Let's Talk Sense Archives

Elizabeth Drew points out that "During the presidency of George W. Bush, the White House has made an unprecedented reach for power. It has systematically attempted to defy, control, or threaten the institutions that could challenge it: Congress, the courts, and the press. It has attempted to upset the balance of power among the three branches of government provided for in the Constitution; but its most aggressive and consistent assaults have been against the legislative branch."

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"I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever, in religion, in philosophy, in politics or in anything else, where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent. If I could not go to Heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all." -- Thomas Jefferson - (1743-1826), US Founding Father, drafted the Declaration of Independence, 3rd US President

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Molly Ivins believes that what we have here is a difference over moral values. The Republicans are worried about the flag, gay marriage and the terrible burden of the estate tax on the rich. The rest of us are obviously unnecessarily worried about war, peace, the economy, the environment and civilization.

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I believe that what we have here is a difference over moral values. The Democrats want to tax me into submission, give my social security benefits to illegal aliens, confiscate my guns, let predators out of jail so they can vote and maybe rape my kids, make the world safe for terrorists, eliminate the internal combustion engine, let welfare recipients stay one welfare so we can pay for them to procreate more welfare recipients, let illegals vote, come up with midnight basketball ideas, spend more money on anything that involves government..... Maybe an intelligence test and proof of being a taxPAYER should be required for voting. That would eliminate over half those presently elligible.

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Wow! That's exactly what we wanted to do. How did you find out? Curses! another diabolical Democratic plot foiled by an "intelligent taxPAYER"!

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I found out the same way Molly Ivins found out what Republicans want to do: I pulled it out of my ass. Amazing how you can ferret out crap when it suits you.

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"Once upon a time there were real 'Conservatives.' They believed in fiscal and political responsibility. They expounded on the virtues of getting government out of people's lives. They talked about caution with regard to the use of military force and foreign intervention. They even promoted a policy of governmental accountability. Many of these people existed in the Republican Party. They might have been off track, behind the curve possibly, or at times deluded, but most tended to be civil, honorable and sincere," writes Bill Zide. "Now, it seems that this new brand of 'Neo-' or 'Theo-Conservative' that populates the rank and file of the current GOP leadership has put the 'con' back into 'conservative.'"

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Shazam! That's exactly the way we are. How did you find out? Curses! Another supremely intelligent left winger has again analyzed us correctly and knows more about us than we do. No wonder we havent won any elections the last few years. Thanks for enlightening us, we'd just keep stumbling in the dark if if wasnt for geniuses like you.

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Understanding our great leader....Just found this wonderful word in my daily listing in Wordlist:

This mania often strikes rulers of nations and is highly recommended when planning to attack other nations. It soothes conscience, clears the path, and removes all doubts. After all, if one is channeling God, why worry about rules and conventions of mere humans?

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I did not know that you would assail FDR in such a way. After all, he was was readying the United States to place "its destiny in the hands, heads and hearts of its millions of free men and women, and its faith in freedom under the guidance of God." This of course as he was bringing the US into anti-fascist fray (i.e. war)through lend-lease.

Or maybe you were refering to Former President Jimmy Carter, America's first evangelical Christian president, who still teaches Sunday school at his Baptist church in Plains, Georgia. He did not get us in a war, really, he only screwed things up as badly as only a theomaniac can.

It still may be better than being totally delusional and talking to Eleanor Roosevelt.

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MORE than 6000 men and women have deserted from the US army since the invasion of Iraq in March 2003. In the British forces, the figure stands at around 1000. The soldiers are leaving because they are sickened by the bloodshed in Iraq; because they believe the war is illegal; because they are on the verge of nervous breakdown;

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Makay, today's soldiers are VOLUNTEERS. The problem is that unlike WW2 soldiers who gladly were conscripted or enlisted, today's deserters joined for the goodies, but are unwilling to live up to their commitments. They are pussies who represent today's entitlement mentality as fostered by liberals for the last forty years. They are an insult to our brave figting men and our veterans.

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To the anonymous poster to criticized Neil Macaky's comments. Where were you during the early 40's??? Not all the drafteess were anxious to get into the fray, but they knew what we were fighting for. The story today is QUITE different. We are sending our young "pussies" as you call them, to invade a country that posed no threat to anyone and that was already on its bleeding knees after years of crippling sanctions. It's YOU and those like you who are an insult to our fighting forces. SHAME on you!!! Matilda

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I was not quite old enough to fight in the early forties. Like you said, the draftees at that time got into the fray no matter what. In case you have trouble understanding a simple paragraph, the pussies I was refering to are the deserters, who, again, volunteered and knew what they were doing when thay signed up, but recoil from their obligations. What about deserters in WWII, did those pussies not stand a good chance of being shot? How do you think your stance would have gone over, or were you antiwar then too? Even Limberg, as staunch as an antiwar could be, changed his mind when the evidence was there. I doubt you see may of the soldiers who serve in Iraq, since you insulate yoursef in a pussified country that has not won a war in over a hundred years. I meet many of them, and they are gung-ho, and would gladly kick some pacifist ass. Reread your history instead of Slate, and tell the Kuwaitis, Kurds, Iranians, and for that matter a goodly number of Iraqis that Sadam's Iraq was a country that posed no threat to anyone. It takes a lot of shit for brains to believe that. Have you no feeling for the way women were treated under Sadam? If they were on bleeding knees, why did Sadam keep threatening, to yhe point that eve Kerry told us that he was a threat, before he changed his mind, before he voted against it. Get real.

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I see in the near future a crisis approaching that unnerves me and causes me to tremble for the safety of my country. As a result of the war, corporations have been enthroned, and an era of corruption in high places will follow, and the money power of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until all wealth is aggregated in a few hands and the Republic is destroyed. I feel at this moment more anxiety for the safety of my country than ever before, even in the midst of war. Abraham Lincoln in a letter of November 21, 1864

One guarantee: If Gore or Kerry had been elected, we would NOT NOW be at WAR. digimom

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Those who turn their swords into plow shears end up plowing the fields of those whodid not.

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The lunatics want to run the asylum; Beam me aboard, Scotty!!!! Digimom, I submit a few questions for you to ponder.

Since you bring up Lincoln, allow me to ask if war would have been avoided if Buchanan had not refused to surrender southern federal forts to the seceding states in early 1861? While he did not surrender Fort Sumter, since he did not resupply it, did he seal its fate, and thus povoke the Civil War? Would the Civil War have been averted if Major Robert Anderson had surrendered fort Sumter? Make my day if you want to discuss the Civil War or Abraham Lincoln and what paralels we can draw to today's problems.

If FDR had not made his day of infamy speech, if he had not jumped in the fray when he did, would we still have had a second world war? Would delaying declaring war have not meant facing a stronger axis, one which would have had already captured resource rich countries? What adversaries would Japan and Germany have been if they had not had a shortage of petroleum and other basic war necessities? More to the point, what heartaches and deaths could have been avoided if the "civilized world" of Neville Chamberlain had had the balls to stand up to Adolph before he took over Austria or conquered the Sudetenland? Would war have been averted if Churchill had not taken the reins? What would have ensued if Truman had not stood up to the Koreans and Chinese? Should he have thrown in the towel at Pusan, before 54000 US servicemen had died for nothing but a stalemate and a truce? How do you reconcile HST's dismal 23% approval rating at the end of his last term with how he is viewed now? Have you forgoten history, or do you selectively remember what pleases your agenda?

If more recent history is easier to review, what do you say to those who say that we were already at war, but that we were too asleep to notice? Would you like a refresher of attacks by muslim extremists? Would you be happier if we had waited for the Taliban, Sadam, and other peace loving theocracies to consolidate their base and acquire MORE WMDs? On the other hand, would you be happier fighting the war against the real threats, Global Warming, Evil American Corporations, the internal combustion engine, the Republican party, any American military operation, any ald all US endeavors under a Republican administration, and Norwegian and Japanese whalers? God save us from those who would save us.

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It is only now, nearly five years after Sept. 11, that the full picture of the Bush administration's response to the terror attacks is becoming clear. Much of it, we can see now, had far less to do with fighting Osama bin Laden than with expanding presidential power.

Over and over again, the same pattern emerges: Given a choice between following the rules or carving out some unprecedented executive power, the White House always shrugged off the legal constraints. Even when the only challenge was to get required approval from an ever-cooperative Congress, the president and his staff preferred to go it alone. While no one questions the determination of the White House to fight terrorism, the methods this administration has used to do it have been shaped by another, perverse determination: never to consult, never to ask and always to fight against any constraint on the executive branch.

One result has been a frayed democratic fabric in a country founded on a constitutional system of checks and balances. Another has been a less effective war on terror...

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Of course, this will hardly get any televison news coverage -- and is in and of itself grounds for impeachment -- but Alberto "Bush Consigliere" Gonzales testified today that Bush personally prevented a DOJ probe of the illegal Bushevik domestic wiretapping program (without court approval).

In simple, dear readers, this is called, in the vernacular, "obstruction of justice." And can there be a higher source than the AG of the United States?

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"It's a big deal when Robert Rubin changes the subject and begins to talk about income inequality as 'a deeply troubling fact of American economic life' that threatens the trading system, even the stability of 'capitalist, democratic society,'" writes William Greider. "More startling, Rubin now freely acknowledges what the American establishment for many years denied or dismissed as inconsequential - globalization's role in generating the thirty-year stagnation of US wages, squeezing middle-class families and below, while directing income growth mainly to the upper brackets."

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"It has become something of a challenge to stay abreast of the continuing carnage in Iraq," writes William Rivers Pitt. "We still have tens of thousands of soldiers there. Nineteen of them have died since the beginning of July, and 2,553 have died since the whole thing started. 150 Iraqi civilians have been killed in the last three days, adding to the 6,000 civilians who have been killed in the last two months, adding to the tens of thousands who have been killed over the last three years."

President Bush vetoed a bill for the first time today, using his Constitutional power to reject legislation passed by Congress that would expand federal research on embryonic stem cells, a step he said would be crossing a "moral line." Representative Nancy Pelosi of California, the House minority leader, said that the veto amounted to "saying 'no' to hope." It is up to members of Congress, she said, to "represent their constituents" and vote to override the veto.

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William Fisher writes, "As rockets rain down on Lebanon and Israel, and the world stares into the abyss of a catastrophic Middle East conflagration, it was comforting to note last week that members of Congress refused to get depressed about the scary state of world affairs. Instead, they busied themselves by concentrating their attention on some of the really crucial domestic issues facing our nation. Like a Constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage."

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I like your site. It gives me hope for the future. Americans are NOT behind their president ... just as we scots are NOT behind Tony Blair. Would anyone like to tell me why the Jews were given Israel after the war? It seems to me that this area is already oversubscibed. Why did the great americans not give the Jews a large empty state in their own free country then maybe we wouldn't be having this problem. I can't think of any other country where you only have to be of a certain religion in order to be entitled to go and stay there. Or am I really stupid and I have missed the point somewhere?

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If you can't think of any other country where you only have to be of a certain religion in order to be entitled to go and stay there, you really are stupid and have missed the point somewhere! Hint, they are not far from Israel. I hope you will find the time to ponder these questions: Are there active practicing mosques in Israel? Are there any Synagogues in the surrounding countries? What happens to a palestinian who sells land to a Jew?

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Hey scotts person, if you are sober enough, can you tell me why your country gave Pakistan to the muslims? Why did you not carve a large empty piece of land in your own free country? Peter

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Ignorant scot here again------ Are you trying to tell me that any muslim from any country is entitled to go and stay in Pakistan?? Am I wrong to assume that any Jew from any country in the world is entitled to settle in Israel? (thus expanding their need for more land and more property etc etc. The difficulty I have is I always thought being Jewish was a religion rather than a race which needed its own country.

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Ignorant scot here again----- By the way I am not racist, sectarian etc etc. I just fail to understand the man made problems which divide people. They cannot be god made--if he exists.

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Dear Scot.....You are not ignorant!!!! And anyone who calls you so doesn't belong on my Message Board. Apart from natural disasters (floods, droughts, plagues, famines) ALL disasters are man-made....especially wars. Let's not blame God. Incidentally, the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, is one of the largest and most beautiful mosques in the world!!! The world today, thanks mostly to our US of A has become a military economy, arms and munitions, etc; For this "we" need wars, and for wars we need hatred. All religions today have a great deal of good in common. Why do people concentrate on the small differences between them? One of the best ways of stirring up hate between people is religion, unfortunately. And of course fundamentalism is the easiest road for this hatred it seems. In my opinion, the truest statement in the Bible is 'The love of money is the root of all evil". Please don't let ignorant posters discourage you!! Matilda

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Hello Scott. How did Pakistan come into being? Was it not a creation of your country based on religion, say around 1947? How many Jews are welcome to that country? You fault Israel for accepting any Jew from any country in the world, but they also respect other faiths. How do neighboring countries compare in their acceptance of different religions? I also see you did not answer the question about mosques in Israel or synagogues in Muslim countries, an interesting and very relevant point.

I will also challenge you to support your claim that a growing number of Israelis equates into a need for expansion of the Israeli state. Last I saw, Israel was ceding land, land that had belonged to Jordan and Egypt. Interestingly, neither of those two countries is asking for that acreage, now overpopulated by masses deemed undesirable by either country. Please compare the birthrate in Israel (you can even include immigration) with the birth rate in the Palestinian territories.

I can accept a different interpretation of events and facts, but do us both a favor and show me that you have a grasp of history and current events sufficient to form an informed intelligent opinion. If on the other hand you feel I am ignorant, substanciate it.

On a different note, I have always been fascinated by your corner of the world. Which part of Scotland? I wish I had the time and resources to visit your land. You are surrounded by such rich history, it would be nice to be able to associate the sites and landscape with what I have read.

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re:ALL disasters are man made. Here are the ten worst disasters of all times, in reverse order:

10 October 8, 2005 magnitude 7.6 earthquake in Pakistan 9 Hurricane Katrina 8 The Nevado del Ruiz (Columbia) volcano in 1985 killed 25000 7 1976 Tangshan magnitude 8 earthquake 6 Tambora, Indonesia volcano of 1815 5 New Madrid earthquakes of 1811-12 in southern Missouri 4 300,000 people around Calcutta, India, died as a result of a typhoon in 1737 3 Santorini, the volcanic explosion around 1500 B.C. wiped out the Minoan civilization 2 A major global paleoclimate event that happened around 3000B.C. affected sea-level changes, vegetation and much surface chemistry 1 Mass extinction that occurred at the Cretaceous-Tertiary Stratigraphic Boundary, 65 million years ago, and ended not only the dinosaurs but countless thousands of other species. The evidence now strongly favors an asteroid impact (off the Yucatan peninsula)

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Scot here again Yes I know about the historical events surrounding the creation of Pakistan and Israel and I don't agree with either Yes you were all correct about your facts. I was trying to think out of the box in response to the current devastation in the middle east. It seems ridiculous to settle a group of people in the middle of others with whom you know they will not get on Hence----could the jews be offered a chunk of the USof A who are their obvious allies and leave the Palestinians and Lebanese to get on with their lives in peace. I AM NOT PRO PALESTINIAN OR PRO ISRAELI or pro any other people who set themselves apart by religious ways but it seems obvious that there will never be peace under the current situation. Feelings run high in Scotland among the people I talk to. Why does Tony Blair ally himself with Bush and allow Prestwick Airport to refuel American planes carrying bombs to Israel to bomb Lebanon. We do not agree with this. Britain should be standing with their neighbours in Europe. We are not against the American people but we are against Bush and his unconditional defence of Israel. MONEY! MONEY! MONEY! And Yes Scotland is lovely and interesting and we welcome people from all over the world. I have friends from various countries. I come from Glasgow which is also lovely despite the huge drink problem referred to by one of your posters. Where did the previous poster who showed in interest in Scotland come from?

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Scot, let us take your proposal to carve out a Jewish state in the US of A. You will displace US citizens, but did you consider the indians who had lived there before the european settlers. Should every conquered country be returned to the original owners. Where does Elsass, or Alsace truly belong, Germany or France? Does Lebanon still rightfully belong to the Phoenicians? How far do we have to go back?

Most of the Israelis have not known another country, and most Palestinians have likewise not known the "homeland" they claim in Israel. For that matter all the lands artificially carved out of the Ottoman empire after WWI, including Lebanon, Syria, etc are now part of the conflict. If I could recomend some reading, google up "the displacement of Jews from Arab countries", by Ada Aharoni.

I will grant you that the problem is complex enough to justify almost any viewpoint, and I have no problem with your opinion if it is the product of an informed and open mind. "I am against it because Bush is for it" does not count. Please do consider the Israeli point of view. The fundamental question remains does Israel have the right to exist? If they do have that right, do they then have the right to defend themselves? What would your country do if French anarchists would start lobing rockets across the chanel, carrying out suicide bombings or kidnapping of British soldiers, with or without the approval of the French govt? What would William Wallace say and do?

Sorry to hear that you have a drinking problem in your country. It may be that your drunks are better company than some of the jackasses here; Or do you have those too?

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Since 2000, about 40,000 troops from all branches of the military have deserted. Those who help war resisters say desertion is more prevalent than the military has admitted. "They lied in Vietnam with the amount of opposition to the war and they’re lying now," said Eric Seitz, an attorney who represents Army Lt. Ehren Watada, the first commissioned officer to refuse deployment to the war in Iraq.

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President George W. Bush was scheduled to visit the Episcopal Church outside Washington as part of his campaign to restore his poll standings.

"We've been getting a lot of bad publicity because of the president's position on stem cell research, the Iraq war, Katrina, and the like. We'd gladly make a contribution to the church of $100,000 if during your sermon you'd say the President is a saint."

"I'd like to speak to you all this morning about our President. George Bush is a liar, a cheat, and a low-intelligence weasel. He took the tragedy of September 11 and used it to frighten and manipulate the American people.

"He lied about weapons of mass destruction and invaded Iraq for oil and money, causing the deaths of tens of thousands and making the United States the most hated country on earth.

"He appointed cronies to positions of power and influence, leading to widespread death and destruction during Hurricane Katrina. He awarded contracts and tax cuts to his rich friends so that we now have more poverty in this country, and a greater gap between rich and poor, than we've had since the Depression. "He instituted illegal wiretaps when getting a warrant from a secret court would have been a mere administrative detail, had his henchmen lie to Congress about it, then claimed he is above the law.

"He has headed the most corrupt, bribe-inducing political party since Teapot Dome.

"The national surplus has turned into a staggering national debt of 7.6 Trillion, gas prices are up 85%, and vital research into global warming and stem cells is stopped cold because he's afraid to lose votes from some religious kooks.

"He is the worst example of a true Christian I've ever known. But compared to Dick Cheney and Karl Rove, George Bush is a saint!"

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An Interview In an interview conducted by William Rivers Pitt, Congressman John Conyers reports, "We have found that there is substantial evidence the President, the Vice-President and other high ranking members of the Bush administration misled Congress and the American people regarding the decision to go to war in Iraq; misstated and manipulated intelligence information regarding the justification for such war; countenanced torture and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment in Iraq; permitted inappropriate retaliation against critics of their administration; and approved domestic surveillance that is both illegal and unconstitutional. We also have found there has been no independent review of the circumstances surrounding the Bush administration's domestic spying scandals."

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Is there anyway that we could have a criteria here whereas anyone not bright enough to figure out how to post the same article only once would be banned? The article itself is dumb enough, but apparently it appeals to those even dumber.

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Was the 04 election stolen, indeed. Even Hahvad graduates have short memories (or no history education?). A Kennedy lecturing on STOLEN elections, seemingly ignorant of John Kennedy's shenannigans (I mean no ethnic slur here) in Cook County. What's next? Lifeguard lessons from Teddy, I guess.

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Eva, Eva, Eeeeeva!Wake up and smell reality! Left-wing opportunists ALWAYS are for the poor. Just ask them: Chavez, Castro, Mao, Pol-Pot, Marx, Lenin, and the rest of the bunch, ad nauseum. And where are the poor doing the best? Does somebody have to tell you? Truth is, left-wingers have CONTEMPT for those who put them in power. Could you possibly get beyond those Freshman poli-sci classes that turned you and a few million others into glassy-eyed Zombies, ready to react anytime trigger words like "corporation" come up?

But what if we can't win?...

George Bush and the Republican party (along with a few GOP clones like Joe Lieberman) are refusing to accept, or even discuss, the reality that is Iraq. We are in the midst of a terrible war that is not going well. Yet our leaders refuse to change course in terms of how they execute that war because they have a belief that no matter how poorly they execute the war we will win anyway. George Bush, as the emodiment of "America," is infallible - nothing he does can lead to defeat, to stop whining.

That is a very dangerous basis on which to run a country, especially when the "infallible" monarch is someone as incompetent as George W. Bush. The man lost New Orleans, he can lose Iraq.

PS A second possibility, just as disturbing, is that Bush and the Republicans KNOW that Iraq is lost, but because of a desire to save face they refuse to withdraw. They want to leave the problem for the next president two and a half years from now simply because they don't want to be blamed for the coming disaster. To hell with the cost in lives and dollars. The Republicans would rather see our soldiers die than have their party lose face over a war they've already lost.

This will never make it to the right-wing blogs and news sites, and the people who read them exclusively will continue to deny that Bush would ever say such a thing. I know. I hear from them every single day.
Crooks and Liars

August 21st, 2006

Bush says: “Iraq Had ‘Nothing’ To Do With 9/11″
By: John Amato @ 12:30 PM - PDT

Karl Rove and Dick Cheney are not happy campers today that’s for sure. He admits he was wrong about WMD’s in Iraq and now this…

BUSH: …The terrorists attacked us and killed 3,000 of our citizens before we started the freedom agenda in the Middle East. They were …

QUESTION: What did Iraqi have to do with that?
BUSH: What did Iraq have to do with what?

QUESTION: The attacks upon the World Trade Center.

BUSH: Nothing. .. . . ..Except for it’s part of — and nobody’s ever suggested in this administration that Saddam Hussein ordered the attack. Iraq was a — Iraq — the lesson of September the 11th is: Take threats before they fully materialize,

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As usual, some of you can't see the big picture. You want style over substance(Clinton). By the way, when YOUR guys ruled and got us into one of these debatable wars, we lost FIFTY-FIVE THOUSAND men. Please post your answer to that fact.

Let's face the fact that the only teeth in ANY U.N. resolution or mandate is if the U.S. makes it so. SOLE ENFORCER is both a ridiculous and dangerous role for any country to be in.

Let's turn that building in New York into low rent housing. It serves a better purpose that way.

Oh, by the way--When Willie decided to bomb our allies in Yugoslavia to stop Malosevich's(sp?)"ethnic cleansing" campaign (a cakewalk--the boys would be home by Christmas, Willie promised), did anybody have a problem with THAT attack on a sovereign country? And why do we still have boys there? And one more thing--that 200,00 alleged to have been killed by Malosevich--please show evidence that supports even 2500--possibly less that the murders committed by the other side.

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How can you expect to be taken you seriously when you characterize Joe Lieberman as a Bush Clone? Plowing right along, you then state that Bush lost New Orleans. Can you get your head out of your ass long enough to review voting records and study pertinent information objectively?

Socrates said: I know that I am intelligent, because I know that I know nothing. I congratulate you for knowing everything.

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RE: Bush "losing" New Orleans. Now comes another Utopian who thinks government can always fix everything, determine the future, prevent Katrinas, and in general make your life Hunky-Dory.

Earth to Utopians--YOU secure your future! MAYBE the government can help at times, but it's really up to YOU. Try to think outside the box.

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Re: Molly Ivins, June 10. Molly Ivins will promote any statist idea floated, especially socking more taxes on everybody by taxing "the other guy"(always works with gullible voters, for millenia). We need that money to stay working at the velocity of the private sector, instead of disappearing into the black hole of Washington DC bureaucracy. Stop worrying about whether somebody has more than you. Somebody else probably thinks YOU have more that your share, and trust me, some politician is trying to convince him of that right now.

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But what if we can't win, August 23-- Lotsa criticism for Bush and Co. for lives lost in this war.

You got amnesia, or are you just young enough to not remember Viet Nam? The Liberals were in power then, and their version of "fighting" a war was sending our boys to slaughter to the tune of FIFTY-FIVE THOUSAND (55,000), while scheduling a pull-out as they want to do in this one, and letting a couple million Vietnamese twist in the wind (boat people who didn't quite think it was a Worker's Par- adise there as Communists always promise).

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IN REPLY TO EPISCOPAL BISHOP'S COMMENTS(I know he was just a fictitious character in the joke), Aug. 17:

It made me think about the fact that there a plenty of childlike, uninformed minds speaking from behind a pulpit.

Case in point would be his following comments: Katrina--be serious, any government response is going to be inadequate. Stop kidding your- self. 7.6 trillion debt--primarily the entitlements such as the Social Security Chainletter and medicare that actually add up to more like 20 trillion, depending on how far out you w want to go. But I's sure the Democrats had no part in that. Gas up 85%--Better check with the middle-class owners of the major oil companies if you want to lynch somebody! Yes, kiddies, the American middle class is the predominate owners of shares of common stock in these companies, and if I hear Lou Dobbs or any other talking head pitying the middle class any more, I'm gonna barf.

Research into global warming and stem cells stopped cold--well, somebody forgot to tell the Bishop that the research into both hasn't stopped just because more government money hasn't been thrown at it. It's going on every day of the week. Bigger gap between rich and poor, more poverty- With 12-20 million illegals in the country, any chances that wages are being held down by those folks? It's obvious. What's also obvious is that there is NOT ONE LIBERAL CONGRESSMAN OR SENATOR, AND DARNED FEW REPUBLICANS who will take a firm stand on the issue. Tancredo of Colorado, JD Hay- worth of Arizona are two with some back- bone.

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Privatization of government functions ends up costing us taxpayers MORE, not less. Private companies have to make a profit, and government agencies do not. I contribute to companies’ profit when I buy their products and services, but that’s voluntary. I can’t NOT pay my taxes, no matter what the email spammers try to tell me. I don’t want my taxes to contribute to the profits of companies who get their fat government contracts due to legal bribery through campaign donations. When that happens, I'm actually paying these crooks to fleece me. Carolyn Kay

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Okay, on the anniversary of Bush's Katrina debacle, "Heck of a Job" Brownie tells all and reveals that Bush and the White House told him to lie and take the heat for the Katrina executive branch fiasco.

Although we never ceased to be amazed at how the mainstream media generally follows a White House script, we sometimes do become just a BIT jaded and cynical.

But if you have the former fired head of the Arabian Horse Association turned political hack appointee to run FEMA accusing the President of the United States of asking him (through WH staffers) to lie for "El Caudillo," that would appear to us to be pretty big news.

In fact, we could only find three non-mainstream sites with any reference to the accusation on Google, including one that we posted from a newsite from India!

So, we have to go across to the Indian subcontinent to find a paper that posts an article about how Bush had his incompetent FEMA Director fall on his sword for the president, while the president praised the clueless FEMA Director for doing a "heck of a job," while Bush knew that his administration's response was an abominable horror.

We were unexpectedly surprised, however, to see that the New York Times is finally reporting on the reality and truth surrounding a Hollywood-set Bush photo-op -- at least in one paragraph and about one event: "Mr. Bush delivered his remarks at an intersection in a working-class Biloxi neighborhood against a carefully orchestrated backdrop of neatly reconstructed homes. Just a few feet out of camera range stood gutted houses with wires dangling from interior ceilings. A tattered piece of crime scene tape hung from a tree in the field where Mr. Bush spoke. A toilet seat lay on its side in the grass."

You read the New York Times article about Bush's attempt to rewrite Katrina history and wonder how did the truth accidentally get inserted into NYT coverage of a White House PR event?

So Bush tells "Heck of a Job Brownie" to lie -- and no one in the mainstream media appears to care a whole lot?

The mainstream media's motto appears to be: don't bother us with the truth. It's much more complicated to report. Lies are a lot easier and faster to write up. The truth just makes our jobs harder.

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Although we never ceased to be amazed at how the mainstream media generally follows a White House script, we sometimes do become just a BIT jaded and cynical.

In fact, we could only find three non-mainstream sites with any reference to the accusation on Google, including one that we posted from a newsite from India!

You read the New York Times article about Bush's attempt to rewrite Katrina history and wonder how did the truth accidentally get inserted into NYT coverage of a White House PR event?

So Bush tells "Heck of a Job Brownie" to lie -- and no one in the mainstream media appears to care a whole lot?

The mainstream media's motto appears to be: don't bother us with the truth. It's much more complicated to report. Lies are a lot easier and faster to write up. The truth just makes our jobs harder.

Comments

Carolyn Kay, I seriously hope you posted the above in jest. I have no doubt that you never passed any economics courses, and I wonder if you made it through third grade with that kind of logic. Private companies do make a profit, just like you work to earn a living. Private companies pay taxes on the profits they make, just like you pay income taxes. Private companies are more efficient than government. Crooked companies should be punished if they misbehave. That said, government wastes money daily, and there is no incentive to save, and no punishment for overspending or stealing. Half of public education money is spent on administration, whereas public schools manage on twenty percent. The federal mail system told us it was impossible to deliver mail overnight, but the private sector found a way. Why was Walmart present and running days or weeks before the Federal govt after the recent hurricanes? Why do you have trouble understanding that government is inefficient? Get your head out of the union's ass and think for yourself.

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Carolyn Kay must have tought Buzzflash logic and reporting. Amazing that you had to go to India to find what you wanted. I found no news of little green men passing out condoms in Duluth yesterday either, so I guess the main stream media is in on that one too.

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Re: August 29 reply to Carolyn's feigned economic illiteracy. C'mon, you know she was joking, but even I had to read and re-read her piece to conclude that she has a sophisticated sense of humor. Very dry. As to your reply re: free market economics, you saved me a lot of trouble, and I say Amen, Amen, and Amen.

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RE: BUZZFLASH NEWS ANAL-YSIS, AUGUST 29: How 'bout those first responders, too--Governor Blanco, Senator Landreau, Mayor Nagen(sp?). All iconic Democrat "we're lookin' out for the little guy" types--they can't even get out of their OWN way, let alone get anything else done. During the first seek of the crisis, Nagen had himself barricaded and isolated in the Ramada Inn, and didn't even come out to offer moral support. And where were the others? Who knows, probably the south of France or something. So get off the "heckuva job Brownie" kick, unless you want to include Nagen, Landreau and Blanco(whitey?). BALDEAGLE