Subject:
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Re: I'm Glad Bush is Standing by Rumsfeld
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Thu, 13 May 2004 05:24:20 GMT
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Viewed:
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660 times
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In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Don Heyse wrote:
> In lugnet.off-topic.debate, Chris Phillips wrote:
> > It's a really good thing that Bush is standing by Rummy through the
> > Iraqi prisoner abuse scandal. This means that George is caught in a
> > classic Monkey Trap. [snip]
> > Since Dubya will not cut his losses, he has lashed his canoe to a
> > sinking ship, and he'll be dragged down and swept out of office as
> > this scandal inevitably widens. The arrogance of the current
> > administration has finally caught up with them.
>
> I think the part about the sinking ship may be just wishful thinking
> on the part of the democrats, but time will tell.
I have seen the writing on the wall for Bush ever since he dragged us into an
unjustified war. His administration has repeatedly shown signs that they have
completely mis-read the situation in Iraq from the beginning, and it was sadly
doomed to go this way from the start. You simply cannot win a war of ideology
with bullets. I believe that they still don't realize how deep we are in it,
even today. There is absolutely no way these guys will successfully navigate
the coming months and get re-^H^H^Helected.
> Anyhow, what I'm wondering is what makes you feel this current
> administration is any more arrogant than the previous administration,
> or the current opposition party contenders. I think they're all
> arrogant. That's why they get into politics.
>
> Also, while I sense you dislike the president by your use of a
> nickname, what specifically do you like about the competition that
> makes you think things will be better under them? I haven't seen
> anything yet to make me want to vote against the republicans, and
> I can think of plenty of issues where I disagree with the current
> administration.
I contend that it would be virtually impossible for *anyone* to screw this
country up any worse than Bush has these past few years. I'm not talking just
about the economy, but about the immediate threat to basic human rights and
personal freedom (both here and abroad) that the current administration
represents. In evidence:
+ During the 2000 election, Bush fought tooth and nail to prevent having
election officials make an effort to determine the will of the voters in
Florida. The head of his election campaign in Florida also happened to be the
state's election commissioner, and didn't even pretend to be unbiased in the way
she performed her job. And when the courts handed Bush the presidency on a
legal technicality, he smugly behaved as if he had won a landslide mandate from
the people. (Coming this fall: watch for massive problems with the new
electronic voting machines.)
+ In their first months in office, the administration held secret meetings to
set the public energy policy for the nation. (Why do they still refuse to
disclose who the participants in those discussions were?) VP Cheney eventually
said that they spoke with "all interested parties: representatives of the oil,
gas, and electric industries." Excuse me, Dick, but I think that environmental
and consumer advocacy groups were also "interested" in participating in these
discussions.
+ The Bush administration has invoked executive priviledge and labeled a record
number of documents as "sensitive to national security" in order to keep them
out of the public view. On several occasions, they steadfastly refused to
declassify documents, only to suddenly reverse their stance when it became
politically advantageous for them to do so. Either the information is sensitive
or it isn't, and clearly this administration feels that they have a lot to hide
from the American People.
+ Bush has repeatedly used alarmist speech about terrorism/9-11 to condone
errosions of personal freedoms that had been the foundation of our entire way of
life. They have implemented a massive Big Brother surveillance program in the
name of preventing terrorism that, according to FBI data, 99.9% of the time has
been used for other purposes.
+ The administration has detained thousands of people without due process or
even access to legal counsel. In most cases, they won't even say who they have
in custody. If it is really true that "these are bad people" then why not prove
it in a court of law? And the big "oops" here is that 90% of those initially
detained in Afghanistan and Iraq were later determined to be wrongfully
ensnared.
+ "We know he has WoMD and we know where they are." Bush and his entire
cabinet lied to the world in an attempt to justify the invasion of Iraq. They
later admitted that WoMD was merely a convenient excuse that they felt would
convince the public that the invasion was justified. (Kinda puts any doozies
Bill Clinton might have told into perspective- at least thousands of people
didn't die because he had consensual sex in the Oval Office.)
+ Going into the war, the president grossly underestimated the amount of
personnel, resources, money, and time that would be required to sustain the
invasion of Iraq. At the time, he disputed the higher esitmates by others in
Washington that have proven to be hauntingly accurate.
+ "All together now-- Quagmire!" Cheney reportedly taunted the doves in DC
with this statement around the time that Bush was claiming the end of major
combat operations in Iraq. Clearly we were not out of the woods at that point;
we still are not today. Once again showing how badly they underestimated the
true cost in lives and honor that this war would cost.
+ Prisoner abuse. (Shock and Awe, indeed!) Bush and Rumsfeld are trying to
pretend that they first found out about this when they saw the pictures on TV.
Even if this ridiculous assertion were true, the Commander-in-Chief should
accept responsibility for the fact that these abuses happened on his watch. But
if the abuses were an isolated abberation, the acts of "a few bad apples", then
why are reports now surfacing that similar abuses occurred in Afghanistan and
Guantanamo Bay? These other reports belie the claim that this behavior was not
sanctioned from Washington. Systematic abuse, torture, rape, and murder...
gee, wasn't that the "Plan B" excuse for "Operation Iraqi Freedom"- to relieve a
downtrodden people from the ravages of these abuses?
+ In just three years, the U.S. went from having a record budget surplus to
having a record deficit. Several million jobs evaporated, and all Bush has done
about it is to give massive tax breaks to the wealthy.
+ Halliburton continues to reap billions of dollars in contracts with the
government to rebuild all the stuff that George has blown up overseas. There
was a time when the phrase "the appearance of impropriety" actually meant
something.
+ Record gasoline prices are hurting consumers and businesses alike, while U.S.
oil companies post record profits. And for good measure, the Bush
administration has been radically increasing our fuel reserves which can only
serve to boost demand and send prices even further out of sight. But hey, it's
not like Bush/Cheney have any ties to the oil industry...NOT!
+ Bush instructed the FCC to relax media ownership rules. How can anyone even
pretend that it is in the best interests of an open society for the public
airwaves to be controlled by a few very large corporations?
+ It is somehow disrespectful to photograph the coffins of our soldiers killed
in action, yet it is perfectly acceptable to use footage of the WTC tragedy in
campaign ads?
+ Bush avoided military service, went MIA, and apparently even falsified his
military record. Yet somehow he hopes to gain political traction by criticizing
John Kerry for protesting the war upon his return from duty in Viet Nam. Some
in the administration have gone as far as to claimn that Kerry is "unfit to be
Commander-in-Chief" because of his war protests 30 years ago. If having a
conscience is detrimental to holding the highest office in this land, then maybe
Bush is better qualified after all.
These are but a few examples of how the current administration believes it can
get away with anything. They clearly don't care to maintain even the appearance
of integrity. They have no comprehension of the damage they are doing to
America's reputation in the world, nor concern for the consequences. They do
not understand that the tactics they use to try to track down terrorists have
become the greatest recruiting tool these groups could ever have wished for.
They just don't give a **** about anything except to advance their own special
interests, benefitting few at the expense of so very many.
I can think of nothing more dangerous than to reward the appalling performance
of the Bush Administration with four more years in office. I can only pray that
my fellow contrymen will wake up from their 9-11 stupor for long enough to
realize just how true this is.
- Chris.
"Intelligence Failure." Is that the same as "stupid?"
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Message has 1 Reply:
Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: I'm Glad Bush is Standing by Rumsfeld
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| (...) [snip] (...) I think the part about the sinking ship may be just wishful thinking on the part of the democrats, but time will tell. Anyhow, what I'm wondering is what makes you feel this current administration is any more arrogant than the (...) (20 years ago, 12-May-04, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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