Letters to the Editor
Jeff Bowles
Published Letters: 111 Editor's Choice: 12
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incompetence...
[Read the article: Remembrance of Bush's fiascoes]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I've always defined incompetence precisely, to avoid confusing it with ignorance (lack of knowledge) or stupidity (inability to learn something).
Incompetence is when someone is tasked with a important job, and doesn't do it well AND ALSO stands in the way of anyone else getting it done.
For example, the surgeon who is outstanding, who shows up at my surgery with scotch on his breath and bad coordination, is incompetent at that moment. He might have the knowledge and experience and raw intelligence for the task, but at that specific moment he's screwing up my probability of a good outcome and he's also preventing another surgeon from being at the table doing the job. That's incompetent. (I cop to the sexist wording. "He" could be a "she".)
Bush, as president, has specific tasks. The most important is in his oath of office: to protect/defend the constitution. (That is, by the way, FAR more important than his stated priority of keeping the americans safe. Although the Supreme Court has written that "the constitution is not a suicide pact," national security will work better with the three branches of government cooperating and functioning in a constitutional manner than the recent shenanighans.)
He's not doing it - protecting/defending the constitution. Just ain't getting done. Worse, he and his henchmen (Cheney's henchmen) are dancing around privacy issues, illegal search issues, accountability to Congress issues, and telling the press that they don't like/respect/honor rulings from judges they don't agree with.
The difference between the current creeps and Nixon's creeps? There was a bit of honor in the Republican party during Nixon's time. Some republicans bit the bullet and voted to throw him out, on the House Judiciary Committee, and that was the end. He resigned within 48 hours.
By occupying his position, no one else is. That's painfully obvious, but it means that there is a branch of government being administered poorly, and no one's available to change that. (The gaming of the political party system means that Congress seems unwilling to demand its roll in overseeing him.)
The real question before us is, will we recognize the political system that we end up with in January 2009? It seems clear that the founders of the country would not.
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Are you with me on this one, Powell?
[Read the article: The evil of banality]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The weird positioning of this statement, mentioned in the article, tells a lot.
It sounds like a lot of the Bush White House - read that as "Bush / Cheney / Rumsfeld" - plays that sort of game.
Rumsfeld is known for pushing for a policy until he gets his way, often scheduling meetings with friendly forces (or rescheduling without opposition) to get that agreement.
Cheney is just a creepy bully. ("Go fuck yourself" didn't surprise us, right?)
And Bush does the old frat boy routine, "you're coming partying with us, right?" very well. (You have to work especially hard to say, "no" instead of "yes" with this, the way it's worded.)
So, the Bush White House encourages yes-men and discourages discussion.
That made it a particularly lousy job for a career soldier who was in a non-soldier position in the State Department.
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meds for kids?
[Read the article: The real menace to American kids]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]It's easier to medicate a kid than to figure out how to engage them.
It's easier to send someone else's kid to figure against a country, than do the hard work ("heavy lifting") of diplomacy.
It's easier to sell to a predisposed audience (teenagers) than to figure out what is good, helpful, and necessary.
And yes, it's easier to pass the buck in Congress than to do your job.
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Gulliver and the image with the Lilliputians...
[Read the article: Can Frodo save Iraq?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The US body politic is Gulliver; the partisan hacks and neocons, the six-inch Lilliputians who have him tied down.
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Dip away, mistuh...
[Read the article: May I dip my English muffin in my egg yolk, please?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Actually, the wife is right. I am not saying that she needed to look at her husband with abject horror, but wiping your plate with bread to mop up sauce, gravy, egg yolk, etc in public is pretty grotty. If you are home alone (with no guests) it is okay, but really, for those who know better it is just not done in public.
Darlin', that's what biscuits are for!
And in France, they have such great sauces that it's a venial sin to leave a bit on the plate.
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Is that all? is that it?
[Read the article: Shuttle without diplomacy]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Midway through this reportage, we find that...
Just as they used the Iraq Study Group as their instrument, Cheney galvanized his neoconservative allies inside and outside the administration to counter it.
It invites the question, why doesn't this article spend more time on the neoconservatives that are still influencing policy.
It is intriguing how we ignore those "bit players" at our own expense. An article describing Nelson Rockefeller's time under Jerry Ford (published in the NY Times, by Sam Roberts on 12/31/06) told us that...
Moreover, observers said that Mr. Rockefeller's ambitions to dominate domestic policy were sabotaged by Donald H. Rumsfeld, then the White House chief of staff, who recently resigned as President George W. Bush's defense secretary.
Republican elders knew about this bastard's modus operandi back then, but helped into into power in 2001. Bully for us, indeed.
So, who are these players and why are the cabinet members listening to these dicks?
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I'm willing to bet...
[Read the article: Ari Fleischer, mob rat?]
[Read more letters about this article: Here].... that Dubya and Cheney said, all along, "we'll pardon anyone who needs it, on the last day of the administration."
Bastards.
And Ari Fleischer, knowing how these weasels lie and betray their so-called principles, realizes that he's far enough down on the totem pole that he doesn't have enough dirt to blackmail Dubya into pardoning him. So he cut a deal.
(Casper Weinberger was pardoned by Bush's dad, and people said at the time that it was so he wasn't asked to testify about Bush-as-VP and his involvement with Iran/Contra.)
Ain't it grand to watch this administration, which claimed to be all about "character" when running again Bill Clinton's "record" in 2000, is more corrupt than anything in the last century in the US?