Friday, September 21, 2007

Fridays Lunch Hour With A Workday Liberal

Blackwater is back on duty escorting State Department personnel around Baghdad. Blackwater is basically the American militia, guarding our neighborhoods and shooting up anything that gets in their way. How sad is it to have an unregulated paramilitary gang be omnipresent as our diplomats move about Iraq trying to win the hearts and minds of the Iraqi people who find Blackwater so detestable. This situation is emblematic of the absolute disaster the President has led this nation into. The administration must rely upon their own private militia, which is widely reviled by Iraqi's to protect the people we rely upon to win over Iraq civilians. I think it's very hard to take administration harping on Maliki to rein in the Shiite militias seriously when we can't control our own militia (Blackwater) and are actively strengthening the Sunni militias in Anbar.

Rudy Giuliani tells the NRA that he changed his mind about guns because of 9/11. Who ever could have imagined that Giuliani would invoke 9/11 before the NRA? I mean what a shock! If Giuliani were to give a speech to the International Brotherhood of Peruvian Shoelace Basket Weavers, there is no doubt that he would somehow try to make 9/11 pertinent to their concerns. I can hear Rudy now: "I never was very concerned about Peruvian Shoelace Basket Weaving, but as I walked the streets of New York on that horrible day of 9/11 I suddenly realized what an important role you folks were playing in our search and rescue efforts." If anything, Giuliani's constant harping on 9/11 for political gain dishonors the victims and memory of that day.

Following President Bush's much ballyhooed announcement of the death of Nelson Mandela, the Nelson Mandela foundation channeled Mark Twain by announcing that reports of Mandela's death were greatly exaggerated. Is there any doubt among sane and thoughtful people that President Bush is just idiotic. His entire adult life has seen him careen from leading one business after another into disaster, being bailed out by daddy, and repeating the process. The unfortunate truth of the matter is that daddy can't buy Bush out of the disaster he's led this nation into. It just seems like every time Bush opens his mouth in public we are reminded of his hopeless incompetency. It might be humorous in other circumstances, but people by the hundreds of thousands have died because of this self centered and moronic President.

Comments:
How embarrassing for you. The President's quote was a compliment to Mandela. A leader during tyranny who comes out the other side to lead his nation out of darkness. A moral man. None exist in Iraq. Saddam had them killed. That's Bush's point. He did not say Mandela has passed. It's respectful to wish there was a Mandela in Iraq. Should we just not bring his name up until the 89 year old passes away? The original question that the President was referring to was someone asking: "Where is this region's (middle east) Mandela?" Is that person to be derided as someone who mistakenly thought that a frail 89 year-old Mandela was making the rounds, dodging jihadists in Iraq? I really can't believe that someone would have misunderstood the President's evoking of Mandela's name in his statement. I can believe this though:

As one of the legions of faceless, nameless, wise-ass, know-it-all bloggers to get yet another shot in at George Bush... you should be embarrassed. You should be embarrassed that you're among a generation of kids who are getting their "news" snippets from YouTube, the daily show, and fellow bloggers.
 
Essentially Rico Bach is right about Bush's comment: Bush was trying to say that Saddam had killed all the moralistic dissenters in Iraq during his reign, therefore there weren't any Mandela-like figures that could emerge and unite or inspire the country post-invasion. As usual, Bush's wrestling match with the english language he calls public speaking made it sound like he said "Nelson Mandela is dead."

I don't think this is anything to be embarrassed about though, it was an honest mistake. Thom Hartmann and the government of South Africa also misunderstood Bush--the South Africans actually issued a press release stating Mr. Mandela is alive--frail, but alive--and that Bush's comments were offensive.

But next time get it right, you pinko lefty blogger smartass! :)
 
Wow... 2 righties visit the same post. Thank you folks. I honestly mean it and hope you keep coming back.

As to being embarrassed about this. I am actually. I feel embarrassment each and every time I listen to the President of the United States open his yap and say nonesense like this. Any thinking, coherent person could have framed this in such a way that the Mandela Foundation would not have felt it necessary to issue a clarification, noting they especially wanted to alert the people of S. Africa that Mandela was alive and well. I didn't make that up, and I didn't put the idiotic phrasing into the Presidents mouth that started the whole affair.
 
You misunderstood my comment. I don't agree with Pres. Bush, or Mr. Rico Bach on ANYTHING idealogically, I just realized that Bush wasn't trying to say Nelson Mandela was dead, he was only trying to answer a simple question and he opened his mouth and he tried to make words and sentences and stuff and as usual he f--ked it up.

But his gaff isn't something despicable and evil like USA Patriot or Gitmo, just a piss poor choice of words (as per usual). I guess the reason I got my panties in a bunch and commented on this was because I've heard the same "Mandela is dead" line on Randi Rhodes, Democracy Now!, and Thom Hartmann and I think Bush does enough despicable and evil stuff that we lefties don't have to resort to picking apart verbal gaffs. How about instead we laugh about the fact that Vincente Fox (x-President of Mexico) said Bush was afraid of horses (making him the only cowboy/rancher on the planet who is)?

Sometimes I forget sarcasm doesn't translate well on comments, as I'm firmly left of center politically and was just having some fun with you and Mr. Bach, the real right-winger. Being called a "rightie" kinda stung--but not like getting tasered for asking too many questions at a political rally--more like when your leg falls asleep and you get pins and needles.

I have been and will be sticking around to read your stuff--I like your work. And is it too late to say that I thought the rest of the post was spot on? Regardless, peace my pinko commie wiseass blogger brother.

Mike
 
Well Mike... I must say that my perspective on your comment was most likely colored by the 1st comment from Rico. You have to understand, comments on this blog have been limited and typically from one of several people. When I saw 2 comments, each telling me how off base I was, and then yours went into the whole pinko commie thing... well I hope you can understand how I reached my (mistaken) conclusion.

To be honest, I was a bit excited at having a couple of right wingers poking around. In fact when I saw the first two comments I started wondering if this post had been linked to from some right wing site. I could just imagine the debates and wild eyed threads that would follow each post. Oh Well!
 
Oh yeah... Thanks for dropping by and the words of encouragement Mike. I hate to leave the impression that this is an afterthought... because it really does make my day to see any comment whatsoever, and doubly so when it's a new commenter who likes my work! =o)
 
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