"I wonder how long it will take America to recover from George Bush's uniquely blinkered and self-righteous brand of ineptitude? In the past five years he's demonstrated to the world that we don't know how to win a modern guerrilla war. He's demonstrated that we don't understand even the basics of waging a propaganda war. He's demonstrated that other countries don't need to pay any attention to our threats. He's demonstrated that we're good at talking tough and sending troops into battle, but otherwise clueless about using the levers of statecraft in the service of our own interests. If he had set out to willfully and deliberately expose our weaknesses to the world and undermine our strengths, he couldn't have done more to cripple America's power and influence in the world. Beneath the bluster, he's done more to weaken our national security than any president since World War II.
So how long will it take — after George Bush has left office — for our power and influence on the world stage to return to the level it was at in 2001? When I'm in a good mood, I figure five years. Realistically, ten years is probably more like it. And when I'm in a bad mood? Don't ask. It's really all very depressing."
* driftglass:
"Short of holding “Skeet Shooting Babies for Jebus” Republican fundraisers on the graves of Goodwin, Schwerner and Cheney, it is genuinely hard to imagine how much more rabidly insane the Republican “Rock The Hate” drive could get before they just start showing up at people’s houses and bayoneting anyone there who listens to NPR or can count to twenty with their socks on.
The tragedy is that it’ll work.
Not turn the tide or anything, but this 60-second hate-gasm obediently jizzed out by yet another despicable GOP House Negro gives a few hundred thousand mouthbreathers something else to triumphantly point to as “proof” that they are Right and people who don’t name their kids Nathan Bedford Hitler and raise them like Tim McVeigh Brand Veal in wingnut madrasses out of some perverted sense of “pride” are Wrong.
On the plus side, with all the honorable men and women long since centrifuged out of the GOP, and all the nation’s ideological CHUDS now conveniently packed into a single Party for easy collection, it makes the job of the Soylent Green pickup vans ever so much simpler."
11 comments:
knowing how to "win a war" is precisely the kind of debate and discussion that makes me want to barf my dinner all over my computer... talking about the damage to america's power and influence in the world makes me never want to eat again... one, why are we debating better ways to win a war...? why aren't we debating why the flying frig we're always STARTING or SUPPORTING the damn wars in the first place and then making money up the butt selling weapons to anyone with a fistful of cash...? two, the so-called power and influence that america has built up across the globe has, for the past 100 years, been gained on the backs of the weakest and most vulnerable of the world's peoples and the communities and countries they live in... speaking for myself, i don't WANT to be led by those who know how to fight wars better and to find more efficient ways of exploiting the masses... i want justice, i want equity, i want dignity, i want respect, i want a plant we can live in together with pride, and i want these things for all of us... and i don't want them tomorrow... i want them today...
Right, Marcus. The majority of the country wants the same things--always did and always will. However people disagree, most people agree with that, at least. And that's in spite of the Bullshit administration's claims of "political capital" and the "unitary executive." I have great faith in our country. It's steamrollered evil before, and as much as I hate predictions, it will flatten this evil, too. I don't know when or how, but I know the fix is coming.
ProfMarcus: "why are we debating better ways to win a war...? why aren't we debating why the flying frig we're always STARTING or SUPPORTING the damn wars in the first place and then making money up the butt selling weapons to anyone with a fistful of cash...?"
And Mr. U: "The majority of the country wants the same things--always did and always will.
These lines touch on something that has really been bugging me for months - a niggling, vague bit of annoyance that has now simmered long enough to have a name. It ain't "we" who do these things - start wars, engage in profiteering, and abusing other people in the world. I think this calls for some sensible framing.
As usual, too, these things all come back to the responsibility of ordinary citizens to keep an eye on what our so-called 'representatives' are doing in our name. They do not represent US when they rubber-stamp criminals and criminal activities. I have never seen or heard this theme spelled out in letters to editors or anywhere else. Instead, writer after writer, TV and radio personalities, all use the all-encompassing 'we' to identify those who wage these outrageous assaults and fatten their wallets in the process.
The people who do these things are just criminals in fancy suits, regardless of the high-sounding pious speechifying they do in public. The people that benefit from their wars and abuses are more criminals in fancy suits.
The American people and the rest of the world have been lied to for decades about this crap and it might help us break through the public stupor if some straight talk along the lines of 'us vs. them' were to get out there more.
I don't know about the rest of you, but it seems to me if we began consciously watching our use of pronouns when discussing their criminal activities, instead of enabling them by sounding like we are including ourselves in the actions, we might be able to help turn the tide and wake up others a little more quickly.
If avoiding discussions about impeachment and criminal accountability helps win this election (and I'm not at all sure that is what other voters want to hear), once this election IS won, and the transfer of power in Congress is certified, then with all due respect to Rep. Pelosi, I say sic 'em, John Conyers.
I am 100% in favor of hauling the lot of them off to The Hague as a clear message to any of their successors who may (will !!) entertain similar mis-uses of the U.S. government.
Lordy, I am so sick of those people and every rotten thing they and their corporate co-conspirators stand for!
. . . just my 2 cents.
LeeB: As usual, too, these things all come back to the responsibility of ordinary citizens to keep an eye on what our so-called 'representatives' are doing in our name.
why should they bother when it's more fun to think/worry about missing white chicks, runaway brides and now, OJ's IF I DID IT book? and really, taking into consideration that more voted for amerikan idle than in the last election, i mean, /really/. let's not ask for the impossible over (t)here.
The American people and the rest of the world have been lied to for decades about this crap and it might help us break through the public stupor if some straight talk along the lines of 'us vs. them' were to get out there more.
once i went back to Uni for my teaching degree/licence, i'd already done a bit of reading--your above is why i joined 'radical teachers.' first off, in MY America, every single goddamned kid in grade school would be assigned to read and discuss 'lies my teacher told me.'
we're a nation of morons and we like it that way. i couldn't be more disgusted, ashamed and angry.
If our representatives in Washington would listen more to their constituents and less to "party strategists," Bush and Cheney would be long gone. As a candidate, it would be so easy to win anywhere by doing simply that. Bubble mentality is contagious, and seniority aggravates it.
Uranus-->testify, bro'!
Thank you, Rimone! There's a spiritual revival brewing inside me. I'm not sure how it goes, or what to pick for a genre. I had an idea a little while ago, up above, about making a list of laws to repeal and holding Congress accountable. One could make a website out of that. Maybe I could put Janet to work on it. Heaven knows she needs something to keep herself busy besides seeking our wits' ends.
Uranus: I had an idea a little while ago, up above, about making a list of laws to repeal and holding Congress accountable. One could make a website out of that.
TOTALLY EXCELLENT IDEA, dude.
I'm not aware anyone's doing it. And, she actually knows how to go about it and win. Believe me, I never thought this backward state would outlaw cockfighting, but they did, thanks to her. It's an arduous, ugly chore. It might find support, too. We need to be able to build web pages and operate a server. My brother could do all that, but he didn't teach it anyone before he kicked.
She did all that without me. It wasn't easy. She continues to pay dearly for it, too. Big bets on chicken fights were being made to launder crime money. She saw it as her job to help stop that. She was rewarded by forcible retirement. People are fucked up. I don't know what I learned from that, but it must be something! It wasn't "no good deed goes unpunished." I already knew that.
Uranus: People are fucked up
i hate most people. just sayin'. i always found myself more at home w/those whom others called losers or eccentric or freaks or whatever. personally i enjoy thinking of them as free-thinkers.
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