Friday, August 10, 2007

Fortunate Son...and Daughters/Bush and Tillman/Thompson's Disorder




During a press conference on Thursday, George W. Bush said,

The first question one has to ask on Iraq is, is it worth it? I could not send a mother's child into combat if I did not believe it was necessary for our short-term and long-term security to succeed in Iraq.


This was part of his response to the last question of the session. So there was no chance for a reporter to ask a follow-up. But what would be the natural next question? Mr. President, given that you believe the Iraq war must be prosecuted in order to protect the United States, have you asked your own daughters to join the armed services in order to fight in Iraq? That would be a tough but fair query. If he's sending other children into battle, why not his own? But would a White House reporter put such a pointed question to Bush? Given that the war will not be over anytime in the near future, the chance to pose this question to Bush will come again.

WHERE'S THE ANGER? Also from Bush's press conference:

Q: Mr. President, you speak often about taking care of the troops and honoring their sacrifice. But the family of Corporal Pat Tillman believes there was a cover up regarding his death, and some say perhaps he was even murdered, instead of just friendly fire. At a hearing last week on Capitol Hill your former Defense Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, other officials used some version of "I don't recall" 82 times. When it was his term to step up, Pat Tillman gave up a lucrative NFL career, served his country and paid the ultimate sacrifice. Now you have a chance to pledge to the family that your government, your administration will finally get to the bottom of it. Can you make that pledge to the family today, that you'll finally, after seven investigations, find out what really happened?

THE PRESIDENT: Well, first of all, I can understand why Pat Tillman's family, you know, has got significant emotions, because a man they loved and respected was killed while he was serving his country. I always admired the fact that a person who was relatively comfortable in life would be willing to take off one uniform and put on another to defend America. And the best way to honor that commitment of his is to find out the truth. And I'm confident the Defense Department wants to find out the truth, too, and we'll lay it out for the Tillman family to know.


Can you think of a reason why Bush didn't say something like, This has been a terrible episode, it makes me mad, I can understand why the Tillman family is damn frustrated, and I pledge this to them: we will get a complete accounting, we will cut through the previous investigations and make sure the full truth comes out--you have my word and I will make sure that happens immediately, enough is enough ? Instead, Bush served up boilerplate rhetoric that conveyed detachment. And he had nothing to say about the Pentagon's shocking inability to provide a full accounting of Tillman's death. Does he know something about the case he's not sharing?

LAW & DISORDER? He may play a kickass prosecutor on television, but former Senator Fred Thompson is proving to be no Superman when it comes to mounting a political campaign. During his short unofficial candidacy, he's gone through more campaign managers than Rudy Giuliani has gone through wives. From AP:

In July, Thompson sidelined his campaign-manager-in-waiting, Tom Collamore, and watched a few other aides follow him out the door amid consternation inside the operation about the active role of Thompson's wife, Jeri.

At the time, aides said former senator and energy secretary Spencer Abraham and a Florida GOP strategist, Randy Enwright, would take over the unofficial campaign. But that turned out to be a temporary solution as the Thompsons sought a replacement for Collamore, who still is advising Thompson.


When Thompson announced that Abraham was going to be his helmsman, I wondered, Spencer Abraham? He's hardly known as a political powerhouse. After all, he lost his bid for reelection as a Michigan senator. But it turned out that Thompson was only kidding about Abraham, and on Thursday he declared that his newest campaign manager would be Bill Lacy, who managed Thompson's successful, come-from-behind 1994 senatorial bid. But here's the good news for anyone not rooting for Thompson: Lacy went on to be Senator Bob Dole's chief political strategist and served in that position during Dole's awful presidential bid in 1996. After Dole lost the New Hampshire and Delaware primaries that year, Lacy had to resign. That is, Dole went on to win the GOP nomination without Lacy at his side.

But Lacy shouldn't worry about being embarrassed in a similar manner this time. The odds are that by the time the actual voting starts Lacy will have joined the long list of Thompson's ex-campaign managers.

Posted by David Corn at August 10, 2007 08:22 AM

21 comments:

capt said...

Mr. David Corn,

"WHERE'S THE ANGER?"

The emotions went away when we stopped calling Bush a liar.

Maybe "The lies of George W Bush" should be retitled as we can no longer call dear leader a liar.

I hope you are enjoying your vacation.


Kirk

Gerald said...

Here is a great conversational article

Some posters want conversation. Let us start with this article.

As a side note Cheney, the gutless beast, is demanding that Bush attack Iran and kill more human beings with our lies. The beast received 5 deferments to serve his country because he had better things to do. For him the beast will send your son or daughter into war to be killed so he can award more defense contracts to have the war profiteers gain more profits. Cheney is a slimeball.

WHY ARE NAZI AMERICANS SO STUPID TO LISTEN TO AND BELIEVE MORE LIES?

Richard Perle, the high ranking Nazi, says Nazi Americans haved changed. Yes, Richard Perle is right and Nazi Americans have changed for the worse.

Gerald said...

Bush displays a depraved indifference when it comes to human life. He displays no outrage because carnage is his game.

Hajji said...

C'mon...

Shouldn't fault the putz-in-cheif for not being able to relate to the pain of others.

What began as his birthright of indifference to the pain of others (exploding frogs included) is now reinforced by his bubblemasters and, most obviously, his state of POLYPHARMACOPACETIA that keeps the bubble surface thick and allows only rose-colored light to penetrate.

-T

Gerald said...

Twelve Steps to a True American Democracy

David B. Benson said...

I liked the phrase from yesterday

... the president is ready to flight like a rock ...

Gerald said...

August 6, 2007 Permalink

Are Taxes Good?

Diary Entry by Daniel Geery

I am talking about in theory, of course. The way they are presently spent is beyond insane, and if I had my way, there are very few "leaders" who would not be put in an insane asylum, at least until they got their brains in order.

::::::::

What prompted me to ask my question was an article yesterday, titled Show Me The Law. The article and several comments made much to-do about our taxes not being legal. My question is not whether they are or aren't "legal"-we can always make them one or the other if we chose-but whether we should or shouldn't have them.

Here's my proposition: Taxes are not only good, but the amount of them, along with their effective use, is a measure of the success of a society. That is to say, if we had "no income," but only taxes, and everyone was happy about how they were spent, we would have a remarkably successful society. If taxes paid for my rent, food, transportation, clothing, entertainment, recreation, and so on, and I could focus on doing what I do best as my contribution to society, then I wouldn't have to go chasing money, worry about interest and parasite bankers, corporations, rip-off artists of every stripe, wealthy assholes, and so on.

If the taxes on my work were effectively spent, I would not have to see SUVs, suffer from F450s blowing exhaust at me, read or think about or experience anguish from the Iraq War, worry about my kids going to college, concern myself with global warming or any other environmental ill, and so on. I would not need to be concerned about the future of the human race, because the effective organization of society and the sum total of human effort would be for the good. We would be limiting our population growth, educating our young, respecting and protecting nature, turning swords into plowshares, exploring space through a concerted global effort, and generally eliminating the pain and suffering of our species.

That's my political thought for this morning.

Gerald said...

If posters want conversation, here is a conversational article. I am a serial article poster because my posts are attempts to have people reflect and think and yes, converse!!!!!


August 10, 2007 at 12:26:36

WHAT HAVE WE BECOME?

by Jack at Liberty Underground Page 1 of 1 page(s)

http://www.opednews.com

This week, a woman shot and killed a homeless man in Cincinnati because he asked her for a quarter. This story was in our local, corporate-viewpoint monopoly newspaper this morning. "He asked her for a quarter," Police Chief Tom Streicher said. "That's apparently all there was to it."

One may, at first, shrug this story off by thinking Geraldine Beasley must be insane for murdering Donald Francis.

But, because of the massive bias by corporate media, homelessness and hunger are buried here in the Land of the Free, where most Americans are not aware that we have the most homeless and hungry among all major industrialized nations, by any measure. As a consequence of this, many citizens are angry at homeless people.

We have seen a great many articles in the mass media saying that these are lazy people who should go find jobs. What is never allowed is the facts on unemployment. Headlines everywhere echo the deceptive line that unemployment is low.

But the untold truth is that unemployment is quite high.

Not counted in official statistics are those who have given up trying to find work because they've had so many doors slammed in their face, and we have no idea how many millions are in this category because there is no official data, apparently by design.

Not counted are the tens of millions working part time because they cannot find full-time jobs. The government counts those working as little as one hour per month as employed.

Not counted are those making minimum wage and unable to provide for basic needs. There have never been as many Americans making minimum wage as there are today. All are counted as employed in government statistics.

Not counted are the millions in our record-sized prison system, there largely because the US economy works as it does to provide profit for transnational investors at any cost to the rest of us.

As a consequence, the propaganda blasted in corporate media has convinced citizens that there is a great deal of work available for those who want it. And, of course, you can pick strawberries for $20 a day if you are a person with other resources for survival.

But even where there is work, employers don't want people who are mentally slow or on drugs/alcohol. There is little pity for those hopeless people who try to escape with cheap wine. They are not seen as human beings. Even the good Christians who run the country, led by George Bush, ignore their own Jesus' "What you do to the least of them, you do to me."

Because of the way in which Americans are indoctrinated in capitalist rhetoric to the point of becoming zombies, we do not find it strange that a man was murdered for asking for a quarter.

I LOVE WHAT NAZI AMERICA HAS BECOME!!!!! AS MY SPIRITUAL ADVISOR SAID TO ME THAT I DO NOT HAVE TO WANT OR WISH FOR NAZI AMERICA TO SUFFER SO SHE CAN KNOW WHAT OTHER PEOPLE FACE IN THEIR LIVES. NAZI AMERICA IS SUFFERING BECAUSE SHE WILL NOT REPENT AND LET HER HEART BE FILLED WITH LOVE.

Yes, we have become zombies, vultures, and vampires.

Gerald said...

BILL O'REILLY

A must read poem!!!

Gerald said...

Hypocrisy or Values

Nazi America is a haven for hypocrites!!!

Gerald said...

AMERICA 2000-2006

David B. Benson said...

David Corn --- I doubt that George XLIII is capable of knowing something...

capt said...

We no longer live in a society, we live in an economy, where right and wrong is determined not by fairness, but by profitability -- and where the law no longer dictates corporate behavior, but corporate behavior dictates the law: Kelly Overton, Executive Director of People Protecting Animals & Their Habitats

=
"Let no man think we can deny civil liberty to others and retain it for ourselves. When zealous agents of the Government arrest suspected "radicals" without warrant, hold them without prompt trial, deny them access to counsel and admission of bail....we have shorn the Bill of Rights of its sanctity..." -- Robert M. Lafollette, Sr. (1855-1925) U.S. Senator - Source: The Progressive, March 1920

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"Whenever justice is uncertain and police spying and terror are at work, human beings fall into isolation, which, of course, is the aim and purpose of the dictator state, since it is based on the greatest possible accumulation of depotentiated social units." -- Carl Gustav Jung - (1875-1961) Source: The Undiscovered Self, 1957

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"Why nationalize industry when you can nationalize the people?": -- Adolf Hitler - (1889-1945) Source: quoted in Robert N. Proctor, The Nazi War on Cancer (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1999), p. 74.

===

Thanks ICH Newsletter!

David B. Benson said...

Perseid meteor shower tonight and tomorrow night...

capt said...

Nationalism is our form of incest, is our idolatry, is our insanity.

"Patriotism" is its cult. It should hardly be necessary to say, that by "patriotism" I mean that attitude which puts the own nation above humanity, above the principles of truth and justice; not the loving interest in one's own nation, which is the concern with the nation's spiritual as much as with its material welfare-never with its power over other nations.

Just as love for one individual which excludes the love for others is not love, love for one's country which is not part of one's love for humanity is not love, but idolatrous worship.: Erich Fromm (1900-1980), U.S. psychologist.

=
"It seems that 'we have never gone to war for conquest, for exploitation, nor for territory'; we have the word of a president [McKinley] for that. Observe, now, how Providence overrules the intentions of the truly good for their advantage. We went to war with Mexico for peace, humanity and honor, yet emerged from the contest with an extension of territory beyond the dreams of political avarice. We went to war with Spain for relief of an oppressed people [the Cubans], and at the close found ourselves in possession of vast and rich insular dependencies [primarily the Philippines] and with a pretty tight grasp upon the country for relief of whose oppressed people we took up arms. We could hardly have profited more had 'territorial aggrandizement' been the spirit of our purpose and heart of our hope. The slightest acquaintance with history shows that powerful republics are the most warlike and unscrupulous of nations." : Ambrose Bierce, Warlike America

=
"The possession of unlimited power will make a despot of almost any man. There is a possible Nero in the gentlest human creature that walks." -- Thomas Bailey Aldrich (1836-1907) Source: Ponkapog Papers, 1903

===


Thanks ICH Newsletter!

capt said...

Taliban a step ahead of US assault


KARACHI - The ongoing three-day peace jirga (council) involving hundreds of tribal leaders from Pakistan and Afghanistan is aimed at identifying and rooting out Taliban and al-Qaeda militancy on both sides of the border.

This was to be followed up with military strikes at militant bases in Pakistan, either by the Pakistani armed forces in conjunction with the United States, or even by US forces alone.

The trouble is, the bases the US had meticulously identified no longer exist. The naive, rustic but battle-hardened Taliban still want a fight, but it will be fought on the Taliban's chosen battlegrounds.

Twenty-nine bases in the tribal areas of North Waziristan and South Waziristan on the border with Afghanistan that were used to train militants have simply fallen off the radar.

The US had presented Islamabad with a dossier detailing the location of the bases as advance information on likely US targets. But Asia Times Online has learned that since early this month, neither the North Atlantic Treaty Organization-led coalition in Afghanistan nor Pakistan intelligence has detected any movement in the camps.


More HERE

capt said...

Oil headed for $100 a barrel: Chavez


Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez predicted that oil prices will hit $US100 a barrel, saying the world is facing an energy crisis.

"The price of oil is headed for $US100," Chavez told Caribbean leaders at an energy summit. "OPEC says so ... We should prepare ourselves for those prices."

He added that "the world is entering into an energy crisis" largely caused by a US-influenced "consumerist model and the limitless waste".

Venezuela, a member of the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries, still counts the United States as its top buyer although Chavez has sought to diversify his clientele by selling more to Latin America, the Caribbean and as far away as China.

Oil Minister Rafael Ramirez said on Friday that Venezuela will urge OPEC to maintain existing oil production cuts and keep output levels unchanged.

"We believe that the oil cuts must be left in place, and we have carried them out," Ramirez said. Venezuela will make its proposal when the OPEC meets in late September, he said.

Crude prices surged to an all-time high of $US78.77 per barrel recently on the New York Mercantile Exchange, before falling below $US71 on Friday.


More HERE

David B. Benson said...

Yes, yes!

$100 per barrel!

Go, go, go!

(Buy your bicycle now...)

David B. Benson said...

More blankets and wool clothing, too...

capt said...

Rove Resigns?

I wonder what is really going on.







capt

Hajji said...

Capt.

I fear the worm's just entering his pupa stage, encasing himself in a chrysalis hanging in a shed at Crawford...awaiting the dark, moonless night for his heinous metamophasis into...?

T