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themp
Supporter
Username: Themp
Post Number: 3199
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 23, 2006 - 8:37 am: | 
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http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bob-harris/your-president-the-visio_b_27789.html |
themp
Supporter
Username: Themp
Post Number: 3201
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 23, 2006 - 10:43 am: |
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From Fred Kaplan in Slate:
As for Iraq, it's no news that Bush has no strategy. What did come as news—and, really, a bit of a shocker—is that he doesn't seem to know what "strategy" means.
Asked if it might be time for a new strategy in Iraq, given the unceasing rise in casualties and chaos, Bush replied, "The strategy is to help the Iraqi people achieve their objectives and dreams, which is a democratic society. That's the strategy. … Either you say, 'It's important we stay there and get it done,' or we leave. We're not leaving, so long as I'm the president."
The reporter followed up, "Sir, that's not really the question. The strategy—"
Bush interrupted, "Sounded like the question to me."
First, it's not clear that the Iraqi people want a "democratic society" in the Western sense. Second, and more to the point, "helping Iraqis achieve a democratic society" may be a strategic objective, but it's not a strategy—any more than "ending poverty" or "going to the moon" is a strategy.
Strategy involves how to achieve one's objectives—or, as the great British strategist B.H. Liddell Hart put it, "the art of distributing and applying military means to fulfill the ends of policy." These are the issues that Bush refuses to address publicly—what means and resources are to be applied, in what way, at what risk, and to what end, in pursuing his policy. Instead, he reduces everything to two options: "Cut and run" or, "Stay the course." It's as if there's nothing in between, no alternative way of applying military means. Could it be that he doesn't grasp the distinction between an "objective" and a "strategy," and so doesn't see that there might be alternatives? Might our situation be that grim? |
crabby
Citizen
Username: Crabbyappleton
Post Number: 766
Registered: 1-2004
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 23, 2006 - 1:36 pm: |
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He might have understood if the questioner had used the word "strategery". |
ina
Citizen
Username: Ina
Post Number: 392
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 23, 2006 - 4:31 pm: |
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Nah. He really can't define words with more than 3 syllables. Remember "sovereignty"? |
tom
Citizen
Username: Tom
Post Number: 5616
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 23, 2006 - 7:25 pm: |
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That was beyond belief, wasn't it? I can imagine his definition of "round."
Round means that. It's round. You're a ... you're a ... you've been given a round shape and you're viewed as a round entity. |
themp
Supporter
Username: Themp
Post Number: 3204
Registered: 12-2001
| | Posted on Wednesday, August 23, 2006 - 9:40 pm: |
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nice. |
Foj
Citizen
Username: Foger
Post Number: 1720
Registered: 9-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, August 24, 2006 - 1:19 am: |
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A round entity, LOL ROFL good one.
Now Impeach the basturd |
mlj
Citizen
Username: Mlj
Post Number: 407
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, August 24, 2006 - 9:08 am: |
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Bush is so fond of saying that the final history in the region is yet to be written. He appears to have disconnected himself from his own role in that history, because it is not 'final' - what does that mean? He seems to dismiss the present and past history (including his own actions). Just blows it off.
He is a lazy thinker and the leader of the free world - sickening.
Like when he makes a speech to his adoring groupies at a staged event, and complains about the 'bureaucrats in Washington' - how does he get away with it.
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dave23
Citizen
Username: Dave23
Post Number: 1973
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, August 24, 2006 - 9:12 am: |
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Words words words. There's a common misperception among the faithful that that "goal" and "strategy" are synonyms. |
Innisowen
Citizen
Username: Innisowen
Post Number: 2285
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, August 24, 2006 - 11:25 am: |
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MLJ:
Soon the monkey in chief will be saying "It's the political season," to explain away all the criticisms being leveled at him and his failed administration. That's one of his frequent fall-back sayings. |
Strawberry
Supporter
Username: Strawberry
Post Number: 7745
Registered: 10-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, August 24, 2006 - 11:35 am: |
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boring |
Innisowen
Citizen
Username: Innisowen
Post Number: 2286
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, August 24, 2006 - 11:41 am: |
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repubs=monkeys |
joel dranove
Citizen
Username: Jdranove
Post Number: 933
Registered: 1-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, August 24, 2006 - 12:13 pm: |
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Call an Indian a macaca in chief and you are a racist.
Do you think you advance your argument by labelling the Pres. a monkey?
Are you a simianist, a homo sapienist?
jd
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Innisowen
Citizen
Username: Innisowen
Post Number: 2288
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, August 24, 2006 - 1:12 pm: |
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I really dont care about the president.
He's in the highest public office, self-sought, no one forced him to be president, so he is a fair target, for characterizing and name-calling, and so is George Allen.
It's qualitatively different when a public official (a senator like George Allen calling someone a "macakuh," or Bush 43 and VP Cheney calling Adam Clymer an "a--hole" from the podium). They're supposed to be able to take the heat without folding.
They are supposed to behave differently and, if they're in the game, they ought to be able to tolerate snide appellations. If they're not, that's too bad. |
mlj
Citizen
Username: Mlj
Post Number: 410
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, August 24, 2006 - 2:32 pm: |
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How about calling Max Clelland unpatriotic?
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Strawberry
Supporter
Username: Strawberry
Post Number: 7746
Registered: 10-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, August 24, 2006 - 3:34 pm: |
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It's Max Cleland, not Clelland. Show a little respect and at least spell his name correctly.
libs. |
tom
Citizen
Username: Tom
Post Number: 5626
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, August 24, 2006 - 3:54 pm: |
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...then forget the respect and start throwing slime. |
Flameretardant
Citizen
Username: Flameretardant
Post Number: 30
Registered: 9-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, August 24, 2006 - 4:25 pm: |
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Straw, at least show some respect and capitalize "libs" when starting a sentence. What kind of Neanderthal, conservative-•••-kissing, English-lanuagage-ignorant moron are you?  |
Flameretardant
Citizen
Username: Flameretardant
Post Number: 31
Registered: 9-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, August 24, 2006 - 4:26 pm: |
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Oops, my bad. "Language," for Chrissake. |
SO Ref
Citizen
Username: So_refugee
Post Number: 2127
Registered: 2-2005
| | Posted on Thursday, August 24, 2006 - 4:35 pm: |
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Look at Straw defending a democrat... I'm surprised twice in one day. |
notehead
Supporter
Username: Notehead
Post Number: 3756
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, August 24, 2006 - 4:35 pm: |
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I'm expecting something like this from Dubya any day now...
Some people are saying that we've got no strategy in Iraq. That our objectives have not cleared... to them... what they are. Well, it should be obvious to all of us as one who has led this nation against the fear that has gripped us by the hand of terror, I'd be less than remiss if was to respond to such allegory with anything more than complete indignance. Folks, wars takes time. And a war against cowards and their minions, who, pursuant to their determination to kill every man, woman, and child who does not aspire to their level of hatred of freedom of democracy to live peacefully as they wish to in complete freedom, and they don't, which is why we need to. You may be weary of hearing me say "stay the course," but you can't stay the course by leaving the battlefield. The course IS the battlefield, where, even now, great strides are about to have been made by the Iraqis in stepping out so that we can sit down. But we cannot do that -- and we will not do that, and neither will they -- until we have completed the mission, which is our objective. And that's to spread democracy in Iraq, just as we did in Afghanistan.
You may recall the famous words that say "we have nothing but a fear of fear... which is a fear, itself," which is to say that we have nothing to be afraid of aside from killers that kill, who smash airplanes into buildings, and take every joy from a soldier's family when they kill him with IUD's, and even now are plotting to blow up our treasured national acorns. And that's why our stragedy is to stick with the plan. We'll lie down while the Iraqis rise up. Folks, the history has yet to be written which has yet to occur in the present, let alone the past, and I know that the future will bear me out when the chapters of today's past become the future's tomorrow. Any questions? |
Pippi
Supporter
Username: Pippi
Post Number: 2806
Registered: 8-2003
| | Posted on Thursday, August 24, 2006 - 4:47 pm: |
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mlj
Citizen
Username: Mlj
Post Number: 414
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, August 24, 2006 - 6:40 pm: |
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excellent!
perhaps you can stand together with himself at the next WH correspondence dinner! |
Factvsfiction
Citizen
Username: Factvsfiction
Post Number: 1498
Registered: 4-2006
| | Posted on Thursday, August 24, 2006 - 6:52 pm: |
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Subtlety, nuance, and intellectual objectivity, your name is MOL political threads !
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Innisowen
Citizen
Username: Innisowen
Post Number: 2290
Registered: 3-2004
| | Posted on Thursday, August 24, 2006 - 9:25 pm: |
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What a worthless observation.
It's the pot calling the kettle black. |
Nohero
Supporter
Username: Nohero
Post Number: 5763
Registered: 10-1999
| | Posted on Thursday, August 24, 2006 - 9:48 pm: |
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Quote:Subtlety, nuance, and intellectual objectivity, your name is MOL political threads !
Indeed, it's a wonder why superior people would deign to spend their time amongst the common folk. |
Strawberry
Supporter
Username: Strawberry
Post Number: 7747
Registered: 10-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, August 24, 2006 - 10:14 pm: |
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Sometimes we just do. |
notehead
Supporter
Username: Notehead
Post Number: 3761
Registered: 5-2001
| | Posted on Thursday, August 24, 2006 - 11:46 pm: |
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I think you're missing the second "o" on that word at the end. |
Strawberry
Supporter
Username: Strawberry
Post Number: 7749
Registered: 10-2001
| | Posted on Friday, August 25, 2006 - 7:02 am: |
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Very funny, toilet humor. |
ina
Citizen
Username: Ina
Post Number: 395
Registered: 6-2001
| | Posted on Friday, August 25, 2006 - 10:50 am: |
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a take on dailykos. Personally, I believe Bush is profoundly, deeply, proudly stupid and lazy, but this makes sense:
Why Bush Can't Talk: It's not the drugs, and it's not senility.
by Inland
Thu Aug 24, 2006 at 07:00:43 PM PDT
Bush's press conferences and unscripted remarks are so painfully bad, it spurs the question: what is his PROBLEM?
People have remarked that he wasn't that way when he was the Governor of Texas, and therefore theorize that he has deteriorated due to premature senility or a lifetime of drug use.
I think the reason George Bush stumbles, ends sentences midway through to jump to another thought, rattles off non-sequiturs, and makes up words, is that George Bush is breaking under the strain of lying almost all the time about almost everything.
Inland's diary :: ::
I think it's because lying is hard work, and he's trying to hold several different false scenarios in his head while not blurting out what he's really being told behind closed doors.
Bush looks like a person stumbling over the easiest things, but in fact, he's not a person unable to relate simple facts. He's a person trying hard to NOT relate simple facts. He's a person trying to avoid the pitfalls of saying what's on his mind, and trying to keep his stories straight.
As I lawyer, I see people trying to construct false scenarios all the time. But you don't remember lies the way you remember truth. It's easier to remember, e.g., how fast you were driving than it is to remember the exact lie you told the police officer about how fast you were driving. People who lie have to put a lot of energy into keeping their lies consistent with each other and, well, consistent with undeniable facts.
My grand theory is that Bush's entire presidency, from the beginnings of his campaign until now, is based on his taking public stances that at least obscures goals and positions shared secretly. He and his Roves have always accepted that the majority of the country wouldn't want him if they knew the promises he made to the right wing christians and the rich, if they knew the actual effect of his tax cuts, if they knew the evidence behind environmental damage, and on and on. Now, he's hiding the entire foreign policy fiasco(s), who is being held by him incognito, who is being spied upon, what he knew before 9/11, and on and on and on.
If you had so much to hide, you too would only use canned speeches, carefully vetted by speechwriters who don't know the real story anyway, to keep it all straight, and you would stumble and hem and haw in all other circumstances.
Which explains why his problem wasn't so evident as Texas Governor. Bush's brand of crony capitalism and piestic christianism went down well in Austin, at least for a governor with no real constitutional authority: Bush only had to repackage himself for the national race, essentially submerge his real persona and his real ideas and his real goals and pretend to a compassionate, not-a****** conservativism.
You know how they tell you, on a date, just be yourself? And how you think, no, I don't want her to meet that guy just yet? Well, Bush and Rove have been saying that for six years, and Bush has been schizo, trying to send signals and winks and nods to his fundamentalist christians and send money to his corporate sponsors while slinging a load of bull at the nation. Add to that all the bodies he has to keep buried, and you've got a guy who is in a state of flop sweat every time he has to open his mouth in public.
Bush isn't senile, or drug addled. He's a lying a******. And it's hard work. Only truly gifted and intelligent sociopaths like Rove and Cheney can rattle it off. Bush can't.
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