor:

I was saddened to read in "In My Next Life" (column, Nov. 25) that Thomas L.
Friedman is thankful that "the public schools still manage to produce young
men and women ready to voluntarily risk their lives in places like Iraq and
Afghanistan to spread the opportunity of freedom and to protect my own."

Isn't that an example of gravely diminished expectations? I would much
prefer a situation where adequately financed public schools produced leaders
bent on making peace through diplomacy than war fraught with
self-righteousness.

Robert Wagner
New York, Nov. 25, 2004
(From the New York Times)

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 29 Nov 04 - 05:53 PM

From writings by Ben Franklin, criticized for including inappropriate infoprmation in his publishings:

http://www.uark.edu/depts/comminfo/cambridge/apology.html


"A certain well-meaning Man and his Son, were traveling towards a Market
Town, with an Ass which they had to sell. The Road was bad; and the old Man
therefore rid, but the Son went a-foot. The first Passenger they met, asked
the Father if he was not ashamed to ride by himself, and suffer the poor Lad
to wade along thro' the Mire; this induced him to take up his Son behind
him: He had not travelled far when he met other, who said, they were two
unmerciful Lubbers to get both on the Back of that poor Ass, in such a deep
Road. Upon this the old Man gets off, and let fis Son ride alone. The next
they met called the Lad a graceless, rascally young Jackanapes, to ride in
that Manner thro' the Dirt, while his aged Father trudged along on Foot; and
they said the old Man was a Fool, for suffering it. He then bid his Son come
down, and walk with him, and they travell'd on leading the Ass by the
Halter; 'till they met another Company, who called them a Couple of sensless
Blockheads, for going both on Foot in such a dirty Way, when they had an
empty Ass with them, which they might ride upon. The old Man could bear no
longer; My Son, said he, it grieves me much that we cannot please all these
People: Let us throw the Ass over the next Brisge, and be no farther
troubled with him."

Had the old Man been seen acting this last Resolution, he would probably
have been call'd a Fool for troubling himself about the different Opinions
of all that were pleas'd to find Fault with him: Therefore, tho' I have a
Temper almost as complying as his, I intend not to imitate him in this last
Particular. I consider the Variety of Humours among Men, and despair of
pleasing every Body; yet I shall not therefore leave off Printing. I shall
continue my Business. I shall not burn my Press and melt my Letters."

For you whom the shoe fits,


A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 28 Nov 04 - 11:26 PM

Baron:

Your perspicacity is clearly below par, then.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST,Munchausen
Date: 28 Nov 04 - 11:17 PM

Amos:

I thought you would fall for that conspiracy bullshit the way you fell for the Scientology bullshit.

The Baron

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 28 Nov 04 - 11:06 PM

From the current edition of the Cairo Al-Ahram:

"A conference of this magnitude of Sharm El-Sheikh certainly indicates a desire to find a solution that restores stability to Iraq through the implementation of UN Security Council resolution 1546. The resolution calls for the formation of a transitional government to run the country until general elections are held in January 2005. The transitional government was formed in June 2004, with help from the UN. Resolution 1546 calls for the withdrawal of the occupation forces once the transitional government requests it, or after 12 months. Six months have already passed -- something for the Sharm El-Sheikh conference to think about.


The conference is a final chance to address the humanitarian crisis that one Iraqi city after another is facing.


Events in Iraq have violated all international norms. They undermine the credibility and universality of human values. International norms are not the exclusive preserve of the West. People are suffering and dying, their wealth squandered, their sovereignty trampled underfoot, all for the benefit of the US and its allies.


UN participation in the formation of the transitional government in June is something worth repeating until Iraq is rid of occupation. Initiatives and conferences are not enough to end the tension in the region. The tragedy in Iraq will not be over until the occupation is over.


This is a chance for the UN to repair its damaged legitimacy and assume the rightful leadership of the international community. This is a chance for Europe, Japan and the US to reclaim their democratic values. This is a chance for countries such as China and Russia to help their past and future allies in the region. This is a chance for Iraq's neighbours to prove their goodwill regarding Iraq's security and stability. It is a chance for the Arab League and its members to stand up for Iraq's rights, alone or alongside the international community.


Will anyone take these chances, for they may well be the last?"

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 28 Nov 04 - 09:28 PM

Thanks, Baron. While I sympathize with the idea that the 9-11 attacks might have been just too too convenient for Bushlandia, I can't quite buy Andreas von Bulow's argument. I think the plain, prima facie evidence is enough to convict the Bushcorps of criminality and the sort of insanity usually accompanying megalomaniac destructive acts.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST,Munchausen
Date: 28 Nov 04 - 09:07 PM

Amos:

Don't piss your pants but this is just what you have been hoping to find.

USA staged 9/11 Attacks

The Baron

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 28 Nov 04 - 05:16 PM

Sheila Samples, a writer from Oklahoma, discusses Stinky and the Vulcans, and how an 8-year old can sometimes see readily things that a 48-year old cannot. Her essay is entitled, Stinky and the Vulcans. Among other thoughtful remarks, she writes:

"It is a mystery to me why Americans would vote for four more years of war crimes against humanity. However, while watching a C-Span program on the subject shortly after the election, I was struck by the answer given by a sweet-sounding woman from Missouri -- "I had no choice but to vote for Bush," she said almost regretfully. "I was obliged to vote for him because he was endorsed by God..."

Has there ever been a more glaring example of the chasm that grows wider every day under this administration between "religion" and "Christianity"? Religious "believers" who cast their votes were instructed by their leaders to cast a "vote for God" or for a man who would "ban" the Bible, support not only gay marriage, but drive-through abortions and killing babies for stem cell research. Verily, this deeply religious woman, and millions like her, had no choice but to vote for Bush. 

Perhaps that is why so many Christians are weeping...

So, as Stinky and the Vulcans head for that fantastical midway and begin rehearsing for their next number entitled, "To Iran -- and Beyond!" just remember even an 8-year-old knows instinctively that the coming attraction transcends comic-book horror. It's the real thing. And it's e-e-e-e-v-u-l...

Later, we cannot say we didn't know."

See the link for the whole article, which clarifies where the name comes from.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 28 Nov 04 - 04:59 PM

In The President's Goal in Iraq, Jay Bookman tries to figure the real rationale behind the war in Iraq.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 28 Nov 04 - 10:13 AM

Greg Palast, Blueblood troublemaker from the git-go, discusses how New Mexico and Ohio spoiled themselves rotten in implementing racial prejudice in the democratic process.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 28 Nov 04 - 09:20 AM

From Thomas Friedman's editorial, "The Last Mile".

"Indeed, I have never understood how an administration that wanted a war so badly and will be judged on it by history so profoundly, could manage it so sloppily. Right now we need an "intelligent czar" for Iraq much more than we need an "intelligence czar" for America.

Consider one small example. Last week, The Times's defense correspondent, Thom Shanker, wrote about a study conducted by the Defense Science Board, which found that nearly two years into the war in Iraq, America's institutions charged with "strategic communications" - about what we are doing in the world and why - are broken. The study found that "the United States today is without a working channel of communication to the world of Muslims and of Islam."

---

If we can't coordinate one little war, maybe we're not really qualified to hunt down and kill terrorists wherever they may be found regardless of charges, evidence, due process and other such civilized niceties.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 27 Nov 04 - 11:06 PM

The Sources of American Legitimacy
Robert W. Tucker and David C. Hendrickson
From Foreign Affairs, November/December 2004

Excerpted from Foreign Affairs

Summary: The 18 months since the launch of the Iraq war have left the country's hard-earned respect and credibility in tatters. In going to war without a legal basis or the backing of traditional U.S. allies, the Bush administration brazenly undermined Washington's long-held commitment to international law, its acceptance of consensual decision-making, its reputation for moderation, and its identification with the preservation of peace. The road back will be a long and hard one.

Robert W. Tucker is Professor Emeritus of American Foreign Policy at Johns Hopkins University. David C. Hendrickson is Robert J. Fox Distinguished Service Professor at Colorado College.

AN ERODED IDEAL

The 18 months since the launching of the second Iraq war have brought home, even to its advocates, that the United States has a serious legitimacy problem. The pattern of the first Iraq war, in which an overwhelming victory set aside the reservations of most skeptics, has failed to emerge in the aftermath of the second. If anything, skepticism has deepened. The United States' approval ratings have plunged, especially in Europe-the cooperation of which Washington needs for a broad array of purposes-and in the Muslim world, where the United States must win over "hearts and minds" if it is to lessen the appeal of terrorism. In both areas, confidence in the propriety and purposes of U.S. power has dropped precipitously and shows little sign of recovery.

Legitimacy arises from the conviction that state action proceeds within the ambit of law, in two senses: first, that action issues from rightful authority, that is, from the political institution authorized to take it; and second, that it does not violate a legal or moral norm. Ultimately, however, legitimacy is rooted in opinion, and thus actions that are unlawful in either of these senses may, in principle, still be deemed legitimate. That is why it is an elusive quality. Despite these vagaries, there can be no doubt that legitimacy is a vital thing to have, and illegitimacy a condition devoutly to be avoided.

How to restore legitimacy has thus become a central question for U.S. foreign policy, although the difficulty of doing so is manifest. At a minimum, restoring international confidence in the United States will take time. The erosion of the nation's legitimacy is not something that occurred overnight. Washington is unlikely to succeed at renewing it simply by conducting better "public diplomacy" to "make the American case" to the world, for world public opinion already rejects the case that has been made. If the United States is going to be successful in recapturing legitimacy, it will have to abandon the doctrines and practices that brought it to this pass.

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This is brainy stuff, but of great interest. It i s not particularly pro- or anti-Bush.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Nov 04 - 10:18 PM

Amos Jessup, a philosophy major from Connecticut. The son of a senior editor on *Life* magazine, Jessup had gone to Saint Hill in 1966, while he was studying in Oxford, to try and get his young brother out of Scientology and instead had become converted himself. `I was soon convinced', he said, `that instead of being some dangerous cult it was an important advance in philosophy.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: GUEST
Date: 27 Nov 04 - 09:54 PM

This is the Enemy Names list, Flag ED 2830RB, 25 July 1992, Suppressive Persons and Groups.

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 27 Nov 04 - 08:09 PM

In A Foreboding Thaw the New York Times editorial page says:

Like many studies of global warming, this one notes some possible benefits, like longer growing seasons. But these few pluses have to be weighed against the destruction of an entire ecosystem. The life patterns of native people and native species in the Arctic have shifted drastically over the past half-century. Warming on the scale projected by this study could well mean the extinction of some species of seals and polar bears, and a certain end to traditional ways of life.

These are sobering thoughts. Ice cores show that over history the polar climate has fluctuated, often severely. But this fluctuation is caused by human activity. Even if we were to sharply and immediately reduce carbon dioxide emissions, some arctic warming would continue.

The solution to this problem rests on our ability to imagine and purposefully shape the future. One obvious way is to create international agreements and recognize that immediate restraint on our part may make the difference. The Bush administration has denied the severity of global warming and the science behind it. On this vital matter, the president needs to look a painful reality squarely in the face.

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Anyone giving odds that's going to happen?

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 27 Nov 04 - 08:00 PM

Exerpted from: Vast Borrowing Seen in Altering Social Security
By RICHARD W. STEVENSON for the New York Times



WASHINGTON, Nov. 27 - The White House and Republicans in Congress are all but certain to embrace large-scale government borrowing to help finance President Bush's plan to create personal investment accounts in Social Security, according to administration officials, members of Congress and independent analysts. ...

...Mr. Bush has vowed to push hard to remake Social Security. Republicans in Congress say the White House has signaled to them that Mr. Bush will put the issue at the top of his domestic agenda in the coming year.

But the White House has never answered fundamental questions about Mr. Bush's plan. In particular, it has not explained how it would deal with the financial quandary created by its call for personal accounts.

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The problem with this approach is that the full faith and confidence of the United States government has been dramatically adulterated in the eyes of the world, and the dollar is no longer seen by those in distant countries as the refuge of sane investment in troubled times. Without the reputation for probity and viability of the nation behind it, borrowing will be extremely expensive. Which in turn will accelerate our decline toward national insolvency and enforced reevaluation. If only we had a few billion dollars to spare to straighten all this out!! Unfortunately all our spare billions were needed to invade Iraq.

A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 27 Nov 04 - 06:22 PM

In this interesting essay on the influence of Bernard Lewis, Michael Hirsh asks a pointed question about the faltering Bush vision for Iraq: What if Islam isn't an obstacle to democracy in the Middle East but the secret to achieving it?

Interesting backgrounder on current colisions.


A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 27 Nov 04 - 09:58 AM

From http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/23/opinion/23tue2.html:

Dispensing with legislative niceties like holding hearings or full and open
debate, President Bush and the Republican Congress have used the cover of a
must-pass spending bill to mount a disgraceful sneak attack on women's
health and freedom.

Tucked into the $388 billion budget measure just approved by the House and
Senate is a sweeping provision that has nothing to do with the task Congress
had at hand - providing money for the government. In essence, it tells
health care companies, hospitals and insurance companies they are free to
ignore Roe v. Wade and state and local laws and regulations currently on the
books to make certain that women's access to reproductive health services
includes access to abortion.

---

Underhanded, huh?


A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 27 Nov 04 - 09:40 AM

Validity of Ukraine election in doubt, Bush says


By Scott Lindlaw
Associated Press

Crawford, Texas — President Bush declared Friday that charges of voter fraud have cast doubt on the Ukrainian election.

"The only good deal is one that's verifiable," the president told reporters.(Emphasis added. AHJ)

The United States and other Western nations contend that massive fraud marred the presidential runoff election Sunday in Ukraine, and the country's highest court has ordered election officials not to publish the results until an appeal is heard next week. Earlier this week, Secretary of State Colin Powell cited reports of fraud in the election in saying the United States cannot accept the results.

---

Hmmmmmmm.



A

Subject: RE: BS: Popular Views of the Bush Administration
From: Amos
Date: 26 Nov 04 - 10:19 PM

http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=54767&d=21&m=11&y=2004

"Reagan Years May Give a Clue to Bush's Future Actions
Abdulrahman Al-Rashid, [e-mail]


Following the 1991 American-led war to liberate Kuwait from Iraq, people in the Gulf used to joke about George Bush the father. They said if Bush was nearby, you could sleep soundly in your house. Now, in light of what is going on in the region, people are saying if Bush the son is near, you had better flee your house. The departure of Colin Powell, the only rational voice in the administration, and the naming by Bush of his iron-lady national security advisor, Condoleezza Rice, to replace him, is a clear message to every one that Bush is not afraid of engaging in new wars."

Balance of this Arabic editorial can be found >here.

A