Bush....Blooper!
Ananda
"They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our
people, and neither do we."
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/08/05/bush.ap/index.html
Krishnacharya1
Krishnacharya1
A New 'Bushism' For The Growing List
George Bush has added another verbal gaffe to his long list of blunders.
The latest addition to the catalogue of Bushisms came as he addressed Pentagon
chiefs during the signing ceremony of a defence spending bill.The US President
said: "Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we.
"They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people,
and neither do we."
No one in Bush's audience of military brass or Pentagon chiefs reacted to the
mistake.
White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush's error "just shows even the
most straightforward and plain-spoken people misspeak."
"But the American people know this president speaks with clarity and
conviction, and the terrorists know by his actions he means it," he said.
Krishnacharya1
NOTE: To the best of our knowledge, these are all real quotes. If you have a
"Bushism" you would like to send us, we will require a legitimate source. We
also have not censored any quotes here, and there is profanity on this page. If
profanity offends you, please scroll all the way down.
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"The dictator of Iraq is making his choice" – George W. Bush, regarding the
impending war with Iraq. Feb, 6, 2003
"The war on terror involves Saddam Hussein because of the nature of Saddam
Hussein, the history of Saddam Hussein, and his willingness to terrorize
himself." - Grand Rapids, Mich., Jan. 29, 2003
"You're back here with my people. You're back here with the tequila drinkers,
yeah. What you need is to go up there and make a little whoopee with the
tequila drinkers, get to know them better." - G.W. Bush from Journeys With
George by Alexandra Pelosi, debuted on HBO Nov. 5, 2002
"When I was coming up it was a dangerous world, and we knew exactly who the
they were. It was us versus them, and it was clear who them was." - G.W. Bush
from Journeys With George by Alexandra Pelosi, debuted on HBO Nov. 5, 2002
"I can't hear you because I can't see." - G.W. Bush from Journeys With George
by Alexandra Pelosi, debuted on HBO Nov. 5, 2002
"There's an old saying in Tennessee -- I know it's in Texas, it's probably in
Tennessee --that says, fool me once, shame on ... shame on you. Fool me ... You
can't get fooled again." - G.W. Bush quoted by the Baltimore Sun - Oct 6, 2002
"We need to understand if you let kindling build up and there's a lightning
strike, you're going get yourself a big fire," - G.W. Bush in a lame attempt to
make deforestation look like a way to stop forest fires, - Aug 22, 2002
"I know in the fall of an election year, the tendency is to focus more on
scoring political points than on making progress." - G.W. Bush after a golf
game with Bush Sr. and just before going on a massive, multi-state, GOP
fundraising campaign. Kennebunkport, Maine. -August 3rd, 2002
"Sometimes things aren't exactly black and white when it comes to accounting
procedures ... I still haven't figured it out completely." - Bush when asked
for details about his dealings with Harken Energy Corp., of which he was on the
audit committee. G.W. Bush's father was in office in 1990 when he sold his
Harken stock and the SEC did not pursue a case. -July 8th, 2002
"Do you have blacks too?" - Bush ignorantly asked Brazil's President Fernando
Henrique Cardoso. Reported by the reputable German publication Der Spiegel.
Rumor has it, Condoleza Rice interupted the president and explained in brief
the African history in Brazil.
"Washington is unfortunately the kind of place where second-guessing has become
second nature," - G.W. Bush responding to suggestions he had warnings of
September 11th before the attacks. Washington D.C., May 17th, 2002
"After all, a week ago, there were — Yasser Arafat was boarded up in his
building in Ramallah, a building full of, evidently, German peace protestors
and all kinds of people. They're now out. He's now free to show leadership, to
lead the world." - G.W. Bush. Washington D.C., May 2nd, 2002
"This foreign policy stuff is a little frustrating." - G.W. Bush as quoted by
the New York Daily News, April 23rd, 2002
"I've got a tool, and that's called a veto" - G.W. Bush regarding working with
congress on the budget. Washington Post, April 17th, 2002
"And so, in my State of the -- my State of the Union -- or state -- my speech
to the nation, whatever you want to call it, speech to the nation -- I asked
Americans to give 4,000 years --4,000 hours over the next -- the rest of your
life -- of service to America."" - G.W. Bush. April 9th, 2002. Reported by the
San Francisco Gate (among others)
"I made up my mind that Saddam needs to go,"- G.W. Bush to British Prime
Minister, Tony Blair, April 5th, 2002
"Sometimes when I sleep at night I think of 'Hop on Pop."- G.W. Bush speaking
on educating children, April 2nd, 2002
"There's nothing more deep than recognizing Israel's right to exist. That's the
most deep thought of all. ... I can't think of anything more deep than that
right."-March 13th, 2000, Washington, D.C.
"I understand that the unrest in the Middle East creates unrest throughout the
region."-March 13th, 2000, Washington, D.C.
"{waves hello}"- G.W. Bush waves to the blind musician, Stevie Wonder, as
reported by the Washington Post, March 6th, 2002
"It also makes sense for New York State to have a governor whose phone calls
will be returned from the White House." -February 2002, at a fundraiser for New
York's Republican governor, George Pataki.
"It's an encroachment on the executive branch's ability to conduct business,"
—Regarding Enron, January 28th, 2002
"Mother, I should have listened to you. Always chew your pretzels before you
swallow." —January 14th, 2002
"Not over my dead body will they raise your taxes!" —January 11th, 2002
"This is not an instant gratification war" —November 2nd, 2001
"I am here to make an announcement that this Thursday, ticket counters and
airplanes will fly out of Ronald Reagan airport." —October 3rd, 2001 at
Reagan International Airport in Washington, D.C.
"When I take action, I'm not going to fire a $2 million missile at a $10 empty
tent and hit a camel in the butt. It's going to be decisive."—September 19th,
2001
''I know what I believe. I will continue to articulate what I believe and what
I believe—I believe what I believe is right."—Rome, July 22, 2001
"It's my honor to speak to you as the leader of your country. And the great
thing about America is you don't have to listen unless you want to." —
Speaking to recently sworn in immigrants on Ellis Island, July 10, 2001
"Well, it's an unimaginable honor to be the president during the Fourth of July
of this country. It means what these words say, for starters. The great
inalienable rights of our country. We're blessed with such values in America.
And I--it's--I'm a proud man to be the nation based upon such wonderful
values."—Visiting the Jefferson Memorial, Washington, D.C., July 2, 2001
"We spent a lot of time talking about Africa, as we should. Africa is a nation
that suffers from incredible disease."—Gothenburg, Sweden, June 14, 2001
''I had no idea we had so many weapons, ...what do we need them for?'' —
George W. Bush, stunned when told the extent of the U.S. nuclear arsenal,
Newsweek, June 25, 2001
"It's amazing I won. I was running against peace, prosperity, and incumbency."
— George W. Bush, June 14, 2001. Speaking to Swedish Prime Minister Goran
Perrson, unaware that a live television camera was still rolling.
"If a person doesn't have the capacity that we all want that person to have, I
suspect hope is in the far distant future, if at all."—Remarks to the
Hispanic Scholarship Fund Institute, Washington, D.C., May 22, 2001
"For every fatal shooting, there were roughly three non-fatal shootings. And,
folks, this is unacceptable in America. It's just unacceptable. And we're going
to do something about it."—Philadelphia, May 14, 2001
"There's no question that the minute I got elected, the storm clouds on the
horizon were getting nearly directly overhead." - Washington, D.C., May 11,
2001
"It's a school full of so-called at-risk children. It's how we, unfortunately,
label certain children. It means basically they can't learn. ... It's one of
the best schools in Houston." —George W. Bush speaking about KIPP Academy in
Houston, Texas.
"Whatever it took to help Taiwan defend theirself."—On how far we'd be
willing to go to defend Taiwan, Good Morning America, April 25, 2001
"First, we would not accept a treaty that would not have been ratified, nor a
treaty that I thought made sense for the country." —George W. Bush, on the
Kyoto accord, April 24, 2001
"I've coined new words, like, misunderstanding and Hispanically." —George W.
Bush, who meant to say "misunderestimated"
"They misunderestimated me."—Bentonville, Ark., Nov. 6, 2000
"I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family."—Greater Nashua,
N.H., Chamber of Commerce, Jan. 27, 2000
"I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully."-Saginaw, Mich., Sept.
29, 2000
"The great thing about America is everybody should vote."-Austin, Texas, Dec.
8, 2000
"It's clearly a budget. It's got a lot of numbers in it."--Reuters, May 5, 2000
"Rarely is the question asked: Is our children learning?"-Florence, S.C., Jan.
11, 2000
"I understand small business growth. I was one."-New York Daily News, Feb. 19,
2000
"The most important job is not to be governor, or first lady in my
case."-Pella, Iowa, as quoted by the San Antonio Express-News, Jan. 30, 2000
"It's important for us to explain to our nation that life is important. It's
not only life of babies, but it's life of children living in, you know, the
dark dungeons of the Internet."—Arlington Heights, Ill., Oct. 24, 2000
"I think if you know what you believe, it makes it a lot easier to answer
questions. I can't answer your question."—Reynoldsburg, Ohio, Oct. 4, 2000
"Natural gas is hemispheric. I like to call it hemispheric in nature because it
is a product that we can find in our neighborhoods."—Austin, Texas, Dec. 20,
2000
"The senator [McCain] has got to understand if he's going to have—he can't
have it both ways. He can't take the high horse and then claim the low
road."—To reporters in Florence, S.C., Feb. 17, 2000
"We ought to make the pie higher."—South Carolina Republican Debate, Feb. 15,
2000
"They want the federal government controlling Social Security like it's some
kind of federal program."—Debate in St. Charles, Mo., Nov. 2, 2000
"It's your money. You paid for it."—LaCrosse, Wis., Oct. 18, 2000
"It's not the governor's role to decide who goes to heaven. I believe that God
decides who goes to heaven, not George W. Bush." -- George W. Bush, in the
Houston Chronicle.
"There ought to be limits to freedom. We're aware of this [web] site, and this
guy is just a garbage man, that's all he is." --George Jr., discussing a web
site that parodies him (YIKES!)
"I'm a uniter not a divider. That means when it comes time to sew up your chest
cavity, we use stitches as opposed to opening it up." -- Bush, on David
Letterman, March 2, 2000. (the audience booed)
"I didn't -- I swear I didn't -- get into politics to feather my nest or
feather my friends' nests." —George W. Bush in the Houston Chronicle
"You fucking son of a bitch. I saw what you wrote. We're not going to forget
this." —George W. Bush to writer and editor Al Hunt, in front of his wife and
kids, 1988
Copyright 2001-2002, BushCartoon.com Inc.
Krishnacharya1
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Exerts from "FORTUNATE SON"
(a book censored in the USA...)
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The Man Can Speak For Himself:
A few choice quotes from Fortunate Son
"You fucking son of a bitch. I saw what you wrote. We're not going to forget
this."
-George W. Bush to writer and editor Al Hunt, 1988 (very
presidential !)
"You know I could run for governor but I'm basically a media creation. I've
never done anything. I've worked for my dad. I worked in the oil business. But
that's not the kind of profile you have to have to get elected to public
office."
-George W. Bush, 1989
"If we have to use smoke and mirrors to give the impression that Bush is not
what a lot of people think he is, then we'll do whatever it takes."
-Bush Presidential Strategist/Advisor, 1999
"As my daughter said, "Hey Dad, you're not nearly as cool as they think you
are."
-George W. Bush, 1999
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The following is a selection of some of the data from the new edition of
Fortunate Son: George W. Bush and the Making of an American President:
AntiSemitism
In 1967, young George W. Bush abruptly called off his engagement to Cathryn Lee
Wolfman. Friends close to the family blamed this sudden change of heart on Bush
family pressure and disapproval of the prospective fiancee's Jewish stepfather.
Although representatives from the Bush family later denied antiSemitism, in
1993, Bush as Texas Governor told the Houston Chronicle that he believed there
was no place in heaven for anyone who did not accept Jesus Christ as his
"personal savior." In 1998, before departing on a high-profile trip to the
Middle East, Bush sophomorically joked with U.S. reporters that the first thing
he would say to his hosts in Israel would be that they were all "going to
hell."
Draft-Dodging
Although many draft-age Americans thought the war in Vietnam was unjust, George
W. Bush's draft-dodging used his social status and backroom deals. Although the
waiting lists for alternative service in the National Guard were over 100,000
names long, Houston oilman Sidney A. Adger contacted Texas House Speaker Ben
Barnes for a special intercession on behalf of young Bush. George W. was
admitted instantly into the Texas Air National Guard and was promoted to
officer in an unprecedented few months, bypassing the required 23 month officer
candidate programs. Bush flew the F-102 aircraft, which was being phased out of
service at the time. Despite his claims to the contrary today, there was never
any chance Bush would ever see action in Vietnam.
The 1972 Coke Arrest
Although the following information has received the most controversial
reception thus far, it is only part of the larger pattern exhibited by
Fortunate Son. This biography establishes that George W. Bush has never been
required to play by the rules, not just in 1972. Upon finishing the first draft
of Fortunate Son, J.H. Hatfield was bothered by the incongruous break in the
pattern of young G.W. Bush's life. In 1972, Bush "volunteered" to work with
inner-city Houston youth at the community center Project P.U.L.L. Hatfield
began to suspect that the service wasn't voluntary, but court-ordered. This was
confirmed by three sources who had the same story: Bush was arrested for
cocaine possession but his father, Congressman George Bush, worked out a
backroom deal with a friendly judge.
This information was first brought up by online journal Salon, where the
community center was named as the "Martin Luther King Community Center." Bush
campaign spokesman Scott McClellan responded to Salon's story with a firm, "We
do not dignify false rumors and innuendoes with a response." After more
research, Hatfield phoned McClellan and asked if it was Project P.U.L.L. where
Bush performed "court-ordered community service." McClellan's response was a
sudden, almost inaudible "Oh shit." followed by a, "No comment."
An interesting footnote to the 1972 allegations: Bush acquired a new driver's
license from the Texas DMV in 1995 when a survey of his public records
uncovered a "stale but nevertheless incriminating trail" of a past arrest.
BCCI Oil Money
The first of many G.W. Bush business ventures eventually bailed out or
liquidated before bankruptcy was his oil company Arbusto Energy. In 1977, Bush
received a $50,000 investment from James R. Bath, a Houston businessman who
"made his fortune by investing money for [Sheikh Kalid bin] Mahfouz and another
BCCI-connected Saudi, Sheikh bin Laden" according to Time correspondents
Jonathan Beaty and S.C. Gwynne. Of special note is that Sheikh bin Laden is
widely believed to be the father of Osama bin Laden, terrorist bomber of two
U.S. embassies in 1998.
Bath, who had no funds of his own, is believed to have acted as the American
representative for Saudi Arabian sheikhs who, as Hatfield describes it, used
"their enormous financial resources to influence U.S. policy." As son of the
recent director of the CIA, G.W. Bush and his oil startup were a perfect
opportunity to buy influence. Ironically, it was with money allegedly tied to
the family of Saudi terrorist Osama bin Laden.
Campaign Trail Tricks
In 1988 Bush Junior joined his father's Presidential campaign. Fighting
accusations that the candidate was "a wimp," G.W. Bush and spin doctor Lee
Atwater ruthlessly brought the campaign into the modern age of dirty politics.
G.W. Bush funnelled money to "independent" conservative groups who aired the
racist Willie Horton ads which scared voters into thinking Dukakis was weak on
crime, by exploiting the image of a rough-looking black man.
Bush coached his father to dodge his involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal by
counter-accusing anchorman Dan Rather of unprofessional behavior relating to
the broadcast of an unrelated tennis tournament. Fearing that evangelist Pat
Robertson was beginning to gain momentum, Bush scuttled Robertson's campaign by
first leaking the news of Robertson's fellow evangelist Jimmy Swaggart's
marital infidelity. Near the the end of the '88 race, Time magazine was left to
wonder how unprecedented it was that "attacks on an opponent" could become "the
primary target of a presidential campaign."
Four years later, using the similar tactics, Bush defeated the flamboyant,
popular Texas incumbent Ann Richards in his own 1992 race for Governor.
Recalling Willie Horton, Bush's first television campaign featured images of a
women being grabbed at gun-point and other graphic crime scenes, with a voice
over-accusing Governor Richards of being soft on crime. Although these ads were
criticized as "scare tactics" they were the start of a campaign rife with
personal attacks and manipulative television. When Governor Richards asked why
all the businesses Bush had been a Director at since 1979 had lost a total of
$371 million, Bush countered with a televised, hurt plea to not engage in
"personal attacks." Even Republican political strategist Matt Broyles
recognized, "It was sanctimonious for the Bush campaign to run six weeks of
television commercials attacking the governor's record in office and then get
outraged when she examined his business background."
Upon winning the Governorship of Texas, Bush became known for a casual,
friendly style, often spontaneously visiting his fellow lawmakers in Austin.
However, this single baby-boomer-style element of his legacy is overshadowed by
the results of "compassionate conservatism:" a ravaged environment, growing
disparity between rich and poor, Texas style cronyism, property tax reform that
benefitted landlords and ignored tenants, diminished popular rights to
abortion, legalization of concealed handguns despite protest from law
enforcement, and finally, a stubborn refusal to approve Hate Crimes laws even
after the brutal murder of James Byrd by three Texas racists in Jasper.
Bush is described in Fortunate Son as being politically to the right of his
father. His lack of real compassion planned a nuclear waste dump 5 miles away
from the poor, Hispanic town of Sierra Blanca. Rather than grant clemency to
born-again death-row inmate Karla Fay Tucker, Bush waited until the last
possible moment before grand-standing in the media spotlight and again refusing
to reconsider, despite the pleas of prominent religious leaders.
With 54 pages of source notes, Hatfield's book is a researched, precision-cut
account. It balances Bush the likeable fellow with Bush the politician America
needs to get to know better.
Krishnacharya1
THIS IS NOT A GEORGE W. BUSH WEB SITE - IF YOU WANT TO GO
TO HIS WEB SITE, TRY WWW.BUSHSUCKS.COM - IT'S SERIOUS! TRY IT!
THE WEBMASTER ACKNOWLEDGES AND PROFUSELY THANKS MR. BUSH
FOR SUCH VALUABLE CONTRIBUTION, WITHOUT IT (AND WITHOUT
"DUBYA") THIS WEB SITE WOULD HAVE NO REASON TO EXIST. THANKS!
"Bushism" (disclaimer of the above)
-
Contributions to: rui...@hotmail.com
(To the Bush's people: eMail with hatred content will be ignored and considered
"not solicited", so, against the internet's spam laws.
- QUOTES (BUSHISMS) OF THE NEW (INSTALLED) PRESIDENT OF USA
"There ought to be limits to freedom. We're aware of
the site, and
this guy is just a garbage man."
-Bush, commenting on the website
www.gwbush.com
FULL STORY
THE VERY LONG LIST OF BUSHISMS -
BEFORE W. WAS (!?) "ELECTED"
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"You've heard Al Gore say he invented the internet.
Well, if he was so smart, why do all the addresses begin with "W"?"
--10-28-00 Headline News - Mimi
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Nov. 2, 2000, SEATTLE --
"If you don't stand for anything, you don't standfor anything!"
Gov. George W. Bush said to a packed rally at Bellevue Community College on
Tuesday night.
--Thanks, Michael.
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"They said this issue wouldn't resignate with the People. They've been proved
wrong, it does resignate." ("resonate"?!)
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"I believe a military of high morale is conducive to keeping the peace..."
not the worst but...
"...when we find a senior who has to choose between food and medicine-that's
not our vision of America." Am I missing something? Aren't the two parts of
this statement disconnected?
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"A surplus means there'll be money left over. Otherwise, it wouldn't be called
a surplus."
-- Kalamazoo, MI 10/27/2000 - Jack
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If we are going to save a generation of young people, our children must know
they will face bad consequences for criminal behavior. Sadly, too many youths
are not getting that message. Our juvenile justice system must say to our
children: We love you, but we are going to hold you accountable for your
actions. --Bush campaign literature.
(Mr. Dubya: should you be held accountable for your youthful indiscretions
when you were a 30 year old "child"?!)
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"I'm not going to talk about what I did as a child. What I am going to talk
about -- and I am going to say this consistently -- [is that] it is irrelevant
what I did 20 to 30 years ago. What's relevant is that I have learned from any
mistakes I made. I do not want to send signals to anybody that what Gov. Bush
did 30 years ago is cool to try."
--Gov. Bush in an interview with WMUR-TV in New Hampshire, when asked if he had
used "drugs, marijuana, cocaine"
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"I don't want nations feeling like that they can bully
ourselves and our allies. I want to have a ballistic defense
system so that we can make the world more peaceful, and at
the same time I want to reduce our own nuclear capacities to
the level commiserate with keeping the peace."
—Des Moines, Iowa, Oct. 23, 2000
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"Families is where our nation finds hope, where wings take
dream."
—LaCrosse, Wis., Oct. 18, 2000
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"If I'm the president, we're going to have emergency-room care,
we're going to have gag orders."
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"Drug therapies are replacing a lot of medicines as we used to
know it."
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"It's one thing about insurance, that's a Washington term."
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"I think we ought to raise the age at which juveniles can have a
gun."
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"Mr. Vice President, in all due respect, it is—I'm not sure 80
percent of the people get the death tax. I know this: 100 percent
will get it if I'm the president."
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"Quotas are bad for America. It's not the way America is all
about."
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"If affirmative action means what I just described, what I'm for,
then I'm for it."
—St. Louis, Mo., October 18, 2000
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"Our priorities is our faith."
—Greensboro, N.C., Oct. 10, 2000
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"I mean, there needs to be a wholesale effort against racial
profiling, which is illiterate children."
—Second presidential debate, Oct. 11, 2000 (Thanks to Leonard Williams.)
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"It's going to require numerous IRA agents."
—On Gore's tax plan, Greensboro, N.C., Oct. 10, 2000
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"I think if you know what you believe, it makes it a lot easier to
answer questions. I can't answer your question."
—In response to a question about whether he wished he could take back any of
his answers in the
first debate. Reynoldsburg, Ohio, Oct. 4, 2000 (Thanks to Peter Feld.)
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"I would have my secretary of treasury be in touch with the
financial centers, not only here but at home."
—Boston, Oct. 3, 2000 (Thanks to M. Bateman.)
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While speaking about KIPP Academy in Houston, Texas during the debate
last night, would-be president Bush said:
"It's a school full of so-called at-risk children. It's how we,
unfortunately, label certain children. It means basically they
can't learn. ... It's one of the best schools in Houston."
So he thinks that "at-risk" means "can't learn?" And that one of the
best schools in Houston is filled with students that can't learn? What an
idiot. (Thanks Derek Brandon)
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... I've been talking to Vicente Fox, the new president of Mexico... I know
him... to have gas and oil sent to U.S.... so we'll not depend on foreign
oil...
-- on the first Presidential debate, 10/03/2000
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"I know the human being and fish can coexist peacefully."
—Saginaw, Mich., Sept. 29, 2000
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"I will have a foreign-handed foreign policy."
—Redwood, Calif., Sept. 27, 2000
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"One of the common denominators I have found is that expectations
rise above that which is expected." --Los Angeles, Sept. 27, 2000
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"...more and more of our imports are coming from overseas."
-- On NPR's Morning Edition (9/26) - (Thanks Paul ...)
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Larry King: "What do people misunderstand about you most"
George Walker Bush: "That I'm running on my dad's name... (!?!)
I'm proud of my dad... I reconciled my love for my dad a long time ago"
-- What the heck is he talking about? (Thanks Dave...)
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"Well, that's going to be up to the pundits and the people to make
up their mind. I'll tell you what is a president for him, for example,
talking about my record in the state of Texas. I mean, he's willing
to say anything in order to convince people that I haven't had a
good record in Texas."
--MSNBC, Sept. 20, 2000 (Thanks to Gregory H. Monberg.)
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"I am aperson who recognizes the fallacy of humans...,"
apparently meaning fallibility."
--from "Bush courts women in cozy 'Oprah' visit" by William Goldshclag
printed in the New York City edition of the Daily News, September 20, 2000,
page 5 (Thanks Michael...)
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"A tax cut is really one of the anecdotes to coming out of an
economic illness."-- The Edge With Paula Zahn, Sept. 18, 2000
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"The woman who knew that I had dyslexia--I never interviewed her."
--Orange, Calif., Sept. 15, 2000
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"The best way to relieve families from time is to let them keep some
of their own money." —Westminster, Calif., Sept.13, 2000
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"They have miscalculated me as a leader." —Ibid.
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"...I don't need to be subliminabable.." Orlando, FL, Sept. 12 -- when caught
using subliminal technique in his dirty ads against Gore... (read more)
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"This is what I'm good at. I like meeting people, my fellow citizens, I like
interfacing with them."—Outside Pittsburgh, Sept. 8, 2000
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"That's Washington. That's the place where you find people getting ready to
jump out of the foxholes before the first shot is fired."
—Westland, Mich., Sept. 8, 2000
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"Listen, Al Gore is a very tough opponent. He is the incumbent. He represents
the incumbency. And a challenger is somebody who generally comes from the pack
and wins, if you're going to win. And that's where I'm coming from."
—Detroit, Sept. 7, 2000 (Thanks to Michael Butler, Houston, Texas.)
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"We'll let our friends be the peacekeepers and the great country called America
will be the pacemakers."—Houston,Texas, Sept. 6, 2000
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"We don't believe in planners and deciders making the decisions on behalf of
Americans."—Scranton, Pa., Sept. 6, 2000
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"I regret that a private comment I made to the vice presidential candidate made
it through the public airways." —Allentown, Pa., Sept. 5, 2000.
Is he regreting what he said? Oh, no... he's regreting that we heard...
who is an asshole? (Bush's list of assholes must be very loooong...)
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"The point is, this is a way to help inoculate me about what has come and is
coming."
--on his anti-Gore ad, in an interview with the New York Times, Sept. 2, 2000
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"As governor of Texas, I have set high standards for our public
schools, and I have met those standards."
--CNN online chat, Aug.30, 2000 (what are ya' laughin at?)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
"Well, I think if you say you're going to do something and don't do
it, that's trustworthiness."--Ibid.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
- "exemplarary"...
-- On 60 Minutes, 09/10/2000, after a rather interesting "expose" of the Texas
schools and
the terrified kids waiting to take the TAAS (?) test... I wonder what his SAT's
were? The debates will most certainly win an Emmy for best comedy series.-
Frank
(Thanks Frank)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
The Texas governor, who spoke passionately of the need for
"plain-spoken Americans in the White House," tried to appear more
Southern gentleman than good-ol' boy as he and running mate Dick
Cheney shook hands with supporters at Naperville North High School
before cantering among the crowd at the city's Last Fling 2000
parade.
But "plain-spoken" took on quite an ironic meaning just before
Bush addressed the estimated 7,500 people who gathered in and
about the makeshift outdoor arena south of the high school.
A live microphone picked up an aside in which Bush described a
New York Times reporter who had written critically of his campaign as
"a major-league ass hole." The microphone also recorded Cheney's
rejoinder of "Oh yeah, he is, big time."
The disparaging words could not be heard by most observers over
the spirited playing of a marching band and the earsplitting roar of
the crowd. Cheney later refused to discuss the incident, saying
only that Bush "made a private comment to me."
...sounds very "presidential".. ---Naperville Sun - 09/06/00 - Thanks Chris
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
"I don't know whether I'm going to win or not. I think I am. I do know I'm
ready for the job. And, if not, that's just the way it goes."
—Des Moines, Iowa, Aug. 21, 2000
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
"We cannot let terriers* and rogue nations hold this nation hostile
(hostage) or hold our allies hostile.''
—Ibid. *Thanks for the correction, Phyllis (09/09/00)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
"No matter what anyone says, George can read
a Teleprompter. Thus, he showed that he has all
of the capabilities necessary to be an American
president in the Information Age."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
On His Tax Break Plan Bush said that
"if most of the breaks go to wealthy people it's because
'most of the people who pay taxes are wealthy."
Extracted from the Internet - shocked? me too but not surprised
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
"The American people wants a president that
appeals to the angels..."
Bush in his speech during the GOP convention.
Aug/2000
Does he really believe that it is him ?...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
"This case has had full analyzation and has been looked at a lot.
I understand the emotionality of death penalty cases."
--Seattle Post-Intelligencer,
June 23, 2000 (Thanks to Johnny Green.)
BACK TO
"NEW QUOTES"
(BUSHISMS)
"Son, I love your strategy: Don't let them get to know you."
— Barbara Bush
(note: extracted from the internet. We cannot guarantee it is legitimate, but
it's funny anyway)
-Some Nostalgia - Bushisms senior:
"We're enjoying sluggish times, and not enjoying them very much."
- President Bush, 1/2/92.
Krishnacharya1
"I want to thank my friend, Sen. Bill Frist, for joining us today. … He
married a Texas girl, I want you to know. (Laughter.) Karyn is with us. A West
Texas girl, just like me."—Nashville, Tenn., May 27, 2004
Krishnacharya1
The Complete Bushisms
Updated frequently.
By Jacob Weisberg
Updated Thursday, Aug. 5, 2004, at 12:50 PM PT
"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop
thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do
we."—Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004 (Thanks to Alicia Butler.)
Advertisement
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George W. Bushisms Calendar
It's not easy being the leader of the free world. Sometimes, the pressure is so
intense that such verbal gaffes as "I understand small business growth. I was
one" or "More and more of our imports come from overseas" come spilling out
faster than a pre...
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http://slate.msn.com/id/76886
"And I am an optimistic person. I guess if you want to try to find something to
be pessimistic about, you can find it, no matter how hard you look, you
know?"—Washington, D.C., June 15, 2004 (Thanks to Robert Irwin.)
Krishnacharya1
Krishnacharya1
Krishnacharya1
"I can't hear you because I can't see." - G.W. Bush from Journeys With George
GeirSmith
GeirSmith
"If you don't stand for anything, you don't standfor anything!"
Gov. George W. Bush said to a packed rally at Bellevue Community College on
Tuesday night.
--Thanks, Michael.
GeirSmith
GeirSmith
GeirSmith
GeirSmith
The US sparks a new arms race
The US is pushing ahead with its missile defense program, which looks set to
provoke a new arms race -- and Britain is closely involved
By Richard Norton-Taylor
THE GUARDIAN , London
Monday, Aug 09, 2004,Page 9
Scarcely noticed, the US last month deployed its first ground-based missile
interceptor at Fort Greely in Alaska. It was a significant step in the Bush
administration's ambitious and hugely expensive missile defense system -- a
project the Blair administration in the UK says it supports but one that, in
the view of its many critics, will provoke a new arms race leading to the
weaponization of space, a true "son of star wars" with profound implications
for the rest of the world.
Deployment of the interceptor "marks the end of an era where we have not been
able to defend our country against long-range ballistic missile attacks," said
Major General John Holly, program director for the Ground-Based Midcourse
defense system.
This has nothing to do with terrorists, repeatedly described by US President
George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair as the greatest threat to
the west. The al-Qaeda network of terrorists may want to get their hands on
biological or chemical weapons, or a dirty bomb, but they are unlikely to be
able to launch a long-range intercontinental ballistic against the US, or
anywhere else.
`Bush wants to spend US$10 billion on missile defense next year, an increase of
nearly US$1 billion over this year's expenditure on the system. '
"This extraordinary emphasis on missile defense represents misplaced
priorities," says the US Union of Concerned Scientists.
"The administration's top priority should instead be combating the threat of
nuclear terrorism," the union says.
Up to five more interceptors are due to be deployed at Fort Greely by the end
of this year. By the end of next year, the US plan is to deploy 10 ship-based
intermediate-range interceptors, a sea-based tracking radar and an upgraded
radar at Fylingdales in Yorkshire, in the north of England.
Bush wants to spend US$10 billion on missile defense next year, an increase of
nearly US$1 billion over this year's expenditure on the system. His request has
yet to be agreed to by Congress, where there is a growing belief that the whole
project is ideologically driven, a belief fueled by widespread skepticism among
Pentagon officials that it will work. That skepticism is not shared by their
boss, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, an enthusiastic supporter.
Rumsfeld is also a driving force behind US plans for weapons in space, the next
step in the US' still-limited missile defense program. He has talked about a
threat from a "space Pearl Harbor."
As little-noticed as the missile deployment at Fort Greely, his Missile defense
Agency has now earmarked nearly US$70 million for Nfire -- the acronym for the
near field infrared experiment.
This project, due to have been launched this year but delayed because of
rumblings in Congress, involves a series of test satellites in low-Earth orbit
carrying infrared sensors. Initially, the idea is to enable the US military to
distinguish between the rocket plume, or exhaust, of a missile fired by a
potential enemy and the missile itself. But the system is also designed to
carry a "kinetic kill-vehicle" that will intercept a missile after it has been
tracked.
Nfire will in effect be the first space weapon. That is the warning in Fighting
for Space, a paper written by the Yorkshire Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament
(CND) to be published later this month. While Nfire is "being marketed as a
defensive system playing a part in the missile defense infrastructure, it could
also be effectively deployed as an anti-satellite weapon able to destroy the
space assets of other countries," it says.
It quotes a recent interview with an anonymous senior US government official
who stated: "We're crossing the Rubicon into space weaponization." Or as the US
Space Command noted last year: "We cannot fully exploit space until we control
it."
CND comments that, "given the widespread concerns that missile defense won't
work effectively, the statements by the US administration and military about
controlling space and the asat [anti-satellite] capabilities of the missile
defense system, it is no wonder that many states and individuals believe the
system is being developed primarily for offense rather than defense."
Russia has already developed a basic asat system. The Pentagon has expressed
concern that China will be capable of launching asat weapons in two to six
years. There are international agreements governing space, notably the 1967
outer space treaty. But these ban only "weapons of mass destruction'' --
nuclear, chemical and biological weapons. They would not prohibit the kind of
satellite wars now in prospect.
Washington, meanwhile, is determined to push ahead with its missile defense
project, with the help of its allies, old and new.
The British American Security Information Council notes that last month during
a visit to the UN, Australian Defense Minister Robert Hill said that Australia
planned to help the US develop a missile defense system, although it "faces no
current threat from ballistic missiles."
The US was last month reported to be negotiating with Poland and the Czech
Republic over its missile defense program and the location of the largest
missile defense site outside the US. The US also says it wants Japan to jointly
develop equipment for missile defense systems.
In Britain, there is little or no debate, although the expanding US satellite
ground station at Menwith Hill in Yorkshire, England, will play a key part,
along with Fylingdales. Earlier this year, British Defense Secretary Geoff Hoon
told Lindis Percy, the veteran campaigner against US bases in Britain: "We are
keen to see how the US system evolves ... The agreement to the upgrade at
Fylingdales and the close links between UK and US industry will give us close
access to, and involvement in, the US missile defense program."
It is for members of the British parliament to pick up the cudgel. Hoon's
senior military advisers are deeply concerned about the US's missile defense
project and what it could lead to. The issues are far too important for
decisions to be allowed to go by default.
This story has been viewed 91 times.
Copyright © 1999-2004 The Taipei Times. All rights reserved.
Krishnacharya1
"You fucking son of a bitch. I saw what you wrote. We're not going to forget
this." (TYPICAL OF RIGHT WING, MAFIA OR KKK!)
Krishnacharya1
about -- and I am going to say this consistently -- [is that] it is irrelevant
what I did 20 to 30 years ago. What's relevant is that I have learned from any
mistakes I made. I do not want to send signals to anybody that what Gov. Bush
did 30 years ago is cool to try."
--Gov. Bush in an interview with WMUR-TV in New Hampshire, when asked if he had
used "drugs, marijuana, cocaine"
Krishnacharya1
ourselves and our allies. I want to have a ballistic defense
system so that we can make the world more peaceful, and at
the same time I want to reduce our own nuclear capacities to
the level commiserate with keeping the peace."
—Des Moines, Iowa, Oct. 23, 2000
Krishnacharya1
gun."
Krishnacharya1
about."
Krishnacharya1
Krishnacharya1
http://www.bushisms.com/index1a.html#Top
Krishnacharya1
answer questions. I can't answer your question."
—In response to a question about whether he wished he could take back any of
his answers in the
first debate. Reynoldsburg, Ohio, Oct. 4, 2000 (Thanks to Peter Feld.)
Krishnacharya1
"This has been tough weeks in that country."—Washington, D.C., April 13, 2004
(Thanks to David Huddleston.)
Krishnacharya1
bushisms The president's accidental wit and wisdom.
The Complete Bushisms
Updated frequently.
By Jacob Weisberg
Updated Thursday, Aug. 5, 2004, at 12:50 PM PT
"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop
thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do
we."—Washington, D.C., Aug. 5, 2004 (Thanks to Alicia Butler.)
Advertisement
The Deluxe Election-Edition Bushisms: The First Te - Weisberg, Jacob
Amazon.com $10.36
Walmart.com $9.32
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More Political
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Overstock.com $9.95
Amazon.com See store
eBay.com $7.18
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George W. Bushisms Calendar
It's not easy being the leader of the free world. Sometimes, the pressure is so
intense that such verbal gaffes as "I understand small business growth. I was
one" or "More and more of our imports come from overseas" come spilling out
faster than a pre...
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"And I am an optimistic person. I guess if you want to try to find something to
be pessimistic about, you can find it, no matter how hard you look, you
know?"—Washington, D.C., June 15, 2004 (Thanks to Robert Irwin.)
"[A] free Iraq is essential to our respective securities."—Washington, D.C.,
June 1, 2004
"I want to thank my friend, Sen. Bill Frist, for joining us today. … He
married a Texas girl, I want you to know. (Laughter.) Karyn is with us. A West
Texas girl, just like me."—Nashville, Tenn., May 27, 2004
"I'm honored to shake the hand of a brave Iraqi citizen who had his hand cut
off by Saddam Hussein."—Washington, D.C., May 25, 2004
"This has been tough weeks in that country."—Washington, D.C., April 13, 2004
(Thanks to David Huddleston.)
Continue Article
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
"[B]y the way, we rank 10th amongst the industrialized world in broadband
technology and its availability. That's not good enough for America. Tenth is
10 spots too low as far as I'm concerned."—Minneapolis, Minn., April 26, 2004
Krishnacharya1
Krishnacharya1
"God loves you, and I love you. And you can count on both of us as a powerful
message that people who wonder about their future can hear."—Los Angeles,
Calif., March 3, 2004 (Thanks to Tanny Bear.)
Krishnacharya1
investment. See, if you're a small business owner or a large business owner and
you're thinking about investing, you've got to be optimistic when you invest.
Except when you're marching to war, it's not a very optimistic thought, is it?
In other words, it's the opposite of optimistic when you're thinking you're
going to war." —Springfield, Mo., Feb. 9, 2004 (Thanks to Garry Trudeau.)
Krishnacharya1
"See, one of the interesting things in the Oval Office—I love to bring people
into the Oval Office—right around the corner from here—and say, this is
where I office, but I want you to know the office is always bigger than the
person."—Washington, D.C., Jan. 29, 2004 (Thanks to Michael Shively.)
Krishnacharya1
"More Muslims have died at the hands of killers than—I say more Muslims—a
lot of Muslims have died—I don't know the exact count—at Istanbul. Look at
these different places around the world where there's been tremendous death and
destruction because killers kill."—Washington, D.C., Jan. 29, 2004 (Thanks to
Michael Shively.)
SoBe
"Krishnacharya1" <krishna...@aol.com> wrote in message
news:20040807085025...@mb-m10.aol.com...
>
> From: Ananda (chi...@NOSPAM.singnet.com.sg)
> Subject: Bush....Blooper!
>
> Bush, when he spoke about terrorists-:
>
> "They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our
> people, and neither do we."
>
>
KRISHNACHARYA IS PUUUUUUTTTTTTOOOOOOOOOOO
DOWN WITH KRISHNACHARYA!!!!!!!
BUSH BUSH BUSH BUSH BUSH BUSH BUSH BUSH
AAAAAAAAARRRRRIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVVVVVVVVVVAAAAAAAAAAAA
Kalachakrapa
http://66.102.11.104/search?q=cache:SCKq2ZvRXPMJ:www.organicconsumers.org/
corp/bovetrial.cfm+Jose+Bove+Millau+McDonald%27s&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
Jose Bove destroyed a McDonald's in Millau, France and went to prison for it !
He wants to push back US cultural influence wherever and however it shows up.
Bush and Harry Potter are examples of the Anglo-Saxon hegemony on world culture
that all the other cultures reject totally. Anglo-Saxons are after all,
basically, just the island cultures of the English Isles (along with the Saxons
from Saxe - North Germany) and got power through fighting continental Germany.
But that's over now and it's for Anglo-Saxons that the bells toll. Get used to
it, morons. Island bozos.
Kalachakrapa
Harry Potter and the International Order of Copyright
Should Tanya Grotter and the Magic Double Bass be banned?
By Tim Wu
Posted Friday, June 27, 2003, at 9:42 AM PT
If you're a serious Harry Potter fan, you finished The Order of the Phoenix
over the weekend and are already impatient for the sixth book. While you wait
(and wait) for it, how about trying some of the international versions of
Potter? In China last year, it was easy to buy the unusual Potter sequel Harry
Potter and Leopard-Walk-Up-to-Dragon, in which Harry encountered sweet and sour
rain, became a hairy troll, and joined Gandalf to re-enact scenes from The
Hobbit. The book, while credited to J.K. Rowling, wasn't authorized or written
by her, but that didn't prevent it from selling like butterbeer.
Meanwhile, in Russia, you can still meet Harry's Slavic twin: "Tanya Grotter,"
star of Tanya Grotter and the Magic Double Bass. Tanya rides a double bass,
sports a mole instead of a bolt of lightning, and attends the Tibidokhs School
of Magic. In an interview with journalist Steve Gutterman, author Dmitry Yemets
called her "a sort of Russian answer to Harry Potter," and described his books
as "cultural competition" for the original. Grotter is a hit: Yemets has
already sold more than 1 million copies. And next door in Belarus you'll find
Porri Gatter and the Stone Philosopher. In something of a departure, Harry's
Belarussian clone wields a grenade launcher and re-fights the White Russian
wars.
You're unlikely to be able to get your hands on any of these works, since J.K.
Rowling and her publisher have launched an aggressive worldwide legal campaign
against the unauthorized Potter takeoffs. It began last year when Rowling and
Time-Warner threatened the publishers of Chinese Potter, who agreed to stop
publication. On April 4 of this year, Rowling persuaded a Dutch court to block
the import of Tanya Grotter to Holland. Harry Potter in Calcutta, in which
Harry meets up with various characters from Bengali literature, was recently
pulled by its Indian publisher under threat. Potter takeoffs have become
international contraband.
Kalachakrapa
world and has nowhere to run to now :
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2002/07/05/harry-potter-china.htm
"In a bizarre touch, the book is dedicated to the owner of a house in
Edinburgh, Scotland, where Rowling lives and to the owner's 3-year-old
granddaughter."
Fake Harry Potter book released in China
By Greg Baker/AP
The cover of the fake Harry Potter book written and released in China.
BEIJING (AP) — Roll away, "Sorcerer's Stone"! Step aside, "Prisoner of
Azkaban"! Harry Potter and Leopard-Walk-Up-To-Dragon are here!
Chinese fans of the British boy wizard with the lightning-bolt scar on his
forehead are snapping up the fifth book in the wildly popular series.
There's just one problem. It's fake — written by a Chinese author for a
Chinese audience.
The 198-page book — titled "Harry Potter and Leopard-Walk-Up-To-Dragon" after
its mysterious villain — has the name and bio of British author J.K. Rowling
on its cover. But the tale in which Harry turns into a hairy dwarf after a
"sour-sweet rain" is the unauthorized work of an anonymous author.
"We have not found who wrote the book or where they come from," said Zhang
Deguang of the People's Literature Publishing House, which has the series'
publishing rights in China. "It's made a negative impact on our book sales."
Rowling is at work on the real fifth installment, which is not expected to be
finished this year.
Rowling's agent, the Christopher Little Literary Agency in London, said it was
aware of the fake Chinese Harry. A spokeswoman who asked not to be identified
refused to comment by telephone, but sent The Associated Press an e-mail
saying, "We are taking this issue extremely seriously."
It was unclear what punishment the fake author could face, given the uniqueness
of the situation. However, China's government has promised repeatedly to crack
down on counterfeiters and intellectual property theft. Still, flocks of
hawkers selling fake DVDs were plying their trade unpunished Friday in central
Beijing, in full view of police.
Harry Potter — "Ha-li Bo-te" in Mandarin — has had authorized translations
into 18 languages.
A movie made from the first book, "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone,"
ranked No. 7 on the all-time box office list in the United States, taking in
$317 million. In China, unauthorized copies were being sold by DVD peddlers on
the street four days after it opened in the United States and Britain.
Publication in 2000 of the genuine Harry Potter — a boxed set of the four
books to date — was a major literary event in China.
A team of four translators, veterans who had rendered "Alice in Wonderland" and
"Tom Sawyer" into Chinese, drew on China's own tales of ghosts, magic and kung
fu for language to portray Harry's world of sorcery.
The first printing was 600,000 copies, which the publisher said was the biggest
of its kind ever in China for a commercial work.
Zhang said the People's Literature Publishing House has found copies of the
unauthorized Harry in wholesale markets and private bookstores throughout
Beijing.
One unidentified bookseller told The Beijing Youth Daily that nine out of her
10 copies were sold in a matter of days.
Most booksellers visited by reporters on Friday denied having copies. They said
police threatened to fine them 10 times the $2.80 price if any copies were
found.
"The fifth one hasn't been published!" yelled one merchant at a wholesale
warehouse.
A shopkeeper in western Beijing sold a copy for $1.20, pulling it from a hiding
place behind a stack of books.
The cover of "Leopard-Walk-Up-To-Dragon" shows a dark-haired, bespectacled boy
in black robes riding a satyr battling a dragon. The story centers around a
struggle between Harry and his classmates at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft
and Wizardry and a mysterious wizard.
In a bizarre touch, the book is dedicated to the owner of a house in Edinburgh,
Scotland, where Rowling lives and to the owner's 3-year-old granddaughter.
Characters well-known to fans of Rowling's series make an appearance — the
Dursleys, Harry's friends Hermione Granger and Ron Weasely and his archrival,
Draco Malfoy.
A cartoon sketch begins each chapter, as in the original. Among their quirky
names is, "The Dance of the Spider and the Fly."
For all that, true Harry Potter fans won't be fooled for long. Rowling's
imitator just doesn't have her touch. Consider the opening paragraph:
"Harry is wondering in his bath how long it will take to wash away the creamy
cake from his face. To a grown-up, handsome young man, it is disgusting to have
filthy dirt on his body. Lying in a luxurious bathtub and rubbing his face with
his hands, he thinks about Dudley's face, which is as fat as Aunt Petunia's
bottom."
Kalachakrapa
marshes of a billion Chinese, one billion Arabs and Muslims and all the rest in
Asia, reminds a bit of Napoleon's defeat at the hands of the Russians for he
was too voracious in conquest and bogged down in the marshes of Eastern Europe
on the way back.
"CHINA BANS HARRY POTTER
Harry Potter may have fought off Voldemort, but can he hold out against the
Chinese Communist Party?
At least for this summer, the answer is "No", writes Sky's Holly Williams in
Beijing.
The third instalment of Harry's celluloid adventures, "Harry Potter and the
Prisoner of Azkaban", has been effectively banned for the school holidays on
the Chinese mainland after a government decision to delay its release as part
of an official crackdown aimed at strengthening morals.
The government's morality campaign began earlier this year, and was initially
targeted at the Chinese media. Around 16,000 internet cafes have been closed
down, while remaining operations were told to deny access to minors and better
regulate their customers' access to sites deemed unsuitable by authorities.
Chinese television presenters were also ordered to clean up their act; the
government has banned them from sporting dyed hair and revealing clothing. The
intended effect, according to one official, is to "reduce the negative impact
of queer dressing and behaviour on youngsters"
http://www.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,30000-13152549,00.html .
America can't last this long and has exhausted itslef both physically and
spiritually not offering anything anymore except for reruns of itself and used
inspiration and insipidness. Cowboy idiots from the Great Plains are a
distraction just for so long but one *does* get tired of upstart comedians
whose only line is "Yippee ! Cayaydee!" Then when it turns out their religious
faith is fundamnetalism, Christian clones of Mullahs, the cultuvated cultures
of continental Europe get up and leave the theatre, commenting on the rudeness
and crudeness of these barbarous uncouth farmers. What to say of the age-old
cultures of Asia and of the mother of all cultures that of the Land between the
Two Rivers, and it's people of the ancient Achemenites ?
Ths most ancient civilized countries of the world can't tolerate the uncouth
presumption of upstart small-time conquerors who would coronate themselves with
dust, as the USA does. It is not the Lord of the World.
Kalachakrapa
Spidey 2, Harry Potter Delayed In China
Author: Michael Hinman
Date: 07-13-2004
Source: Knight Ridder
If you're in China, and looking to catch the release of huge American and
British hits like "Spider-Man 2," "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban" or
even the light-hearted comedy "Shrek 2," you're going to have to keep on
waiting.
No, there isn't a delay in the Chinese dubs and subtitling of the films. In
fact, the movies are ready to go ... the Chinese government just isn't ready to
show them.
According to government officials, there has been a breakdown of morals
recently in Chinese youth with the rise of violent crime. As part of a campaign
since March, the government has been cracking down on what is available in
movie theaters, television, and even at Internet cafes.
So, when will Chinese audiences catch these films? "Spider-Man 2" will be shown
Aug. 5, one month late. "Harry Potter" will hit the screens in October, at the
earliest.
But those aren't the only movies
snip....
Kalachakrapa
China to prevent "Harry Potter" release, other films.
Kalachakrapa
SOBE. Moron, you support your moron Anglo-Saxon, idiot tech-culture and the
pop-up start page of your's, with Cassini in the sky, is the support for the
nuclear pollution we have above our heads. There are about 6000 inactive
astellites orbiting and one thousand secret military ones among them.
Practically all are nuclear powered. Solar-power has been trumpeted about, but
not before a few years from now.... meaning all the rest.... and the past ones
are nuked ones.
http://www.stratcom.mil/factsheetshtml/reentryassessment.htm
"Since tracking began with Sputnik, more than 17,000 man-made objects the
Department of Defense tracked have re-entered the Earth's atmosphere. There are
more than 8,500 man-made objects currently orbiting the Earth. The Department
of Defense has tracked approximately 26,000 objects in its space catalog.
USSTRATCOM does not maintain data on objects once they re-enter the Earth's
atmosphere, and have no knowledge of the number of objects that might have
survived re-entry. Unless an object is actually found and returned to NASA or
any other agency, USSTRATCOM would have no knowledge of whether or not an
object survived re-entry. For example, two instances where objects have
survived reentry include:
A small piece of the Lunar Module from Apollo 5. (Catalogue # 3107,
International Designator 68-007B). It was launched on Jan. 22, 1968, and
recovered in a farmer's field in Colombia on Feb. 12, 1968.
The second object is a piece of a Soviet Gas Bottle from COSMOS 482. (Catalogue
#5921, International Designator 72-036C). It was launched on March 31, 1972,
and recovered April 2, 1972, from a farmer's field in New Zealand. Both objects
are on display in the Space Control Center in Cheyenne Mountain.
Space Surveillance
Space surveillance involves detecting, tracking, cataloging and identifying
man-made objects orbiting Earth, i.e., active/inactive satellites, spent rocket
bodies, debris, and fragments. Space surveillance accomplishes the following:
Predict when and where a decaying space object will re-enter the Earth's
atmosphere;
Prevent a returning space object, which to radar looks like a missile, from
triggering a false alarm in missile-attack warning sensors of the U.S. and
other countries;
Chart the present position of space objects and plot their anticipated orbital
paths;
Detect new man-made objects in space;
Produce a running catalog of man-made space objects;
Determine which country owns a re-entering space object;
Inform NASA whether objects may interfere with the orbits of the Space Shuttle
and the International Space Station.
Space Surveillance Network
The command accomplishes its space surveillance tasks through its Space
Surveillance Network (SSN), a worldwide network of 21 ground-based optical and
radar sensors and one space-based sensor.
The SSN has been tracking space objects since 1957 when the Soviets opened the
space age with the launch of Sputnik I. Since then, the SSN has tracked more
than 26,000 space objects orbiting Earth. The SSN currently tracks more than
8,000 man-made orbiting objects. The rest have re-entered Earth's turbulent
atmosphere and disintegrated, or survived re-entry and impacted the Earth. The
space objects now orbiting Earth range from satellites weighting several tons
to pieces of spent rocket bodies weighing only 10 pounds. About seven percent
of the space objects are operational satellites, the rest are debris.
USSTRATCOM is primarily interested in the active satellites, but also tracks
space debris. The SSN tracks space objects that are 10 centimeters in diameter
(baseball size) or larger."
Kalachakrapa : Bush's Southern families control Nasa and space from Houston and
it's all about money and power. Their Anglo-Saxon power and culture with
moron-style Harry Potter - well, the world's fed up with it's stupidness.
Rolling all you morons and your culture back to the dump you came from. Give
way to real culture and erudition because you don't have it. Long live the
forces that oppose the ignorant US-headed culture ! Whatever they may be !
Krishnacharya1
SIZE MATTERS: A Taiwanese Buddhist group planning to build the biggest Buddha
in North America in a Vancouver suburb hopes it will be awe-inspiring
AFP , Vancouver
Tuesday, Aug 10, 2004,Page 4
Bigger is better, according to a Taiwan-based religious sect planning a
10-story Buddha at a temple in a nondescript Vancouver suburb.
"The size of the Buddha and the building reflect his importance. You're
supposed to be awestruck when you look at the Buddha. Hence, the substantial
size," said project developer Kabel Atwall.
The large statue is part of a seven-year project to build a US$35 million
worship and education center, expanding an existing Lingyen Mountain Buddhist
temple fourfold. Included will be a scripture hall and library, conference
rooms and dormitories for visiting monks and other faithful. Outside, an apple
and pear orchard and a vegetable garden will spread across most of the
property.
The shiny gold-leaf Buddha sitting on a lotus leaf will be shorter than the
tallest Leshan Buddha in the world in China which stands at 67 meters, but will
be the greatest tribute to the eastern deity in North America.
"Spiritually, it will expose more people to the teachings of Buddhism and help
cement the faith in North America. Of course, there will be economic and
tourism benefits for the city too," Atwall said.
Reaction has been mostly positive so far even though the building will dwarf
surrounding housing and a dozen churches in the Vancouver suburb of Richmond.
But city development director Raul Allueva warned that sentiment could change.
"This is not a small building. We don't see buildings this size except in our
city centre. It's more than 30 meters taller than any nearby building," he
said.
During the past 15 years, dozens of churches and temples have been built in
outlying areas of Vancouver where land is cheaper and available in large
parcels. The latest generation has evolved from small local churches to
religious multiplexes.
"They don't just offer services on Sundays anymore. They have classes during
the evening, child care and community outreach programs, so they have to be
bigger and it's difficult to find space within a built-up urban area to
accommodate these bigger churches," Allueva said.
But critics fear rural development is encroaching on farm land and increasing
traffic congestion in a region flanked by mountains.
"We would like to have a world-renown complex in Richmond, but we have to
balance that with community impact," Allueva said.
The Taiwan-based Lingyen Mountain Buddhists are part of the Pureland Buddhist
sect and have 10,000 members in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia.
This story has been viewed 504 times.
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Krishnacharya1
BAD COMPANY: Chen questioned whether China was fit to host the 2008 Olympics
after soccer fans became violent amid their Asian Cup loss to Japan
By Huang Tai-lin
STAFF REPORTER
Tuesday, Aug 10, 2004,Page 4
President Chen Shui-bian (ģŊĪôŦó) yesterday questioned whether China was fit to
host the 2008 Olympic Games in view of the hostility Chinese fans displayed
toward Japan's soccer team at the Asian Cup.
"Given what happened, it seems that Beijing might not be fit to host the 2008
Olympic Games," said Chen, echoing recent remarks made by Governor of Tokyo
Shintaro Ishihara (ĨÛė·VĪÓĶ).
Chen was referring to the actions of Chinese fans during the Asian Cup football
tournament between China and Japan last Saturday in Beijing. Japan China 3-1 in
a tense final overshadowed by the fans' passionate Chinese nationalism and
anti-Japanese sentiment due to lingering resentment over Japan's military
invasion and brutal occupation of parts of China from 1931 to 1945.
Following the match, hordes of rowdy Chinese crowds burned the Japanese
national flag, broke bottles and exchanged kicks and punches with riot police
who had been deployed outside the stadium.
Chinese fans reportedly converged on the Japanese team's bus after the match,
forcing the bus to depart without two players. Japanese fans attending the
match, meanwhile, had to be escorted out of the stadium by riot police.
"These acts showed a lack of sportsmanship and democratic manner," said Chen
yesterday, while receiving a delegation of members of the opposition Democratic
Party of Japan (DPJ).
"Whether it be in sport or any other kind of competition, there are wins and
losses," Chen said.
This story has been viewed 1098 times.
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Krishnacharya1
Editorial: China is a growing menace
Tuesday, Aug 10, 2004,Page 8
A once-civilized sports competition became a "war" between China and Japan in
the 2004 Asian Cup final at the Workers' Stadium in Beijing. China's sports
fans are sore losers. They besieged the Japanese team buses, pounded a
limousine carrying a Japanese embassy official, and burned Japanese flags. This
sort of irrational behavior sets an extremely bad example and displays the
barbarity of the Chinese people, something they try so hard to hide from the
eyes of the world.
The result of the match was not the main reason for these violent emotions.
Even if there was dissatisfaction with the "hand of God" decision which gave
Japan its second goal, Japan's victory is undisputed. The real reason for the
riots is the historical hatred caused by the Sino-Japanese War 60 years ago.
This hatred has been manipulated by Chinese officials and the media under their
control to periodically rouse Chinese nationalism and anti-Japanese sentiment.
Now, that same hatred has made Chinese fans incapable of accepting the loss of
the Asian Cup to Japan.
Now Japan has some idea of the hostility that China is capable of -- a
hostility of which Taiwan has borne the brunt for over half a century. China
has insisted that Taiwan is a part of its territory and continues to increase
its verbal and military threats against this country. This country has shown
nothing but goodwill in return -- not challenging the "one China" principle,
but allowing Taiwanese businessmen to invest in China and trying to establish
the three links across the Strait as soon as possible.
China, on the other hand, not only sneers at this, but continues to insist that
Taiwan belongs to China. It has set out a timetable for attack, threatening to
mobilize its troops if Taiwan continues to postpone unification.
In fact, when it comes to China's wider ambitions for power, the football riots
in Beijing are merely the tip of the iceberg. Following Singapore Deputy Prime
Minister Lee Hsien Loong's (§õÅãÀs) visit to Taiwan, Beijing immediately
penalized Singapore, virtually suspending all official relations and postponed
free trade negotiations. Singapore's leaders have always enjoyed good relations
with Beijing in the past, and even notified Beijing prior to the visit.
Regardless, they were not to be spared.
China is currently mobilizing its academics and media to promote the
"northeastern development project," which aims at claiming what used to be the
kingdom of Koguryo as its own. The South Korean foreign ministry has strongly
protested this distortion of history, pointing out that Koguryo is intimately
connected with the origin of the Korean people and is of the utmost importance
to the Korean sense of identity. They have requested that China change its
position on the issue, but Beijing has pushed responsibility for this down to
regional governments and has refused South Korea's requests. China is creating
a historical construct to substantiate claims to sovereignty over the Korean
Peninsula that it may some day seek to realize. This is the ultimate aim of the
"northeastern development project."
China's actions in the South China Sea have also led to anxiety among southeast
Asian nations. Apart from its arms buildup, it has led the movement towards an
ASEAN ten-plus-three alliance. China is increasing its influence through
southeast Asia and the Pacific to counteract US influence there. The Pacific
Ocean is already the front line in a "Cold War" between China and the US.
China has been vigorously promoting the theory of "peaceful rising." But it is
plagued by nationalism and internal political struggles. Moreover, it lacks the
self restraint of a nation that claims to be part of the international
community. Not only does it fail to present an impression of a peaceful rising,
it also convinces everyone that China is a threat.
This story has been viewed 1132 times.
Copyright © 1999-2004 The Taipei Times. All rights reserved.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/edit/archives/2004/08/10/2003198193
Krishnacharya1
By Southern Taiwan Society and Union of Taiwan Teachers
Tuesday, Aug 10, 2004,Page 8
Chairman of the Mainland Affairs Council Joseph Wu (§d°xĀč), recently said
that: "In order to promote cross-strait cultural and educational exchanges, the
council will talk with the Ministry of Education (MOE) and related bodies about
the idea of allowing Chinese students to study in Taiwan." The first step, he
added, is to approve the enrollment of Chinese students in Taiwanese
universities.
What kind of cultural and educational exchanges does Taiwan need to promote
with China? Chinese history and literature make up a large proportion of our
education system, starting from elementary schools and continue right up
through to university.A plan to establish a graduate institute in Taiwanese
history and a department of Taiwanese literature at National Cheng Kung and
National Sun Yat-sen universities was rejected by pro-unification Mainlander
professors on those campuses. In contrast, China understands Taiwan very well
and the amount of Chinese publications in the history of Taiwanese literature
surpasses our own at least five fold. Taiwan's university departments which
carry Taiwanese literature even go so far as to use Chinese text books on the
history of Taiwanese literature.
For the purpose of "understanding Taiwan," China's Xiamen University has
expanded its Institute of Taiwan Studies (now called the College of Taiwan
Studies) and is now subdivided into five institutes: Taiwanese politics,
economics, history, literature, and cross-strait relations. Politicians here
may not realize their political networks, interpersonal communications and
social relationship are of interest to Chinese researchers. China even conducts
"studies" into the daily travel habits of all Taiwan's military officers with
the rank of colonel and above.
With this kind of interconnection of culture, and education, why bother with
any further plan to "increase cross-strait cultural and educational exchanges?"
In recent years, there has been a substantial migration of Taiwanese students
to China, and many Taiwanese professors have also been eager to teach in China.
Thus, voices calling for the recognition of Chinese university diplomas are
becoming louder, so the reason why the MOE has opened the doors to Chinese
students is clear. With such a trend already occurring, why would Wu still want
to pave the way for recognizing diplomas granted by Chinese universities?
When former president Lee Teng-hui (§õĩn―ũ) proposed the "special
state-to-state" dictum, students in Chinese universities were exasperated by
it. One Chinese newspaper headline read: "Our missiles can now target Lee
Teng-hui's office desk." Two years ago, President Chen Shui-bian (ģŊĪôŦó) once
again asserted that there is "one country on either side" of the Taiwan Strait,
and as a consequence, threatening, anti-Taiwan slogans became commonplace on
Chinese Web sites. Many Taiwanese students, when talking with their Chinese
counterparts overseas, often hear statements like "Taiwan has long been a part
of China" and say many of them believe Taiwan and China must be "reunited."
After the Tiananmen Square Massacre, many Chinese officials believed that
"safeguarding national integrity" would best be served by restoring military
training courses in college, middle schools, and even elementary schools. While
receiving this kind of training in the past, the young had to wear military
uniforms, sing songs about the People's Liberation Army and adorn themselves
with red scarves to signify fresh blood of China's revolutionary heros -- all
to pay homage to the Chinese Communist Party.
The offspring of Taiwanese business people living in China would therefore be
required to receive this kind of training. University undergraduate, graduate,
and doctoral students in China are already required to study Marxism, the
philosophy of Deng Xiaoping (ūHĪpĨ) and many other political courses and
eventually come to believe that Taiwan be reunited with China.
Many conservative university presidents here think there is no need for the MOE
to insist on the principle of "bilateral equality and dignity." They also think
it harmless to withdraw the word, "national," from a university's title in
order to gain favor with Chinese universities. The notion that achieving a
"consensus" on cross-strait exchange issues will eliminate the need for formal
independence is taken for granted by Taiwanese university presidents.
Thus, Wu will be applauded by the Chinese government and Chinese living in
Taiwan if he grants Chinese students permiss-ion to attend university here.
Slowly, and in small increments, government policy is taking us down a path
headed to de facto unification. Because our economy is relatively small, it is
necessary to boost our tourist industry by getting the Chinese to visit Taiwan.
A low birth rate has resulted in an insufficient enrollment rate in the
nation's 60 universities and many think we need to start attracting some of the
8 million Chinese students here to fill the gap. All of these steps will put us
on a slippery slope that will lead to reunification.
The Southern Taiwan Society is an organization that promotes formal sovereignty
for Taiwan. The Union of Taiwanese Teachers is a group which seeks to foster
independent thinking and judgement.
TRANSLATED BY LIN YA-TI
This story has been viewed 504 times.
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http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/edit/archives/2004/08/10/2003198196
Krishnacharya1
By Paul LinŞL«OµŘ
Tuesday, Aug 10, 2004,Page 8
Preparations for the US presidential election in November have entered an
intense stage. The Democratic Party has held its convention in Boston. Next
comes the Republican Party convention in New York.
Ethnic Chinese on both sides of the Taiwan Strait and around the world are
focusing on the two presidential candidates' cross-strait policies.
The Republican Party is already in power, and if Bush is re-elected, my guess
is there won't be any major changes. But the Democratic Party's relationship
with the Chinese government has always been better than that of the
Republicans. In one of his campaign statements, Democratic Party presidential
candidate John Kerry said that the "one country, two systems" model could be
used to resolve the cross-strait relationship.
Furthermore, the section of the Democratic Party's election platform dealing
with the Strait mentions the "one China" policy and "improved relations with
China," but not the Taiwan Relations Act. Does this mean that there will be
bigger policy changes if Kerry is elected? Although an addition has been made
to the party's platform saying that a peaceful solution to the Strait issue
must meet the interests of the people of Taiwan, the US and Taiwan may have
different views of what those interests are. For the US, they may include the
option to achieve peace through Taiwan's surrender.
Although the cross-strait policy of Kerry and his foreign policy team is
ambiguous, some commentators have said that there are no great differences
between Democrats and Republicans when it comes to protecting Taiwan. When
China was lobbing missiles over the country during the 1996 presidential
election, then-president Bill Clinton sent an aircraft carrier to the Strait to
deter China. There have also been reports that the ethnic Chinese
Representative David Wu, a Democrat who is very friendly towards Taiwan, sent a
telegram to Kerry asking him about his "one country, two systems" statement.
Kerry reportedly responded that it was a slip of the tongue.
But such "ambiguities" or "mistakes" could conceivably lead to China
misinterpreting the situation and taking rash action, thereby destroying peace
and stability in the Strait.
What's more, the past political attitudes of some important Democratic
politicians are also cause for worry. First, Richard Holbrooke, a former US
ambassador to the UN, is one of Kerry's likely picks for secretary of state.
Around the time when the US severed diplomatic ties with Taiwan, he was
assistant secretary of state for southeast Asia. Two years ago, with the
support of former US ambassador to China J. Stapleton Roy, among others,
Holbrooke strongly advocated that the US sign a fourth Sino-US communique with
China. Holbrooke now believes that with the Cold War over, China is less of a
threat to the free world than was the Soviet Union. But if one understands that
the US was led into a trap in each of the three previous communiques, one can
see that the fourth communique might be even more damaging to Taiwan.
Second, another former ambassador to China, James Sasser, is even more
pro-China than Roy. He was on several occasions invited to the home of former
Chinese president Jiang Zemin (¦żżAĄÁ). Some US media are fond of saying that,
rather than being the US' ambassador to China, he was China's ambassador to the
US.
When the US mistakenly bombed the Chinese embassy in Belgrade in 1999, the
Chinese government instigated violent student protests outside the US embassy
and consulates. Sasser probably didn't expect such treatment after having done
everything he could to help China. Neither Republicans nor Democrats have made
cross-strait policy the focus of their respective election campaigns. But a
review of previous elections shows that Ronald Reagan criticized Jimmy Carter
for severing diplomatic ties with Taiwan, that Clinton accused Beijing of being
a dictatorship, while George W. Bush criticized Clinton for being too soft on
Beijing.
Perhaps it is no coincidence that all three won the election -- voters think
American values are important, and do not just look to short term benefits.
Both the Republican and Democratic parties see anti-terrorism as the top
foreign policy priority. The US should remain on its guard against the Chinese
government -- given Beijing's murky relationships with international
terrorists, and its view of the US as a potential enemy.
The Democratic Party should be more supportive of liberalism than the
Republican Party, and it should not neglect China's deteriorating human rights
record and rapidly expanding military. Democrats also have a weaker
relationship with multinational corporations investing in China. Finally, the
dumping of cheap Chinese products into the domestic market hurts the interests
of US workers and small manufacturers -- which is something neither Republicans
nor Democrats can ignore.
Paul Lin is a commentator based in New York.
Translated by Perry Svensson
This story has been viewed 466 times.
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Krishnacharya1
2004/8/10
TAIPEI, Taiwan, The China Post Staff
A Kaohsiung man who recently won the grand prize of Mark Six Lottery has
donated some NT$150,000 in cash and rice to low-income families in his
neighborhood.
The lucky winner, identified only by his surname Liu, scooped some NT$2 million
with two friends after winning a recent Mark Six lottery.
He made a wish at a local temple before buying the lottery ticket that he would
donate part of the prize money to charities while seeking divine blessings.
To fulfill the promise, Liu donated rice and NT$136,000 to 68 low-income
households in the Talin section of Hsiaokang District in Kaohsiung.
The money and rice were distributed by district office workers yesterday and
some of the recipients even kissed the red envelopes filled with NT$2,000 cash
in an act of gratitude.
The temple, meanwhile, reported a sharp rise in the number of worshippers since
Liu's lucky win. But temple keepers refused to reveal any "omens" to those who
are desperate to strike a fortune in lottery.
It is not uncommon for some temple keepers in Taiwan to predict the winning
lottery numbers via their reading of incense ashes and some temples are said to
be more accurate than others.
http://www.chinapost.com.tw/detail.asp?onNews=1&GRP=A&id=24670
Krishnacharya1
it's #2 count at the box-office which dived on that day of it's carrer :
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/franchises/chart/?day=num&id=vs-harrypotter.htm
Moron Anglo-Saxon culture submerging the globe and'll get the door whack it on
the way out/ guaranteed. China's blocked it and most countries at war will
probably bomb the theaters. World culture'll bomb English-speaking culture
"back home to Chicago". Time for other than this nonsensical hogwash.
Krishnacharya1
basically, relative to costs, people are getting laid off." —George W. Bush,
Washington, D.C., Feb. 19, 2004
Krishnacharya1
February, some say March, some speculate maybe earlier it started — but
nevertheless, it happened as we showed up here. The attacks on our country
affected our economy. Corporate scandals affected the confidence of people and
therefore affected the economy. My decision on Iraq, this kind of march to war,
affected the economy." —George W. Bush, Meet the Press, Feb. 8, 2004
Krishnacharya1
Jan. 29, 2004
Krishnacharya1
SoBe/Dar came out really affectionate when George Cherry was crying like a
baby when the nuclear responsibility of Nasa in polluting our sky and raining
nuclear down on us was exposed here by me, myself. His pop-up starting-page is
Cassini's nuclear-powered photo-clichés. Well, Dar, your idealized Cassini
shots are nuclear powered and there're now about 6000 satellites up there and
95% are disabled and useless and all practically are nuclear, slowly drifting
down on nus, disentegrating and making nuclear dust in the air, which air
frifts down peacefully and goes into our lungs in invisible micro-particules.
The military satellites up there that are secret and should be about ane
thousand five hundred, have substances in them that I'd rather not know, so bad
they must be.
Krishnacharya1
"But the true strength of America is found in the hearts and souls of people
like Travis, people who are willing to love their neighbor, just like they
would like to love themselves." —George W. Bush, Springfield, Mo., Feb. 9,
2004
Krishnacharya1
"Then you wake up at the high school level and find out that the illiteracy
level of our children are appalling." —George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Jan.
23, 2004
!!!!!!! Deplorable !!!!!!!!!!! What a dubious W.
Krishnacharya1
"I was a prisoner too, but for bad reasons." —George W. Bush, to Argentine
President Nestor Kirchner, on being told that all but one of the Argentine
delegates to a summit meeting were imprisoned during the military dictatorship,
Monterrey, Mexico, Jan. 13, 2004
Krishnacharya1
"One of the most meaningful things that's happened to me since I've been the
governor — the president — governor — president. Oops. Ex-governor. I
went to Bethesda Naval Hospital to give a fellow a Purple Heart, and at the
same moment I watched him—get a Purple Heart for action in Iraq — and at
that same — right after I gave him the Purple Heart, he was sworn in as a
citizen of the United States — a Mexican citizen, now a United States
citizen." —George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Jan. 9, 2004
Krishnacharya1
an expenditure of money that is commiserate with keeping a promise to our
troops to make sure that they're well-paid, well-trained, well-equipped."
—George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Dec. 15, 2003
http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/blbushisms.htm
Moron.
Krishnacharya1
http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/blbushisms.htm
"See, without the tax relief package, there would have been a deficit, but
there wouldn't have been the commiserate — not 'commiserate' — the kick to
our economy that occurred as a result of the tax relief." —George W. Bush,
Washington, D.C., Dec. 15, 2003
Krishnacharya1
"[T]he Iraqis need to be very much involved. They were the people that was
brutalized by this man." —George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Dec. 15, 2003
Krishnacharya1
coming forth to describe the location of the hole, is to give clues and data."
Krishnacharya1
the people of Iraq." —George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Dec. 15, 2003
Krishnacharya1
http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/blbushisms.htm
"This very week in 1989, there were protests in East Berlin and in Leipzig. By
the end of that year, every communist dictatorship in Central America had
collapsed." —George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Nov. 6, 2003
Krishnacharya1
have to say." —George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Oct. 28, 2003
http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/blbushisms.htm
Krishnacharya1
Russia keeping a lid on China and putting off confrontation with it for later.
This is Taiwan's delivery from the Chinese menace because Russia is China's
*real* enemy, not the microscopic little Taiwan. The Russian Bear playing
around with the Chinese Dragon.
Krishnacharya1
near future is still an unanswered question, especially given its economic,
military and political superiority over China for the past two centuries. Will
Russia be able to stand aside as China emerges as the possible counter-balance
to the United States, or will it try to reverse that situation by somehow
checking Beijing's growing influence? These two states may yet find themselves
at odds over issues highly sensitive to both.
Krishnacharya1
"See, free nations are peaceful nations. Free nations don't attack each other.
Free nations don't develop weapons of mass destruction." —George W. Bush,
Milwaukee, Wis., Oct. 3, 2003
Careful moron, that's what the US does.
Krishnacharya1
THE TIMES OF INDIA CITY SUPPLEMENTS: AHMEDABAD TIMES POWERED BY
INDIATIMES
Potter finds the 'parasmani'!
PRERNA SHAH
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 11, 2004 07:34:38 AM ]
J K Rowling's Harry Potter dons Gujarati avatar, as Gryffindor becomes
Garuddwar and Slytherin is Nagshakti
It's hard to imagine the very 'Brit' Harry Potter, conversing fluently in apnu
Gujarati. But he is, and so is the magical motley group of characters that J K
Rowling created. For all those youngsters who found reading the magnum opus
books in English a bit daunting, Harry Potter Ane Parasmani is a dream come
true, where the Gryffindor becomes Garuddwar and Slytherin is Nagshakti .
A Gujarati translation of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone , this book has
a strong local connection. Manjul Publication House, a Bhopal-based
publication, which got the rights to translate the best seller into four
regional languages, entrusted the Gujarati translation to Vadodara-based
corporate communication and translation firm owner Jagruti Trivedi.
"I knew how much Potter means to children the world over. But now even kids who
are not fluent in English and who chose to see the film in Hindi, will read the
book," he says.
Besides, says Trivedi, Potter's world is best enjoyed when "you imagine every
line that you read. Some characters and themes have a global appeal and
children want to connect with them crossing over the language barriers."
Precisely so, says S J Panchal, former head of the department of Gujarati, M S
University, "I remember how children were excited when Alice in Wonderland was
first translated into Gujarati some 40 years ago. Even the Japanese book Totto
Chan's translation by Raman Soni was very popular. The only thing is that the
feel and atmosphere of a foreign land must not be lost." That is why,
Christopher Little, the literary agent of Rowling presented, the translator
with a list of certain words which must be used in their original form.
"To maintain the original ethos of the book, certain words like muggers,
dragon, unicorn, house cup et al haven't been changed. The challenge was not
just translation but transliteration," says Trivedi.
That's where Ahmedabad-based children's writer Harish Nayak chipped in by
editing the book. "My first draft went to him and he gave me the signal to go
ahead. This being my maiden effort in translating a popular children's' book,
it meant much to me," Nayak says.
And for Potter's young fans? "Mummy won't have to read it out to me now. I can
run through the book myself because I can connect to the magic world in my
mother tongue -- the dungeons are bhonyaru, herbology is jadibootiyon ka gyan
," says an excited Yuvraj Patel, a standard four student.
Copyright © 2004 Times Internet Limited.
GeirSmith
a. serving their interests waging their oil war,
b. their space exploration and it's ensuing impending doom to our world (see
here),-
c. now that Anglo-Saxon culture of theirs' turned back by China objecting to
the hegemony of English culture in things like Harry Potter.
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/cass2003/good_riddance_galileo.htm
To: "NASA comments" <comm...@www.hq.nasa.gov>
From: "Russell D. Hoffman" <rhof...@animatedsoftware.com>
Subject: Let's all say GOOD RIDDANCE to NASA's awful Galileo space probe!
In-Reply-To: <BB91F15D.1FFD6%blue...@earthlink.net>
September 20th, 2003
Dear Readers,
Good riddance to Galileo!
Mentioned in the article shown below about NASA's Galileo space probe is that
Galileo was supposed to have been launched on the space shuttle, but the
Challenger disaster stopped that.
UNMENTIONED was that Galileo carried 264,400 Curies (49.25 pounds) of Plutonium
Dioxide, which was mostly Pu 238, whose lethality per gram (or rather, per
fraction of a millionth of a gram, to be more precise) is 280 times more than
"regular" plutonium (Pu-239). Plutonium causes cancer (especially lung
cancer), leukemia and birth defects in vanishingly small quantities. Regular
plutonium, Pu-239, is known as "weapons grade plutonium" and is generally
considered the deadliest stuff on Earth. Pu-238 is 280 times worse, for about
1/280th as long. Pu 238 has a half-life of about 87.75 years. The half-life of
Pu 239 is about 24,000 years. When you spread any form of plutonium around the
Earth, it has a lot of chances to get into people's lungs before it all splits
into its various daughter products (most of which are also radioactive).
NASA launches plutonium with some regularity, but only the Cassini space probe,
launched in 1997 in the face of widespread protests, carried more plutonium
aloft at one time than Galileo (unless some secret military flight carried
more, which of course we have no way of knowing).
NASA uses plutonium for two purposes: Heat, and electricity. Most of Galileo's
plutonium was used to produce electricity from thermocouples which surround the
plutonium fuel. Plutonium is also used as a heat source to keep scientific
equipment at an operable temperature. Nearly all NASA space probes use
plutonium "RHU's" (Radioactive Heater Units), which, while much smaller than
RTGs (Radioactive Thermoelectric Generators), still carry tens of millions of
lethal doses of plutonium each. (The most recent Mars probes carried nearly a
dozen "RHU" heater units each.)
Each launch is extremely hazardous. A number of plutonium launches have
failed. In one case, NASA claims it was not a plutonium accident because,
according to NASA, the plutonium containment stayed in one piece all the way to
Earth (Apollo 13, 1970). But they don't really know. In another case, they
make the claim that the plutonium wasn't "accidentally" spread around because
the containment was designed to spread the plutonium in the upper atmosphere in
the event of a unexpected reentry (SNAP 9A, 1964). However, NASA had assured
scientists who opposed its launch that SNAP-9A had a "one in ten million"
chance of returning to Earth -- vanishingly small odds. But such odds were
utter lies. (I was told this story many years later by the top radiation
scientist in the field at the time, and the man considered "the father of
Health Physics", the late Dr. Karl Z. Morgan, who also testified in court about
this incident.)
It is reasonable to believe that the real reason NASA launches plutonium into
space on these so-called "civilian" missions is as a COVER for their military
launches of plutonium. Without the civilian infrastructure for using plutonium
in space, military launches would require a whole lot of additional
infrastructure, money, security, and LIES. Also, as long as the public (that's
you and me, the people who breath the carcinogenic dust from NASA's mistakes
every day of our lives) allows the "civilian" uses, and don't even know about
the military uses, NASA has a green light to do whatever it wants.
For more information about NASA's crazy plutonium policies, please visit my
STOP CASSINI web site:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/cassini.htm
Also, here's a FLASH animation with a history of NASA's use of plutonium in
space, which speculates about what might have been on board Columbia on its
last mission:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/mx/nasa/columbia/index.html
or try:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/mx/nasa/columbia/index.swf
One can assume the real reason they are now smashing Galileo into Jupiter
instead of into one of her moons is to hide their evil tracks, so it will not
be possible to send a probe to Galileo's wreckage, to find out that the
containment system has become dust, and the plutonium has spread all over the
moon on which it crashed, a perfect example (because it's safely billions of
miles away) of what happens here on Earth whenever NASA screws up.
Sincerely,
Russell Hoffman
Concerned Citizen
Carlsbad, CA
This letter will be available online here:
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/cassini/cass2003/good_riddance_galileo.htm
GeirSmith
The "No nukes in Space !" information- animation. Good. Might as well look at
what killed us, in retrospect, right ? Better die knowing, than dying without
knowing that.
Krishnacharya1
Americans ? Oops ! U.S. decadence ! Gonna be hard to climb out of this one.
http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/blbushisms.htm
"[W]e've had leaks out of the administrative branch, had leaks out of the
legislative branch, and out of the executive branch and the legislative branch,
and I've spoken out consistently against them, and I want to know who the
leakers are." —George W. Bush, Chicago, Sept. 30, 2003
Krishnacharya1
http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/blbushisms.htm
"I glance at the headlines just to kind of get a flavor for what's moving. I
rarely read the stories, and get briefed by people who are probably read the
news themselves." —George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., Sept. 21, 2003
Krishnacharya1
great Pennsylvania political families." —George W. Bush, Drexel Hill, Penn.,
Sept. 15, 2003
Krishnacharya1
Fri, Aug 13, 2004
Cuddle parties about connecting with people
REACH OUT AND TOUCH SOMEONE: In lonely New York, people looking for new ways to
meet people are attending intimate gatherings where they can fondle strangers
REUTERS , New York
Friday, Aug 13, 2004,Page 7
It's not about sex and all about the touchy-feely experience of snuggling up to
perfect strangers wearing pyjamas.
The grab fests are called cuddle parties, and since they started in New York in
February, hundreds of people have paid US$30 each to touch and embrace others
in intimate gatherings.
Everyone needs to be cuddled, especially in lonely New York, say creators Reid
Mihalko and Marcia Baczynski who add that it's a good way to meet new and
interesting people.
But the rules are clear. The PJs stay on the whole time and participants are
reminded of Rule No. 7: "No dry humping."
In case things get too steamy, a small chime is kept on hand. Before the
cuddling begins, it is struck several times so everyone gets the message.
"We've never used it," said Mihalko, who said sexual arousal does occur, and
that participants shouldn't be turned off or scared by erections. "They
happen," he said.
The idea for cuddle parties loosely came about after Mihalko, a masseur, began
giving massages to other masseurs who never got the chance to receive them.
Signs that people need to be touched were brought home one day when Mihalko
said he noticed a woman bawling from the emotional release that a massage
provided her at an outdoor stand in midtown Manhattan.
"It started out as a joke," said Baczynski. "Now we talk about cuddling all the
time. It's just been amazing."
Curiosity is a big driver for people who attend cuddle parties, and it is a
better way to meet people than going to a bar, getting drunk and spending the
night with someone just because of the need for some affection, she said.
A cuddle party is really about communication and not therapy, say the
organizers.
Before any touching begins, participants gather in a circle to hear the rules
and voice any questions or concerns. The first rule is that the event is not
clothing optional, pyjamas must stay on and sex is not permitted.
Participants team up into pairs and to ensure the boundaries of what is
permissible are clear, they practice saying "no" to the question, "May I kiss
you?"
An introduction to cuddling ensues, first by hugging three people. People then
get in a circle on their hands and knees, rub shoulders and moo like cows.
After a bit of swaying, everyone falls to their side, which puts them into an
easy cuddling position.
Cuddle parties are intended for people who are emotionally sound. People in
therapy or who are seeing a mental health professional are asked to consult
their doctor before signing up for a party and to tell the organizers of their
situation.
One group on an overcast Sunday drew a mix of mostly single people in their 30s
and a smattering of older people.
A repeat customer who called herself a born-again Christian said it was good to
cuddle up to another person, albeit a perfect stranger, after a hectic week.
"I felt good. I had a particularly stressful week," said the woman, who did not
wish to be named.
Friends had warned her that the parties would be nothing more than thinly
disguised preludes to sex, but she dismissed those worries as alarmist and
unfounded, saying :"It's not about sex".
Like others, the chance to meet someone was a consideration in attending a
cuddle party.
"People in a way are looking for a connection," said Fernando. "It's weird, but
not unusual."
This story has been viewed 54 times.
Copyright © 1999-2004 The Taipei Times. All rights reserved.
Krishnacharya1
Invasion could be fended off for two weeks, report says
REUTERS , Taipei
Friday, Aug 13, 2004,Page 4
The nation could withstand an attack from China for two weeks, a local
newspaper said yesterday, in comments seen aimed at assuaging fears raised by a
computer simulation indicating that Taipei could be captured in six days.
Tensions have been running high in the Taiwan Strait as China prepares for a
possible military showdown, convinced President Chen Shui-bian (³¯¤ô«ó) will
push for formal statehood during his second term.
Both sides are holding their annual war games, with China staging mock-invasion
drills and Taiwan pretending to fend off an attack.
A computer-simulated exercise showed the 2.5-million-strong People's Liberation
Army (PLA) could take the island's capital in just six days, Taiwan local media
reported on Wednesday.
The China Times yesterday quoted authoritative military sources as saying the
computer had made certain assumptions -- such as no help from the United States
-- and it did not mean Taiwan would be defeated so quickly.
"The sources indicate, in the event of a `first strike,' the air force and navy
can preserve of their fighting capabilities while the army can maintain 80
percent of its fighting capabilities," the newspaper said.
"Under these circumstances, Taiwan can hold on for two weeks in the event of a
war in the Taiwan Strait," the source added.
Yu Mao-chun, an expert on the PLA at at the US Naval Academy, dismissed the
possibility of conflict soon. "I don't see any chance of war soon. But there
are many political factors giving both sides the motive to raise tensions," Yu
told reporters in Hong Kong.
He listed some problems in the PLA, including lack of consistency in its
long-term mission and a need to streamline.
Military experts say China is accelerating its arms build-up in preparation for
war, but the PLA still lacks sophisticated amphibious vessels to turn it into a
credible invasion force.
Furthermore, the expectation is that Washington would meet its treaty
obligations and come to Taiwan's rescue, either through diplomatic pressure on
China, intelligence aid or actual combat assistance.
This story has been viewed 153 times.
Copyright © 1999-2004 The Taipei Times. All rights reserved.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2004/08/13/2003198541
Krishnacharya1
be used as a means of pushing through the bottleneck in reform, breaking away
from the cycle of dictatorial government and shifting from a paradigm of "if I
live, you must die" to peaceful coexistence and mutual restraint. If this were
to happen, then the CCP could become a modern political party and China could
be set on the road toward becoming a constitutional democracy that would be
part of modern civilization.
If this were the case, the existence of two centers of power, or even multiple
centers of power, would provide opportunities for political development. But
this is just the view of an academic, and it remains to be seen whether our
wise politicians are able to take advantage of this opportunity. On this score,
Taiwan's development of constitutional democracy over recent years can provide
valuable lessons for China's leaders."
Political split paves way for reform
By Zhang Weiguo張偉國
Friday, Aug 13, 2004,Page 8
`The current bifurcation of China's political establishment should be used as a
means of pushing through the bottleneck in reform, breaking away from the cycle
of dictatorial government and shifting from a paradigm of "if I live, you must
die" to peaceful coexistence and mutual restraint.'
The "balance of powers" and media freedom have long been a bottleneck in the
process of China's political reform. The "centralist" party culture bequeathed
by Mao Zedong (毛澤東) still remains influential and Deng Xiaoping (鄧小平) has
also left a legacy which explicitly rejects a three-branch government.
In addition, reform since 1989 has been hampered by hesitancy in dealing with
these problems. For this reason, China's media law has been discussed for the
last 20 years but has always ended up as one of the first victims of any
political struggle. But now there is a slim chance that things may change.
In the transfer of power that should have been effected by the 16th National
Congress of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), Central Military Commission
Chairman Jiang Zemin (江澤民), who was supposedly retiring, retained control of
the military, creating two centers of power. On the one side is Jiang, who
tries to emulate Deng in exercising influence through his control of the
military, even while claiming to be nothing more than an ordinary party member.
On the other side are the new leaders who have recently taken office and are
also following Deng's example in seeking to force Jiang to release his hold on
the military and retire -- both in name and in fact.
But Deng's experience was unique to himself and the power that he wielded at
the end of his career is not something that Jiang can easily acquire. In
addition, there are the lessons of the Cultural Revolution and the Tiananmen
Square Massacre, which have made party members more sensitive to Jiang's
ambitions to become a "supreme emperor."
All this has meant that there is an unprecedented degree of equality between
the two power centers, with the new leaders representing the mainstream. This
balance of power within the political structure is rarely seen, but it will
probably persist for some time. The situation is likely to remain stable until
there is a change in the senior leadership, so it will probably remain until
one of the two power centers disappears.
Although the existence of these two centers of power might be a fluke, it has
created something akin to a separation of powers. Although both sides are
constantly making moves to attack each other, they are also unwilling to give
their opponent any advantage and are therefore extremely careful to avoid
political mistakes. They can not afford to be arrogant and domineering.
At the moment both sides are mapping out strategy while keeping an eye on the
adversary, waiting for the other side to make a misstep that they can take
advantage of. They keep their comments to a minimum on most sensitive issues,
watching their adversary perform, putting them to the test.
The case of Dr. Jiang Yanyong (蔣彥永) -- the surgeon who blew the whistle on
SARS and publicly condemned the 1989 crackdown on democracy protesters -- and
the cross-strait issue are both dealt with in this manner.
Premier Wen Jiabao's (溫家寶) macroeconomic reforms have come under attack from
Jiang and his Shanghai clique and President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤) had to
personally visit Shanghai to smooth things over. When Hong Kong's Wen Wei Po
reported that the Central Military Commission meeting had proposed an invasion
of Taiwan prior to 2020, this was interpreted as an attempt by Jiang to retain
a hold on power until that time, a suggestion that infuriated Hu.
When Hu and Wen used the 100th anniversary of Deng's birth to force Jiang to
retire, it was widely discussed in party publications. The prominent
characteristic of these struggles between Hu and Wen and their adversary Jiang
is the diligent avoidance of direct confrontation.
The debate has generally been conducted through a third party, so that there is
always room for an about-face if necessary. This high-level maneuvering has
provided the private sector with more creative space to comment, and people
such as Jiang Yanyong, Jiao Guobiao (焦國標), a deputy professor of media and
communications studies who attacked propaganda officials for "suppressing
everything in the name of stability," and Lu Yaogang (盧躍剛), deputy director
of the China Youth Daily news center, who wrote an open letter protesting
government restrictions on press freedom, have gradually emerged.
Although this is a far cry from possessing a free press, in comparison to the
level of ideological control once exercised by the government, it is a very
significant breakthrough.
But this balance of powers is an abnormal situation. It creates a high level of
risk, as we saw from the incarceration of Jiang Yanyong. Traditional Chinese
political culture has never allowed for "one mountain to have two tigers," so
it is only a matter of time and opportunity before one side or the other shows
their hand.
When victory has been decided, the winner will become the paramount power
within the government, and those who have used the limited freedom of
expression that has been achieved will be prosecuted and removed from their
official positions. Their leaders are likely to lose their voice altogether if
they don't accept amnesty in return for acceding to the official line. At this
point China will enter a new cycle of authoritarianism.
This situation gives rise to an appealing fantasy -- as there is now a de facto
balance of power, could this situation not be institutionalized and maintained?
Maybe there will be a realization of the myth that democratization will happen
first within the party. Or for that matter, the political section of the party
might simply act independently.
Basically, the current bifurcation of China's political establishment should be
used as a means of pushing through the bottleneck in reform, breaking away from
the cycle of dictatorial government and shifting from a paradigm of "if I live,
you must die" to peaceful coexistence and mutual restraint. If this were to
happen, then the CCP could become a modern political party and China could be
set on the road toward becoming a constitutional democracy that would be part
of modern civilization.
If this were the case, the existence of two centers of power, or even multiple
centers of power, would provide opportunities for political development. But
this is just the view of an academic, and it remains to be seen whether our
wise politicians are able to take advantage of this opportunity. On this score,
Taiwan's development of constitutional democracy over recent years can provide
valuable lessons for China's leaders.
Zhang Weiguo is a freelance writer.
Translated by Ian Bartholomew
This story has been viewed 75 times.
Copyright �1999-2004 The Taipei Times. All rights reserved.
http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/edit/archives/2004/08/13/2003198574
Krishnacharya1
doing space research. It's better because the virtue of good is what benefits
others while sin/evil is what harms others. George's final result at Nasa was
to pollute the Earth for tens of thousands of years, in the future on average,
with lethal nuclear pollution, the size of Chernobyl.... but spread evenly over
the whole planet this time, so that the impact will not be as bad i.e. maybe
just 10% of the population, versus 50% in the Kiev/Chernobyl region....but
evenly distributed over the whole globe...which means that with ten % of the
total population of six billion will take us to lethal results on six hundred
million which is exponentially more than at Chernobyl.So the result is not so
bad on the exact site of the impact but far worse for being let out onto the
whole globe like a Pandora's Box. Thus the result now, is much more than
Chernobyl which did a lot of overkilling in that concentrated little space
around the nuclear facility, while here, each nuke particle will kill it's own
prey; away from the other particles around it. The situation would be
peace-providing if it weren't for Nasa still doing it's nuclear aganda unabated
and sending up plutonium-powered radio-active rockets non-stop and providing
fuel to our future in nightmare panorama-vision and surround sound. Their
idiotic murderousness is thus unrivalled in the world and in all of history.
With modern technical means to do evil, they have thus outdone all the
criminals of history and criminal charges for their deeds must be brought
quickly against them. Either that or they will never stop and we're all toast :
they will start inching up from ten % of the population-victims and that's too
much. I estimate that if they kill six hundred million it's enough to assuage
their blood-wish. They shoudl be denied furhter victims than that just as the
Southern Seas savages were denied their blood-letting cults in the last
century. The MIT and Nasa scientists are our modern-day cannibals and should be
brought to heel ofr else this shows the incapacity of modern culture to
civilize itslef and thus be part of this cult in it's entirety. This is thus
the whole of modernity's defeat and fiasco. Being accomplice to this crime by
not stopping it and bringing the culprits to justice by covering up for them is
a collective crime and ths sign of modernity's corrupt morals and lack of
erudition and high standard of learning and would be the sign of modernity
being a philosophy based on primitve notions such as materialism and
narrow-mindedness that devalus it and make it a most minor philosphical system
in the history ofnHumanity that can in no way rival with the Noble tradition of
human thought and knowledge such as Buddhism and it's various rich and lofty
traditions of thought.
For my part, I practise Buddhism and this is better than George Cherry because
the virute of good being what benefits others, I myself practise this in a
apure and integral fashion because indeed, all my deeds, speech and thoughts
are in accord with the Three Jewels of the Dharma of the Buddha and in this
nothing in any ways harms others contrary to George using his skills in ways
that result in nuclear duust shworeing down on our heads and going into our
lungs to cause cancer. The results of the Holy Dharma cause people to, at best,
attain Nirvana, and at worst to just not attains it, but never in any case to
get bad resutls from the Holy Dhjarma. "The Dharma is good at the beginning, in
the middle and at the end", as the Buddha said. George's deeds are good from
his point of view but seeing ther results one sees that they were evil even
from the very beginning and that the result was evident for anyone with any
kind of forthought and with an eye to the real results of what was being
carried out. There were people to denounce the march to modernity even fro; the
very beginning be they Aldous Huxley or the other major visionnary writers and
philosophers of the beginnings. Just to see to the prophecies of the Bibile and
of other religious works one sees that the modern times were prophecied to be
evil and to bring humanity to it's knees and to the verge of destruction....
not to say to destrucition itself. It's the people like George who were the
henchmaen that were lacking, the henchmen of destroying forces, the horsemen of
the Apocalypse. I wonder if I could bear it, being that, if I were George. I
wonder if going from being a deceiving idiot who passed off as a Saviour of
Humanity as modern science has always passed itself off as being to scoundrel
and dommsday bringer is good to feel for George. (Nasa used as an excuse for
it's space missions that outer space enabled to do laboratry tests only that
gravityless envoronment enabled to carry out and without which humanity
couldn't find certains sures for sicknesses and thus was condemned. Thus, space
travel was essential and in fact was the only hope for humanity to cure itself
and thus attain happiness on Earth. Space scientists were thus donned with the
mantle of saviours of humanity, no less !!!! )
Nothing evil exists in the holy Dharma and all evil exists in modern science as
George has proven; in the hands of bad people who have no respect for others or
for the what bad impact they have on others... and just keep their eyes on
whatever madness they entertain in their sick, deranged and enraged minds.
GeirSmith
space and the idiotic modern culture brought on by the Anglo-Saxon hegemony ?
Why not let the chatter-box take over and bury it all ? It'll be swept under
the carpet in an instant. Will I have served humanity and protected the world ?
NO.
I'll have to push my point home, and make it clear that this menace from
nuclear space won't drift away or merge into the immensities. Bush won't just
drift away. American domination won't just disappear of itself.
This is OUR problem, and we have to just clear it away like we'd clean a dirty
window. But the slate has to kept crystal clear. And once cleaned, no one, no
one, must touch it, or put their hands on it. It has to be pushed so as to be
so clear that all see that it's crystal clear and it's transparent to all.
Death above our heads, and falling down all the time on us, will be presented
as it really is, unadulterated by lies. Bush's Bushisms will be presented in
toto. The Anglo-Saxon culture that's dominating the world will be presented as
it is :constantly expanding - so that all can see it for what it is, the
ignorant part of humanity that doesn't englobe the global world as it claims to
want to do.
GeirSmith
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
The following is a transcript of a radio show broadcast on radio station WALE.
The views expressed are solely those of RUSSELL D. HOFFMAN and do not
necessarily reflect anyone else's point of view.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
Good morning Ladies & Gentlemen and WELCOME to HIGH TECH TODAY. I'm your host,
Russell Hoffman and today, we're going to be talking about a subject
that--unfortunately--few people seem to even be aware of. Space Debris. Let me
set a picture of what we are talking about.
Before I begin, let me state my opinion. I believe space exploration is a
wonderful thing. I believe we should colonize the moon as quickly as possible
and proceed to other planets in short order. I am for increasing NASA's budget
by a factor of ten. But for the rest of this show, I'm going to talk about the
downside of our space policy.
Space is commonly thought of as a vast emptiness. Stars, planets, asteroids and
gaseous clouds are contained within this vast void. And this is a correct view
of most of space. But did you know that within the part of space known as near
earth orbit there is a lot more stuff in space? It's man-made junk.
Billions--BILLIONS--of pieces of old space ships, satellites, rockets are right
now orbiting the earth at speeds between about 20,000 and 25,000 miles per
hour, at altitudes from hundreds of miles to many thousands of miles around and
above the earth. What does this mean? What am I talking about? What are we
worried about?
A BB-sized piece of aluminum hurtling around the earth at 22,000 miles per hour
has about as much kinetic energy as a bowling ball does at 60 miles an hour. In
other words, if a BB-sized piece of aluminum strikes the space shuttle from a
perpendicular direction, that is, comes in from the side, it will have the same
force as a bowling ball would if dropped on the space shuttle from about 100
feet high. If the BB-sized piece of aluminum collides head-on with the space
shuttle, the effect would be much, much worse.
To put this in perspective, the heat shields on the space shuttle can be
scratched and broken with a fingernail! So imagine what a bowling ball dropped
from 100 feet could do!
But there are, of course, much bigger and more dangerous pieces of space junk
than BB-sized pieces of aluminum. A piece of space debris the size of a small
marble, traveling at 22,000 miles per hour, has the kinetic energy of a 400
pound safe dropped from about 100 feet. Imagine the damage that would do if it
hits something like the future space station FREEDOM, or a space ship.
Before I continue, let me point out that my data for this topic is taken
largely from government documents and at the end of the show I'll cite some
sources for more information and I hope that you'll write to NASA and your
senators and congressmen and express some of the outrage I feel about this
topic. But before I get to that let me finish explaining this topic that many
of you probably find pretty strange.
You may be wondering--why worry? Is this stuff going to fall on my head? The
answer to that is--and I almost want to say unfortunately--is NO. Most space
debris will not fall to earth for thousands and even millions of years, and the
vast majority of what does fall to earth will incinerate itself when it hits
the upper atmosphere.
So to that extent this is not something you have to worry about and I'm not
trying to scare you into wearing a hard-hat whenever you go outside. Not that
that would do you any good, but it's not even the issue. Space debris is a
problem for space explorers. Which is what we want to be! Mankind has an
insatiable quest for knowledge, for exploration, and for discovery. That's why
what we've done to near-earth orbit is so shameful and disgusting.
Space debris is almost entirely a man-made problem. There are a few pieces of
natural space junk orbiting the earth, but more than 99.9%--is man-made. Within
2000 miles of earth some 7 million pounds of space junk is orbiting. And nearly
4 million individual pieces -- and, these numbers are a little bit old so the
true figure at this point is probably half again higher than what I've just
given you. And these are Government figures. In fact, about every seven years
since about 1965 the amount of space debris in near-earth orbit has doubled.
And you thought that NASA was stupid just because of the Challenger disaster,
or the loss of astronauts Grissom, White, and Chaffee in a fire! Or Apollo 13.
No, the truth is that NASA's worst nightmare is yet to come.
The true legacy of man's early exploration of space will be that future
generations will curse us and despise us for polluting that part of space
through which all other space exploration must start--near earth orbit. We are
in essence closing the door in front of us--the door to the stars. The door to
the other planets and to the moon. Indeed, the door to mankind's future. By
making all future astronauts run a deadly gauntlet at the start of every
flight, we have guaranteed that accidents, disasters, and major malfunctions
(as NASA first described the Challenger disaster) will continue to occur.
And--I've only touched the surface of this problem. For example, scientists
recently calculated that the problem is so bad that in the future, near-earth
orbit space debris will collide with itself so much and so often that there
will be a permanent cloud of debris rather than the millions of discreet items
that exist now. In other words, without doing a thing to add more debris to the
equation, we've put so much up there the equivalent of a nuclear explosion will
occur--actually is occurring--wherein pieces of debris collide with other
pieces of debris, creating more pieces of debris, which in turn collide with
each other, creating still more debris.
After a few million years the total number of pieces will be astronomically
more than there is right now, with most pieces being fragments of pieces that
are now in orbit. It's like a nuclear explosion but on a vastly different time
scale.
cont...see link :
http://www.animatedsoftware.com/spacedeb/spacedeb.htm
Evelyn Ruut
news:20040813140150...@mb-m04.aol.com...
Geir, I think it would be a good idea to drop it. I can't stand Bush
myself, but remember that this is not a political newsgroup, so we are
straining the rules a bit.
Then again there is the issue that you continue to hassle George all the
time. That is really unfair, you know. George is retired and he is a very
spiritual guy. He is a vegetarian and loves living creatures. Hassling
him for a job he held in his youth seems a bit much, especially since you
don't cut the guy any slack in his old age. Singling out one or more
posters as the "bad guys" isn't really in the spirit of buddhism.
You have a lot of knowledge about so many things.
Positive posting (as opposed to negative stuff) is appreciated by all.
--
Regards,
Evelyn
(to reply to me personally, remove 'sox")
GeirSmith
of all times box-office (for #3 - with the #2and 1 it's #1) :
http://www.worldwideboxoffice.com/
http://www.boxofficemojo.com/franchises/chart/?day=num&id=vs-harrypotter.htm
The third Harry Potter does better than the second on it's 69th day. It's going
for the top.
GeirSmith
September 1, 1999
Send to a Colleague
Printer-Friendly Version
China and Religion
Memo To: Tom Friedman, NYTimes
From: Jude Wanniski
Re: "Siamese Twins"
Excellent column yesterday, Tom. Where you see the PRC and Taiwan as Siamese
twins, bound together whether they like it or not, I've always thought of them
as a divorced couple, with Beijing the wife (security) and Taipei the husband
(risk). While some of our old Cold Warriors see a conflict with China over the
Taiwan issue inevitable, I've always assumed there would be reconciliation. I
made that exact forecast in my book, The Way the World Works, which I wrote in
1977. When I was in both capitals in the summer of 1986, I pointed out that
Taiwan was capital rich and labor and land poor, and China was labor and land
rich and capital poor. Unification is not a matter of politics, but
straightforward physics. The most important line in your column was about "the
46,000 Taiwanese-funded enterprises operating in China today."
Our old Cold Warriors on the right, led by Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, Bill
Schneider and Bill Kristol, are bent on provoking Beijing into action, so we
can rush to Taiwan's defense. As long as they only think they are strengthening
Taiwan's hand in the pre-nuptial agreement that is being quietly worked out by
both sides, perhaps no harm will be done by their saber-rattling. I worry that
the forces of permanent independence in Taiwan would find a way to really force
Beijing's hand, before the bonding between the "twins" becomes so thorough as
to make independence unthinkable forever. One of the issues being raised again
by Perle & Co. is that of religion in China, and why we have to deny China
admission to the World Trade Organization because they don't permit sufficient
religious freedoms. My colleague at Polyconomics, Peter Signorelli, has been
following this issue for more than 30 years. I asked him for his observations
this week based on press accounts of a new crackdown in China:
* * * * *
Jude,
I do not think that there is any new wave of repression of Christians in China.
Protestants are allowed a restricted freedom of worship, but as with every
other religious denomination in China, they must register with the government.
One certainly can make the argument that the Beijing regime is not friendly
toward religious activities, but the law of the country does uphold the right
of religious practice. The details are sketchy regarding the arrest of
Protestants, but the arrests simply can not be arbitrary. Most likely, those
arrested were apprehended for engaging in their assemblies without having
registered with the proper authorities. One can rightfully complain that
religious organizations ought not be subject to that kind of restriction or
limitations to their right to worship, but the arrests do not make up a new era
of repression of religious organizations. Linking them to persecution of
"underground" Catholics or the Falun Gong sect, suggests a
pattern of anti-religious activity that really is not there.
The majority of the Catholic clergy in the Patriotic Association churches in
China are in union with Rome, even though this is forbidden under law. The
underground Catholic Church flourishes in China, despite official repression.
At the same time, the Vatican and Beijing have been involved in lengthy
ex-officio discussions, as the Vatican seeks to establish a concordat with
China that will acknowledge the role of the papacy on matters of faith and
morals for Chinese Catholics. Such a concord would have been capped by a visit
to China of Pope John Paul II. Beijing, however, insists that no such
state-to-state visit can take place while the Vatican maintains diplomatic
relations with Taiwan and does not recognize Beijing. Cardinal Kung spent some
30 years in a Chinese prison for his religious beliefs. He knew quite
intimately the severe difficulties people of faith encounter in China. However,
the proposal by the Cardinal Kung foundation to link China's WTO membership to
an agenda regarding Chinese compliance on human rights issues is a perspective
of one lay group; it is not the perspective of the Vatican.
According to the report in the Washington Times, "Western analysts say China's
arrest of the Protestants and the crackdown on the Falun Gong is a clear
indication of Beijing's growing intolerance to religious expression." Yet no
evidence is offered. That conclusion flows from a pre-conceived anti-Beijing
mind set. And how could a reputable publication give space to the following
wild assertion that "SOME ANALYSTS [code words for speculative opinion from
those who really have no evidence] say the arrest of the Falun Gong may have
been planned as a 'cover' for the harassment of millions of underground
Christians."?
Peter Signorelli
* * * * *
P.S.
Tom, you might consider doing a column on the China issue in presidential
politics when you return. As you certainly know, Perle & Co. are the principle
national security advisors to George W. Bush, just as they were to Bob Dole in
the 1996 campaign. As you may not know, I have been advising former Vice
President Dan Quayle, who believes in reconciliation. You will have to sort out
the rest of the field for yourself. Have a safe trip home. And stay away from
anything that looks like a W-88 warhead.
Related Links:
The Cardinal Kung Foundation
Asia Society Report on US-China Relations
Buy The Rise of China: How Economic Reform Is Creating a New Superpower by
William H.Overholt at Amazon.com
GeirSmith
dad." —George W. Bush, Jacksonville, Florida, Sept. 9, 2003
http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/blbushisms.htm
Can't really call Bush "political". This is more madness, comedy or vaudeville.
Cut slack to ol'GeoCherry.
GeirSmith
information, the discussions about public education mean that a person is just
another opinion." —George W. Bush, Jacksonville, Florida, Sept. 9, 2003
http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/blbushisms.htm
I think that harping on things is more a sanitary responsability to ourselves
in terms of watching one's asses that people are putting on the line with our
tax-money. Body, speech and mind are all being sold off for nothing. Body with
nuclear space, speech with freedom of speech, and mind with the culture being
given out to the public as the commercial dishwater in vogue today.
GeirSmith
8, 2003
http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/blbushisms.htm
George Bush isn't a problem he's a mental case. Wake up. He's *not* a war-time
president, he's an "adventure in the Middle East" president.
GeirSmith
rhetoric." —George W. Bush, Crawford, Texas, Aug. 8, 2003
http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/blbushisms.htm
GeirSmith
to be cleaned out and stopped from sending more poison into space.
There's only one Messiah though and we have two on this ng here with Tad (came
all on his own....didn't ask anyone...just dropped by by himself) and the
announcer norby.
We have mad Bush all over the map and Harry Potter covering the Earth.
Great. "It's a good day to die" Little Big Man.
Warriors, today we enter the battle and fight.
"My answer is bring them on."—On Iraqi militants attacking U.S. forces,
George W. Bush, Washington, D.C., July 3, 2003
http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/blbushisms.htm
EMA HO ! LHA JIALO !
GeirSmith
"I urge the leaders in Europe and around the world to take swift, decisive
action against terror groups such as Hamas, to cut off their funding, and to
support — cut funding and support, as the United States has done." —George
W. Bush, Washington, D.C., June 25, 2003
GeirSmith
"Now, there are some who would like to rewrite history—revisionist historians
is what I like to call them." —George W. Bush, Elizabeth, N.J., June 16, 2003
Krishnacharya1
"[The Space Shuttle] Columbia carried in its payroll classroom experiments from
some of our students in America." —George W. Bush, Bethesda, Md., Feb. 3,
2003
People may gather to trash Bush from these postings because they see clearer
than what the news reveals, what a crazie-bin case we have as a US president.
Krishnacharya1
with us. They are near retirement — retiring — in the process of retiring,
meaning they're very smart, active, capable people who are retirement age and
are retiring." —George W. Bush, Alexandria, Va., Feb. 12, 2003
http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/blbushisms.htm
Krishnacharya1
U.N. will definitely need to have a role. And that way it can begin to get its
legs, legs of responsibility back." —George W. Bush, the Azores, Portugal,
March 16, 2003
http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/blbushisms.htm
MORON.
Krishnacharya1
person." —George W. Bush, interview with Tom Brokaw aboard Air Force One,
April 24, 2003
http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/blbushisms.htm
Idiot.
Krishnacharya1
biological weapons that we know Saddam Hussein had prior to our entrance into
Iraq." —George W. Bush, Santa Clara, Calif., May 2, 2003
http://politicalhumor.about.com/library/blbushisms.htm
Moron from Hicksville, Midland.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/index_main.php
Krishnacharya1
Theater Hopping
Drove around to a few theaters tonight while in NYC...Every show sold out,
people sitting in the aisles. I have never seen that in a regular movie theater
before. I love to stand in the back and watch people watch the movie.
Stopped in at the theater showing it across the street from Ground Zero.
Chatted with people on the way out and answered some questions. Then the
Spiderman crowd came out. A few of them weren't happy to see me. Some guy said,
"I hope they don't put a bomb in your theater."
cont...here :
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/blog/2004/07/theater-hopping_06.php
Moore didn't realize he'd hit gold with Bush's idiot-mind.
Krishnacharya1
Sunday, July 4th, 2004
My First Wild Week with "Fahrenheit 9/11"... By Michael Moore
Friends,
Where do I begin? This past week has knocked me for a loop. "Fahrenheit 9/11,"
the #1 movie in the country, the largest grossing documentary ever. My head is
spinning. Didn't we just lose our distributor 8 weeks ago? Did Karl Rove really
fail to stop this? Is Bush packing?
Each day this week I was given a new piece of information from the press that
covers Hollywood, and I barely had time to recover from the last tidbit before
the next one smacked me upside the head:
** More people saw "Fahrenheit 9/11" in one weekend than all the people who saw
"Bowling for Columbine" in 9 months.
** "Fahrenheit 9/11" broke "Rocky III’s" record for the biggest box office
opening weekend ever for any film that opened in less than a thousand theaters.
** "Fahrenheit 9/11" beat the opening weekend of "Return of the Jedi."
** "Fahrenheit 9/11" instantly went to #2 on the all-time list for largest
per-theater average ever for a film that opened in wide-release.
How can I ever thank all of you who went to see it? These records are
mind-blowing. They have sent shock waves through Hollywood – and, more
importantly, through the White House.
But it didn't just stop there. The response to the movie then went into the
Twilight Zone. Surfing through the dial I landed on the Fox broadcasting
network which was airing the NASCAR race live last Sunday to an audience of
millions of Americans -- and suddenly the announcers were talking about how
NASCAR champ Dale Earnhardt, Jr. took his crew to see “Fahrenheit 9/11” the
night before. FOX sportscaster Chris Myers delivered Earnhardt’s review
straight out of his mouth and into the heartland of America: “He said hey,
it'll be a good bonding experience no matter what your political belief. It's a
good thing as an American to go see.” Whoa! NASCAR fans – you can’t go
deeper into George Bush territory than that! White House moving vans – START
YOUR ENGINES!
Then there was Roger Friedman from the Fox News Channel giving our film an
absolutely glowing review, calling it “a really brilliant piece of work, and
a film that members of all political parties should see without fail.”
Richard Goldstein of the Village Voice surmised that Bush is already considered
a goner so Rupert Murdoch might be starting to curry favor with the new
administration. I don't know about that, but I’ve never heard a decent word
toward me from Fox. So, after I was revived, I wondered if a love note to me
from Sean Hannity was next.
How about Letterman’s Top Ten List: “Top Ten George W. Bush Complaints
About 'Fahrenheit 9/11'":
10. That actor who played the President was totally unconvincing
9. It oversimplified the way I stole the election
8. Too many of them fancy college-boy words
7. If Michael Moore had waited a few months, he could have included the part
where I get him deported
6. Didn't have one of them hilarious monkeys who smoke cigarettes and gives
people the finger
5. Of all Michael Moore's accusations, only 97% are true
4. Not sure - - I passed out after a piece of popcorn lodged in my windpipe
3. Where the hell was Spider-man?
2. Couldn't hear most of the movie over Cheney's foul mouth
1. I thought this was supposed to be about dodgeball
But it was the reactions and reports we received from theaters around the
country that really sent me over the edge. One theatre manager after another
phoned in to say that the movie was getting standing ovations as the credits
rolled – in places like Greensboro, NC and Oklahoma City -- and that they
were having a hard time clearing the theater afterwards because people were
either too stunned or they wanted to sit and talk to their neighbors about what
they had just seen. In Trumbull, CT, one woman got up on her seat after the
movie and shouted "Let's go have a meeting!" A man in San Francisco took his
shoe off and threw it at the screen when Bush appeared at the end. Ladies’
church groups in Tulsa were going to see it, and weeping afterwards.
It was this last group that gave lie to all the yakking pundits who, before the
movie opened, declared that only the hard-core "choir" would go to see
"Fahrenheit 9/11." They couldn't have been more wrong. Theaters in the Deep
South and the Midwest set house records for any film they’d ever shown. Yes,
it even sold out in Peoria. And Lubbock, Texas. And Anchorage, Alaska!
Newspaper after newspaper wrote stories in tones of breathless disbelief about
people who called themselves “Independents” and “Republicans” walking
out of the movie theater shaken and in tears, proclaiming that they could not,
in good conscience, vote for George W. Bush. The New York Times wrote of a
conservative Republican woman in her 20s in Pensacola, Florida who cried
through the film, and told the reporter: “It really makes me question what I
feel about the president... it makes me question his motives…”
Newsday reported on a self-described “ardent Bush/Cheney supporter” who
went to see the film on Long Island, and his quiet reaction afterwards. He
said, "It's really given me pause to think about what's really going on. There
was just too much - too much to discount." The man then bought three more
tickets for another showing of the film.
The Los Angeles Times found a mother who had “supported [Bush] fiercely” at
a theater in Des Peres, Missouri: “Emerging from Michael Moore's
‘Fahrenheit 9/11,’ her eyes wet, Leslie Hanser said she at last
understood…. ‘My emotions are just....’ She trailed off, waving her hands
to show confusion. ‘I feel like we haven't seen the whole truth before.’"
All of this had to be the absolute worst news for the White House to wake up to
on Monday morning. I guess they were in such a stupor, they "gave" Iraq back
to, um, Iraq two days early!
News editors told us that they were being "bombarded" with e-mails and calls
from the White House (read: Karl Rove), trying to spin their way out of this
mess by attacking it and attacking me. Bush spokesman Dan Bartlett had told the
White House press corps that the movie was "outrageously false" -- even though
he said he hadn't seen the movie. He later told CNN that "This is a film that
doesn't require us to actually view it to know that it's filled with factual
inaccuracies." At least they're consistent. They never needed to see a single
weapon of mass destruction before sending our kids off to die.
Many news shows were more than eager to buy the White House spin. After all,
that is a big part of what "Fahrenheit" is about -- how the lazy, compliant
media bought all the lies from the Bush administration about the need to invade
Iraq. They took the Kool-Aid offered by the White House and rarely, if ever,
did our media ask the hard questions that needed to be asked before the war
started.
Because the movie "outs" the mainstream media for their failures and their
complicity with the Bush administration -- who can ever forget their incessant,
embarrassing cheerleading as the troops went off to war, as though it was all
just a game -- the media was not about to let me get away with anything now
resembling a cultural phenomenon. On show after show, they went after me with
the kind of viciousness you would have hoped they had had for those who were
lying about the necessity for invading a sovereign nation that was no threat to
us. I don't blame our well-paid celebrity journalists -- they look like a bunch
of ass-kissing dopes in my movie, and I guess I'd be pretty mad at me, too.
After all, once the NASCAR fans see "Fahrenheit 9/11," will they ever believe a
single thing they see on ABC/NBC/CBS news again?
In the next week or so, I will recount my adventures through the media this
past month (I will also be posting a full FAQ on my website soon so that you
can have all the necessary backup and evidence from the film when you find
yourself in heated debate with your conservative brother-in-law!). For now,
please know the following: Every single fact I state in "Fahrenheit 9/11" is
the absolute and irrefutable truth. This movie is perhaps the most thoroughly
researched and vetted documentary of our time. No fewer than a dozen people,
including three teams of lawyers and the venerable one-time fact-checkers from
The New Yorker went through this movie with a fine-tooth comb so that we can
make this guarantee to you. Do not let anyone say this or that isn't true. If
they say that, they are lying. Let them know that the OPINIONS in the film are
mine, and anyone certainly has a right to disagree with them. And the questions
I pose in the movie, based on these irrefutable facts, are also mine. And I
have a right to ask them. And I will continue to ask them until they are
answered.
In closing, let me say that the most heartening response to the film has come
from our soldiers and their families. Theaters in military towns across the
country reported packed houses. Our troops know the truth. They have seen it
first-hand. And many of them could not believe that here was a movie that was
TRULY on their side -- the side of bringing them home alive and never sending
them into harms way again unless it's the absolute last resort. Please take a
moment to read this wonderful story from the daily paper in Fayetteville, NC,
where Fort Bragg is located. It broke my heart to read this, the reactions of
military families and the comments of an infantryman’s wife publicly backing
my movie -- and it gave me the resolve to make sure as many Americans as
possible see this film in the coming weeks.
Thank you again, all of you, for your support. Together we did something for
the history books. My apologies to "Return of the Jedi." We'll make it up by
producing "Return of the Texan to Crawford" in November.
May the farce be with you, but not for long,
Michael Moore www.michaelmoore.com
mmf...@aol.com
P.S. You can read letters from people around the country recounting their own
experiences at the theater, and their reactions to the film by going here.
P.P.S. Also, I’m going to start blogging! Tonight! Come on over and check it
out.
An Open Letter from Michael Moore to George "I'm a War President!" Bush
© MichaelMoore.com, All Rights Reserved. Site Created by Plank
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/message/index.php?messageDate=2004-07-04
Bush watchers are not just me now.
Krishnacharya1
July 2nd, 2004 4:44 pm
Fahrenheit 9/11 Breaks Records in Military Town
"'Fahrenheit 9/11' sets record"
By Matt Leclercq / The Fayetteville Observer (North Carolina)
June 29, 2004
"Fahrenheit 9/11," a left-sided documentary that bashes the Bush
administration's war on terrorism, wouldn't find much of an audience in a
military town.
Or so they thought.
"This has broken all of our past records," said Nasim Kuenzel, an owner of the
Cameo Art House Theatre. "The movie that I thought would make us hardly any
money - I never thought it would break all the records."
Both showings sold out Friday at the Cameo, the only theater in Fayetteville to
carry the Michael Moore film. A midnight showing added at the last minute
Friday brought in 60 more people.
Saturday and Sunday were just as busy, Kuenzel said, with nearly 1,000 tickets
sold over the weekend. As many as 75 percent of moviegoers were soldiers or
military families, Kuenzel said.
Many were like Natalie Sorton. She is 25 and married to an infantryman who
served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
"I want to see what my husband is fighting for," Sorton said Monday before
going into the theater with a friend, Kathy Norris.
Another military spouse had recommended the movie. While Sorton described
herself as a moderate Republican, she said she gained respect for Moore after
seeing his last documentary, "Bowling for Columbine."
In that film, Moore pestered corporations and celebrities to take
responsibility for gun violence. Sorton said she wanted to see Moore be equally
pestering to politicians who make decisions about war.
"I'm going because from what I heard about ('Fahrenheit 9/11'), it fills in a
lot of blanks, a lot of questions we've had about the Bush administration,"
Sorton said.
The documentary assails President Bush's decisions surrounding the Sept. 11,
2001, terrorist attacks. Moore attempts to link the Bush family with Saudi
Arabia and blame business interests as the reason for invading Iraq.
"Fahrenheit 9/11" includes frank comments from soldiers in Iraq and emotional
interviews with families who lost children in the fighting.
Almost all the crowds at the Cameo have applauded the film at the end, with
some people giving standing ovations, Kuenzel said. Many have tears in their
eyes as they leave the theater.
"I think it's going to open my eyes a little, and that worries me," Sorton said
before taking her seat.
Lea Barnes, a Republican, seemed giddy as she and a friend bought tickets
Monday.
"I'm not pleased at all about the way things are going" with the war, Barnes
said. "I trust Michael Moore. He can be out there a bit, but he's for the
common man."
Negative reactions have been few, Kuenzel said. The theater received three
calls and two letters in opposition of carrying the film, she said. No one has
protested, though some people handed out anti-war fliers on the street Friday
evening.
Nationwide ticket sales totaling $23.9 million launched the film to the No. 1
spot over the weekend, a record for a documentary. Twelve other theaters in
North Carolina are carrying "Fahrenheit 9/11," according to the film's Web
site.
Other theaters
The Varsity Theatre in Chapel Hill also sold out over the weekend, with some
patrons from the Fayetteville area, said owner Mary Jo Stone. The publicity
surrounding Disney's refusal to distribute the film because of its political
content helped ignite sales.
"I think people are interested in perhaps getting a different perspective than
what they see in the news all the time," Stone said.
Since the Cameo opened in 2000, the only other movies that approached the sales
figures for "Fahrenheit 9/11" were "My Big Fat Greek Wedding" and "Crouching
Tiger, Hidden Dragon." Other theaters across the country are expected to start
showing the film in the next few weeks.
After Monday's showing, Sorton emerged with a grim face. She said she plans to
buy the film on DVD and give it to everyone she knows.
"I'm disgusted," she said. "Disgusted."
The film changed her opinions on the war in Iraq by convincing her that oil and
corporate interests were behind decision-making, she said. Worries over whether
Moore would vilify soldiers were unfounded.
"I don't think they portrayed them as bad," she said. "I don't think it
portrayed them as not doing their jobs. It showed them doing what they're told.
"All this movie did was open my eyes a little more to what's really going on,"
she said. "I think this is definitely going to have an impact on the election.
I'm glad I'm a voter."
© MichaelMoore.com, All Rights Reserved. Site Created by Plank
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/mikeinthenews/index.php?id=56
Krishnacharya1
below) of Christ coming back as the Messiah. I do so in the context of him
coming back, not as Christ, but as Christ-as-Kalachakra which is what the
Tantra of Kalachakra says i.e. that the lineage includes Jesus. Kalachakra can
be seen as Mohamed by Muslims, as Adam by Jews, as Maitreya Buddha by Buddhists
and all include into the universal Messiah view of tolerance for each other and
putting up with each others' being quite different from each other. This link
(that I reference just for the idea expressed within it but not wholesale
accepting it.) is thus racist in some respects but shows probably the reality
of people like the fundamentalists around the Bush team, that believe in
Israel's role in bringing forth this Messiah, and that all Israel's actions are
right to reach that goal. The writer being a Texas Christian, I think the
insight may be very accurate, and much more so than that of others, who are
living outside the region - or the crcles of like-thinking Chirstians - like
they basically are, even if they have differences and hate each others' guts to
high hell. Here on ARBT, I think the closest to Bush's messianical madness we
have, is Bernie. He's got to be bad seing he's French (i.e. "Cozier"). Ha ha ha
! "Kerry" ! Ha ha ha ! Bernie's seriously messianical belief stinks to high
hell, and the ecumenical attitude of respect and tolerance of the Kalachakra
for all the lineages, that it contains i.e. Islam, Judaism, Xianity, Budhhism,
Hinduism et.al.....is absent for blockhead, blank-brain Bernie. Dar beat the
daylights out of Cozy, but Dar's attitude reflects also his limited view,
because he replaces Bernies narrow-mindedness only with abuse. Kalachakra does
give Bernie an outlet, by giving him a seat at Lord Kalachakra's feat along
with the other religions. Dar's also the epitome of confusion with his denial
of the nuclear reality and total corruption of Nasa. As for George, as
announced, I cut him slack and keep tad on the fact that he *is* old, seeing he
needed old women to step in for him, and couldn't fight it out himself
anymore,.... seeing space is undefendable after what was done there. He's thus,
indeed, out of the loop on this one, and ready for a long rest.
So here goes the Crusade wars between some feuding, Xtian sects of Texas :
http://www.sweetliberty.org/issues/israel/alliance.htm (anyways all of this
goobledygook is going to be bombed out of the water in the next few months
nationwide by the Michael Moore and Bushisms' onslaught that'll take no
prisoners among these Alamo farmer-fighters. We have to save the world for the
nuclear winter's on us and only the culture of the deep Kalacharka can save us
from the nonsense being dished out as culture by moronic modern midstream
midlandish ring or potter-culture that is the closest that they come to
religion in their obscurated and dim-witted realm of thought and of conscious
amwareness of this.) :
This was written 14 years ago. Her concerns were well founded as we can all
see.
-- Jackie -- March 4, 2003
Special Report
WASHINGTON REPORT On Middle East Affairs
Israeli Extremists and Christian Fundamentalists:
The Alliance
By Grace Halsell
December 1988, Page 31
At the time I began my research for my book Prophecy and Politics, I discovered
the average American I met in Washington, DC, and New York was not interested
in TV evangelists and their link to Israel. Neither were book editors. I went
to 25 top editors in New York with my book idea on religion and politics.
Michael Korda of Simon and Schuster was typical. "Jerry Falwell? Pat Robertson?
Who is interested in those crazies?"
By the time my book came out those "crazies" were on the front page of every
American newspaper and on every news channel. Of course, I didn't give them
this instant fame, which extended throughout the world. Two of them earned it
themselves by being in the middle of scandals.
The press told us that Jim Bakker had committed adultery and that Jimmy
Swaggart regularly visited a prostitute. A fellow marine said Pat Robertson
never had to dodge bullets in Korea because he had used his father's influence
as a senator to escape front line duty. But almost everyone ignored the biggest
scandal of all: the peculiar mixture of prophecy and politics professed by
these and other Christian Zionists.
The Christian Zionists Message
What is the message of the Christian Zionist? Simply stated it is this: Every
act taken by Israel is orchestrated by God, and should be condoned, supported,
and even praised by the rest of us.
"Never mind what Israel does," say the Christian Zionists. "God wants this to
happen." This includes the invasion of Lebanon, which killed or injured an
estimated 100,000 Lebanese and Palestinians, most of them civilians; the
bombing of sovereign nations such as Iraq; the deliberate, methodical
brutalizing of the Palestinians-breaking bones, shooting children, and
demolishing homes; and the expulsion of Palestinian Christians and Muslims from
a land they have occupied for over 2,000 years.
My premise in Prophecy and Politics is that Christian Zionism is a dangerous
and growing segment of Christianity, which was popularized by the 19th-century
American Cyrus Scofield when he wrote into a Bible his interpretation of events
in history. These events all centered around Israel-past, present, and future.
His Scofield Bible is today the most popular of the reference Bibles.
Scofield said that Christ cannot return to earth until certain events occur:
The Jews must return to Palestine, gain control of Jerusalem and rebuild a
temple, and then we all must engage in the final, great battle called
Armageddon. Estimates vary, but most students of Armageddon theology agree that
as a result of these relatively recent interpretations of Biblical scripture,
10 to 40 million Americans believe Palestine is God's chosen land for the Jews.
Has the power of the Christian Zionists diminished?
I do not think so. Rather, we are seeing how the Christian Zionists, motivated
by religious beliefs, are working hand in glove with politically motivated,
militant Jewish Zionists around the world. It is the Christian support of
Zionism that emboldens Zionists to believe they can dictate to relatively weak
and dependent countries such as Austria, whom they may choose as their
president.
It is the Christian support of Zionism that allows Manuel Noriega to remain the
strongman in Panama, misusing his power, regardless of what harm he causes to
the United States, his neighbors, and his people.
It is the Christian support of Zionism that enables the militant Israelis to
take over Palestinian homes surrounding the Al-Aqsa mosque in pursuit of their
well-documented plan to destroy Jerusalem's most holy Islamic site, sacred to a
billion Muslims around the world-one-fifth of humanity.
Christian Zionists and the Iran-Contra Scandal
Remarkably,it was this Christian cult of Israel that brought us the Iran contra
scandal, perhaps the most self-destructive act in the history of the United
States. Marine Col. Oliver North, the perpetrator of this misguided series of
actions, is a Christian Zionist. A born-again charismatic figure, he endeared
himself to the militant Israeli Zionists who plotted Iran-contra. "He is more
Israeli," said one Jewish general, "than we Israelis." This is often the case.
In his zealotry, the Christian Zionist can become more Zionist, more militant,
than the Jewish Zionist.
In the Iran-contra hearings, Sen. James McClure (R-ID) explained to North that
the US had a stated policy of neutrality in the Iran-Iraq war. That policy
differed radically from Israel's policy of selling arms to Iran. Yes, agreed
North, the two policies were not the same. The question, to which McClure's
efforts yielded no response, then becomes: Why would the US forego its American
policy to pursue Israeli policy?
The answer, unfortunately, lies in the belief system of Christian Zionists:
They believe that what Israel wants is what God wants. Therefore, it is
perfectly acceptable to give the green light to whatever it is Israel wants and
then conceal this from the American people. Anything, including lies, theft,
even murder, is justified as long as Israel wants it.
Another perfect example of a Christian Zionist is Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI).
Throughout the hearings on the Iran-contra scandal, the Hawaiian kept the focus
on the contras and steered determinedly clear of any criticism of Israel. If,
in answer to questions, witnesses sought to explain the seminal and continuing
role of Israel, Inouye abruptly broke off the line of questioning that had led
the hearings to this unwanted destination.
Despite the political problems created by its lay practitioners and the
scandals that rocked some of its TV ministries, this belief system-this cult of
Israel-has not been diminished.
Indeed, I hold that Christian Zionism threatens not just the lives of
Palestinians and other Arabs, but the very existence of the United States.
Because of the cult of Israel, we have become a nation that does not have its
own Middle East policy, but the policy the government of Israel tells us to
have.
Despite the terrifying aspects of the alliance of militant Christians with
militant Jewish Zionists, I find some encouraging developments. In my visits to
colleges, clubs, and churches around the country, I have found strong support
for the message and warning in Prophecy and Politics. It has come not only from
liberal congregations, but from across the whole spectrum of Christianity,
including those Christians who call themselves fundamentalists. These
supporters see Christ as the bearer to humanity of God's message of peace,
brotherhood, love, and reconciliation. These Christians do not endorse either
the cult of Israel or its killIngs and beatings of Palestinians.
I have found many such Christians in my frequent visits to my home state of
Texas. There and all over this slowly-awakening land of ours, I have found a
small but increasing number of ministers and lay people who are deeply alarmed
by the cult of Israel and willing to stand up and speak out about it.
Grace Halsell's book,Prophecy and Politics. The Secret Alliance Between Israel
and the US Christian Right Is available through the AET Book Club Catalog to
readers of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs.
(This article was adapted by author Grace Halsell from her speech at the North
American Regional Non-Governmental Symposium on the Question of Palestine held
in June 1988 at the United Nations headquarters in New York.)
Krishnacharya1
To get the real view of the situation you have to get both sides because one
side gives just propaganda e.g. Bush's White House's stunted version of reality
: lying systematically to deceive. Tha art of keeping a straight face. (Anyone
noticed that Bush can't keep a straight face when he talks ? He always screws
up his face into a wince.)
Christian fundamentalists employed by the US government to produce news in
Arabic to Iraqis
William Hardiker
Al-Jazeerah, 11/15/03
Introduction:
Christian fundamentalists have been employed by the US government to produce
the American news in Arabic to Iraqis
In May this year the US government launched it’s Arabic language satellite TV
news station supposedly to deliver the news to Iraq. I say ‘supposedly’
because how often is it that anything to do with the national interest is as it
appears? Here is no exception. The US agency producing the televised news for
“The Broadcasting Board Of Governors” or BBG, is “Grace Digital Media”
– controlled by professed fundamentalist Christians who are reportedly
zealously pro-Israeli. Grace Digital Media is owned and controlled by Christian
fundamentalist millionaire, Cheryl Regan. In defense of her mandate BBG’s Ms.
Joan Mower claimed, “Our mission is clear. We don’t do propaganda or
leafleting - we are like the BBC in that respect”.
Clearly the news service was implemented by the US in an effort to quash the
overwhelming anti-American sentiment amongst Iraqi’s whilst enabling fervent
fundamentalists the opportunity to propagate their desire to make converts of
the indigenous population. Sound a little familiar? Something like nineteenth
century European colonialism and the efforts of Christian missionaries
spreading the “word of God” to “spiritually” misinformed and misguided
natives? Unfortunately for the Bush administration, early signs would indicate
that no miracles are thus far forthcoming. Obviously what “Grace Digital
Media” does, or attempt to do, is propaganda for the US government, for there
is no other reasonable explanation for their presence on Arab airwaves. GNN
claims that the Network will be “reporting the current secular news, as well
as aggressive proclamations that will change the news to reflect the Kingdom of
God and its purposes”. “Grace Digital Media” and “Federal News
Service” are based in Washington D.C as well as “Grace News Network”. The
GNN web site proclaims that the Network is “dedicated to transmitting the
evidence of Gods presence in the world today”.
How unfortunate that after thousands of years of Islam and centuries of
Spiritual life, Arabs have had to wait for the Americans to arrive before they
could be enlightened and instructed not to worship false prophets. That which
President George Bush’s spiritual guidance councilor, Franklin Graham (son of
the revivalist Rev. Billy Graham) slandered as “a very evil and wicked
religion”. Western leaders are at pains to point out that the “war on
terrorism” is not a war on Islam, but actions speak louder than words and if
it looks like it, smells like it and tastes like it - then chances are, it is
it.
That there are strong and expanding relations between right wing Christian
fundamentalists and the right wing Sharon Lukud party “expansionists”, is
common knowledge and has been widely reported .The Bush Administration, and
President Bush in particular, have strong ties to Christian fundamentalists.
Christian Zionists have traditionally pointed to the Book of Genesis and words
such as; “ I will bless those who bless you. And the one who curses you, I
will curse”. Zionists take this to mean that God will bless nations who
support the state of Israel. In other words, while the George W Bush
administration is in the White House, political, economic and moral support to
Israel will be forthcoming unequivocally. Though it is commonly reported that
Israel receives officially about three billion dollars every year in aid from
the US in the form of economic aid, this is but the tip of the proverbial
iceberg. A recently published economic analysis conducted by Thomas R.
Stauffer, a Washington based engineer and economist who teaches about the
economics of energy and The Middle East and who has taught at Harvard
University and Georgetown Universities school of foreign service, concluded
that US support for Israel has cost the US taxpayers around three trillion
dollars (three million million dollars). Stauffers analysis is an estimate of
the total cost to the US alone of instability and conflict in the region –
which emanates from the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.
It is unclear how much “news” Grace News has thus far produced. A
documentary has however been produced titled “Israel: Divine Destiny”,
which is concerned with Israel’s and America’s entwined “destiny”. It
is said (by Ms. Mower) that BBG is producing and transmitting six hours of news
into Iraq, including dubbed versions of the daily evening news from ABC, CBC,
NBC, FOX and PBS.
The conclusion, that we are witnessing a “clash of cultures” or
“civilizations”, proclaimed by many and which has sold millions of books
for western publishers is perhaps true on one level, (though basically flawed)
due to America’s refusal to appreciate the perilous consequences of it’s
actions.
Earth, a planet hungry for peace
The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers
(Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).
The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in
the West Bank, like a Python. (Alquds,10/25/03).
Opinions expressed in various sections are the sole responsibility of their
authors and they may not represent Al-Jazeerah's.
Krishnacharya1
Michael Moore Brings the War Home
by Danny Duncan Collum / Sojourners
In the theater where I saw Fahrenheit 9/11, the coming attractions featured a
trailer for The Motorcycle Diaries—an upcoming film about the early life of
the Latin American revolutionary Ernesto "Che" Guevara. The trailer ended with
the tag line, "If you let the world change you, you can change the world."
A good omen, I thought. But the day was filled with omens. Michael Moore’s
picture, and a story about his film, greeted me on the front page of the
Memphis Commercial Appeal at breakfast. We went to lunch before the movie, and
there he was again, in the café entrance, on page one of USA Today.
Moore’s film did not disappoint those expectations. There, on the quad cinema
big screen, was African-American Marine Corporal Abdul Henderson, in uniform,
explaining that he won’t go back to Iraq because he won’t "kill other poor
people" who pose no threat to our country. There, after 90 minutes in which the
falsehoods behind the Iraq war were peeled away, is the explanation (from
George Orwell’s 1984) that, at the end of the day, the maintenance of a
hierarchical society requires war. It keeps the people at the bottom fearful
and economically insecure. "The war is not meant to be won," Orwell wrote, in
words that define Bush’s war on terror. "It is meant to be continuous."
And that message came alongside the details of the incestuous relationship
between the Saudi Kingdom and corporate America, surprising (and troubling)
footage of dead and wounded Iraqi civilians, and the usually unheard voices of
American soldiers left limbless and bitter by the war in Iraq. It’s all the
stuff the mainstream mass media won’t tell you. And there it is, in
Fahrenheit 9/11, smack dab in the middle of that mainstream. I wanted to stand
and shout, "Viva!"
MANY OF US have made the analogy between America’s Iraq invasion and the
Vietnam War, and the parallels are real. But we anti-warriors would do well to
remember that, compared to our predecessors at this early stage of the Vietnam
disaster, we are way ahead of the game. Public opinion has already tipped
against the war. During the Vietnam era, that didn’t happen until 1969, four
years into the full-blown conflict.
And in the 1960s, there was no Michael Moore. Well, there was, but he was a
Catholic school kid in Flint, Michigan. Today he is a best-selling author of
humorous political diatribes and an Oscar-winning director of popular
documentary films. We are lucky to have him because, if we pay attention,
he’ll point us away from the mistakes and stupidities of the last great
anti-war movement.
Unlike many post-Vietnam activists, Michael Moore genuinely loves his country
and its common people. His patriotism is not ideological; it is rooted and
local. Blue-collar Flint is his touchstone. He emerged as a celebrity-artist by
telling the story of his hometown’s abandonment by General Motors in Roger &
Me ("Roger" was GM CEO Roger Smith). He comes back to Flint in the final act of
Fahrenheit 9/11.
In this new film, Moore’s sympathy is clearly with the soldiers who are
forced to do the dirty work of this rich man’s war, with their families back
home, and with the poor and working-class kids who are the prey of military
recruiters. He cares more about them than he does about any Democratic
politician, or about the cookie-scarfing Fresno peaceniks we meet in a Patriot
Act subplot of Fahrenheit 9/11.
And so should we. The soldiers who serve under America’s economic
draft—poor white, black, and brown, male and female—are part of the great
mass of Americans disinherited and left behind by the global economy. They
stream in from the bombed-out inner cities and the dying farm towns to bet
their young bodies on a chance at an education and a career. They are not the
enemy. They are, in the long run, the only people who can change this country.
Over the closing credits of Fahrenheit 9/11, we hear Neil Young’s "Rockin’
in the Free World." That song was originally an anthem for the overthrow of
President Bush I. Sic semper tyrannis. And keep on rocking.
Krishnacharya1
August 4th, 2004 11:37 am
The Case Against George W. Bush - by Ron Reagan
by Ron Reagan / Esquire
It may have been the guy in the hood teetering on the stool, electrodes clamped
to his genitals. Or smirking Lynndie England and her leash. Maybe it was the
smarmy memos tapped out by soft-fingered lawyers itching to justify such
barbarism. The grudging, lunatic retreat of the neocons from their
long-standing assertion that Saddam was in cahoots with Osama didn't hurt. Even
the Enron audiotapes and their celebration of craven sociopathy likely played a
part. As a result of all these displays and countless smaller ones, you could
feel, a couple of months back, as summer spread across the country, the ground
shifting beneath your feet. Not unlike that scene in The Day After Tomorrow,
then in theaters, in which the giant ice shelf splits asunder, this was more a
paradigm shift than anything strictly tectonic. No cataclysmic ice age,
admittedly, yet something was in the air, and people were inhaling deeply. I
began to get calls from friends whose parents had always voted Republican, "but
not this time." There was the staid Zbigniew Brzezinski on the staid NewsHour
with Jim Lehrer sneering at the "Orwellian language" flowing out of the
Pentagon. Word spread through the usual channels that old hands from the days
of Bush the Elder were quietly (but not too quietly) appalled by his son's
misadventure in Iraq. Suddenly, everywhere you went, a surprising number of
folks seemed to have had just about enough of what the Bush administration was
dishing out. A fresh age appeared on the horizon, accompanied by the sound of
scales falling from people's eyes. It felt something like a demonstration of
that highest of American prerogatives and the most deeply cherished American
freedom: dissent.
Oddly, even my father's funeral contributed. Throughout that long, stately,
overtelevised week in early June, items would appear in the newspaper
discussing the Republicans' eagerness to capitalize (subtly, tastefully) on the
outpouring of affection for my father and turn it to Bush's advantage for the
fall election. The familiar "Heir to Reagan" puffballs were reinflated and
loosed over the proceedings like (subtle, tasteful) Mylar balloons.
Predictably, this backfired. People were treated to a side-by-side
comparison—Ronald W. Reagan versus George W. Bush—and it's no surprise who
suffered for it. Misty-eyed with nostalgia, people set aside old political
gripes for a few days and remembered what friend and foe always conceded to
Ronald Reagan: He was damned impressive in the role of leader of the free
world. A sign in the crowd, spotted during the slow roll to the Capitol
rotunda, seemed to sum up the mood—a portrait of my father and the words NOW
THERE WAS A PRESIDENT.
The comparison underscored something important. And the guy on the stool,
Lynndie, and her grinning cohorts, they brought the word: The Bush
administration can't be trusted. The parade of Bush officials before various
commissions and committees—Paul Wolfowitz, who couldn't quite remember how
many young Americans had been sacrificed on the altar of his ideology; John
Ashcroft, lip quivering as, for a delicious, fleeting moment, it looked as if
Senator Joe Biden might just come over the table at him—these were a
continuing reminder. The Enron creeps, too—a reminder of how certain
environments and particular habits of mind can erode common decency. People
noticed. A tipping point had been reached. The issue of credibility was back on
the table. The L-word was in circulation. Not the tired old bromide liberal.
That's so 1988. No, this time something much more potent: liar.
Politicians will stretch the truth. They'll exaggerate their accomplishments,
paper over their gaffes. Spin has long been the lingua franca of the political
realm. But George W. Bush and his administration have taken "normal" mendacity
to a startling new level far beyond lies of convenience. On top of the usual
massaging of public perception, they traffic in big lies, indulge in any number
of symptomatic small lies, and, ultimately, have come to embody dishonesty
itself. They are a lie. And people, finally, have started catching on.
None of this, needless to say, guarantees Bush a one-term presidency. The
far-right wing of the country—nearly one third of us by some
estimates—continues to regard all who refuse to drink the Kool-Aid (liberals,
rationalists, Europeans, et cetera) as agents of Satan. Bush could show up on
video canoodling with Paris Hilton and still bank their vote. Right-wing
talking heads continue painting anyone who fails to genuflect deeply enough as
a "hater," and therefore a nut job, probably a crypto-Islamist car bomber. But
these protestations have taken on a hysterical, almost comically desperate
tone. It's one thing to get trashed by Michael Moore. But when Nobel laureates,
a vast majority of the scientific community, and a host of current and former
diplomats, intelligence operatives, and military officials line up against you,
it becomes increasingly difficult to characterize the opposition as fringe
wackos.
Does anyone really favor an administration that so shamelessly lies? One that
so tenaciously clings to secrecy, not to protect the American people, but to
protect itself? That so willfully misrepresents its true aims and so knowingly
misleads the people from whom it derives its power? I simply cannot think so.
And to come to the same conclusion does not make you guilty of swallowing some
liberal critique of the Bush presidency, because that's not what this is. This
is the critique of a person who thinks that lying at the top levels of his
government is abhorrent. Call it the honest guy's critique of George W. Bush.
THE MOST EGREGIOUS EXAMPLES OF distortion and misdirection—which the
administration even now cannot bring itself to repudiate—involve our putative
"War on Terror" and our subsequent foray into Iraq.
During his campaign for the presidency, Mr. Bush pledged a more "humble"
foreign policy. "I would take the use of force very seriously," he said. "I
would be guarded in my approach." Other countries would resent us "if we're an
arrogant nation." He sniffed at the notion of "nation building." "Our military
is meant to fight and win wars. . . . And when it gets overextended, morale
drops." International cooperation and consensus building would be the
cornerstone of a Bush administration's approach to the larger world. Given
candidate Bush's remarks, it was hard to imagine him, as president, flipping a
stiff middle finger at the world and charging off adventuring in the Middle
East.
But didn't 9/11 reshuffle the deck, changing everything? Didn't Mr. Bush, on
September 12, 2001, awaken to the fresh realization that bad guys in charge of
Islamic nations constitute an entirely new and grave threat to us and have to
be ruthlessly confronted lest they threaten the American homeland again? Wasn't
Saddam Hussein rushed to the front of the line because he was complicit with
the hijackers and in some measure responsible for the atrocities in Washington,
D. C., and at the tip of Manhattan?
Well, no.
As Bush's former Treasury secretary, Paul O'Neill, and his onetime "terror
czar," Richard A. Clarke, have made clear, the president, with the enthusiastic
encouragement of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and Paul Wolfowitz, was
contemplating action against Iraq from day one. "From the start, we were
building the case against Hussein and looking at how we could take him out,"
O'Neill said. All they needed was an excuse. Clarke got the same impression
from within the White House. Afghanistan had to be dealt with first; that's
where the actual perpetrators were, after all. But the Taliban was a mere
appetizer; Saddam was the entrée. (Or who knows? The soup course?) It was
simply a matter of convincing the American public (and our representatives)
that war was justified.
The real—but elusive—prime mover behind the 9/11 attacks, Osama bin Laden,
was quickly relegated to a back burner (a staff member at Fox News—the
cable-TV outlet of the Bush White House—told me a year ago that mere mention
of bin Laden's name was forbidden within the company, lest we be reminded that
the actual bad guy remained at large) while Saddam's Iraq became International
Enemy Number One. Just like that, a country whose economy had been reduced to
shambles by international sanctions, whose military was less than half the size
it had been when the U. S. Army rolled over it during the first Gulf war, that
had extensive no-flight zones imposed on it in the north and south as well as
constant aerial and satellite surveillance, and whose lethal weapons and
capacity to produce such weapons had been destroyed or seriously degraded by UN
inspection teams became, in Mr. Bush's words, "a threat of unique urgency" to
the most powerful nation on earth.
Fanciful but terrifying scenarios were introduced: Unmanned aircraft, drones,
had been built for missions targeting the U. S., Bush told the nation. "We
don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud," National Security Advisor
Condoleezza Rice deadpanned to CNN. And, Bush maintained, "Iraq could decide on
any given day to provide a biological or chemical weapon to a terrorist group
or individual terrorists." We "know" Iraq possesses such weapons, Rumsfeld and
Vice-President Cheney assured us. We even "know" where they are hidden. After
several months of this mumbo jumbo, 70 percent of Americans had embraced the
fantasy that Saddam destroyed the World Trade Center.
ALL THESE ASSERTIONS have proved to be baseless and, we've since discovered,
were regarded with skepticism by experts at the time they were made. But
contrary opinions were derided, ignored, or covered up in the rush to war. Even
as of this writing, Dick Cheney clings to his mad assertion that Saddam was
somehow at the nexus of a worldwide terror network.
And then there was Abu Ghraib. Our "war president" may have been justified in
his assumption that Americans are a warrior people. He pushed the envelope in
thinking we'd be content as an occupying power, but he was sadly mistaken if he
thought that ordinary Americans would tolerate an image of themselves as
torturers. To be fair, the torture was meant to be secret. So were the memos
justifying such treatment that had floated around the White House, Pentagon,
and Justice Department for more than a year before the first photos came to
light. The neocons no doubt appreciate that few of us have the stones to
practice the New Warfare. Could you slip a pair of women's panties over the
head of a naked, cowering stranger while forcing him to masturbate? What would
you say while sodomizing him with a toilet plunger? Is keeping someone awake
till he hallucinates inhumane treatment or merely "sleep management"?
Most of us know the answers to these questions, so it was incumbent upon the
administration to pretend that Abu Ghraib was an aberration, not policy.
Investigations, we were assured, were already under way; relevant bureaucracies
would offer unstinting cooperation; the handful of miscreants would be sternly
disciplined. After all, they didn't "represent the best of what America's all
about." As anyone who'd watched the proceedings of the 9/11 Commission could
have predicted, what followed was the usual administration strategy of
stonewalling, obstruction, and obfuscation. The appointment of investigators
was stalled; documents were withheld, including the full report by Major
General Antonio Taguba, who headed the Army's primary investigation into the
abuses at Abu Ghraib. A favorite moment for many featured John McCain growing
apoplectic as Donald Rumsfeld and an entire tableful of army brass proved
unable to answer the simple question Who was in charge at Abu Ghraib?
The Bush administration no doubt had its real reasons for invading and
occupying Iraq. They've simply chosen not to share them with the American
public. They sought justification for ignoring the Geneva Convention and other
statutes prohibiting torture and inhumane treatment of prisoners but were loath
to acknowledge as much. They may have ideas worth discussing, but they don't
welcome the rest of us in the conversation. They don't trust us because they
don't dare expose their true agendas to the light of day. There is a surreal
quality to all this: Occupation is liberation; Iraq is sovereign, but we're in
control; Saddam is in Iraqi custody, but we've got him; we'll get out as soon
as an elected Iraqi government asks us, but we'll be there for years to come.
Which is what we counted on in the first place, only with rose petals and easy
coochie.
This Möbius reality finds its domestic analogue in the perversely cynical
"Clear Skies" and "Healthy Forests" sloganeering at Bush's EPA and in the
administration's irresponsible tax cutting and other fiscal shenanigans. But
the Bush administration has always worn strangely tinted shades, and you wonder
to what extent Mr. Bush himself lives in a world of his own imagining.
And chances are your America and George W. Bush's America are not the same
place. If you are dead center on the earning scale in real-world
twenty-first-century America, you make a bit less than $32,000 a year, and
$32,000 is not a sum that Mr. Bush has ever associated with getting by in his
world. Bush, who has always managed to fail upwards in his various careers, has
never had a job the way you have a job—where not showing up one morning gets
you fired, costing you your health benefits. He may find it difficult to relate
personally to any of the nearly two million citizens who've lost their jobs
under his administration, the first administration since Herbert Hoover's to
post a net loss of jobs. Mr. Bush has never had to worry that he couldn't
afford the best available health care for his children. For him, forty-three
million people without health insurance may be no more than a politically
inconvenient abstraction. When Mr. Bush talks about the economy, he is not
talking about your economy. His economy is filled with pals called Kenny-boy
who fly around in their own airplanes. In Bush's economy, his world, friends
relocate offshore to avoid paying taxes. Taxes are for chumps like you. You are
not a friend. You're the help. When the party Mr. Bush is hosting in his world
ends, you'll be left picking shrimp toast out of the carpet.
ALL ADMINISTRATIONS WILL DISSEMBLE, distort, or outright lie when their backs
are against the wall, when honesty begins to look like political suicide. But
this administration seems to lie reflexively, as if it were simply the easiest
option for busy folks with a lot on their minds. While the big lies are more
damning and of immeasurably greater import to the nation, it is the small,
unnecessary prevarications that may be diagnostic. Who lies when they don't
have to? When the simple truth, though perhaps embarrassing in the short run,
is nevertheless in one's long-term self-interest? Why would a president whose
calling card is his alleged rock-solid integrity waste his chief asset for
penny-ante stakes? Habit, perhaps. Or an inability to admit even small
mistakes.
Mr. Bush's tendency to meander beyond the bounds of truth was evident during
the 2000 campaign but was largely ignored by the mainstream media. His untruths
simply didn't fit the agreed-upon narrative. While generally acknowledged to be
lacking in experience, depth, and other qualifications typically considered
useful in a leader of the free world, Bush was portrayed as a decent fellow
nonetheless, one whose straightforwardness was a given. None of that "what the
meaning of is is" business for him. And, God knows, no furtive, taxpayer-funded
fellatio sessions with the interns. Al Gore, on the other hand, was depicted as
a dubious self-reinventor, stained like a certain blue dress by Bill Clinton's
prurient transgressions. He would spend valuable weeks explaining away
statements—"I invented the Internet"—that he never made in the first place.
All this left the coast pretty clear for Bush.
Scenario typical of the 2000 campaign: While debating Al Gore, Bush tells two
obvious—if not exactly earth-shattering—lies and is not challenged. First,
he claims to have supported a patient's bill of rights while governor of Texas.
This is untrue. He, in fact, vigorously resisted such a measure, only
reluctantly bowing to political reality and allowing it to become law without
his signature. Second, he announces that Gore has outspent him during the
campaign. The opposite is true: Bush has outspent Gore. These misstatements are
briefly acknowledged in major press outlets, which then quickly return to the
more germane issues of Gore's pancake makeup and whether a certain feminist
author has counseled him to be more of an "alpha male."
Having gotten away with such witless falsities, perhaps Mr. Bush and his team
felt somehow above day-to-day truth. In any case, once ensconced in the White
House, they picked up where they left off.
IN THE IMMEDIATE AFTERMATH and confusion of 9/11, Bush, who on that day was in
Sarasota, Florida, conducting an emergency reading of "The Pet Goat," was
whisked off to Nebraska aboard Air Force One. While this may have been entirely
sensible under the chaotic circumstances—for all anyone knew at the time,
Washington might still have been under attack—the appearance was, shall we
say, less than gallant. So a story was concocted: There had been a threat to
Air Force One that necessitated the evasive maneuver. Bush's chief political
advisor, Karl Rove, cited "specific" and "credible" evidence to that effect.
The story quickly unraveled. In truth, there was no such threat.
Then there was Bush's now infamous photo-op landing aboard the USS Abraham
Lincoln and his subsequent speech in front of a large banner emblazoned MISSION
ACCOMPLISHED. The banner, which loomed in the background as Bush addressed the
crew, became problematic as it grew clear that the mission in Iraq—whatever
that may have been—was far from accomplished. "Major combat operations," as
Bush put it, may have technically ended, but young Americans were still dying
almost daily. So the White House dealt with the questionable banner in a manner
befitting a president pledged to "responsibility and accountability": It blamed
the sailors. No surprise, a bit of digging by journalists revealed the banner
and its premature triumphalism to be the work of the White House communications
office.
More serious by an order of magnitude was the administration's dishonesty
concerning pre-9/11 terror warnings. As questions first arose about the
country's lack of preparedness in the face of terrorist assault, Condoleezza
Rice was dispatched to the pundit arenas to assure the nation that "no one
could have imagined terrorists using aircraft as weapons." In fact, terrorism
experts had warned repeatedly of just such a calamity. In June 2001, CIA
director George Tenet sent Rice an intelligence report warning that "it is
highly likely that a significant Al Qaeda attack is in the near future, within
several weeks." Two intelligence briefings given to Bush in the summer of 2001
specifically connected Al Qaeda to the imminent danger of hijacked planes being
used as weapons. According to The New York Times, after the second of these
briefings, titled "Bin Laden Determined to Attack Inside United States," was
delivered to the president at his ranch in Crawford, Texas, in August, Bush
"broke off from work early and spent most of the day fishing." This was the
briefing Dr. Rice dismissed as "historical" in her testimony before the 9/11
Commission.
What's odd is that none of these lies were worth the breath expended in the
telling. If only for self-serving political reasons, honesty was the way to go.
The flight of Air Force One could easily have been explained in terms of
security precautions taken in the confusion of momentous events. As for the
carrier landing, someone should have fallen on his or her sword at the first
hint of trouble: We told the president he needed to do it; he likes that stuff
and was gung-ho; we figured, What the hell?; it was a mistake. The banner? We
thought the sailors would appreciate it. In retrospect, also a mistake. Yup, we
sure feel dumb now. Owning up to the 9/11 warnings would have entailed more
than simple embarrassment. But done forthrightly and immediately, an honest
reckoning would have earned the Bush team some respect once the dust settled.
Instead, by needlessly tap-dancing, Bush's White House squandered vital
credibility, turning even relatively minor gaffes into telling examples of its
tendency to distort and evade the truth.
But image is everything in this White House, and the image of George Bush as a
noble and infallible warrior in the service of his nation must be fanatically
maintained, because behind the image lies...nothing? As Jonathan Alter of
Newsweek has pointed out, Bush has "never fully inhabited" the presidency. Bush
apologists can smilingly excuse his malopropisms and vagueness as the
plainspokenness of a man of action, but watching Bush flounder when attempting
to communicate extemporaneously, one is left with the impression that he is
ineloquent not because he can't speak but because he doesn't bother to think.
GEORGE W. BUSH PROMISED to "change the tone in Washington" and ran for office
as a moderate, a "compassionate conservative," in the focus-group-tested
sloganeering of his campaign. Yet he has governed from the right wing of his
already conservative party, assiduously tending a "base" that includes, along
with the expected Fortune 500 fat cats, fiscal evangelicals who talk openly of
doing away with Social Security and Medicare, of shrinking government to the
size where they can, in tax radical Grover Norquist's phrase, "drown it in the
bathtub." That base also encompasses a healthy share of anti-choice zealots,
homophobic bigots, and assorted purveyors of junk science. Bush has tossed
bones to all of them—"partial birth" abortion legislation, the promise of a
constitutional amendment banning marriage between homosexuals, federal
roadblocks to embryonic-stem-cell research, even comments suggesting
presidential doubts about Darwinian evolution. It's not that Mr. Bush
necessarily shares their worldview; indeed, it's unclear whether he embraces
any coherent philosophy. But this president, who vowed to eschew politics in
favor of sound policy, panders nonetheless in the interest of political gain.
As John DiIulio, Bush's former head of the Office of Community and Faith-Based
Initiatives, once told this magazine, "What you've got is everything—and I
mean everything—being run by the political arm."
This was not what the American electorate opted for when, in 2000, by a slim
but decisive margin of more than half a million votes, they chose...the other
guy. Bush has never had a mandate. Surveys indicate broad public
dissatisfaction with his domestic priorities. How many people would have voted
for Mr. Bush in the first place had they understood his eagerness to pass on
crushing debt to our children or seen his true colors regarding global warming
and the environment? Even after 9/11, were people really looking to be dragged
into an optional war under false pretenses?
If ever there was a time for uniting and not dividing, this is it. Instead, Mr.
Bush governs as if by divine right, seeming to actually believe that a wise God
wants him in the White House and that by constantly evoking the horrible memory
of September 11, 2001, he can keep public anxiety stirred up enough to carry
him to another term.
UNDERSTANDABLY, SOME SUPPORTERS of Mr. Bush's will believe I harbor a personal
vendetta against the man, some seething resentment. One conservative
commentator, based on earlier remarks I've made, has already discerned
"jealousy" on my part; after all, Bush, the son of a former president, now
occupies that office himself, while I, most assuredly, will not. Truth be told,
I have no personal feelings for Bush at all. I hardly know him, having met him
only twice, briefly and uneventfully—once during my father's presidency and
once during my father's funeral. I'll acknowledge occasional annoyance at the
pretense that he's somehow a clone of my father, but far from threatening, I
see this more as silly and pathetic. My father, acting roles excepted, never
pretended to be anyone but himself. His Republican party, furthermore, seems a
far cry from the current model, with its cringing obeisance to the religious
Right and its kill-anything-that-moves attack instincts. Believe it or not, I
don't look in the mirror every morning and see my father looming over my
shoulder. I write and speak as nothing more or less than an American citizen,
one who is plenty angry about the direction our country is being dragged by the
current administration. We have reached a critical juncture in our nation's
history, one ripe with both danger and possibility. We need leadership with the
wisdom to prudently confront those dangers and the imagination to boldly grasp
the possibilities. Beyond issues of fiscal irresponsibility and ill-advised
militarism, there is a question of trust. George W. Bush and his allies don't
trust you and me. Why on earth, then, should we trust them?
Fortunately, we still live in a democratic republic. The Bush team cannot
expect a cabal of right-wing justices to once again deliver the White House.
Come November 2, we will have a choice: We can embrace a lie, or we can restore
a measure of integrity to our government. We can choose, as a bumper sticker I
spotted in Seattle put it, SOMEONE ELSE FOR PRESIDENT.
Krishnacharya1
Woman's Dying Wish: Bush Defeated
Local10, Fort Lauderdale
MIAMI BEACH, Fla. -- A South Florida woman who died this week had an unusual
last request. Instead of flower or contributions in her name to a charity, she
asked those who loved her to try to make sure President George W. Bush is not
re-elected.
Joan Abbey, shown here before her death, wanted most of all to have President
George W. Bush lose the November election. Loved ones said that Joan Abbey was
committed to her political passions, even in death.
Abbey was born in Montreal, but lived for many years in Miami Beach and
Aventura. Family and friends came from as far away as Canada and California to
remember Abbey at the Mount Nebo Jewish Cemetery in Miami.
Abbey, who was a lifelong Democrat, died Monday--coincidentally on the first
day of the Democratic National Convention.
Her sister, Tillie Shapiro, said, "She was just a caring person...She cared
about people, and people who were disadvantaged."
Abbey was buried the day after the Democratic convention ended. Her unusual
death notice in the Miami Herald said: "You can honor Joan's values by voting
against George Bush and contributing to a liberal or Democratic cause."
Abbey's nephew, Martin Shapiro, said, "What she cared most about was improving
circumstances in this country... getting rid of George Bush and making this a
better country for all people."
Coincidentally, the presiding rabbi, Brett Goldstein, is a registered Democrat
but is voting for Bush, and he questioned the timing of Abbey's message at such
a sensitive time.
"My contention is that if there's any situation that's sacrosanct, it should be
devoid of political ramifications," Goldstein said. "Although people have the
opportunity and they can do it if they want to, it is not really appropriate at
this time."
Shapiro said, "It was her (Abbey's) essence. It was her core value to try to
see this country become a better place and become a more just society. And I
think that was the last word she'd want to leave."
Abbey did not want her age known. Many friends said she remained forever young
in spirit and staunchly committed to her beliefs.
http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=123