Not to worry -- nursing sharks don't bite.
Now did I say that the Liberals, Dems and the anti-war crowd had cornered the market on "Blind denial"? No---I didn't-----but I'm thinking about it)))))))
Something which might bear consideration, re "Leaks" and other "Inside Information" and "Official Pronouncements" ... there was mention some while back of a "Ministry of Disinformation" of sorts. I would suspect it to be a busy place, for all the denial of its existence (which denials, of course, would be perfectly consonant with the avowed purpose and stated function of such an official organ). It is both good strategy and effective tactically to keep one's opponents guessing, you know.
timber
timber
YES! And that is so very much a part of the problem.
LW
Little do you know this one.
Lola
I can certainly agree with your distrust of "religious right" but if you all will remember GW is a politician and that crowd has a block of voting power that he MUST have. Remember GW has not been PROVEN wrong on any issue YET!!!! For what it's worth---I would much prefer to have a president that has a firm moral foundation for what is Right from Wrong AND who has the sense of commitment to see his actions through than to have a man with no moral compass or one who is likely to become confused at the last minute about the objective.
You have not heard me make any comments about the SOTU speech because it has all the "hype" of the superbowl but remember it was aimed at that portion of the crowd that thought
"Roseanne" was funny. And from the jump in the poll ratings it was right on target.
You mean all those Republicans who stood and applauded ad nauseum are all "Roseanne" fans?
I thought the bush didn't kow-tow to polls - just a wish washy wuss. Trouble with this guy is he has never had anything proved right either!
Oh-oh---couple of wannebe barracuda just showed up.
Just a whittle "Guppie" paddling quietly so as not to disturb the "big" guys.
Timber
Just to further comment on your 'ministry of truth' post....
When the initial announcement of this came out, I was quite unsurprised about such activities, but was bowled over by the arrogance of the admission..."yes, we are going to be funneling lies to foreign press agencies". They did show some prudence in not mentioning policies regarding the US press.
So, we both acknowledge this has been/is being done anyway, just under cover of denial now. That's a BIG problem. What do I now do with fuzzy photographs of trucks accompanied by a creative narrative that they 'are' sneaking cannisters of evil gas away from approaching UN inspectors (more fuzzy photographs)? With claims about those aluminum pipes? With real transcripts (honest!) of cell phone calls between Usama and best buddy Sadaam?
Dang server -- deleted by author.
Golly -- certainly trumps Little Red Riding Hood's wolf. A Moray eel in Guppie clothing.
Yeah but just a harmless one with a "Jimmy Carter" smile.
LW----OK---I'll bite--- what's a Jimmy Carter smile?
Perception----You know---where the teeth are smiling but the eyes are so empty you can see the back of his head.
perc, That's the first time I heard of that one!
But, overall, Jimmy Carter is an "intelligent" man - just wasn't a good pres. c.i.
At Salon, a debate between Hitchens and Danner...here's a taste...you have to look at a MB ad to get to it...
Quote:Not surprisingly, Danner responded to Hitchens' relentlessly optimistic assessment of the war and its outcome by casting doubt on just about every one of his assertions. Referring to Haiti, which has been bloodily jerked around by inconstant, ever-changing American policies, Danner said, "I've learned to suspect dreaming imperial dreams." In an eloquent excursus, he described American foreign policy as a spotlight: everything is fine when it's shining somewhere, but when it moves on, darkness falls and in that darkness you find death.
Danner expressed doubt that America would stay the course in postwar Iraq. In this context, one of the debate's more peculiar moments arose when he implied that the presence of big-thinking, "reshape the Middle East" neo-con hawks like Paul Wolfowitz, Doug Feith and Richard Perle as counsels to Bush was a reason for optimism -- although he added that how much influence they had was unknown. The reason for this optimism: Their motivation, as opposed to the realpolitik motives of the likes of Cheney and Rumsfeld, was to spread democracy through the region. Danner did not mention that the motivation beneath this motivation was to bring down the regimes that threaten Israel -- a fact which might conceivably affect their policies and their reception in various Arab states. (In a peculiar omission, neither Israel nor the Palestinian crisis was mentioned by either Hitchens or Danner.)
http://www.salon.com/index.html
C.I.
Let's see----when you're the last one to recognize your very limited capabilities-----is that a sign of intelligence? (I do mean Carter's limited capabilities)
Blatham
I congratulate you for finally finding someone who has really identified America's worst failing. It is the inability to define and execute LONG TERM foreign policy. That inability can only be attributed to a flaw in our system of formulating foreign policy. Each President has his vision of what it should be and it may be good or bad or just status quo. Danner illuminated this when he described American foreign policy as a spotlight, "everything is fine as long as it shining, but when it moves on, darkness falls and in that darkness you find death.
Not true in all cases but certainly in enough that it should cause concern in everyone.
Does he have any suggestions as to how to "fix" the problem? AS with Krugman and many others who are very adept at pointing out problems with the American system, I see no evidence of solutions.
I think that if you are the leader of planet Earth, you should be smarter than me. You just get the feeling, don't you, in the Oval Office that Dick Cheney is working behind the big desk. And then off to the right there is a little collapsible card table where George has like airplanes and stuff. Then every once in a while he looks up and says, 'I've discovered that if I shut my eyes, I can disappear.
- Darrel Hammond
