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Post by Aravis on Dec 20, 2004 3:27:34 GMT -5
Rumsfeld is in hot water again, with republicans as well as democrats. This time, it seems he used a machine to sign his name to letters of condolence to the relatives of troops who died in Iraq.
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Post by Wyndham on Dec 20, 2004 6:14:27 GMT -5
Can't imagine why he'd get in hot water for that. I think the families of the guys who got killed in the real wars got a telegram. Besides. A machine signed letter is appropriate. Not like Rumsfeld, et al, really take these deaths to heart. They're just sort of inevitable collatoral damage, no? Oh. See in the paper that George II is Time magazine's man of the year again. Must have been Robert's remorseless write in campaign, I'm thinking (  ). |
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Post by RobertGraves on Dec 20, 2004 13:13:08 GMT -5
Pink Floyd's lyrics may well apply:
'Welcome my son,
Welcome to the machine.
Where have you been ?
It's alright,
We know where you've been.'
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Post by RobertGraves on Dec 20, 2004 13:26:46 GMT -5
Oh. See in the paper that George II is Time magazine's man of the year again. Must have been Robert's remorseless write in campaign, I'm thinking ( ). I am actually starting to like Bush. You know where you stand with the man; there is something to be said for Manichaen simplicity. BTW I am not sure how strictly Bush adheres to that particular philosophy but note well that Mani's doctrines were sensibly puritanical. The Manichaens abstained from sex, from all animal food, and eggs, believing all flesh was evil if begotten by copulation. Fish was edible on the pretense the fish did not propagate sexually but spontaneously came from the "living waters." Manichaens believed that the world is intrinsically evil and reality best avoided which is clearly Bush's doctrine too. Anyway, Bush is a likeable guy with a direct vision that makes the complex simple. That's gotta be good in a confusing world - right? adapted from www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/m/manichaenism.html |
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Post by demgoddess on Dec 21, 2004 0:09:19 GMT -5
Manichaens believed that the world is intrinsically evil and reality best avoided which is clearly Bush's doctrine too. Anyway, Bush is a likeable guy with a direct vision that makes the complex simple. That's gotta be good in a confusing world - right? Only if you are simple-minded and can't deal in complexities As for Rumsfeld, it doesn't suprise me that he is in more trouble. Bush today (or yesterday?) apparently said that although Rummy appears "rough and gruff" on TV he really has taken all the casualities to heart. And there are certainly still many on the right who want to jump to his defense, even going so far as to attack their own politicians who are voicing their negative views of Rumsfeld. (Aravis, our "friend" Dagney from MajorDad's falls into this category). |
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Post by Aravis on Dec 21, 2004 1:50:27 GMT -5
Dem, I am not in the least suprised by that. Dagney reminds me a little of Ann Coulter: rabid and mindless in her devotion to the party line.
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Post by Tenarke on Dec 21, 2004 1:51:06 GMT -5
As long as we’re on the topic of Donny Boy I must share this very seasonal editorial by Maureen Dowd: www.nytimes.com/2004/12/19/opinion/19dowd.html?thI really do enjoy her stuff. As for his present roasting, it’s too late, the damage has been done. I also note that though many on the hill are critical and expressing no confidence, I’ve not yet heard anyone actually calling for his resignation. He serves at the pleasure of the President and that is where the buck stops. The President at today’s news conference assured one and all that behind the gruff exterior there resides a really decent and caring human being. Really folks! The President is going to be stubborn about this. His mind’s made up and he will not allow himself to be deterred by fact. I think that Rumsfeld will be with us yet, to goof again; to convert yet more SNAFU’s into compete and utter FUBAR’s. |
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Nulla
Junior Member
Posts: 55
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Post by Nulla on Dec 21, 2004 8:37:35 GMT -5
Thanks, Tenarke, I enjoyed that... I guess it's important to maintain our sense of humor in these times....  While reading the article, I again reflected on my perennial questions regarding Powell and McCain.... what exactly did they do to Powell to make him toe the line?..... and, why does McCain continue to support the present regime in spite of his disagreements with it?..... I have always had respect for both men, their intelligence and discernment, so this has confounded me from day one.... I tell myself it's their desire to rescue the Republican party by outlasting the wolves, but that's probably just a liberal day-dream on my part.....  |
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Post by Wyndham on Dec 21, 2004 10:20:56 GMT -5
Here's a bizarre one. Bobby Fischer, the chess master, has been given political asylum in Iceland. Seems he's a hero there. Apparently he was first detained in, and then deported from Japan. He's a US citizen but fought deportation and needs asylum because, well, he's in trouble under current anti-terrorist legislation. Its Uncle Sam he's running from. Apparently he's made some anti-semitic remarks and travelled to Yugoslavia, back when that was a bad thing to do -- to play chess, of course. You'd think on the list of harmless people he'd be about number one. Gotta be seventy now, no? His 'big match' was thirty years ago . . . Hardly, in any case, Al Capone. Who's next? Dame Edna? Wayne Newton? Here's the link: news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4102367.stmQuite funny actually. If I were in the ACLU, I'd make him my posterchild. Premise: It is vital that we have exceptional powers so that we can adequately deal with exceptionally dangerous people. Response: Like Bobby Fischer, for example? Checkmate I think. Sorry couldn't resist. ;D |
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Post by RobertGraves on Dec 21, 2004 15:08:53 GMT -5
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Post by Tenarke on Dec 21, 2004 15:49:37 GMT -5
Re Bobby Fisher; Well, there is obviously something subversive about a game at which the Russians excel and where the most powerful piece on the board is the Queen. I mean; talk about your Commie, pinko fags! Meanwhile if you need further cause for disliking the dread Rumsfeld: www.nytimes.com/2004/12/21/opinion/21tue1.htmlPlease note the third paragraph up from the bottom. Deputy under secretary of defense, LT. General William Boykin, who would run this expanded DOD intelligence operation, is quoted as advising that the only way to solve the present mess in Iraq is to “come at them in the name of Jesus”. There; that ought to fix it! PS: Just now read your last post Robert. Very good analysis by Day. |
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Post by Aravis on Dec 22, 2004 2:17:16 GMT -5
*chuckling over Tenarke's comments re: Bobby Fischer* Nulla, I have often wondered the same thing about Colin Powell and John McCain. I lost a lot of respect for them over the past four years. I think perhaps they were hoping to be a power for good- or at least sanity- working from the inside. Unfortunately Bush preferred the Rumsfelds and Ashcrofts of his administration.  |
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Post by Wyndham on Dec 22, 2004 9:03:00 GMT -5
Nulla, I think you're right about Powell and McCain. I think they're there because the thing can't last, and when it does, there has to be somebody there to pick up the pieces - of policy and of the republican party. Also, I think, Powell in office had the power to make some changes to the way decisions are made, even if he was cut out of effective decision making now. Powell was responsible, for example, in creating a new office directed at reconstruction and stabilisation -- peacekeeping +, if you like -- and giving it real teeth; something the UN has been trying to get somebody to take up for quite some time!
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Post by Wyndham on Dec 22, 2004 16:36:41 GMT -5
Tenarke, re: Bobby Fisher. Holy profile of commie queer-bait eh! As if being really good at a game dominated by people with names like 'Boris Spassky' (surely that's a bad joke a la mode 'Revenge of the Nerds'), weren't enough, it also appears that he even lived in Moscow for a while in the 50s, and his Mom appears to have been an honest to God Stalin-loving, 1930s hardcorps Red! Let's just say Rocky III was hardly based on his life story. Here's Pravda's take on Fisher at the time of his (now) famous 2002 pro-al-Queda interview. Americans beware. No doubt if you open the link your file at the NSC will move from the electronic to the human in-box, there to join Robert's and mine. english.pravda.ru/main/2002/11/18/39617.htmland again at the time he was voted chess player of the century: english.pravda.ru/world/20/91/368/9833_.htmlI'm thinking, however, with the cold war a decade and a half over, having been 'red', even really red, hardly makes you a threat any longer. Being a pinko or gay, I'd imagine, is pretty surefire innoculation against being al-Queda. Shoot. You'd have to find it hard, I think, to even be a decent fellow traveller. |
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Post by Aravis on Dec 23, 2004 3:18:28 GMT -5
Wyn, how could you not mention me in the NSC list? You know that I'm the one who worked with the FBI a couple of times now when al Neda hacked my website. BTW, I still get tons of hits from people looking for the old al Neda newsletter. Amazing...
As a result of all this, I talk to the FBI and CIA agents I am convinced have bugged my house. Randy laughs, but he'll see. When they come to take me away, he'll see.
Then again, he will probably be the one to call for my removal, and it won't be the government but rather the men in the lab coats with a straitjacket just for me. ;D
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