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| April 25, 2006 |
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The BuzzFlash Mailbag The opinions expressed in the Mailbag are not necessarily those of BuzzFlash. More reader opinion is at "Contributors." You can write to Mailbag at http://www.BuzzFlash.com/contact/mail.html. Guidelines for submissions are at BuzzFlash FAQ #18. Subject: bandofbrothers2006.org Please read the above website, Michael Moore has already had it on his website for two weeks. It was founded by Mike Lyon, and I nominate him for the Wings of Freedom Award. Hope you find the website as interesting as I did. Melanie Reddin Subject: Leaks So, the CIA fired a leaker. Well, when will the presidential leaker be fired? Gustav A. Pohlig Subject: A Lesson In Patriotism You may have been preoccupied with the price of gas recently; everyone is screaming from the pain of the 33% increase, since January of this year, taking more from paychecks that never seem to increase. But yesterday and today, in the still devastated city of New Orleans, people with less money and more passion, and patriotism, are showing us the way home. I doubt anyone in the United States; or the world; needs to be reminded of what happened that August day in 2005 when their world blew away. When the poorest of the poor who had no way to evacuate were finally rescued they were scattered all across this country, to places they never expected to see, wherever a samaritan welcomed them. There is still no place for them in their hometown and yet for the past week, those survivors of the most devastating hurricane in our history have left their temporary homes, their lives just beginning in strange places, and slowly made their way back to New Orleans just to cast their vote for mayor. No words of patriotism spoken by George W. Bush after September 11, 2001 can equal that simple act. No flag lapel pins displayed upon every administration suit jacket can compete with those weary people embarking from those busses just to vote. While Bush lavishly entertains Chinese President Hu in Washington, the talk will be about trade and profit; not human rights violations in that country. And when a 47 year old Chinese doctor screamed out to Bush to stop the persecution of an outlawed Chinese religion, Falun Gong, Bush apologized for the interruption. Politics as usual. But in New Orleans this week we are seeing a phenomenon that Bush; nor Hurricane Katrina; could not stop. Those same people we saw on rooftops, begging for rescue, for food, for water, are bearing the financial burden of painstakingly making their way back to a still shattered New Orleans to mark a ballot for a manorial candidate for a city still uninhabitable. That is Patriotism. That’s what it’s all about. Our Founding Fathers would be proud. And George W. Bush, The Decider, owes them the same apology he gave to Hu. Carol Hagner Subject: Headline Star Trek reference Buzz: "Bin Laden audiotape reveals he's still alive. Like a bad marksman, Bush keeps missing the target." Capt. Kirk to Khan, Star Trek II, Wrath of Khan: "You've managed to kill just about everyone else, but like a bad marksman you keep missing the target!" Good one! Joe Weber Subject: Negroponte Does Standup At Washington Press Club John Negroponte, Director of National Intelligence, at the Washington Press Club on Friday, April 21 (CSPAN): “...the first thing I’d say about Mr. Bin Laden is that I believe his range of action - his operational capacity - has been substantially diminished since 2001. He no longer has a sanctuary from which he can operate with impunity...and I think his style has been cramped.” So after a military engagement longer than our involvement in WWII, we are bragging about “cramping the style” of a guy who apparently chooses to live in a cave? - and was that before or after Bush capitulated totally to Bin Laden’s single major demand regarding the US in the aftermath of 9/11: that we remove all of our troops and military bases from Saudi Arabia? What is it about Republicans/Neocons and their irrational pride regarding the shameful deals they cut with our enemies? Later in his speech, when asked to get specific about the improvements that have been made in his department, Negroponte at least twice mentioned (emphatically!) that we now have a National Security “ombudsman” (please, ladies and gentlemen; restrain yourselves!). Also, he went to some length describing a new strategy at work under his purview: “...and one other thing we do much more of than we did in the past is to encourage alternative analyses - take a whole group of facts or intelligence and ask a group of smart people to try and build an entirely opposite hypothesis with the same set of facts, which can be a very useful exercise at times...” It’s hard to tell where the best farce lies in this statement: is it the fact that Negroponte is presenting as if it were a significant innovation by his department the most basic form of strategic war-gaming that has ever existed (I think it used to be called “brainstorming”, or “putting your heads together”)? - or is it the fact that that his description of this method applies with precision to every word ever released by the Bush administration to the American public regarding any issue they have ever dealt with? In any case, this speech and the positive reception it enjoyed showed just what a stable of lackeys our “Fourth Estate” has become. He should have been heckled from the podium. Ken Duerksen Subject: Seeing A Lot Of Kerry Lately.... Please, Progressive America, please; lets not go down that road again. We can't let ourselves settle for another candidate selling only self-interested imprecision. Let's demand a Gore/Feingold (or vice-versa) ticket - or somebody better! Think about it: Bobby Kennedy Jr. as Secretary of Interior; Howard Zinn as Secretary of Defense; Ramblin' Jack Elliot as Poet Laureate... We could actually make all that happen; if only we consistently and ferociously reject the BS from the people who think they own our votes. Ken Duerksen Subject: Re: Double think The constant Republican charge against Democrats has been that they cannot be trusted with the nation's security. As proof they cite the post cold war reduction in military along with a reduction in military spending. Now I think Donald Rumsfeld is a Republican, and I think he is hell bent on downsizing the military. But, to make it even worse, he is spending billions to do it. At least the Democrats cut spending. Why does Rumsfeld's desire to downsize not translate into "do not trust Republicans with the national security" among the Republican masses? It is not what is done, it is who does it. A BuzzFlash Reader Subject: The Common Good It seems to me that an easy, middle-of-the-road concept that the dems could agree and campaign on is 'The Common Good'. Who can malign the common good? Just by framing the debate, the wingers are automatically the antithesis of the common good. If the wingers squeal in general, they confirm their status as being AGAINST the common good. If they squeal about socialism, take Jesus away from them. Publicly. Believe me, I am not the only one out here sick and tired of hearing the religious right forsake the teachings of Jesus. And, believe me, being part of the 'common', I could certainly use some 'good' in my life sometime soon. I believe a lot of other people feel the same way. I might even vote for a democratic candidate who quit worrying about his own sorry ass long enough to work for the common good. Smike Subject: Prominent Republican speaks out against Bush Every media outlet should carry this: "Allow the President to invade a neighboring nation, whenever he shall deem it necessary to repel an invasion and you allow him to do so whenever he may choose to say he deems it necessary for such purpose -- and you allow him to make war at pleasure [emphasis added]. . . . If, today, he should choose to say he thinks it necessary to invade Canada to prevent the British from invading us, how could you stop him? You may say to him, 'I see no probability of the British invading us'; but he will say to you, 'Be silent; I see it, if you don't." - Representative Abraham Lincoln on the Mexican War, 1848. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006... Mike Curtis Subject: Laura Bush Repugs keep complaining that our comments on GW Bush are evidence of our devouring hatred. This is my comment. Imagine if Hillary Clinton had been in an accident, at age eighteen, that somehow ended up killing her ex boyfriend. Would we ever have heard the end of the story? Would there still be people wanting her execution? Yet this happened to Laura Bush (as anyone can find out by going to Google and typing in Laura Bush and then reading down the list of stories). And yet she is supposedly loved, even by some Democrats. So where is our devouring hatred? A BuzzFlash Reader Subject: Real Politik Last night my mind was drifting over the hapless state of this once great country. We have probably the worst President who achieved the Presidency without benefit of a majority vote and, on succeeding to office, carried out the policies laid out in the PNAC. A string of fascist policies which have turned us into a belligerent state and lost us all respect and friendship throughout the world and will indeed lead us to decline in influence. It is incomprehensible to me that we endure a political system that boasts of checks and balances but in fact allows us to drift and is slow to adjust course. We have an Administration which appears intent on gaining world domination,the abolition of the middle class and the prospect of increasing poverty for the working class and poor. The rich of course are enjoying unparalleled wealth and power. What to do. If we ever manage to dislodge our current bunch of corrupt fascists then it is high time to consider a parliamentary form of governance. with this would come greater transparency, the opportunity to question the Presidency at regular intervals and, most importantly, the ability to to get rid of governments by means of a vote of confidence. With this system in force we would see the end of the fascists quickly, certainly before 2008,and forestall the destruction of what was once a great Democracy. God Bless and save America! A. Leslie Palmer Subject: Bush's Own Job Analysis It was a hoot to see the most recent "Rolling Stone" cover with the Dunce on the cover asking the question "Is Bush the Worst President In History?" Well, that all depends on whose "things to do today" list you read. Objective historians cite the obvious duties any president must deal with - the budget deficit, employment, immigration issues, foreign policy, including avoiding or fighting wars, etc. We can easily declare Bush the worst President ever based on normal criteria. What's really frightening is W.'s own mission as president, and the reality that he's accomplishing almost everything he wanted to do. 1) Be the lynchpin for Halliburton, Carlyle, and every oil company on Earth. 2) Conspire with Saudi Arabia to create a horrible domestic terror attack in NYC, and make sure he's in Florida the morning a plane is supposed to hit the White House. 3) Claim the nation is under attack and use it as provocation to start the Iraq War. Ignore cries of no evidence of WMD's or actual involvement in 9-11. 4) Give Halliburton all the lucrative contracts without submitting bids for rebuilding in Iraq and supplying the Army. 5) Become increasingly convinced he is destined to start Armageddon and begin to believe he is a modern day Messiah. 6) Make evangelical Christianity law in the US. 7) Provoke Iran into military action to kick start the war with Israel. Numbers 6 and 7 have yet to be fulfilled, but they're not far from being finished. Of course, the billions he'll no doubt get for kickbacks from huge corporate fiends will be a nice retirement gift. Fact is, this is exactly what Bush set out to do. Everything else is an annoyance and totally irrelevant to him, including Katrina, refusal to rebuild the California levee system or any other domestic goal except for tax cuts for his super rich friends. When he said he was the "decider", that's exactly what he meant. Scott Subject: CIA Leak: McCarthy Denies She's the Source - Newsweek Politics - “Nobody got fired for September 11 and nobody gets fired for [mistakes about,] but they fire someone for this?” Exactly the whole point. This is and always has been what the Bush administration is all about...namely placing politics above ALL...including national security and people's lives. Their priorities could not be any clearer. Be very afraid. Secrets of the CIA (Newsweek) John L. Johnson Subject: Human Beings, Immigration & Iraq Can someone ask the acting president of the U.S. what is the difference between the people in the quote below and the 100,000+ that he has murdered, so far, in Iraq? "I know this is an emotional debate," Bush told the Orange County Business Council. "But one thing we can't lose sight of is that we are talking about human beings, decent human beings." Thank You! A BuzzFlash Reader |
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