Bush's Accomplishment and failure

[glatt]

I don't understand your question.

Americans wanted revenge. We went into Afghanistan for revenge. Iraq was also offered up to an angry nation and we took the bait. Now most regret it.

[Shawnee123]

We wanted to go after the attacker: Osama Bin Laden, who Bush promised dead or alive. Hussein was offered up and, like glatt points out, we took the bait.

[xoxoxoBruce]

Iraq was also offered up to an angry nation and we took the bait. Now most regret it.

We did? Gung ho on Afghanistan, for sure. But Iraq?
I didn't see that, hell yeah, get 'em boys attitude, coming from the great unwashed.

A lot of people were convinced the government (Bush/State Dept/Pentagon/CIA), knows more than we do, so if they say we must, we must. Then of course there's the old saw.... even if you don't like the war, you're a scum sucking dog if you don't support our troops. That's a backhanded way of coercing people into not being vocal or demonstrating against the war.

[tw]

Originally Posted by xoxoxoBruce

A lot of people were convinced the government (Bush/State Dept/Pentagon/CIA), knows more than we do, so if they say we must, we must. Then of course there's the old saw.... even if you don't like the war, you're a scum sucking dog if you don't support our troops. That's a backhanded way of coercing people into not being vocal or demonstrating against the war.

From Without Precedent by Tom Kean and Lee Hamilton:

When you review highly classified material, there is almost always a security officer in the room - someone who stands by silently and watches you as your read. Tom carefully made his way through the classified FBI report, absorbing the secrets from the U.S. Government. When he finished, he looked up at the security officer and said, "I knew all of this. There's almost nothing in here that I couldn't have known from reading the newspapers."

The security officer looked at him and said, "Yeah. But you didn't know it was true."

Deja vue Vietnam. Nixon, for whom lying was typical and was justified to kill so many American soldiers, also insisted he had a “secret plan to end the war". Some politicians are so often liars that anyone agreeing with lying politicians (without posting reams of supporting facts) were accurately accused of also lying. Good thing so many whistle blowers and leakers (also known as patriotic Americans) are telling the press the truth. And still, some are so foolish as to blindly believe George Jr only because “he must know more”.

First indication that he must be lying. "I believe god has choosen me to be president".

George Jr's greatest accomplishment: lie to American religious extremists - and they believed he was one of them. Lie without providing supporting facts and numbers and we will believe he must know more. Reality and history says otherwise when the politician has a history of lying. As Kean noted, he already knew those facts from the newspapers. But a lying politiician needs us to believe a myth about secrets.

[Pangloss62]

W took oratory to another level. As the first CEO President, he leveraged his unique intellectual capital to add value to the political discourse that shapes our Democracy. He gave 110% and really stepped up to the presidential plate. In retrospect, his approach was a no-brainer, a slam dunk; but at the time only W and his cronies knew that. We can now look at his past and ongoing legacy as a streak of white light that cut and continues to cut through the history and future of American politics and governance, illuminating all the great things that America is and will continue to be.

[richlevy]

Originally Posted by Pangloss62

W took oratory to another level. As the first CEO President, he leveraged his unique intellectual capital to add value to the political discourse that shapes our Democracy. He gave 110% and really stepped up to the presidential plate. In retrospect, his approach was a no-brainer, a slam dunk; but at the time only W and his cronies knew that. We can now look at his past and ongoing legacy as a streak of white light that cut and continues to cut through the history and future of American politics and governance, illuminating all the great things that America is and will continue to be.

Excuse me, but was the preceding intended as sarcasm? Because if it wasn't, you're beginning to scare me.

[Pangloss62]

Excuse me, but was the preceding intended as sarcasm? Because if it wasn't, you're beginning to scare me.
12-02-2006 09:57 PM

Completely sarcastic. But pretty good, don't cha think? Almost sounded real. You see, that's the key, to "sound" authentic and like you mean it.

That's the power of corporate- (CEO) speak. Black becomes white and eyes glaze over. And America drops trou and takes it up the arse. Just words. Amazing.

[richlevy]

Originally Posted by Pangloss62

Completely sarcastic. But pretty good, don't cha think? Almost sounded real. You see, that's the key, to "sound" authentic and like you mean it.

That's the power of corporate- (CEO) speak. Black becomes white and eyes glaze over. And America drops trou and takes it up the arse. Just words. Amazing.

You're a regular Stephen Colbert.

[Hippikos]

Move over, Hoover.

[Pangloss62]

You're a regular Stephen Colbert.

Now THAT is a compliment. He's a true American (cue screaching eagle).

Thanks Mr. Levy.

[Pangloss62]

OK. Let me start by saying that I already know that I'm an arrogant SOB. Really, I know that. But after what I saw the other night I must post.

I never liked the category "World Music." What the fuck music is not of this world? Why don't they call it what they really mean, which is "Non-Western Music?" I ask this because the other night I took a heaping, sticky-sweet and self-induced dose of Billboard Magazine's top World Music group: Celtic Women.



Jesus H. Christ! What a load of ersatz-mystical-New-Age bullshit. You gotta give the guy who put it together, David Downes, credit for hitting the schmaltzy nail on the head. He also worked on that Riverdance spectacle that never seemed to go away. You see, this is why a lot of people hate me; what they really like and think is "brilliant" and "inspiring" I find nearly intolerable. How can that many people like this crap?

The entire performance was like a bad "Mystical Moods of Ireland" calendar you might see in the discount bin after Christmas. It got really painful when they trotted out the Irish pipe player to add "authenticity" to the machine-generated misty veil of Irish fog that wafted over the fake heath. Oh my goodness. You should have seen the audience in awe of the spectacle, all smiling and mouthing the words to songs so incessantly positive and "uplifting" that I nearly puked. Why did I keep watching? I must be a masochist.

But I conclude, that like a whole bunch of this "World Music" shite, it's not really Non-Western at all. In fact, with all the theatrics, bombast, and overproduction, it was quintessentially Western, a product of a shrewd business plan that tapped into the sentimental and historically myopic minds of the great middlemass (think Yanni). It was held on the grounds of an Irish castle for Chrissakes! "Times must have been so great in the Dark Ages" I said to myself. "Everything was so blue, so beautiful, and so electrically amplified back then."

And all this in spite of the fact that they didn't have bad voices.

It's gonna be on PBS a whole bunch, so be forewarned.