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| August 15, 2005 |
MAILBAG ARCHIVES | ||
The BuzzFlash Mailbag The opinions expressed in the Mailbag are not necessarily those of BuzzFlash. Read the BuzzFlash FAQ for info on submitting to the Mailbag. THIS IS PART 2 OF THE AUGUST 15, 2005 BUZZFLASH MAILBAG. CLICK HERE FOR PART 1 Subject: Can You Imagine US Press Talking to Rumsfeld Like This? From the dubious but interesting iraq-war.ru I picked up this powerful transcript of Brit Defense Chief John Reid being grilled on the BBC. I tracked down the audio to BBC radio but can't seem to download it (how am I supposed to know what plug-in I need!?!) So first the current BBC link and then the Russian link. http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/friday.shtml (the segment is at "08:10" in the left column) The transcript includes this:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/today/listenagain/ram/today4_reid_20050812.ram Jim P. Subject: Novak No article, only want to see Novak get the Howard Stern treatment for saying profanity on the air. Where's Colin Powell Jr. when you need him? Todd E. [BuzzFlash Note: Glad you asked! Michael Powell is probalby too busy to hassle Bob Novak because he has found a new job! He's now a "senior advisor" at an investment firm known for mega media mergers. See Why Did Providence Hire Michael Powell? (Business Week); and Investment Firm Hires Powell (phoneplusmag), which says, "Various media speculate the firm hired Powell as it plans a major telecom buyout."] Subject: Frank Rich Column What America is also finding out is that Bush can't delilver cheap gas prices. Whether it be his 2000 Election boast of his ability to "jawbone" OPEC or by invading oil rich Iraq. That last one is the real loser for Bush and the Republicans as I suspect most Americans would overlook all the false build-up and would tolerate a certain amount of GI deaths if it meant fillups for less than $2.00 a gallon. When the carnage of this Administration is written about, there will be a lot of people who will claim "I didn't vote for that Turkey" and then go back to their second job to pay for all those tax cuts that the Bush family will enjoy. Glen Krajca-Radcliffe Subject: The 9/11 "party" Why is this proposed event not raising howl from the general public? To be very simple about it this proposed 9/11 event is an obscenity. (At the very least it's in incredibly bad taste.) Let me propose another commemorative party "The Tsunami Commemoration Celebration!!!" We can have some crocodile tears and then a rip roaring Bar B Q with a tropical cum Texas theme, lots of pools and water slides set up on the mall in Washington, a wet jock strap contest judged by Jeff Gannon (or Guckert, or Bull dog, or whatever his name REALLY is) and for the topper, inflatable human dolls ... it would be a gas ... and soooo uplifting too. 9/11, like the Tsunami, was a profound tragedy. It deserves to be remembered with reverence and dignity not with a yee haw jamboree. A BuzzFlash Reader Subject: Frank Rich? Yeah: well....don't you think it's about time Someone with a megaphone pointed out that "peak oil" is a canard designed to lend cover to unsound financial practice? Oil reserves are worth more in the ground than they are once you mine, process and actually sell the stuff. You've named your price and the product is gone. As a consequence, oil reserves are leveraged to the hilt, the Seven Sisters are loathe to add refining capacity in an environment where capitalization just does not make sense. Every time the price goes up, they have more free cash. What makes sense, to them, is mayhem in Iraq and no sales of Iraqi oil and possibly - if they can pull it off - nothing coming out of Iran, either. The incentives are pointing to Big Awl's perverse advantage. Dems spouting Peak Oil paragraphs are just sneaking under the Big Awl umberella. Best, J. Subject: P-I columnist Robert Jamieson slams Cindy Sheehan Please republish Robert Jamieson’s column slamming Cindy Sheehan after HE has lost a kid in Iraq. His assertion that Ms Sheehan is being used is as patronizing as it is absurd. Maybe her efforts to end this war, are ineffective, ill-considered, inconsistent, all the things Jamieson says they are. But what has he done that is remotely inconvenient or difficult to end this war that he calls ‘unjust’? What has he really lost as a result of Bush’s murderous folly? Jamieson is paid handsomely for his writing, so no big sacrifice there. The dignified silence of other bereaved families that he praises so fulsomely is all well and good. How much more of this wretched dignity can the country take? Jamieson has let his desire to seem a contrarian get away from him. A little respectful silence on this topic would have been welcome. Mother's war protest veers onto wrong path (Seattle Post-Intelligencer) Chuck Van Wey Subject: New 9/11 Revelations A BuzzFlash Reader Subject: Lt. Col Fecteau I wish BuzzFlash would provide an address for its readers to send a buck or two to a legal fund for Lt. Col. Fecteau. Gary Spicer [BuzzFlash Note: We don't have contact information for him. Here's the news:
Air Force officer accused anti-Bush vandal (AP/Boston Globe); Air Force employee remains at job after anti-Bush accusations (AP/9news.com);
Air Force officer keys Subject: Bunnatine Greenhouse I didn't see anything on your list of news about Mrs. Greenhouse, the DoD whistleblower on the KBR/Halliburton contracts and her fight to save her career. Looks like she is in what I refer to as "whistleblower death spiral" and about to be fired. Here are links to my diary at my blog and at Daily KOS - maybe she's worth a story? The Making of a Martyr: Bunnatine Greehouse Thanks for listening and keep up the good fight! Shanikka Subject: The 6,400 Pound Paperweight I have an observation to make that may cause a few people to wince, but as the old saying goes; “the truth hurts.” Every time a Hummer gets a fresh tank of gas, it takes food off the table of some family, maybe yours. If you do not believe me than you must be brain-dead. We Americans have entered a phase where we are dependent on a finite resource called oil, and due to the fact we have an ever-decreasing supply and an ever-increasing demand, we have seen those family dollars we budgeted for transportation and heating double and triple. Simply put, $100 dollars would get me 1750 miles before we put an oilman in the White House. Today, that same $100 dollars will only get me 700 miles; I could buy five tanks of gas then compared to only two tanks of gas now. This same math is being felt by the trucking industry. It costs the independent trucker twice as much to deliver that head of lettuce, or that chicken, or that hamburger to your table. The trucker is not going to absorb these costs, he has a family to feed, too. So you are stuck, you have to find more money or buy fewer groceries and gas. I checked and moving closer to my place of business to reduce the cost of commuting would double my housing costs (and get me half the house I have now to boot). This is where the “Haves and the Have Mores” come into play. They are not feeling the pain of fueling their über wagons; hell they have more money than they can spend in a lifetime. But what they are doing is consuming more of a finite resource to fulfill their gluttony. Every gallon of gas wasted in one of these 6400-pound paperweights is one taken off the market and a shrinking market means fewer groceries, less miles and less money for you and me. We are subsidizing their gluttony. This is the dark side of deregulation; this is the dark side of capitalism run amok. The super rich used to have to work at sucking the money out of your pocket so they changed the playing field. Now they can sit back and relax while we shovel our paychecks into their bank accounts. Just check the latest profits of the oil companies and tell me I am wrong. I’ll tell you you are either on the dark side or you are brain dead. A BuzzFlash Reader Subject: Just This In... ...from the CNN web site: This time, Rush Limbaugh wants to help Donovan McNabb, not criticize him. Limbaugh, who once said the Philadelphia Eagles quarterback was overrated because the media wanted to see a black quarterback succeed, wants to help McNabb and wide receiver Terrell Owens settle their differences on his radio show. (Comment) Looks like Roosh is trying to work his way toward relevancy...but with such a long way to go?! Yeah, it's obvious: Sports Talk has always been the niche for Roosh. Gary Chew Subject: Women & the Iraqi Constitution We can look at this travesty "as if" it was happening 'only over there' -- but that would be a serious mistake. Most women in this country have come to take our freedoms as women and as equals to men for granted and as our rights. But these 'rights' are still very new, in worldly terms, and in many instances are still considered to be at the discretion of men to give or withhold. Our current government is attempting to turn the United States into a theocracy. The Church has never accepted women as equals to men. Much of the Republican doctrine is derived from the work of John Locke, a philosopher/writer working in the 1700s. His view of women was also "not as equals." There are states that pride themselves on their ability to follow Locke's teachings. They are mainly the Southern states. Think about it. Is that the way you want to be treated? And this 'unequal thinking' is not limited to Republicans -- or men. It's been my experience that most women are taught to defer to men and are complicit in keeping other women in this same subservient position. It seems to be the exception among us to let ourselves be seen as strong and capable and independent. If we do not take what's happened to the women of Iraq as a personal warning of what could very well happen here, I think we will be doing ourselves and our children a very grave disservice. Under the clerics' thumbs (Mitchell Prothero/salon.com) Joyce Zborower all of a sudden newspapers are printing the truth and writers are writing it--what changed? something has happened- all the news reporters are suddenly telling the truth today. read robin wright or dexter filkins and others--it is like all of a sudden the truth is being reported. what happened? i almost am in shock. robin wright knew the truth always and is just NOW TELLING IT? HUH? what changed? I HOPE the media keeps telling the truth. I don't know how to regain my trust in them. karin Subject: Write to Bo, Mr. WashPo Buzz, The Washington Post is getting flak about their sponsorship of Rumpsfelt's brown-shirt 'Freedom March.' We all should add to this gathering storm of opposition. Washington Post Publisher Bo Jones said "the paper would pull out if the event turns out to be some kind of pro-war or political march." Obviously, 1. since the 'march' is instigated by war-addled Defense Secretary Rumpsfelt (who is having difficulty getting people to die in his failing and total war), it is 'some kind of pro-war march.' 2. since the charade-parade begins AT THE PENTAGON, it is "some kind of pro-war march." 3. since pro-war Clint Black is the 'concert' headliner, it is "some kind of pro-war march." 4. since Jones himself admits the purpose of this dance-on-the-graves-of-3000-Americans is "an effort for veterans past and present," it is "some kind of pro-war march." He says it is also a "memorial of the 9/11 victims." What do 9/11 victims have to do with war 'veterans'? Nothing except 9/11 allowed Rumpsfelt and FuriousGeorge to start two illegal wars. So, this propaganda rally does have to "do with politics [and] the war" - ergo, Jones must "pull out of the event." Mr. Jones (and the other sponsors, like Subway) needs Buzz readers to point out these little facts (and others) to him: Mr. Bo Jones, Publisher The Washington Post 1150 15th St NW Washington, DC 20071 email: jonesb@washpost.com And as a side question, what does 76-year-old, dementia-riddled Rumpsfelt know about organizing a rock concert? The answer to that question is too bizarre to contemplate. T Quigly
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