The Rational Radical's Weblog

Saturday, June 07, 2003

WMD's: what did Bush know, and when did he know it?

Jack Clark 9:53 PM [+]   
Post #95425453

The "law of the jungle" is that the strong prosper and survive, while the weak suffer and die.

The government does not exist to enforce the law of the jungle. The law of the jungle does not need the government to enforce it. The law of the jungle is by its nature, self-enforcing.

The government exists to moderate the law of the jungle, to ease the suffering of the weak at the hands of the strong, to rein in the strong from taking everything they want from anybody they want.

The right-wing would not agree. To them, the government, if it has any legitimate function at all, is to intensify the law of the jungle, to codify and strengthen its might-makes-right result.

Jack Clark 9:14 PM [+]   
Post #95424473

If a kid runs out from between two parked cars to cross the street after you warn him that's a dangerous thing to do, and the kid doesn't get hit by a car, and the kid then argues that his not getting hit by a car is "proof" that your warning that it's dangerous to run out from between two parked cars was "wrong," you'd have to try to explain to him that he was simply lucky, not wise. That's how I look at right-wingers condemning anti-war people for warning that invading Iraq could leave to a wider war. The Bushians got lucky. Their luck may well be running out.

Jack Clark 9:08 PM [+]   
Post #95424322

A prominent Democratic strategist recently explained the difference between Democrats and Republicans:

It's probably a weakness that we're not real haters. We don't have a sense that it's a holy crusade. We don't have a sense that it's Armageddon.

Well, that's a nice spin, making the Democrats' pusillanimity a virtue. The truth is, Democrats are less committed to saving people's lives than conservatives are to killing those people.

Jack Clark 9:04 PM [+]   
Post #95424178

Got this in an email, thanks very much!

The Kennebunkport Hillbilly
(to the tune of The Beverly Hillbillies Theme Song)

Come and listen to my story 'bout a boy name Bush
His IQ was zero and his head was up his tush
He drank like a fish while he drove all about
But that didn't matter 'cuz his daddy bailed him out.
DUI, that is. Criminal record. Cover-up

Well, the first thing you know little Georgie goes to Yale
He can't spell his name but they never let him fail
He spends all his time hangin' out with student folk
And that's when he learns how to snort a line of coke.
Blow, that is. White gold. Nose candy.

The next thing you know there's a war in Vietnam
Kin folks say, "George, stay at home with Mom"
Let the common people get maimed and scarred
We'll buy you a spot in the Texas Air Guard.
Cushy, that is. Country clubs. Nose candy.

Twenty years later George gets a little bored
He trades in the booze, says that Jesus is his Lord
He said, "Now the White House is the place I wanna be"
So he called his daddy's friends and they called the GOP.
Gun owners, that is. Falwell. Jesse Helms.

Come November 7, the election ran late
Kin folks said "Jeb, give the boy your state!"
"Don't let those colored folks get into the polls"
So they put up barricades so they couldn't punch their holes.
Chads, that is. Duval County. Miami-Dade.

Before the votes were counted five Supremes stepped in
Told all the voters "Hey, we want George to win"
"Stop counting votes!" was their solemn invocation
And that's how George finally got his coronation.
Rigged, that is. Illegitimate. No moral authority.

Y'all come vote now, Hear?

Jack Clark 10:16 PM [+]   
Post #95398433

Debate on Iraq's Weapons Widens as Blix Questions Credibility of US Arms Inspectors  He said:

I do not want to question the integrity or the professionalism of the inspectors of the coalition, but anybody who functions under an army of occupation cannot have the same credibility as an independent inspector.

True, but let's say you thought you may have to plant WMD's to save your sorry ass. Then you'd only want your own guys doing the inspecting, right?

Jack Clark 10:04 PM [+]   
Post #95398106

Downsizing in Disguise: Why is Paul Bremer Hacking Away So Viciously at Iraq's Public Sector?  Are the ever-money-hungry Bushians deliberately destroying Iraq's public sector so privatization there -- just like the privatization they hawk here in the U.S. -- can make them huge bundles of the moolah they so worship?

Jack Clark 9:57 PM [+]   
Post #95397934

Missing Weapons Of Mass Destruction: Is Lying About The Reason For War An Impeachable Offense?  John Dean took down Nixon. Maybe he'll help take down Bush?

Jack Clark 9:55 PM [+]   
Post #95397883

Juanita Broaddrick Dares Hillary  Is it an uncontrollable voyeuristic perversion, or a distorted result from repressing their own sexuality, or what? What makes these right-wing blabmeisters like Sean Hannity so damn OBSESSED with Bill Clinton's sex life, years after he left office yet?

And did you see Sean Hannity this week on TV seeming to literally get his jollies by repeating over and over again lines from, I believe, Ken Starr's attempt at writing a porn novel that Clinton "pulled down his pants and asked me to kiss it." Hannity just couldn't repeat that line often enough. I guess someone spoke to him because a day or two later he was much more circumspect in his description of that alleged encounter.

Jack Clark 9:52 PM [+]   
Post #95397803

Communism Thrives South of the Border  These Neanderthal right-wing blowhards are still moaning and groaning about "Communism" coming to attack us from the South. Give me a break! Aren't these guys supposed to just be ranting and raving about terrorism now?

Jack Clark 9:49 PM [+]   
Post #95397747

The fraud that is Bill O'Reilly, and the utter stupidity of some of his "fans," is seen in the following messages recently posted on his website's message board by two such individuals [whose full names I have omitted to avoid embarrassing the mentally helpless]:

No taxes under $30,000?? In what country, Bill?
Posted By: RN
Date: 24-May-03

I'm a no-spin guy, and love your show, Bill. Yet, I am disgusted that you keep saying people under $30,000 incomes do not pay federal taxes, and that the earned income credit and child tax credit gives us "free" money. Well, I made less than 30 grand, qualified for the earned income tax credit, and the child tax credit for one child. I still paid around $2000 to the federal government. Bill, please don't put yourself on your "high horse" and say I don't contribute. I certainly do, and I think 2 grand for a guy like me is fair... more than fair. I can hardly support my family, let alone save money to buy them a home. I think you need to appologize to us... on air... and get the real facts about taxes!! PS> LOVE the show...

********

Reply: RE: No taxes under $30,000?? In what country, Bill?
Posted By: RM
Date: 24-May-03

I wonder where he's getting his numbers from. In a small business venture last year after expenses and credits I cleared about $22,000. I paid the IRS $4238 in income tax and self employment tax of $2823 totaling $7061.That's not all my income, but I ask you how is someone making under 30k not paying taxes? This is what I paid in business income alone.

********

Reply: RE: No taxes under $30,000?? In what country, Bill?
Posted By: RN
Date: 25-May-03

I rest my case!!

Even though the guy knows that O'Reilly is misleading people about taxes,he still professes his love for O'Reilly twice in one message. That's because O'Reilly is so demagogically (is this a word?) skillful in pushing hot button cultural issues -- sex on campus, Jesse Jackson, etc -- that his "fans" come to believe he is on their side, even when O'Reilly virtually NEVER deals with the true issues that affect the pocketbook and well-being of average Americans: the unfair tax system and abhorrent Bush tax cuts for the wealthy; the need for living wage legislation; rampant OSHA violations, etc.

Jack Clark 2:36 PM [+]   
Post #95386644

G.O.P. Chief's Idea for Raising Alabama: Taxes  Amazingly insightful reporting here:

If the New Testament teaches me anything, it teaches me not only to love thy neighbor but also to help those who are the least among us," [Alabama Governor] Riley said. "Having a regressive tax structure is one thing. But when it starts at $4,600 for a family of four, that's immoral."

Mr. Riley's plan would raise that income threshold for taxes to $17,000 immediately and to $20,000 in three years, while raising the tax rate to 6 percent from 5 percent. It would also eliminate Alabama's full deduction for federal taxes paid, a provision that now disproportionately benefits the rich. All told, his aides say, more than half of Alabama taxpayers would have lower income taxes.

Mr. Riley's most striking initiative, meanwhile, is a tax on intangible assets, otherwise known as a wealth tax, at a tenth of a percent of the value of stocks and bonds, up to a $5,000 annual cap.

Mr. Connors, the state Republican leader, acknowledged the moral dimension of Mr. Riley's plan, but also his own discomfort with it, when asked how far one might go to make a regressive tax system progressive before it ceased to be a "moral" act and became a "liberal" or "Democratic" one.

"I don't know, but we're getting close to it on this package," he said.

Yup, following Jesus's admonition that "As you did it to the least of these my brethren, you did it to me" takes you out of the conservative field of endeavor. More proof of what I contend in my essay about those cut-and-kill conservatives, aka right-wing pseudo-christians.

Jack Clark 2:34 PM [+]   
Post #95386571

Candidate Wants Probe of Rescue of Jessica Lynch  That's right, release the unedited video if there's nothing to hide. But that's really unfair, isn't it? You don't ask a director of a movie to give you all the pieces of tape from the cutting room floor, do you?

Jack Clark 10:13 PM [+]   
Post #95358094

Split Affects Drive Against Bush  If these jerks don't stop fighting among themselves and endangering our chances of getting rid of Bush in '04, they all should be given a good ass-whuppin', and then maybe they'd behave properly.

Jack Clark 10:10 PM [+]   
Post #95357980

US to Eliminate WMD in All Rogue States, By Force if Necessary  I've always wondered: as the only nation ever to use nukes on people, and as a nation who kept as an ally a dictator (Saddam) who used poison gas on people, by what moral authority do we dare tell other nations "You can't have WMD's"? We can have enough WMD's to destroy all life on the planet, but other nations can't have even one nuke for self-defense. Oh wait, now I remember. God is our President Emeritus, and it is from our Deity-in-Chief we derive such authority.

Jack Clark 10:08 PM [+]   
Post #95357924

Federal Judge Strikes Dramatic Blow to Government's Campaign Against Medical Marijuana  Ed Rosenthal got no jail time! Thanks to that brave judge. And the worst of all wishes to the morons and imbeciles who waste time and resources trying to throw in jail people smoking marijuana at their doctors' directions in order to relieve the anguish of their diseases.

Jack Clark 10:05 PM [+]   
Post #95357830

Hillary Clinton Hardly a Liberal Icon  A valid point that is virtually never made in the midst of the right-wing frenzy to demonize her as the uber-Liberal.

Jack Clark 9:58 PM [+]   
Post #95357616

Bush at Auschwitz  This letter makes a good point:

So now Auschwitz has become a photo opportunity for President Bush to make the case for his war against Iraq (news article, June 1). Surely the Auschwitz dead deserve to be more than political hay for the president's argument that France and Germany, who remember Hitler all too well, were wrong to oppose the war.

Shameless Bush.

Jack Clark 9:36 PM [+]   
Post #95315851

The Reverse Robin Hood  Bob Herbert writes that "in the new American plutocracy, there won't even be crumbs left over for the working folks at the bottom of the pyramid to scramble after." Actually, such has been the case for quite a while, it's just getting worse now. And globally the situation is even more dire.

Jack Clark 9:34 PM [+]   
Post #95315786

Joys of Country Vacation Outlast a Single Summer  Unfortunately, only a child could voice these sentiments, written under a drawing he made of himself: "I like everything. Everyone in the world." Would that every human could have such a feeling in their heart.

Jack Clark 10:10 PM [+]   
Post #95270773

The U.S. Bucks a Trend on Marijuana Laws  We are a nation run by mentally ill assholes. While the rest of the world begins to let common sense rule, we go in the opposite direction.

Jack Clark 10:05 PM [+]   
Post #95270613

Congress May Thwart FCC�s Media Ruling  Is this just bs talk, or would Congress really have the inclination, let alone the guts, to do so?

Jack Clark 9:59 PM [+]   
Post #95270418

Standard Operating Procedure  Krugman's getting down to basics:

The public was told that Saddam posed an imminent threat. If that claim was fraudulent, the selling of the war is arguably the worst scandal in American political history � worse than Watergate, worse than Iran-contra. Indeed, the idea that we were deceived into war makes many commentators so uncomfortable that they refuse to admit the possibility.

Jack Clark 9:56 PM [+]   
Post #95270315

New Push for Sanctions Against Burma Regime Likely  I say we send in the 101st Airborne and effect regime change.

Jack Clark 9:47 PM [+]   
Post #95223239

Brazil's Lula Slams G-8 on Trade  As well he should!

Jack Clark 9:25 PM [+]   
Post #95222489

Brazil's Leader Steps Gingerly Onto World Stage  Is Lula going too far to the right? Or are his measures necessary to ensure later success with the kind of reforms that are dear to his heart?

Jack Clark 11:56 PM [+]   
Post #95181409

Myanmar's Aung San Suu Kyi Put Under Arrest After Violent Clash  Why don't we invade Myanmar and do some regime change there?

Jack Clark 11:52 PM [+]   
Post #95181331

Nader: Greens Considering Backing Democrat in 2004  An idea I would have dismissed as stupid a year ago. Now I'm not so sure.

Jack Clark 11:50 PM [+]   
Post #95181272

US Faces Growing Charges of War Crimes  Sum-up of all the ongoing efforts.

Jack Clark 11:42 PM [+]   
Post #95181113

Revealed: The Cluster Bombs That Litter Iraq  Is it a high (or even "a") U.S. priority to clean up those cluster bombs before more children are killed or maimed? Of course not.

Jack Clark 11:38 PM [+]   
Post #95181017

No Weapons in Iraq? We'll Find Them in Iran  Nice sum-up of all the recent disclosures of Bushian lies about WMD's.

Jack Clark 11:25 PM [+]   
Post #95180704

Locked Up in Land of the Free: The United States has surpassed Russia as the nation with the highest percentage of citizens behind bars  Amazing, even more than any dictatorship or axis of evil member!

Jack Clark 11:22 PM [+]   
Post #95180624

Bush WMD Debacle Prompted by Salman Pak Blunder  Did Saddam actually train the 9/11 hijackers? Or is this merely far-right tale-spinning?

Jack Clark 11:20 PM [+]   
Post #95180567

Falwell's Paper Headlines Threat to Abandon Bush  Whatever weakens the far right...

Jack Clark 11:13 PM [+]   
Post #95180402