kt moxie

FAQ: Plan For Victory

Raging Moderate, By Will Durst

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT PRESIDENT BUSH'S PLAN FOR VICTORY:

Q. President Bush recently announced his "PLAN FOR VICTORY." What does this plan entail?
A. Its two-pronged. There is a short-term plan and a long-term plan.

Q. And what are they?
A. The short-term plan is to keep the Democrats from regaining control of Congress in '06.

Q. And the long term-plan?
A. Keeps the Democrats from regaining control of the White House in '08. Or acquires photographs of Hillary Clinton in bed with a goat and/or a woman.

Q. So, nothing about Iraq then?
A. Well, now that you mention it there was something about the brave freedom-loving Iraqis and how, together, we are winning the tough struggle against violent extremism, but it was just more of the same in an attempt to rescue his poll numbers from falling through the floor like an anvil made of dark matter.

Q. What is the PLAN FOR VICTORY going to replace?
A. The PLAN FOR QUAGMIRE we've been following the last three years.

Q. Didn't he reveal a strategy for winning?
A. Yeah, but, you know what, so do the Chicago Cubs. Every spring. Don't imagine election-bound Republicans are looking forward to changing their slogan to: "We'll get 'em next year."

Q. What is their slogan now?
A. Lately, it seems to be "Incompetent, Corrupt Cronies 'R Us."

Q. Didn't he also refuse to set a timetable for withdrawal saying it would send a message to the world that America was weak?
A. Yes, he did. So apparently he's okay with continuing to send a message to the world that America is a big bad bully who will beat the crap out of you if we don't like the way you look at us.

Q. Don't we run the danger of alienating our allies if we just cut and run?
A. Cut and run? There's no running. This isn't running. This is walking. Backwards. Really fast backward walking. Who knows, we might even walk backwards really fast right into Iran or Syria.

Q. How does the president define victory?
A. According to a separate 35-page document accompanying the speech titled "National Strategy for Victory in Iraq," victory means creating the conditions that allow us to leave.

Q. Is he saying that getting out of Iraq is our only path to victory?
A. No. No. No. A lot of victories await us. Tiny victories and little victories and medium-sized victories. Not to say we haven't experienced victories already. A couple tiny victories, a moral victory and an election victory. And if we string a bunch of these little victories together, it could add up to a nice medium-sized victory. Or a gaggle of little victories and a medium victory, or a series of medium victories coupled with one or two moral victories could add up to a big victory. And two or three big victories could result in a humongous victory.

Q. What is that?
A. A Republican victory. In November '06 and '08.

Q. What is the best-case scenario?
A. We try to incubate democracy in the Mideast and whenever the political costs at home get too high, we declare victory and leave, leaving our secret prison camps intact.

Political comic Will Durst is declaring victory over his comedy club career.

The web site Black Lantern has a music video on their page by a group called the Legendary K.O. that is a spin-off of Kayne West's rap song Gold Digger and his quote "George Bush Doesn't Care About Black People."  Watch it and see what you think:

Click to watch >> (QuickTime) (Windows Media)

 

While we all might not agree with everything this song has to say, I think it's point resonates with most African-Americans - and others - in this country.  I think we should all listen.  And really - how fast would Bush have reacted if the people in distress were white, rich and in Connecticut?

Also, Public Enemy's Chuck D has also put out a response in rap:  "Hell No We Ain't All Right."  Here's how another blogger, Sean Coon, describes it:

"Chuck D's rhymes flow so natural and powerful, they take form within your psyche while you latch onto his beat. That happens because Chuck doesn't twist to the beat of a loop; Chuck's direct, unflinching  words twist a beat of their own.

Do you feel him in this latest drop? I follow his words, like "the new world is upside down and out of order," as a flip from the past, as back then he was taken aghast, as the polar opposites were set-up, the Axis of Evil corrupt..."

Some noteworthy things our leaders have said about Katrina...

In chronological order...

"FEMA is not going to hesitate at all in this storm. We are not going to sit back and make this a bureaucratic process. We are going to move fast, we are going to move quick, and we are going to do whatever it takes to help disaster victims." --FEMA Director Michael Brown, Aug. 28, 2005

"I don't want to alarm everybody that, you know, New Orleans is filling up like a bowl. That's just not happening." -Bill Lokey, FEMA's New Orleans coordinator, in a press briefing from Baton Rouge, Aug. 30, 2005 (Source)

"I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees." –President Bush, on "Good Morning America," Sept. 1, 2005, six days after repeated warnings from experts about the scope of damage expected from Hurricane Katrina (Source)

"I don't make judgments about why people chose not to leave but, you know, there was a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans." –FEMA Director Michael Brown, arguing that the victims bear some responsibility, CNN interview, Sept. 1, 2005 (Source)

"I have not heard a report of thousands of people in the convention center who don't have food and water." –Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, on NPR's "All Things Considered," Sept. 1, 2005 (Source)

"We just learned of the convention center – we being the federal government – today." –FEMA Director Michael Brown, to ABC's Ted Koppel, Sept. 1, 2005, to which Koppel responded " Don't you guys watch television? Don't you guys listen to the radio? Our reporters have been reporting on it for more than just today." (Source)

"I believe the town where I used to come – from Houston, Texas, to enjoy myself, occasionally too much – will be that very same town, that it will be a better place to come to." –President Bush, on the tarmac at the New Orleans airport, Sept. 2, 2005 (Source)

"What I'm hearing which is sort of scary is that they all want to stay in Texas. Everybody is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this (chuckle) – this is working very well for them." –Former First Lady Barbara Bush, on the Hurricane flood evacuees in the Houston Astrodome, Sept. 5, 2005 (Source)

"Now tell me the truth boys, is this kind of fun?" –House Majority Leader Tom Delay (R-TX), to three young hurricane evacuees from New Orleans at the Astrodome in Houston (Source)

"We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did." –Rep. Richard Baker (R-LA) to lobbyists, as quoted in the Wall Street Journal (Source)

More accounts:

Conference attendees in the French Quarter - Bradshaw and Slonsky are paramedics frorm California that were attending the EMS conference in New Orleans.  They talk of survivalist looting - "fondly", absence of any assistance, lies from the authorities, food and water being taken away by the police, and being prevented from self-evacuating.

Doctors from Georgia there to help - Dr. Jeffrey Orledge and his medical team provided care in New York City after the 2001 terrorist attacks and in Florida last year after Hurricane Ivan. None of that prepared them for the bedlam of the past week, he said on Sunday.

Ok.  It is making me sick to find out how poorly we have treated our own.  As if they are not worth saving.  And, yes, race is an issue.  Yes, poverty is an issue.  If you were poor and black in New Orleans, then you were much more likely to be one of the refugees left behind in the flood.   Anyone trying to ignore that is pretending that we are in a color blind egalitarian society.  And we are not. 

I thought this comic makes an interesting - and humorous point. 

In response to the "Intelligent Design" movement, a silly young fellow has proposed his own theory - that the "Flying Spaghetti Monster" created the world!  He would like this theory along side intelligent design and evolution, and has sent an open letter to the Kansas School Board.  He has created his own noodly movement! 

Here's a great quote:

“I cannot support a failed foreign policy. History teaches us that it is often easier to make war than peace. This administration is just learning that lesson right now. The President began this mission with very vague objectives and lots of unanswered questions. A month later, these questions are still unanswered. There are no clarified rules of engagement. There is no timetable. There is no legitimate definition of victory. There is no contingency plan for mission creep. There is no clear funding program. There is no agenda to bolster our overextended military. There is no explanation defining what vital national interests are at stake. There was no strategic plan for war when the President started this thing, and there still is no plan today.”

Any guesses on who made it and when? 

How about Republican Tom DeLay in 1999!  He was referring to President Clinton - and Kosovo.  Oh, but wait, that was successful - and short.  I thought that comment about "a month later" sounded odd...

I'm at my wit's end with this talk about teaching "intelligent design" in science class. I thought we taught science in science class, but I guess I was wrong. Since the zealots have lost all the previous battles, now they claim to have an "alternative scientific theory" to evolution.

However, they forgot to crack open their elementary school science books and look up "science" and "theory." To be a science, you actually have to go out in the real, natural world and study it. And, to have a scientific theory, you must have logical model that is be based on that evidence you when out and studied. Oh, and by the way, using the scientific method, doing some experiments, and having other scientific peers review them for legitimacy is good, too.

Intelligent design just basically says "Gee, we don't have all the answers to all this complexity, so God must have done it!" Hmm, that doesn't seem anything like science, does it?

Now, I don't have a problem with discussing controversial debates about evolution and creationism - and even intelligent design (if they want to call it that) - with our children in school. But, let's put it in the correct context. This isn't a scientific discussion. This is a philosophical discussion.

Eventually, I believe (yes, that's the right word) that religious leaders will re-interpret the Bible to allow for "newer" scientific theories including evolution. Hey, past religious institutions *eventually* accepted not only that the Earth is round, but it also revolves around the Sun! The question is, how many more centuries will it take for them to catch up?

Wow.  This is the latest entry from Khalid Jarrar's blog.  He's an Iraqi Engineering student in Baghdad who has a blog that I've been reading for the last couple of months.  It was crazy to be reading someone's blog, then find out that he has been "taken."  His family did not know where he was for days.  His father was checking the morgues.

The entry recounts his arrest, interrogation,  "confession", court case, and release.  His family was able to secure his release from their wealth and connections - and lack of evidence in the case.  His arrest came because he was viewing another Iraqi's blog - Raed in the Middle (I also read this blog) - on a public computer.  He also recounts the other inmate's stories and experiences of torture. 

If these "guards" are the ones that our US troops have supposedly "trained," I don't see how we can ever leave...