George Bush & Co.: Masters Of Terror? or Sorcerer's Apprentices?

[Chris Knipp]

Watch the Gore movie some day when you're feeling virtuous. Though some people knocked it and said it's just a slide lecture, it's a hell of a slide lecture, like one you've never seen, and he puts a lot of himself into it.

One has to be skeptical about any politician. No matter how good they are, circumstances are set up to defeat their best impulses. And some of their impulses are none too good to begin with. Politics is all kinds of indigestible reality sandwich. It's the toughest test of all. Nobody really passes it 100% -- except th armchair second-guessers.

[Johann]

I don't want to seem alarmist, but this is seriously alarming.

I got this from Rolling Stone magazine, from Dec. 2006.

It's an interview/update with Kurt Vonnegut, the Laughing Prophet of Doom.



I'm Jerimiah, and I'm not talking about God being mad at us.
I'm talking about us killing the planet as a life-support system with gasoline.

What's going to happen is, very soon, we're going to run out of petroleum, and everything depends on petroleum. And there go the school buses. There go the fire engines. The FOOD TRUCKS will come to a halt. This is the end of the world. We've become far too dependent on hydrocarbons, and it's suddenly going to dry up. You talk about the Roaring Twenties. That was nothing. We're crazy, going crazy, about petroleum. It's a drug like crack cocaine. Of course, the lunatic fringe of Christianity is welcoming the end of the world as the rapture. So I'm Jerimiah. Evil slime has gushed into our lives via the River Styx, courtesy of Hades. We have destroyed our entire planet over transportation. WHOOPEE.

On Global Warming:

I know what it's all about.
I don't need any more persuasion.
There is nothing they can do.
It's over my friend. The game is lost.


Think about that. I've been thinking about it non-stop since I read it. Think about no vehicles on the road anymore, no airplanes in the sky. No food being delivered to your local grocery store, no cough medicine for your kids...This could be worse than anybody can imagine.

[Chris Knipp]

Watch the Gore movie, johann.

There are things that can be done. It is not the end of the world, but sure, we need a wakeup call. UCBerkeley and Indiana U are getting $400 million to research alternative fuels. Things are being done. But is oil an addiction? You bet.

By the way, speaking of Rolling Stone, about two weeks ago they had a terrific forum on the situation in Iraq. They got some of the best experts on the subject that we have in this country, and it's pretty broad and deep coverage in a short space.

Rolling Stone forum "Beyond Quagmire," March 7, 2007TIM DICKINSON moderator, Juan Cole, Nir Rosen, Zbigniew Brzhinski, Richard Clarke terrorism czar, Michael Scheuer, Gen. Tony McPeak (retired) Member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff during the Gulf War Bob Graham Former chair, Senate Intelligence Committee Chas Freeman Ambassador to Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War; president of the Middle East Policy CouncilPaul Pillar Former lead counterterrorism analyst for the CIA Michael Scheuer Head CIA bin Laden Unit.

You get a spectrum of opinion there. Nir Rosen is perhaps the most pessimistic, and Juan Cole the mildest. Of course nobody in this group sees the Iraq invasion as anything other than a colossal mistake at best.

[Johann]

If the known intelligent world is in unison that the war was a colossal mistake, then why doesn't congress impeach?

Why aren't Bush & Cheney in jail for war crimes?

It's quite overwhelmingly clear that Bush and Cheney are evil ignorant scum.

They've caused so much damage to the world that they need to be taken out YESTERDAY.

Am I missing something on U.S. policy that deals with removing assholes from power?

What is the hold-up?

My ex-friend anduril hasn't said a peep about Bush, Iraq, or freedom fries in years.

He must be really pleased with how Iraq has turned out and how "the greatest leader of the free world" has managed the war on terror...

Oh Lord, won't you buy me a mur-say-deez benz. My ex-friends all drive porsches, I must make amends...yee hah margret!

[Chris Knipp]

If the known intelligent world is in unison that the war was a colossal mistake, then why doesn't congress impeach?

Because Congress is not part of the known intelligent world.

Why aren't Bush & Cheney in jail for war crimes?

Beats me. I guess because they're well connected. Also refer to my first answer.

[Johann]

Alright! FINALLY some news to stand up and cheer for.

The Senate just passed a bill for withdrawal from Iraq.

Amen and praise be lavished on the Democrats.

They are doing what they SHOULD be doing.

Bush says he'll veto, but WHO GIVES A SHIT?

I gotta buy some Greg Norman's merlot tonite...

YEAH BABY!

[Chris Knipp]

Hooray! They're growing some balls, little by little. It's hard for some, especially if their name is Nancy. Just joking. She probably has more balls than most of them.

[Johann]

True enough.

Bush is gonna squash it but I don't care.

This is BIG to me.

[Chris Knipp]

It's close, so Congress doesn't have enough votes to override Bush's veto of the withdrawal bill. But if the democrats' enthusiasm continues to grow and public opinion continues to go against Bush and against the war, Congress may be moved to cut the funding, and Bush can't override that. If they want to do it, they can do it. That's what I would like to see, of course, and it's what the liberal wing dems want. Actually there appears to be more funding available than they tell us. But war funding cuts ultimately would demoralize the hawks. Dennis Kucinich thinks the US could get out of Iraq in a minute. And in theory we could. Why are the democrats voting to do it next year? There are powerful pro-war lobbies, the Halliburton-Kellogg, Brown & Root boys, the arms and munitions manufacturers, all those who value dollars over lives or stability or humanity, and we've got plenty of those.

This really is a battle over the balance of powers in the American government. Bush wants to be a dictator, but he hasn't got a rubber stamp Congress any more. Nancy Pelosi & Co. are bandying the phrase "constitutional duty" around.

"Calm down with the threats. . . . There is a new Congress in town," Pelosi said. "I just wish the president would take a deep breath, recognize again that we each have our constitutional duty."[Chicago Tribune story today]

Murtha is taking a different tack. He wants to cut troops by passing restrictions against sending depleted or worn out ones back to Iraq before they've had a year or two of R&R.

If Bush lasts through to the end of his term, he's going to have a continual battle on his hands. According to a current Washington Post article, nine new Republicans just openly defected from the pro-war side; dozens more could be coming.

The same article is good at showing all the new currents in Congress going on now. Here's a dramatic instance:

Rep. Ric Keller (Fla.), a reliable conservative vote, prefaced his statement with an affirmation of support for Bush personally. But, he said, a "surge" of troops had already been attempted in Baghdad. "The benefits were temporary," he said. "The body bags were permanent."

That's pretty clear. And that was a "reliable conservative vote" talking. The tide is turning.

[Johann]

Yes the tide is definitely turning.

The Democrats know full well what kind of heat's on them to get something tangible done.

And they're doing it. That's all you can ask for.

When you're fighting a steroid-injected elephant like Bush's war machine, you gotta get some serious tranquilizer guns to bring it down.

I really hate his "turning it on them" vibe, the whole "if we pull out terrorists will follow us over here". What a crock of shit.

What an asshole to say that the Dems will cause terror to run rampant if they push for a complete withdrawal.

You're causing the terror YOURSELF. George! Your handling that all by your lonesome!

Fuck, he's really fuckin' oblivious.

He gives the terrorists all the reason they need to attack NOW. He's poured ten billion gallons of gasoline on an already roaring fire.

It's terrible to think that the U.S. is due for a counter-attack.

You keep pushing, George.
You keep needling the middle-east.
You go cowboy!
You don't need to blame anybody for terrorism in the US except YOURSELF.

Body bags sure are permanent.

I was a soldier very briefly.

You better believe I wouldn't want to die for this absolute bullshit. I feel so sorry for those
pawns of the U.S. government known as THE TROOPS. "the FODDER" is more like it.

I have a special kind of rage to direct at Bush.
I have a special kind of contempt for him and Rumsfeld and Cheney and Condi Rice.

Soldiers and former soldiers with a brain know what I'm talking about.

You sign up, you volunteer because you BELIEVE in your country. You want to fight for your home and native land. It's noble, it's something to be proud of. You look at all those veterans from just wars and you're in awe that they stood up and did something, and did it so well- watch band of brothers to see what I'm talking about

And then you see what's happening in Iraq & Afghanistan and that pride goes straight out the tank turret.
That noble vibe is squashed like a grape when you see all of the misguided shit and beaurocratic EVIL swirling around.

They don't know and they don't care.

Why?

Because they're SUITS.
They're corporate scum, not custodians of The United States of America.

They are evil ignorant cocksuckers and they should not be tolerated one second more by the people.

They need to be drawn and quartered.
They need a serious strip torn off them.

EXECUTIVE PRIVILEDGE?!

I wanna puke when I hear that phrase.

I'll give you executive priviledge:

It is my priviledge to tell you how much I hate what you stand for.

It is my priviledge to exercise free speech aimed directly at your pathetic power-hungry pussy hearts.

You got a special type of criminal soul, GEORGE BUSH.

And the judge will be issuing the maximum sentence he can impose, IN DUE TIME

[Johann]

Ah, the onion.

How howlingly funny they can be sometimes...

http://www.theonion.com/content/news..._timetable_for

[Chris Knipp]

Yeah, The Onion is frequently right on, especially about politics and this is a good one.

It's looking like the democrats are wimping out now....I don't like the way things are going. At least this fake war has had more objections worldwide earlier, and more government opposition, finally, sooner, than Vietnam.

The soldiers got screwed by being sent to Vietnam before and a lot of the homeless men on the street are still Vietnam vets.

[Johann]

Today I learned that Mr. Kurt Vonnegut has died at age 84.

Another important literary figure gone.
Thanks Kurt. I learned something from you.

[Chris Knipp]

Glad you brought this up. He was important to me in the Seventies. I got a classroom of Berkeley freshmen to read the introduction to Mother Night.

Hey presto! Fire storm!

That he was distilling his own firsthand witnessing of the aftermath of the firebombing of Dresden, not just jazzing up some historical research, makes this incredibly condensed rage all the more impressive. Word has it that Kurt did some serious political activist stuff during his seventies and early eighties.

Mother Night

Cat's Cradle

Welcome to the Monkey-House

Slaughterhouse Five

Those will stand the test of time.

How many of his works were made into movies?

You're Canadian, so tell me: which is the one that Glenn Gould did the music for (using his own Bach performance)?

[Johann]

Not sure.
Who's Glenn Gould?


*just joking! calm down!*