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( I wish I could feel more hopeful about U.S. foreign policy. Even after the election I just don't expect much more than political foot-dragging from the Dems, together with years more of murder and savagery from the Bush administration. But here's one kind of hopeful little flicker . . .below)




Published on Monday, December 4, 2006 by Reuters
Bolton to Leave as US Ambassador to UN
by Curt Anderson

WASHINGTON - Facing opposition from key senators, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton will leave office in a matter of days, the White House announced on Monday.

Spokeswoman Dana Perino said President George W. Bush had reluctantly accepted Bolton's decision to leave the U.N. post when the current session of the U.S. Congress ends, possibly at the end of the week.

Bush had bypassed the Senate in August 2005 by appointing Bolton to the position when the lawmakers were in recess, avoiding the confirmation process and angering senators concerned that Bolton had a temper and intimidated intelligence analysts to support his hawkish views while at the State Department.

Bolton and White House officials felt that if the full Senate had had the chance to vote on his nomination that he would be confirmed, but some senators in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee opposed him.

"Despite the support of a strong bipartisan majority of senators, Ambassador Bolton's confirmation was blocked by a Democrat filibuster, and this is a clear example of the breakdown in the Senate confirmation process," Perino said.

Bush planned to meet Bolton in the Oval Office on Monday afternoon.

© 2006 The Reuters

yeah his term expired
he has certainly incurred the wrath of iran
well i guess they ain't gonna have recess for awhile

wonder if he'll cull from daddy's brood
i don't expect any miracles

years more of murder and savagery from the Bush administration.

I hope not.
But
I been thinking it will be years more too, but that gives me hope, because usually what I think is dead wrong.

Live in hope and die in despair
Or is it live in despair and die in hope

I would not call Pelosi a foot dragger.

I would call her a very shrewd politician. She gives me a flicker of hope.


Who knows what dirty little secretes will come out now that congress will have over sight again? Maybe enough for the exit of cheney next. It could happen. Ask him:



I would be shocked if anybody knows who he is. Maybe that is a good thing.

Zlatko Waterman wrote:good stuff and showed this ...

Published on Monday, December 4, 2006 by Reuters
Bolton to Leave as US Ambassador to UN
by Curt Anderson

WASHINGTON - Facing opposition from key senators, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton will leave office in a matter of days, the White House announced on Monday.

I'm already singing the hallelujah chorus and when the day actually arrives I'll switch to Edwin Hawkins' OH HAPPY DAY (Oh happy day)
OH HAPPY DAY (Oh happy day)

that bust looks like spiro t agnew's pontificating profile
his nittering nabob of negativism self
dead pan
oh happy day
halleluja!

I heard a Barry Goldwater ( on the subject of the Vietnam War)- style Lieutenant Colonel ( and "analyst") on NPR today say:

"Contrary to what the Baker people's report is saying, we CAN win in Iraq. It's just that there isn't any public support for a military solution. The public won't support the kind of bloodbath required to really go after the militias. We need twice as many troops and firepower to really clean 'em all out. It's a simple technical thing. Technically we can do it. The first thing we have to do is kill Sadr . . ." ( etc., etc.)

While his is not a majority view even among cooler heads in the military, it points up the delusion that if " we only used more force" there would be a "solution" to be found in Iraq.

I remember when Barry Goldwater wanted to use nuclear weapons in Vietnam because we were "fighting with one hand tied behind our backs."

(paste)

As an opponent of federal civil rights laws Goldwater was highly critical of the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson. He also favoured a more aggressive approach to the Vietnam War. Nominated by the Republican Party as its presidential candidate in 1964, he upset many of his potential supporters by voting against Johnson's Anti-Poverty Act (1964).

His extreme anti-Communist views also frightened the American public. In one television interview with Howard K. Smith Goldwalter explained that he would be willing to use nuclear weapons against communist forces in Vietnam.

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAgoldwater.htm

( end paste)


The Bush gang has followed an equally delusionary "policy" in trying to "win the democracy."

They would have been better off sticking to "weapons of mass destruction", ours or theirs.

Why can't anyone with power think in this country?

( and "analyst") on NPR today say

"analyst" is that a typo? Did you mean analist?

What can't anyone with power think in this country?

There it is, the 64 trillion dollar question!

I remeber Bary G fondly for this one statement.

"If one more preacher tries to tell me how to vote, I am going to kick his ass" I have googled that quote several times, there is a little ambiguity about what exactly he was going to do to that preacher.

Sorry for the digression but it is an interesting discussion. Excellet question Norman. It would make a good poll, imo.

. . . "Anayl" retentive, I guess . . .

--Z

( I did make a typo or two in that post, but not the one you speculated on.

That was hilarious, ST.)

Thanks Z,
I like the Travis McGee line that a friend is someone you can say any tom fool thing to and still remain friends.

I don't want to go into it here
But.
The Iraq Study Group Report:
I wonder what the chances are that our fearless leader will actualy read it?

My personal theory about George Bush is, contrary to his public appearances and tongue-tied public speaking, that he's really a bit more sly than he appears. Like a smalltime baseball manager-- say AAA league.
He's not as grindingly dumb as he appears. He's just a small-scale man.

I understand this, being without ambition and small-scale myself. But George is ambitious, which can be dangerous for the rest of us.

He sees the whole world like a baseball manager or team owner-- something he wasn't good at, but found a partial niche inside. His "vision", I think, is something like the following:

There are teams, and they're both trying to win. We are a team, the "Arabs" and "Muslims" are a team. A further sub-division in his fearful mind ( since only fearless readers and thinkers can entertain ambiguity) is into "good" and "bad."

The New York Yankees, even though they were the apotheosis of America, were "bad" during the 1950's ( no analogy to Michael Jackson's song here-- where "bad" is good . . .), when the Yankees won many games and World Series. And the Washington Senators were "good."


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/ar ... Mar28.html




The Senators were underdogs, like Stallone's Rocky, reportedly one of GW's favorite films. And the Yankees were effortless experts at winning.

Hence the amusing musical play written about those "Damn Yankees."


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damn_Yankees


The moral dimension gets added to the logistical and strategic:

Americans are "good" and love "freedom" because they work hard and live right ( as Merle Haggard said in his song "Okie from Muskogee", and later repudiated when he became "enlightened.")

Muslims tend to be "extreme " in their religious puritanism and lack the flexibility to see their religion as an potential extender for consumer capitalism.
They deny their people simple pleasures, like SUVs and viagra, uplift brassieres, generous makeup, lipsosuction and rockstar sex gossip.

WHAT DID BRAD SAY TO MELISSA YESTERDAY?

Their women are forced to tend house and raise children.

Bush sees "them" and "us" in these terms because he is comfortably insulated in ignorance, a handy state for an ambitious politician.

I think Orsen Welles said it pretty well in CITIZEN KANE-- cocksureness will carry you a long way. Look at Huey Long, or even Joe McCarthy.

So GW stays on his 600-acre ranch, ALWAYS, in his mind. That's why he could grope Angela Merkel, a woman who can speak thirteen languages quite well, while Bush speaks one and a half ( pidgin Spanish . . .).

That's why he can refer to Africa as a country in a major speech.

Everyone affirmed that Ronald Reagan ( one of GW's heroes and "inspirations", along with Jesus) was a fine fellow and a charming guy to invite to parties. But a President has to be more than that-- like John Adams, like Madison ( who made his share of mistakes but was a wonderful writer, like Adams), like Lincoln. My guess is that Andrew Jackson was a little like Bush-- cocksure and flinty.

People think they like that kind of determined ignorance-- for a while.


--Z

bloody brilliant
Sometimes I get despondent on this board
we get into posting articles and opinons of other writers
And all I Can think of is what George Fox said to Margaret Fell
"What canst thou say."

I would say that you said it well
Bloody brilliant.

On a personal note:

( since only fearless readers and thinkers can entertain ambiguity) is into "good" and "bad."

that is what I been thinking too
the meek have inheirited the USA.

Muslims tend to be "extreme " in their religious puritanism and lack the flexibility to see their religion as an potential extender for consumer capitalism.
They deny their people simple pleasures, like SUVs and viagra, uplift brassieres, generous makeup, lipsosuction and rockstar sex gossip.

WHAT DID BRAD SAY TO MELISSA YESTERDAY?

Their women are forced to tend house and raise children.

I found this bit about Sayyid Qutb the guy who put the fun in Muslim fundamentalism

“
Wright draws a fascinating picture of Sayyid Qutb, the font of modern Islamic fundamentalism, a frail, middle-aged writer who found himself, as a visitor to the United States and a student at Colorado State College of Education in Greeley in the 1940’s, overwhelmed by the unbridled splendor and godlessness of modern America. And by the sex: like so many others who followed him, Qutb seemed simultaneously drawn to and repelled by American women, so free and unselfconscious in their sexuality. The result is a kind of delirium:



A girl looks at you, appearing as if she were an enchanting nymph or an escaped mermaid,” Qutb wrote, “but as she approaches, you sense only the screaming instinct inside her, and you can smell her burning body, not the scent of perfume, but flesh, only flesh. Tasty flesh, truly, but flesh nonetheless.”

The Looming Tower
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/06/books ... c8&ei=5070

Damn yankees, I love that show.
What ever Lola wants.

I always get, what I aim for
And your heart and soul
Is what I came for

You know I am not sure if Walter Kaufmann was right with his analysis of Nietzsche's writing but he was an excellent translator they say. I would think if you can translate from German to English so well, you must have a grip on what you are writing about.

Bush's ambition and the Musical Damn Yankees
Shoe Less Joe sold his soul to the devil so he could be the hero who saved the Senators

Bush admires christ he says, but I wonder who did Saul meet on that road to damascus?

Bush as Faust
He is a true believer
Convinced he is going to save us even if he has to destroy us.
Discuss

Neitzsche decided to give god the credit for evil. I think. But I am a coward, shove a couple bambo shoots under my fingernails and I will kiss the bible or spit on it, situational ethics I suppose.

don't mean much
just chit chat

But George is ambitious, which can be dangerous for the rest of us.

I keep thinking about that Bible class in Midland Texas.

.

He found the power
to stop drinking

And on the campaign trail for his father he was the go to guy for the Christian Fundamenatalists.

And a friend heard him mutter to himself

"I can do this."

So he ran for govenor

And no one realized just how ambitious he was

Now he is the new messiah
I suppose

Our president of good versus evil.

I watch those TV preachers swell with power and the sacred bloody word
Nietzsche said the most basic human instinct is the will to power

woe is us.