Mr.Piffka's Quotes

I was thinking about Powell this morning and happened to run into this quote:
--- (Corruption of the best is the worst of all)

That is, sadly, so true in terms of Powell.

Well said dys.

I feel the same way about Powell. I don't think history will treat him well.
He allowed his good name and reputation to be exploited in service of a shameful deception.

..... "O Lord our Father, our young patriots, idols of our hearts, go forth to battle - be Thou near them! With them, in spirit, we also go forth from the sweet peace of our beloved firesides to smite the foe.
..... O Lord our God, help us to tear their soldiers to bloody shreds with our shells; help us to cover their smiling fields with the pale forms of their patriot dead; help us to drown the thunder of the guns with the shrieks of their wounded, writhing in pain; help us to lay waste their humble homes with a hurricane of fire; help us to wring the hearts of their unoffending widows with unavailing grief; help us to turn them out roofless with their little children to wander unfriended the wastes of their desolated land in rags and hunger and thirst, sports of the sun flames of summer and the icy winds of winter, broken in spirit, worn with travail, imploring Thee for the refuge of the grave and denied it - for our sakes who adore Thee, Lord, blast their hopes, blight their lives, protract their bitter pilgrimage, make heavy their steps, water their way with their tears, stain the white snow with the blood of their wounded feet!
..... We ask it, in the spirit of love, of Him Who is the Source of Love, and Who is ever-faithful refuge and friend of all that are sore beset and seek His aid with humble and contrite hearts. Amen."

"War Prayer"
- Mark Twain (1835-1910)

<nodding>

Good quote, Dys. I will pass that on to Mr.P. -- very apt, scarily apt for Powell.
(He says you have a higher opinion of Powell than he does.)

were the truth be known, I have never held Mr Powell with much esteem.

BBB
"Evil always turns up in this world through some genius or other."

?- Denis Diderot, French philosopher, Encyclopedist and writer (1713-1784)

Max Nordau (1849 - 1923)
America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.

With hindsight, we can see that it was only to be expected that fundamentalism should first make itself known in the United States, the showcase of modernity, and only appear in other parts of the world at a later date.

Islam: a Short History
Karen Armstrong (1945- )

I'm the commander - see, I don't need to explain - I do not need to explain why I say things.

That's the interesting part about being the president. Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don't feel like I owe anybody an explanation.

George W. Bush (1946- )

Piffka, do you know which speech that quote came from? It is one of the most frightening quotes of anything he has ever said.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/11/17/60minutes/main529657.shtml

It was during an interview with Mike Wallace in 2002.

Diane
Diane, the quote source you requested ---BBB

A Rare Glimpse Inside Bush's Cabinet
Nov. 17, 2002

In a 60 Minutes interview with Mike Wallace, Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward discloses previously unknown information from his new book about how the president and his cabinet prosecuted the war on terror in the weeks after the Sept. 11 attacks.

"Bush at War," draws on four hours of interviews with President Bush and quotes 15,000 words from National Security Council and other White House meetings in reconstructing the internal debate that led to U.S. military action in Afghanistan and the decision to aggressively confront Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.

The book describes Secretary of State Colin Powell as frequently at odds with Vice President Dick Cheney and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and struggling to establish a relationship with Mr. Bush.

Woodward interviewed Mr. Bush in August at the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas.

"He said, 'One of the things I learned is, the vision thing matters,'" Woodward tells 60 Minutes about what Mr. Bush told him.

And his vision includes getting rid of the evil from what he calls the axis of evil: Iraq, Iran, North Korea. Talking with Woodward, Mr. Bush dropped all pretense of diplomatic language as he tore into North Korea's leader Kim Jong II. And the President permitted Woodward to tape record his interview.

President Bush: "I loathe Kim Jong II. ?- I've got a visceral reaction to this guy because he is starving his people. It appalls me. ?- I feel passionate about this. ?- They tell me, well we may not need to move too fast, because the financial burdens on people will be so immense if this guy were to topple. ?- I just don't buy that."

Clearly transformed by Sept. 11, the President makes a point of projecting strength, confidence, and determination.

President Bush: "A president has got to be the calcium in the backbone. ?- If I weaken, the whole team weakens. ?- If I'm doubtful, I can assure you there will be a lot of doubt."

And Mr. Bush wants strength, not doubt, in his cabinet.

"In the midst of tough times I don't need people around me who are not steady," Bush tells Woodward. "And if there's a kind of a hand-wringing attitude going on when times are tough, I don't like it."

Woodward managed to get the notes from more than 50 National Security Council and War Cabinet meetings, in which, he says, Mr. Bush dominates his more experienced cabinet members Colin Powell, Donald Rumsfeld - and even Vice President Dick Cheney.

Woodward says the president told him that when he chairs a meeting he often tries to be provocative. When Woodward asked him if he tells his staff that he is purposely being provocative, Mr. Bush answered: "Of course not. I am the commander, see?"

President Bush: "I do not need to explain why I say things. ?- That's the interesting thing about being the President. ?- Maybe somebody needs to explain to me why they say something, but I don't feel like I owe anybody an explanation."

Woodward reports that Powell believes Cheney and Rumsfeld are too quick to go for the guns - too macho; while Powell remains the reluctant warrior.

"When Powell would be asked to go on television talk shows, the White House would tell him no," Woodward tells Wallace "And Powell would say, privately to his deputy Richard Armitage, 'I'm in the refrigerator. ?- I'm in the ice box. ?- They've got me put away and they'll pull me out like a carton of milk when they need me, and then put me back.'"

Woodward says it is the hidden political hand in the White House, and communications operations.

"Often they called on Powell to carry the message, but sometimes into the refrigerator he went," Woodward says.

Woodward says the president was furious when he had to wait a week to bomb Afghanistan after the military told him they needed more time to prepare.

"Bush gets fiery. Actually explodes, and says, 'Why that's unacceptable,'" Woodward says.

But while Mr. Bush was waiting for the military, at his direction, the CIA led by George Tenet, was already on the ground buying Afghan warlords.

Woodward: Tenet sent his secret paramilitary team in, and the team leader, who's named Gary, is riding in his helicopter and he has a big suitcase between his legs. ?- Giant. ?- What's in it is three million dollars in cash.

Gary, who reportedly met with the intelligence chief for the Northern Alliance put a half a million dollars in cash on the table.

"And the intelligence chief for the Northern Alliance said, essentially, 'What do you want us to do?'" Woodward says.

And at one time, the CIA offered a Taliban commander $50,000 to defect and he asked for time to think it over.

And then they dropped a bomb on him in his area. ?- And then they went back and said, the offer now which used to be $50,000 is now $40,000. ?- And he said "I accept."

Woodward reports the president has the CIA actively pursuing al Qaeda in 80 countries now, no longer restrained by what had been a 25 year ban on assassination, as we saw two weeks ago in Yemen when a CIA plane fired a missile into a car killing six members of al Qaeda.

Woodward: The gloves are off. ?- There are no restraints on the CIA. ?- And there's this whole invisible war where the CIA has had foreign intelligence services and police forces arrest or detain terrorists, al Qaeda members, thousands of them.

Woodward reports that the United States has bought the intelligence services of Egypt, Jordan, and Algeria, among others.

Woodward: Tens of millions of dollars goes to these intelligence services. ?- They can get new equipment. ?- They can develop new agent networks within terrorist cells.

Woodward reveals that shortly after Sept. 11 FBI Director Robert Mueller told President Bush that 331 suspected terrorists had somehow slipped into the U.S., and that the FBI didn't know where they were.

When Woodward asked the President about this, he said, "I was floored."

Woodward: He directly said he did not release it publicly because It was so soon after 9/11, feeling that the country had gone through enough trauma. ?- So he kept it secret.

President Bush: "The idea of saying there's 331 Al Qaeda type killers lurking to the point where they made a list, just wasn't necessary. ?- On the other hand what was necessary was for our FBI to realize that their mindset had to change. ?- There has to be a sense of accountability."

Some of those 331 suspected terrorists have been apprehended, Woodward says.

"There are cells all over that are being watched. And there are 125 al Qaeda related investigations going on by the FBI that are very secret," Woodward says.

The impression somehow prevails that the true believer, particularly the religious individual, is a humble person. The truth is that the surrendering and humbling of the self breeds pride and arrogance.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983)

<thanks BBB.>

Friday Double Quote Special!
When great changes occur in history, when great principles are involved, as a rule the majority are wrong. The minority are right.

Eugene V. Debs

'The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within.'
-Mahatma Ghandi

Beautiful, Jjorge.


"Then said Saul unto his servants, Seek me a woman that hath a familiar spirit,
that I may go to her, and inquire of her.

And his servants said to him, Behold, there is a woman that hath a familiar spirit at Endor.

And Saul disguised himself, and put on other raiment, and he went,
and two men with him, and they came to the woman by night:

and he said, I pray thee, divine unto me by the familiar spirit,
and bring me him up, whom I shall name unto thee.

And the woman said unto him, Behold, thou knowest
what Saul hath done, how he hath cut off those
that have familiar spirits, and the wizards, out of the land:

wherefore then layest thou a snare for my life, to cause me to die?

And Saul sware to her by the LORD, saying,
As the LORD liveth, there shall no punishment happen to thee for this thing.
Then said the woman, Whom shall I bring up unto thee?

And he said, Bring me up Samuel."

- I Samuel 28:7-11

Thanks Piffka and BBB. Dubya's fascist persona makes Mussolini look like an earthworm in comparison.


We all have our good defects and our bad defects. Dys's grandfather.

That's a precious, Diane

I love it. Am now pondering all my good defects -- .