Letters to the Editor
-
What a web of deceit we see... Who Wins? --- the celery does!
"And to buck1 for nasty galore projections,"
The projections are all yours. Name any nasty "projection" of mine. Do you think you are the judge of all?
-
@Glenn
You've got "Tristan Shady" in Update II.
It's Tristram Shandy.
http://www.tristram-shandy.com/
Will the real Tristan Shady please stand up?
-
Aych
Back in my ngo days, I knew where that statistic came from...probably a world bank estimate of aid per capita. Feel free to look it up if you think it wrong, I don't have the time today unfortunately,...Certainly more than African per capita, at the least. My point is of course lots of light but little heat; the world allows the US and Israel to economically marginalize Palestinians and then throws aid at the problem rather than trying to solve the root problem....
-
Not incoherent, GC
It's no wonder he mumbles incoherent sounds.
He's just speaking in Czech tongues. The head banging is left over from his old days in a rock band. ;->
-
Pedinska...
...the fact that these countries had the unmitigated gall to even try to kick the dollar to the curb might very well have been more significant than the possible financial fallout...
I'd have thought so, too, in the past, especially given how testy GWB gets when things aren't done properly for his base. But, now I have to wonder... given our soiling of the credit reserves (?) world-wide.
I heard a report yesterday, either on the radio or online, that even Lapplanders are being affected by our mortgage crisis. Just for buying some securities that they thought were top-rated.
-
The rivers
I keep mentioning that PBS American Masters series on Pete Seeger... because things keep reminding me of it, this time WT's post on Symbology and TiDC's response re: the Potomac.
So, I did a little searching to see if I could find any pieces of it, and there is actually a preview available, and it does show a little bit about the Hudson River, where he has lived for so many years, and the enormous lengths he went to in order to get it cleaned up. He promised his daughter, for one thing, that she'd be able to swim in it as an adult. And, then he convinced a bunch of folks to spend a year or two building a sloop so they could sail up and down the river. And they did that. Lots more music.
The preview also includes one of his former students crediting the FBI with the resurgence of American folk music. One of my favorite anecdotes.
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/seeger_p.html
__________________________________________________________
Thanks for the heads up. I'll look for that.
Union Carbide and other companies have been dumping industrial waste into the Potomac since FDR's time, I figure. And very few people have shown any inclination to do anything about the state of the river. Very few species of fish are found in its waters. There is a preponderance of catfish, because they are bottomfeeders and hardy fish.
Seeger is a good interview, I've heard him on the local Pacifica station on occasion.
-
@Bucky
For a person who espouses peace and cooperation above all else you sure seem to be petulant and belligerent a good deal of time. Why must you go to war over every perceived slight? Sometimes they are not real, just imagined. I may tease you, but I don't dislike you. You can attack me now. I'm taking a nap. Get me while I'm sleeping!
-
And when you preorder Great American Hypocrits...
Make sure to pick up a copy of Douglas Feith's upcoming ~700 page book on April 8th to go with it, War and Decision: Inside the Pentagon at the Dawn of the War on Terrorism
http://www.amazon.com/War-Decision-Inside-Pentagon-Terrorism/dp/0060899735/antiwarbookstore
There is a fun article on antiwar.com about it:
http://www.antiwar.com/orig/giraldi.php?articleid=12575
Neocon Valor Is an Act of Feith
...
Doug is particularly scornful of Colin Powell, who publicly appeared to be a voice of moderation. Feith does not like moderation, and he refers to Powell as a "dove." Powell "downplayed" the threat posed by Iraq while never opposing the actual invasion, according to Feith. Powell also is blamed for failing to convince France, Germany, and Turkey to support the Iraq war effort, conveniently ignoring that popular sentiment in all three countries was overwhelmingly opposed to joining the United States on its fool's errand. Feith also takes shots at his nemesis Tommy Franks, whom he accuses of having no interest in postwar planning; at Condoleezza Rice for failing to coordinate policy; and at Paul Bremer for doing more harm than good while in Iraq. All of those charges are more than a little bit true, but it is interesting how Feith completely exonerates both himself and the Pentagon for the massive failures in judgment that characterized the Iraq fiasco.
Doug claims that his plan to establish an Iraqi Interim Authority that would have shared power between U.S. officials and appointed Iraqis, many of whom would have been exiles, would have worked but for the sabotage carried out by disloyal subordinates at the State Department and CIA. Ahmed Chalabi, who provided reams of false information to justify the war in the first place, would have undoubtedly been one of those appointees. Feith calls the opposition to Chalabi "pathological," but it is more likely true that everyone else was seeing what he chose to ignore. Chalabi has been convicted of massive bank fraud in Jordan, is considered an intelligence fabricator both by the CIA and State Department, and is generally believed to be a double agent who was working for the Iranian intelligence service at the same time as he was "assisting" the U.S. occupation in Iraq.
Short Version: Feith plays apologist for himself by blaming everyone else (except Bush) and everything Feith did was entirely "appropriate".
-
O'Hanlon
Michael O'Hanlon has been on BBC America News the past couple of evenings. His voice has moderated somewhat, but was unopposed by Katy Kay's scheduler.
-
Aycharaych
I'm going to ask once more, why did Dick Ctheney have America jump into what it is perfectly obvious he knew was going to be a quagmire? Until this question is adequately answered no amount of planning or strategizing is going to to do much good.
-- Aycharaych
Tuesday, March 25, 2008 12:24 PM
The quagmire is a feature, not a bug.
The whole point - the only point - was, is and remains absolute power for the executive.
Absolute power for the executive requires a condition of permanent war.
Permanent war requires a quagmire that consumes human, material and financial resources for the indefinite future.
As long as the majority of citizens don't have to deal directly and immediately with the casualties and other costs of the war, it can be maintained forever.
McCain gave it away when he said he had no problem staying in Iraq for 100 years. Of course he has no problem with it; staying in Iraq (plus Iran, Syria and who know what else) for 100 years is the whole point.