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Dear BuzzFlash,
At the Time we didn't know why....
White House Rejects Tobacco Tax-Increase Recommendation
ARTICLE LINK
And now we know....
BUSH SENIOR BUYS TOBACCO INDUSTRY IN CIOCIARIA
ARTICLE LINK
Chewgababy
Subj: Conservatives Against the War
Buzz,
[John J. Duncan, Jr., R-TN]
CONSERVATIVES AGAINST A WAR WITH IRAQ
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Duncan) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, most people do not realize how many conservatives are against going to war in Iraq.
A strong majority of nationally syndicated conservative columnists have come out against this war. Just three of the many, many examples I could give include the following:
Charlie Reese, a staunch conservative, who was elected a couple of years ago as the favorite columnist of C-SPAN viewers, wrote that a U.S. attack on Iraq is a prescription for the decline and fall of the American empire."
Paul Craig Roberts, who was one of the highest-ranking Treasury Department officials under President Reagan and now a nationally syndicated conservative columnist, wrote: "An invasion of Iraq is likely the most thoughtless action in modern history.
James Webb, a hero of Vietnam and President Reagan's Secretary of the Navy, wrote: "The issue before us is not whether the United States should end the regime of Saddam Hussein, but whether we as a Nation are prepared to occupy territory in the Middle East for the next 30 to 50 years."
It is a traditional conservative position, Mr. Speaker, to be against huge deficit spending.
PWM
Support Our Troops, Support Our Nation
Dear Buzz,
The only member of Congress with a son or daughter in the military is Senator , a Democrat, of course, from the Dakotas.
So that's quite a lot of demagogic drivel that right wing senators and congressmen come up against people opposed to the war, quite a lot when no one in your family is being sent off to die. And die they will, fighting a discretionary war, part fueled by politics, part fueled by oil, part fueled by mad dreams of empire building.
And let's not forget that the people leading this war never fought in one, with the exception of Colin Powell. Cheney and Bush both consciously and purposefully avoided service in Vietnam. They conveniently let other young men die in their places.
A BuzzFlash Reader
RE: Scripted Press Conferences and the Lapdog Media
Dear BuzzFlash,
So, in spite of those 55% who believe Iraq was responsible for the WTC attacks, and other polls that show a majority of Americans are OK with Bush's revving up of our war machines while counting the days until we invade, Quinnipiac University found that by a 48 percent to 44 percent margin, voters would pick the as yet unknown candidate out of nine Democrats running over the Republican incumbent.
The Big Question now is, will waging war against Iraq help or harm Bush's approval ratings?
FC
Rochester,
NY
Subj: Can We Fire Bush?
Dear Buzz,
Since bush is paid by us, I want to know the following answers.
Can we just fire george bush and all his helpers?
Can we all just mail him a pink slip of paper with the words "you're fired" written on it?
Reasons: Insubordination, incompetence and over all inability to follow directions as given by the American people and people all over the world?
Just curious,
A BuzzFlash Reader
3000+ Targets?
Dear Buzz,
If the war gang has 3000+ targets for their missiles/bombs why won't they tell the inspectors where the targets are and what is there that needs to be vaporized??
John
Kailua, Hawaii
Subj: because the French bashing continues . . .
To BuzzFlash & readers:
It has now become de rigueur to bash everything French. Restaurateurs are serving “liberty”fries and are dumping their French wine; a radio station is literally bashing a Peugeot. I propose that, as the piece de resistance, it is time for Americans en masse to leave their cul de sacs and rendezvous at the Statue of Liberty. They can then dismantle it and sell the pieces as souvenirs on eBay. Bon voyage, Statue of Liberty.
The French, as a gesture of enduring friendship, gave us the Statue in 1885. Americans, ever so keen to be a la mode, have now decided that France is no longer our friend. This gift, otherwise known as “Liberty Enlightening the World”, is one of the most universal symbols of freedom and democracy. Now that freedom and democracy, as well as friendship, have become passé, our chauvinism requires that we rid ourselves of such symbols.
Vivian Phillips
Chapel Hill
Subj: President Stupid
The only thing more ridiculous than that idiotic press conference and the idiot behind the podium are the fools, dittoheads, and numbskulls who defend, like their life depends on it, their idiot-in-chief.
That guy in the White House couldn't pour water from a boot if the instructions were on the heal.
Joey Martin
Chicago
Subj: Mall versus American Story
I couldn't understand how the man who was harassed at the mall could possibly be facing charges so I called the D.A.'s office in Albany to let them know what I thought, and that people are watching. They were quick to point out all charges were dropped and a little embarrassed that a citizen was calling from across the country.
Thanks for making the world a little bit more accessible to all of us.
Balou
Subj: You Can Fool Some People all the Time: An Open Letter to the Press...
Dear Sirs:
I am sure that you all are familiar with the above line. I am contacting you regarding the so-called Press Conference. The level of deceit is quite impressive. I mean this is bad, when even Ari Fleischer admits that the Press Conference was ... scripted. (C-SPAN)
Do you people have no shame left? That is my only explanation. Not since the days of President Nixon have we had this level of deceit and half truths, and staged conferences. Hold it, back in the 70s we still had an independent press. It was one of the proudest moments of the US Press when Watergate was broken ... which in the end led to Watergate. In that era the Press would have even covered the NSA leak ... apparently three major networks have dropped the story at the last possible moment. This is a major story, but I guess not convenient for the people in power. (CNN, FOX and CNBC, per Australian Press)
It is shameful to have to think of the US Press at the same level as PRAVDA and Izvestia, back in the good old days of the Soviet Union. It is shameful to have to turn to foreign media to find out what is going on in this country. What happened to you people? What happened to real journalism in this country?
It is shameful to have to turn to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation to see a real debate on the war ... by the way Mister Koppel kudos for the small effort, but you should try three hours of no commercial TV, with people from all walks of life, not 90 minutes where questions were skillfully dodged by some on your panel. Though it was better than nothing and treating PNAC with kid gloves, embarrassing. Try watching the Canadian effort to see where our press used to be.
But back to the so-called Press Conference ... that was a joke. This was not a real press conference ... but the exercise that was done by a press that is no longer free. Our founding fathers said that a free press was basic for a functioning democracy. Our founding fathers were correct in this statement. You will not like my diagnosis of this so called free press.
First off drop the pretense, there is no so called Liberal Press left. There is only a very conservative press left. There are shades of gray, from NPR which is to the left of you, but hardly left leaning ... best case this is a center right outpost, to the extremes of shame at CNBC, which is about to put on the air Michael Wiener (Savage), a racist who espouses racial purity.
It seems that the networks only care for ratings. They only care for numbers, and their role in a democracy is secondary. You have all been used. There is some hope, every so often we can see it. But very little hope in fact, that you will react to what is ailing this democracy ... or whatever is left of this democracy.
If a real debate on the war was carried out, with all exposes brought out, support for the war, no UN Support (right now in the mid 30s) would drop even further. As the USA\ CNN poll showed the country is deeply divided, as much as it was in 1973. The Press ladies and gentlemen is nothing more than enabling this course of events ... this is a sad day for democracy.
President Lincoln said it before the rise of the mass media. You can fool some people some of the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time.
You all need to wake up and realize that you are no longer as respected as you once were. Jingoism and the mightily dollar is killing you as a respected profession. I guess that not only Helen Thomas was snubbed last night, but Edward R Murrow must be doing somersaults in his grave.
Sincerely,
A very concerned American.
Subj: What Else - Bush
I am reminded every time I hear Mr. Bush and others say that you are for us or against us and the reprisals against France and now Mexico of what most of our parents used to say when we would argue that so and so is doing something: "If Johnny jumped off a cliff would you follow?" It seems to me that France, Germany, and Russia are following this simple admonition.
Gail Duncan
Subj: Whose United States of America Is This Anyway?
As George W. Bush and his minions work feverishly to deprive us of more and more of our Freedoms and Liberties, they seem to have forgotten who is in charge of the United States government; it is We the People of the United States of America.
We do not enjoy our Freedoms and Liberties at the president's discretion; nor at the discretion of administration officials; those Freedoms and Liberties are ours by right of the Constitution of the United States.
We do not live as American citizens courtesy of the president's permission; we live as American citizens courtesy of the Constitution, given to us by our wise and learned Founding Fathers.
George W. Bush, for the moment, occupies the White House, not by having won an election but by close vote of the United States Supreme Court, which had no Constitutional right to decide a presidential election. Our Constitution specifically states that: "if no person have such majority [of electoral votes], then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President." Our Founding Fathers specifically decided the House of Representatives should make that decision because it is the chamber closest to -- and most representative of -- the people; the Supreme Court decidedly does not fit that criterion.
Nowhere in our Constitution does it state that the Supreme Court should decide a presidential election. Nowhere.
We do not have to please the president, but he has to please us or he will not be re-elected. And, yet, we have as our current president a man who so misunderstands where the power resides in America that he has stated it is for others to explain themselves to him -- that one of the beauties of being president is that he doesn't have to explain himself to anyone.
Wrong.
Or I should say, "wrong again," Mr. President.
The American government, as explained so beautifully to us all by President Abraham Lincoln, belongs to the American people and is a government of the people, by the people and for the people.
We have practiced self-government for more than 200 years, and we have become fairly good at it. There are no dictators in America, and no one can take away our Constitutionally-guaranteed Freedoms, Rights, and Liberties except by Constitutional amendment.
If our president and his administration think otherwise, they need to check a few books out of any public library and read the pertinent passages. I know there are excellent libraries available to them in Washington D. C. It is time -- it is past time -- for our present White House occupant to avail himself of the reading material available on the topic of the Constitution of the United States. Maybe the Library of Congress would be a good place to start. It's free.
Lois Erwin
Subj: "This is a scripted . . ."
Ed Nickow's commentary, <http://www.BuzzFlash.com/contributors/03/03/07_scripted.html> refers to "The item about CNN "cleansing" their transcript of the Bush press conference to eliminate the reference to it being a scripted event".
I just checked the CNN transcript at <http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0303/06/se.04.html>. It says:
King -- John King?
(CROSSTALK)
BUSH: This is a scripted.
(LAUGHTER)
The White House's own transcript, at <http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/03/20030306-8.html>, says:
We'll be there in a minute. King, John King. This is a scripted -- (laughter.)
I haven't been able to find the transcripts with the "This is unscripted" line, but I wonder if it was the result of an honest mistake, mishearing " This is a scripted".
If there was an attempt to cover up Bush's apparent admission that the press conference was scripted, it seems to have been short-lived.
Keith Thompson
Re: Scripted Press Conference, Lapdog Media
Dear BuzzFlash,
The so-called war on terrorism and the impending war on Iraq are merely diversions for the real war. The real war is the war on the American people being waged by George W. Bush and his Axis of Evil -- Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Ashcroft. The war started when they stole the election. Its two biggest victories have been the stealing of the people's budget surplus to the tune of 1.3 trillion dollars to pay back Bush's big oil and big contributor buddies, and the trampling on the constitution in the Patriot Act. The war on the people is right out in the open right under their noses but half the country doesn't see it because they are confused by the diversionary tactic of the so-called wars on terrorism and Iraq. Bush doesn't give a rat's ass over the fact that what he is doing will make him un-reelectable in 2004. Those guys don't really care about that. It's all about money and the loads of it they are making off stealing the people's money through those tax cuts and those oil-drilling schemes, plus the oil they are going to seize when they occupy Iraq using the blood of sons and husbands of American working families as their fodder. They'll lose the 2004 elections and then happily go off to Europe or to Rocky Mountain hideaways and enjoy their loot, knowing that they successfully pulled off their big robbery of the American Treasury.
David Van Os
BuzzFlash,
I am sending this to my local paper and to my representatives. You can use it and change it however you want.
Michelle Miller
It is not too late to turn back. I have heard the refrain "It is too late. We must go to war. If we do not we will lose our credibility." I believe there is something more at stake here. Are we a representative democracy or are we a dictatorship? This war is the creation of one man. If we go to war, we are a dictatorship. If we can stop this war, we are a democracy. Look around you. Do you know anyone who wants to go to war? I do not and I live in a Republican stronghold. No one wants this war except the President and his advisors. Are we a democracy? Do we have a say in our government? If we go to war it will be because we are not a democracy; we do not have a government by the people, for the people and of the people. Bush is not the only person in our government. As our sons and daughters die in Iraq it will not be only because of Bush. As our sons and daughters inflict horror on Iraq it will not be only because of Bush. We are not a dictatorship. Our representatives must step forward and have the courage to do what they were elected to do. Represent us. If they cannot do this then we are a dictatorship. Remember the blood of patriots who died at Concord, Gettysburg, Vicksburg, Verdun, and Normandy. They did not die so we would live under one man's rule. They died so we could make our decision and live with the results. Respect the years of life they sacrificed. Respect the people who loved them and lived without them. Stop this war.
Dear BuzzFlash,
Did anyone notice that yesterday the Washington Post did not link Tom Shales' article? Normally, like today, Saturday, his column when it appears is linked to that box near the bottom of the main screen, so that you can highlight his name and go immediately to the article.
NOT YESTERDAY. I had to search to find his article about "Bush on Drugs."
Interesting huh?
K Lowney
Subj: Pentagon Papers
Dear Buzz,
Regarding the appearance of The Pentagon Papers on cable television--one gets the strong sense that a Daniel Ellsberg today could not find a mainstream news organ to publicize leaked evidence of administration wrong-doing. One gets the strong sense that in fact, there are several heroic figures out there right now, wondering how their selfless courage could have fallen on such a nationwide epidemic of deaf ears.
Robert Crawford
Subj: Oh My Gosh!
Dear BuzzFlash,
I have just read your link to the letter sent by Colleen Rowley to Robert Mueller, and I am impressed! Can we nominate this woman for president when W. gets either impeached or de-selected? What a woman, not to mention Patriot! What the sheeple of America can't seem to get through their thick skulls is that there IS NO CONNECTION BETWEEN IRAQ AND AL-QUEDA! And they also seem to conveniently forget that Pre-9/11, the intelligence data was there to be connected! 9/11 didn't just happen, we let it happen! If we would commit 1/2 of the time and money wasted on the Iraq debate to our intelligence agencies and turn them loose to do their jobs, we could stop who knows how many planned attacks (European intelligence agencies seem to have no problem finding terrorists). So I say, You Go Girl! (and a big thanks to whomever invented the word "sheeple". Can't remember where I saw it, but I love it, and it seems to be quite appropriate! )
Kelly Church
Roeland
Park, KS
Subj: Remember Clinton's Low Gas Prices?
Dear BuzzFlash,
Remember when Clinton was here, the dollar was strong (even if you wanted to go live in Europe, your U.S. dollars would be weak against the strong Euro). Remember when gas was barely over a dollar under Clinton and everyone was fuming. Why isn't Rush Limbaugh fuming about the price gouging Bush's oil buddies are doing to the American family, if he cares as much as he says he does for the American people? Doesn't Bush care about that? When are street protests going to blame Bush for high gas prices?
elena
Subj: The Blind Leading the Blind
Dear Buzz
bush is on the phone making promises of aid to foreign countries, etc but most have already seen how bush keeps his commitments. He thinks the rest of the world is as uninformed as the American public. Other countries still have a free press and are getting the real facts.
I pray God will continue to bless America in spite of our Fascist government take over. I pray God will help return us to a democracy.
I never would have believed Americans could be fooled so easily.
Corp. execs. take millions in bonuses while laying off thousands of the companies workers, and claim they are Christians that care about others.
The Americans who empowered these clowns with their vote have no one to blame but themselves for their loss of their jobs and their civil liberties.
The sad part is the same fools will probably vote for bush again , their pride won't allow them to admit they are wrong.
It took 12 years for these same fools to finally admit they had been duped and vote reagan / bush out the last time!
They care more about themselves than democracy or America.
Its the blind leading the blind.
george bush is in my prayers daily, to grow a brain.
A BuzzFlash Reader
Subj: A Modest Proposal
Dear BuzzFlash,
What can one person do in face of the war juggernaut? How about this?
Make a big sign, find a corner gas station at a busy intersection and stand there at rush hour. I tried this Friday, March 7 and it was great. Not only did I feel I was doing something (instead of just feeling helpless), I also sensed that I was personally reaching a lot of people who may never have been exposed to this sort of message. In the 45 minutes that I was there, I estimate that at least 500 vehicles passed by. I will return to that intersection every evening for the next two weeks. There must be hundreds of locations where this sort of individual protest would be effective. If you are not interested or able to do this, perhaps you know someone who is.
While there are better reasons to oppose the war, to oppose any war, I think that this message reaches people where it may do the most good -- in their pocketbooks. It helped, of course, that I was standing under a sign that promoted regular gas for $2.05 per gallon. [Note: While I believe that we should pay more for gas, in order to support pubic transportation, we all know that most of this price increase -- the part not caused by the strike in Venezuela -- will enrich Bush's friends in the oil industry.]
This is what my sign says (on both sides):
Gas Prices High?
Wait till Bush Attacks Iraq
Just Say NO to War
White House: 202-456-1111
www.moveon.org
Another Patriot for Peace
Respectfully submitted,
Keta Hodgson
Los
Angeles, CA
Subj: Will bush honor Iraqi oil trust fund proposed by Blair
Today (3-7-03) at the press briefing when the questioner asked if the US would honor the proposed Iraqi oil trust fund statement that Tony Blair made regarding US and England not touching Iraqi oil, I believe ari fleischer never really said that the president would honor that statement, even when the questioner repeated the question. Here is the part of the briefing to which I refer:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Q Ari, as you know, Iraq has the second largest oil reserves outside of Saudi Arabia. In order to counter critics who say that the U.S. and the UK just want to control that oil, Tony Blair put forward a proposal to create an Iraqi oil trust fund, and said, "We don't touch it, and the U.S. doesn't touch it." What does the President think about the proposal?
MR. FLEISCHER: The fact of the matter is, Iraq has many resources. Iraq is a nation of very abled people, educated people, where there's an infrastructure involving electricity and food delivery throughout the country. It is a rather modernized society. It's just run by a brutal dictator. Any resource that Iraq has will be for the Iraqi people.
The only reason that the United States would use force, if the President makes that judgment, is to disarm Saddam Hussein. And then the United States will be there for as long as is necessary, and not a day longer, to help make certain that the security operations are intact, and then to work with Iraqis inside and outside the country to administer the country.
Q Does he support the specific proposal which says, "The U.S. will not touch Iraq's oil"?
MR. FLEISCHER: That's the principle that I've outlined for you, and whatever the specific mechanisms of it would be, would be something that gets explored throughout the process. But the resources of Iraq would belong to the Iraqi people to be used for the betterment of the Iraqi people to feed, to house and to provide medical supplies for the Iraqi people.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/03/20030307-6.html
Subj: Pyramid Mall Management - the guys who don't like peace shirts . . .
Hello BuzzFlash,
Keep up the good work. I’m sending in my contribution!
I thought you might want to be aware of this web page. The Pyramid Mall Management that owns the Mall that arrested the person for wearing a peace shirt, err. . . trespassing, also made buses from predominantly black neighborhoods stay 300 yards away. Which led to the death of a 17 year old mother!
http://www.savethepinebush.org/News/MarApr96/Murdered.html
What a benevolent and patriotic company, huh?
Not only don’t they support the constitutional values of free speech. They’d just as well support the neo-confederacy agenda. These truly are dark times. . . November 2004 can’t get here soon enough!
Bill Dusinberre
Subj: Bush is Pro-Life?
Dear BuzzFlash,
So what happened? The pro-life, fundamental Christian appealing, anti-abortionist Bush is now ready to drop 3,000 pound bombs on a densely populated, capitol city named Baghdad where 50% of the population are children under 18.
So there is only protection for children if they aren't born yet!
Oh yes, the Iraqi's are buying uniforms that look like ours in order to kill their own people. Give me a break! Like you can't tell an Iraqi from an American! Is this the lame cover to excuse the deaths. They did it! I'm smarter than that.
Diane Reichwein
Ranchos
de Taos, NM
Dear BuzzFlash,
I've posted below a commentary directed to Members of Congress. I know the likelihood of anyone there reading it, given the physics of snowballs relative to measured temperatures in Hell, but the administration assures us that natural laws don't exist, so if you're interested in posting it--who knows?
Thanks for all you do.
* * *
An Open Letter to Congress
You still can choose. When the images of the deaths of thousands of innocent women and children come in your dreams, will you know you made the best choice you could, from all the facts at hand, leaving aside any political gain? If the worst fears of so many military experts and foreign leaders become real and a greater war begins, perhaps with nuclear weapons, will you know that even if you chose wrong, you chose with full awareness, with the same gravity and prayer and awe that our founders signed the declaration establishing this nation?
Did you think when you ran for office that your job would never require guts?
See now those firefighters crawling up scores of stairs to save lives in face of such fear. Then see our bombs dropping, killing thousands upon thousands to save ourselves from fear. That really is the only reason that holds up, after all these months of argument--to save ourselves from fear, not from a valid threat. To save ourselves from having to be afraid.
Does "patriotism" mean we must act like the most obscene and vile, what we've always stood against, what our parents and grandparents died to protect against, lost limbs to save the world from? Must we become one of those? Dropping death and agony from 50,000 feet on a city of 5 million, half of them children, from the anonymity of the world's best bombers.
The tactic the administration is using is that of the icy oncologist who enters the patient's room and tells the patient how long he has to live. How many patients' fates are sealed at such moments, frozen by the icy voice of "authority." Just so, many of us fighting with hope and passion against this possibly deadly disease on our land that would waste our love of liberty and justice and make us no different from the kinds of aggressor nations we've vowed our lives and sacred honor to defeat in the past--just so, many of us in that fight hear that icy voice of authority saying "we" are going to do it anyway, no matter what you say, and want to give up.
And our response has been the same, and so must yours. Choose your own expletive, but it must be the same: "Get the hell out of my room, my land of liberty. Take your diagnosis and your authority where they can do no harm to my will to live."
Our will to life, not death.
It is your job to remind Bush that this country is a nation of laws and respects laws between nations, to remind him that we are not and will not be an aggressor nation. To bring him back INSIDE this government of which the executive branch is only one component and remind him, and yourselves, that it is the whole that governs.
This is a new America, making a covenant with the world instead of with our colonies. What covenant will it be this time? Will you be able to say you sealed it with your sacred honor?
The whole world is resisting as one man shouts. And the worst of it is, it seems many of you support him just because it doesn't seem good manners not to.
He's demanding that we all join him in a fire that may destroy the world. It's not loyalty or patriotism to step up on that sacrificial altar. It's insanity.
It may be the single most important thing you do in your life. The one thing you must get right. Realize it now, while there's still time.
Dakota C.
BuzzFlash
Reader
Subj: Newt Gingrich says coming war "much bigger than Iraq"
Dear Buzz,
This is another one of those "Bush and God" articles (Washington Post, March 9 2003 by Dana Millbank.) At the end, Newt Gingrich gives us more indications that Iraq is merely a pretext for a wider war:
"Newt Gingrich...maintained that Bush's apparent serenity on the eve of a world-reordering war is part of his managerial style... But Gingrich said the hesitation in stating the full extent of Bush's world vision is "confusing" foreign countries. "The most powerful nation in the world must be understandable, not merely formidable," he said. And what Bush needs to convey to the world is how much bigger than Iraq the coming war will be..."
You hear that, Buzz? A 'world-reordering war' that will be 'much bigger than Iraq'! How they must disrespect us to have lied to us so. And with a straight face still telling us Bush is a "man of peace" who hasn't decided yet to go to war. They're laughing at us, Buzz, and there's more. Gingrich finishes with:
"I think history will record that a remarkably strong president happened to be in office at a juncture where weapons of mass destruction and terrorism rewrote all the rules of engagement in international relations," Gingrich said. "It will record that the president moved beyond old institutions and developed a new set of alliances." http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A61350-2003Mar8.html
I beg your pardon, Newt. But 9/11 was NOT a juncture of "weapons of mass destruction and terrorism." It was a juncture of boxcutters and airplane schedules, with terrorism. 9/11 was 19 men (15 of whom had Saudi Arabian passports), some of whom were already under surveillance by the FBI and some of whom were under surveillance by other countries (many of which claim they passed info to us beforehand). Several of the hijackers were on various INS lists which were not checked when they should have been. And so on. We could all list a half dozen contradictions and anomalies off the top of our heads.
But of course, Newt Gingrich is not really talking about 9/11, an event which DID happen. He's talking about Iraq, an event WHICH DID NOT HAPPEN. He's blurring the distinction between a hypothetical event and an actual event in order to lump past, present, and future together under the useful rubric of 9/11. Newt and his political kindred have hijacked the event of 9/11 and are holding it hostage for the purpose of advancing their own pre-existing political agendas. How many more times do they have to come right out and tell us before we get it?
So remember everyone, as tired as we are, we must keep marching:
March 15 -- Emergency convergence on Washington. A.N.S.W.E.R. is organizing the event but you can link to it at unitedforpeace.org. As far as the recent propaganda against ANSWER--well, BuzzFlash readers have the inside scoop thanks to the person who alerted us to the Free Republic email asking for volunteers to help find dirt on organizations like ANSWER - which they listed by name in their email. My response to people when they tell me ANSWER is 'Stalinist': Stalin is DEAD, PINHEAD!
March 22--In NYC at least, there's another big rally. I don't see it on the site yet but they're already passing out the flyers.
March 12--This coming week there's a rally in NYC on March 12, to be the labor union version of the student rallies held March 5. In NYC we grownups had events to support the students. We gathered outside of Hillary Clinton's office because word got out she'd gone to the bunker bomb factory located in upstate NY and said she supported the President on Iraq. It was a very large crowd for a weekday afterwork march. The newspapers reported it as thousands--and for once they were right (probably because they couldn't resist an opportunity to bash a Clinton). We walked miles through midtown Manhattan to hold a candlelight vigil in Washington Square Park. The Turkish student contingent had the biggest sign. The pride and joy on those beautiful young faces made you so happy to see. They said they know their country might change its tune in the next days but for now they were holding their heads high indeed.
I know we're all tired of Bush cutting into our lifetimes but we can't give up now. Remember how we knocked their socks off on Feb 15, even though they said we didn't.
We did. And we should never forget it.
Peace,
Mary in NYC
Subj: Federal Gas Tax Hike
Can anyone foresee anything not costing much more before long? With insurance rates and medical costs increasing along with property taxes, only the wealthy with their giant tax cuts will be able to afford anything soon.
A BuzzFlash Reader
WASHINGTON (March 8) - House Transportation Committee leaders are thinking about increasing the federal gas tax to sustain the nation's deteriorating highways, but others in the House say that's unlikely with gas prices at near-record highs.
Transportation Committee Chairman Don Young, R-Alaska, and top Democratic member James Oberstar of Minnesota say they need $375 billion over the next six years just to maintain and make some improvements to the highway system.
They have asked for $50 billion for the 2004 budget year for highway and transit programs, compared with the $36.5 billion President Bush proposed.
Subj: Scripted . . .
Dear Buzz,
After reading the article on Bush's "scripted" questions the other night, I see the New York Times has now edited that out of their transcript too, even though it was originally there!
A BuzzFlash Reader
Subj: WOAH NELLY!!
WOW.
How did I miss this one??? Doing some surfing at the Military.com forums (always good to see what the troops think), and followed an intriguing comment to find this:
THE PRESIDENT: Well, all due in modesty, I thought I did a pretty good job myself of making it clear that he's not disarming and why he should disarm. Secretary Powell will make a strong case about the danger of an armed Saddam Hussein. He will make it clear that Saddam Hussein is fooling the world, or trying to fool the world. He will make it clear that Saddam is a menace to peace in his own neighborhood. He will also talk about al Qaeda links, links that really do portend a danger for America and for Great Britain, anybody else who loves freedom.
As the Prime Minister says, the war on terror is not confined to just a shadowy terrorist network. The war on terror includes people who are willing to train and to equip organizations such as al Qaeda.
See, the strategic view of America changed after September the 11th. We must deal with threats before they hurt the American people again. And as I have said repeatedly, Saddam Hussein would like nothing more than to use a terrorist network to attack and to kill and leave no fingerprints behind. Colin Powell will continue making that case to the American people and the world at the United Nations.
THE PRIME MINISTER: Adam.
Q One question for you both. Do you believe that there is a link between Saddam Hussein, a direct link, and the men who attacked on September the 11th?
THE PRESIDENT: I can't make that claim.
[http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/01/20030131-23.html]
This just totally went under my radar. And this is huge. If you have any contacts in the mainstream media, this should go out to them. I'm already sending it to Carroll and Morford at the SFC. Ted Rall, too.
--Z
Subj: war!
Dear BuzzFlash,
It is 2 am and I cannot sleep. My granddaughter brought me the news in person this evening...she is being deployed to Kuwait! She cried, I cried! I remember like it was yesterday, 1968, when my brother went to Viet Nam and the way he came back, and I am frightened to death.
There will be no Bush, Cheney, or Ashcroft kids there...just those of us who are not so privileged!
When my brother came home in a body bag (75,000 have been ordered for this war), this country swore to all that was holy, that we would never stand for another Viet Nam...but, then we didn't know that the Bushes with all their oil interests, and payback interests...were waiting in the wings.
Thanks for being there...........Shirley....St. Louis
Re: Bush's Religious Fervor
Dear BuzzFlash,
Was it just coincidence that the McLaughlin Group, Hardball and Newsweek all questioned Bushes' religious fervor (Many quotes about his believing he got a calling from God) after 9/11 in regard to the potential war in Iraq during this week? All said common sense no longer prevailed and worried about his becoming a zealot that inflames the Muslin community into an all out religious war.
Giving out names of current world leaders you hate in best-selling books, having that Dr. Phil moment in front of the press on Saddam because he tried to off Old Dad--talking to people about assassinating world leaders and now the current ignoring of everything and anything the people of this country say to get a war on at any costs is not the workings of a stable individual. Reprint the comments from these shows and from these magazines. The people need to know what kind of leader we are stuck with right now.
A BuzzFlash Reader
Subj: Bush as Gump? Hardly!
Dear BuzzFlash,
I disagree wholeheartedly with the characterization of a "President Gump", implying that President Bush is some sort of character like Forrest Gump. As I recall, the character of Forrest Gump was a paragon of honesty and hard work. Further, he actually served well in Viet Nam. While there may be no genuine need to defend a fictional character, there is certainly a need to prevent others from imagining that the overtly-simple Bush is as honest and forth-right as Forrest Gump. Bush, whose slimy toad factor is rivaled only by Dennis Miller, is no Forrest Gump.
Mark Taylor
Lexington,
Ky.
Subj: CNN and lack of journalistic objectivity
http://www.cnn.com/quickcast/iraq/index.html
I know CNN has fallen an awfully long way. I know a bunch of good people and better journalists have been driven into a corner. I know your corporate bosses have made you perform like a bunch of trained rats before The TV cameras. But the link to the above web site is too much, even for the vapid, demographics driven bunch of dunderheads that push your buttons!
War packaged with music and flashy graphics?
This is WAR!! Not a report on the latest goodies from COMDEX or the Consumer Electronic show!
You have abandoned the journalistic objectivity that a NEWS Organization requires, and that true American freedom demands in the face of the ultimate sacrifice for that freedom.
Is there ANYONE at CNN who remembers Bernard Shaw?
Does Edward R Murrow's name ring any far off bells?
You've gone from reporting this "War" to help "sell" it by "packaging" it like this.
Get some CNN Staff who are military Veterans, and by that I mean people who have been *shot at*
***IN COMBAT**, put them around a plain table on a plain set, in front of a plain black scrim, and let THEM try to "sell" America on what "war" really is.
Your corporate masters have forgotten, if indeed they ever knew, that war is the ultimate damnable hell.
And the real tragedy is that by putting up a "front" like the web site above, CNN is helping people to forget what war is, and in so doing, CNN is helping to condemn another generation to the concept of "antiseptic warfare."
That false idea of the worst form of hell will help sign their death warrants, while CNN and Time-Warner pander for ratings, and while the freedom that is supposed to be defended both by soldiers in combat, and yes, even by an objective free press, slip slowly away, unchallenged.
Your failures make their sacrifices worthless in the present day, and in the future.
How can any of you, as men and women of integrity and as parents sit by silent, cowering for your jobs in the present day, while selling your children's and your grandchildren's future down the river flowing from the mouth of a false and arrogant idol that you yourselves have helped to create and feed?
Wake up please. For their sakes, and for ours, isn't there ONE of you that will show some spine?
Put what you say you are supposed to believe in and sacrifice for on the line, and help restore balance and integrity to this news story and to the nation that a free press is supposed to serve.
R. Stone
Subj: "Custer" Bush Attacks the Indians
Bush wants to take power and land from the Indians for his WTO grab for profit and control. Hundreds of years of treaties, etc. negated and ignored. When are they going to impeach him?
See this announcement from Daschle's web site: Link: http://daschle.senate.gov/~daschle/pressroom/releases/03/03/2003305614.html
Judy Stevens, IL
First read the article linked below. Then my comments will make more sense.
To Tim Russert and others who consider themselves to be "journalists":
Why did none of you challenge the administration, and especially Ari Fleischer, on the snubbing of Helen Thomas? This was a dictate of the RNC and none of you challenged it! You really don't believe that if you ever show any ethics in reporting that you too will join Ms. Thomas. It seems to me and many others that most individuals in the media are more interested in continued access to the White House, than in obtaining any substantial information to be reported.
Because of your actions too many of us are turning to the BBC, The Guardian and other foreign sources for reliable and accurate news reporting.
In the words of Edward R. Murrow: "One man cannot terrorize a whole nation, unless we all are his accomplices." Too many in the media are accomplices for the current occupant of the White House. Shame on them.
As ever,
Neb
http://www.mediawhoresonline.com/
Subj: Tim Russert and Howard Dean
Dear Buzz,
It was a chilling eerie moment at the end of a hopeful interview with Howard Dean. Tim Russert, following a commercial for GE, owner of NBC, tried to trap Mr. Dean about his position on the age for retirement. He pulled a two year old quote about retirement at age 70 looking for a contradiction in what the bright, well spoken Mr. Dean had just said. It was a bizarre, transparent attempt to trip up a man who is emerging as the salvation not just for the Democratic party, but for the country. Tough journalism, Tim must have thought. Marching orders is what it looked like. But the truly chilling moment came at the end of the interview when both Tim and the viewing public saw and listened to a man who is presidential and who, if we survive the next two years, could be the antidote to the present regime. The final words from Tim Russert to Howard Dean was, "Be safe." Indeed.
A BuzzFlash Reader
Re: Richard Pearle Accuses New Yorker Magazine Writer Sy Hersh of Being a Terrorist
PERLE: I don't believe that a company would gain from a war.
That's right! Where did the term "war profiteering" originate?
A BuzzFlash Reader
Thank you, Rebecca, for your article on Bush, the war-hawks, and the impending war. I believe every word you have written.
I am praying for all it is worth that we DO NOT have a war. I did not vote for Bush and I am so glad I did not. When I watched how Bush won? the presidency, it made me ill. I didn't have a clue as to how corrupt the appointed judges, etc. really were.
I have emailed the President, signed up with True Majority, and had faxes sent to the White House.
Thanks for being one who can put into words what many of us feel and think.
Dolores
Dryden
Harrison,
Ohio
Subj: Dry Drunk Syndrome
Dear BuzzFlash,
As both a recovering addict and trained addictions counselor the thought of George Bush doing the 'white knuckle' referring to those poor souls hanging onto a period of time of non-use for dear life' is common. Its a powerful struggle for the elites whose access to enablers and life support systems is probably found and around. Poor persons are usually stuck with their actions and the need to heal with humility.
The actor Martin Sheen called a press conference to say to the world that Mr. Bush was speaking like 'a white knuckler' during the 1999 California campaign. Sheen spoke from a California addictions treatment center while visiting his actor son (his name I forget) At that time I agreed but also thought the term would be lost to most of those who heard it. May God help us all!
Chester
Gilbert
Kahnawake,
Quebec
Subj: Dictator Bush
Dear Editor:
The Methodist bishop questioning Bush's religious ideas mentioned Bush's dictatorial behavior, prompting this thought: America has not been a democracy since the Supreme Court set GW up in office, ignoring the voices of the people who elected Gore. This was not just a case of too-close-to-call-so-the-electoral-college-must-decide. Government of, for, and by the people is openly disparaged by Bush. He says so, frequently and clearly, to individuals, to the press, to groups. Patriot Acts 1 and 2 and all the other speeches and actions of this administration make it perfectly clear. Those who believe democracy or our former Constitution are still in effect are deluded, befuddled by Orwellian doublespeak, and severely handicapped in their dealings with Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld et al. America needs to wake up and smell the - well, it's not coffee, folks.
Sincerely,
A BuzzFlash Reader
Re: Has the Vatican Brokered a Secret Plan to Avert War?
Dear BuzzFlash,
It would be nice if the Sunday Herald story " UN plan to give Saddam 72 hours to leave Baghdad" http://www.sundayherald.com/31989 is true.
However, I think that if all the major television networks and newspapers in the world were at Baghdad International Airport as Saddam Hussein and his boys, Udai and Qusay, boarded a flight to Switzerland-- while a giant bonfire of all Iraqi weapons, from WMDs to pocket knives, blazed in the distance as the Republican Guard passed in nude review --it still wouldn't satisfy King George.
Bob Jewett
Re: Richard Pearle Accuses New Yorker Magazine Writer Sy Hersh of Being a Terrorist
On 3/9/03 6:02 PM, "BuzzFlash" <BuzzFlash@BuzzFlash.com> wrote:
> Sy Hersh is the closest thing American journalism has to a terrorist, frankly.
I wonder if Perle helped Ashcroft write the Patriot Act II.....that successfully breaks down the wall between international terrorism and domestic terrorism.
Perle and his cronies in the white hutch throw around these terms with great recklessness, little thought, and great viciousness.
If there's a terrorist in the house, the white hutch folks need only look into a mirror....double goes for Ashcroft, who sees terrorism in his shadow. Maybe that's the best place to look for it.
Donna
Subj: No outrage for 54 rapes at the Air Force Academy
Dear Buzz,
I have not seen one column on the Air Force Academy rapes. Your headline said the Air Force General apologized for the rapes. What he said was he apologized for any that are still out there. He also said no one would be fired. What the hell they are only women!
Alma Reynolds
Colorado
Springs, CO
Subj: Simpsons 3/9
I hope all BuzzFlash readers took a half hour to watch last night's episode of The Simpsons. It's usual biting satire was cranked up several notches, and the Republicans were ripped to pieces. The highlight was a scene depicting a debate between congressional candidates on "fair and balanced" Fox News. Choice moments included Fox superimposing a halo above the Republican candidate's head (Krusty the Clown!) and concluding the debate with a Krusty campaign commercial!
TJ Young
Subj: Code Pink Arrests
Dear BuzzFlash,
It probably won't surprise you to learn the NYTimes got it wrong. The women weren't arrested for sidewalk issues. The Washington Post actually got it down right. The police kept making irrational flipflops between allowing protesters then barring protesters from the quad in front of the White House. When they finally closed the quad, anyone who didn't leave was arrested.
What the post didn't do was ask WHY these decisions were being made then reversed, again and again. I don't know the link, but you have to see it for yourself and ask WHAT was the purpose of all this waffling and WHY couldn't they have made a plan and stuck to it?
~~robyn su, who was there, and pink beyond...but left the quad in deference to her friends.
Subj: Rumsfeld on "THIS WEEK" 9-16-01
Can you get the audio/video of Rumsfeld on "This Week" ABC when Sam Donaldson asked him why didn't he scramble fighter jets immediately, and Rumsfeld answered, "This was a job for the FBI."
A BuzzFlash Reader
Subj: First Lady Stockard Channing on bush....
http://entertainment.iwon.com/article/id/94777|entertainment|03-09-2003%3A%3A23%3A26|reuters.html
"...Stockard Channing, who won for best actress in a mini-series or TV movie, took a swipe at President Bush. Channing, who plays the First Lady on "The West Wing" was asked what conversation she would have with President Bush and said, "No conversation. He is a president who doesn't listen to anybody."..."
Liz Taylor
Dear BuzzFlash,
Just read the reader commentary about George being a "dry drunk." I am a psychotherapist and wrote an article about George's psychology and how that translates into his war. It was picked up by CounterPunch and Michael Moore's website as a "must read," (among others.) I've gotten a huge worldwide positive response. Here's the link, feel free to use it: http://www.counterpunch.org/norris02272003.html
You guys are doing great, great work. Thanks for your efforts.
Carol Norris
Re: Perle Calls Journalist Sy Hersh a "Terrorist" on CNN
Perle profits from war with Saddam, and when found out, calls the journalist, Sy Hersh, who exposed the story a " terrorist". Time for Ashcroft to round up "terrorist" Hersh, I suppose.
Richard Fortson
Subj: A Surplus of Photo Ops
Dear BuzzFlash,
I was just watching ABC's Good Morning America, and realized that there is yet another payback for Dubya's residential backers in the offing. Charles Gibson just announced that this war will be broadcast live, and that at least 88 correspondents are being trained to join the troops on the front line. He stated it will be unlike anything we have ever seen before, with a slant that made it sound bigger, more spectacular, and more entertaining than publicly stoning a liberal. It sounded like they were touting a monster truck rally, so it is obvious who it is they are trying to appeal too, I guess they all missed the NBC Salem Witch Trials mini series, which depicted early American right wing extremists in action. They are also mentioning (rather melodramatically, though sans the soap opera music) Dubya's lonely march towards war. It is enough to make a maggot wretch. His private conversations with his dad for inspiration? Personally I think they are planning their expansion into the Iraqi oil business, and the private time he needs to contemplate, which really means playing with his Game Boy. Meanwhile, we are like sitting ducks. Every crack pot terrorist in the world, including those with no ties to the Al-Qaida will probably launch an attack against America at the first missile strike towards Iraq, while our troops are all over sea's, and our first responders are engaged in small pox vaccine testing for the government, and unable to respond. I doubt we will all survive much more of Dubya's "protection," no matter how much duct tape we have. With any luck at all, this spoiled, over indulged, isolationist cowpoke will heed the warnings from religious leaders, including his own, lawyers who point out the illegalities of this war, most other nations, all thinking primates, and the majority of the American population, who all feel this is just a lame power and oil grab, that will cause more harm than good. The first Bush war wasn't that great, as demonstrated by old Bush's humiliating landslide defeat, by than relatively unknown Bill Clinton, but this rerun really sucks BIG-TIME. The GOP would be served well to remember the Bolshevik Revolution, and the Bastille. Those administrations were also much smarter than this one, and look where they ended up because of their relentless and insatiable greed, and lust for power and domination. I guess this proves Dubya really doesn't listen to polls, or anyone else for that matter.
David R.
Anselm, Jr.
Philadelphia,
Pennsylvania
Subj: Richard Perle
If PATRIOT ACT II passes, by Ashcroft's description, ANYONE can be called a terrorist and get hauled away in a van, never to be seen again.
Dear, dear, what are we coming to?
Donna
Subj: Perle and his business
Dear BuzzFlash,
Perle is also a managing partner in a venture-capital company called Trireme Partners L.P., which was registered in November, 2001, in Delaware. Trireme’s main business, according to a two-page letter that one of its representatives sent to Khashoggi last November, is to invest in companies dealing in technology, goods, and services that are of value to homeland security and defense. The letter argued that the fear of terrorism would increase the demand for such products in Europe and in countries like Saudi Arabia and Singapore. The letter mentioned the firm’s government connections prominently: “Three of Trireme’s Management Group members currently advise the U.S. Secretary of Defense by serving on the U.S. Defense Policy Board, and one of Trireme’s principals, Richard Perle, is chairman of that Board.”The two other policy-board members associated with Trireme are Henry Kissinger, the former Secretary of State (who is, in fact, only a member of Trireme’s advisory group and is not involved in its management), and Gerald Hillman, an investor and a close business associate of Perle’s who handles matters in Trireme’s New York office. The letter said that forty-five million dollars had already been raised, including twenty million dollars from Boeing; the purpose, clearly, was to attract more investors, such as Khashoggi and Zuhair.
Click here: The New Yorker: Fact
A BuzzFlash Reader
Subj: In re Bush as a Dry Drunk
Dear Buzz,
Michael O'McCarthy's article adds new knowledge to Bush's mental incapacities.
However, it is not enough to know the causation of Bush's mental deficiencies, somebody with skill in the legal community needs to do something about it.
Incompetency proceedings should be brought against Bush in whatever venue(s) are appropriate. And this needs to be done NOW. NOW. NOW.
A BuzzFlash Reader
Subj: Citizen's Cry
My country is planning to drop 3,000 bombs on a primarily defenseless nation with little hope of killing the man it calls the "evil one." I have protested, I have screamed, I have written diatribes to various news outlets, I have called my congresswoman, my senators and the local dog-catcher. I talk to myself and others about the evilness of this plan in public places in the hopes that strangers will overhear and realize either that they are not alone or that not everyone follows blindly. And yet as this march to war is declared inevitable I realize that this hasn't been enough.
History does not look kindly on seemingly good people who do nothing. I wonder if I and my fellow Americans are going to someday be compared to German citizens who watched and disbelieved as concentration camps were erected in backyards. To citizens who disagreed, but only to a point; a point that invariably began and ended with saving personal skins. Had these people but known what was to come certainly they would have done more. Mightn't I?
Maybe I'm making too much of this talk of thousands of bombs. The Democratic leaders in Congress don't seem overly concerned. The news media appear veritable cheerleaders. Surely, if something truly unjust and horrible were about to be done in our name these protectors of the public-good wouldn't tacitly condone it with silence and propaganda. Of course they wouldn't. Would they?
But what else can I do? I am just one person. What can one person standing alone accomplish? Gandhi who? I have to work, my family has to eat. Life goes on, you know?
I'm probably just trippin' anyway. What do I really know about geopolitical affairs? This is the United States of America. We don't bomb countries without good reason. Just because no one seems to know what that reason is and the entire world is against us, doesn't mean that we aren't right. Right?
I don't think we're right. I think history is going to look at us and judge. I don't expect it to be kind. Maybe, just maybe, there's still time.
Best,
Jennifer Rindahl
Re: Richard Pearle Accuses New Yorker Magazine Writer Sy Hersh of Being a Te...
So it starts--the wild accusations that journalists (and others They don't like, or fear) who tell inconvenient truths are "terrorists". Is that the sound of jackboots I hear?
I was a little kid during the McCarthy era, but it wasn't too much later (1960?) that I heard all about it. I guess this is the "McBush Era."! In the Cold War it was "Commies"; now it's "Terrorists".
Did you ever see the Twilight Zone episode entitled The Monsters Come to Maple Street ? It was about mob psychology, and how some normal people on quiet suburban Maple Street, end up killing an innocent man, their minds clouded with fear. It was a fable about the Cold War....
That was a wonderful show! Truth through Science Fiction. Yes...the more things change, the more they stay the same.
Live Long and Prosper,
Jann
Subj: The Peace T-Shirt
Hello BuzzFlash,
I was just wondering what would happen if a female was wearing a T-Shirt bearing a peace message & they told her to remove it. What if she was without a bra?
Wow!!
Linda
Dear Buzz.....PLEASE print this letter,and I will tell you respectfully why......My late husband was a "COWBOY" a real one...He raised cattle and rode and bred cutting horses.....It cuts me to the bone to hear "DIMWIT" called a COWBOY.....Like they say on the one site "ALL HAT AND NO CATTLE".....If you still think of him as a cowboy then PLEASE!! PLEASE!! readers call him..."A DRUG STORE COWBOY" This is the tile that real cowboys give the dudes that THINK they are cowboys....PLEASE do not flatter him with the word cowboy...His EGO is inflated enough already!.....So kindly I ask you now to NOT insult all of the real cowboys in this country.....From now on call him by the name of what he is, A DRUG STORE COWBOY ....thank you so much......
A loyal reader
Keep on buzzin
Dear BuzzFlash,
REFERENCE TO:
Antiwar
Clerics Wonder if Bush Hears Their Call
--
NY Times, March 18, 2003
Article Excerpt:
Even Cardinal Laghi said he was told by the White House last week that he could not speak to reporters in the driveway outside the West Wing, where microphones are set up for regular news conferences with visitors to the Oval Office. Mr. Fleischer said that was not true, but Cardinal Laghi nonetheless held his news conference at the National Press Club.
_______________________________________________________________
Comment:
Biblical quote from Jesus Christ: "Thou art Peter and upon this rock, thou shalt build my church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." All Popes, including Pope John Paul II, have carried out Christ's mandate.
When an Emissary carries the Pope's message to the President of the United States, then comments that the White House said he could not speak to reporters outside the White House, who do you believe -- a man who is paid to lie and deceive for the administration, or Cardinal Laghi, a special Emissary from the Pope? Fleischer operates with the nerve of a burglar!
Ari needs to heed God's Eighth Commandment; "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor."
Ari, that means thou shalt not lie, not -- thou shalt operate with the nerve of a burglar!
~ Cathy
Subj: "Scripted"
BuzzFlash:
Actually there were some unscripted events, particularly when everyone noticed that Bush PAUSED for seemingly interminable times as he listened to the "unscripted" answer he was about to give as it came to him in cues from an offstage prompter in his little implanted earpiece. We all had to watch while he listened . . .
This has been going on since he took office . . . I wonder that you hadn't noticed and didn't mention it.
I have to give Bush my grudging respect for his ability to use the script and use the earpiece because it certainly is difficult, and what I would have considered impossible, when a moron can be trained to deliver lines and cued gestures on subjects about which he knows nearly nothing at all.
do keep up the good work . . .
Sam Snedegar
Pensacola,
FL
