luke warm, on Aug 16 2006, 08:21 PM, said:
mikeh, on Aug 16 2006, 07:37 PM, said:
keylime, on Aug 11 2006, 12:10 PM, said:
The absolute garbage that some assert as "fact" is nonsense. ~~snip~~
I like your first sentence: it is such an apt description of what follows
let's examine what he said, cause i'm interested in which parts you find nonsensical
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If it wasn't for President Bush, the US would have become another battlefield for world supremacy between the West and the Islamic fanacticals. Instead, we have quite rightly taken the fight to them.
aside from the "if it wasn't for president bush" part (since i'm not totally convinced just who's running the show), do you disagree with the "fight them there or fight them here" concept? if so, why?
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The 2006 election is going to boil down to not what the Republican Party can do in terms of repairing their image, but how willing the American people are able to forget that 9/11 happened with mostly Saudi Arabian nationals as the attackers, and how tolerant they will be of the Democratic Party's steady move leftward towards an anti-war policy.
which part(s) of this is nonsense?
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Americans for the most are not going to vote for a party that is so disorganized and polarized. Furthermore, Americans like winners - and the Democrats haven't been that since 1994. That's when the gradual change back to conservatism began. Lastly, the Democrats frankly can not win the 2008 election unless a candidate like Joe Lieberman, a style of liberal civility, returns to the party. Tell me what platform they can offer when Bush has lower taxes, protected the country, and even through the gross and deliberate misleading the media has projected upon him, has HIGHER satisfaction ratings than Congress?
i personally would have gladly voted for joe liberman (i'd do so today, if i could)... but that aside, is all of the above nonsense or just part of it?
maybe there are some errors in analysis... maybe there aren't...
1. the nonsense is the bald assertion that only George Dubba saved the USA from having to fight Islamic terrorists on its soil..... that is complete and utter nonsense.
I have no trouble with the US led invasion of Afghanistan: the taliban were sheltering and assisting an organization that had committed a horrendous crime... and, as such, the Taliban in essence committed an act of war against the US.
But calling the assertion that George Dubba is the saviour of the Western world 'nonsense' is an underbid.
2. What does the remembrance of 9/11, and the identity of the terrorists, have to do with who should win the election? Afghanistan is a non-issue according to the polling reports I have seen, and, contrary to what an astounding number of Americans seem to believe, the 'war in Iraq' had NOTHING to do with 9/11.
Now, the Afghan situation ought to be an issue, because the current state of Afghanistan shows what happens when an invader pulls out without carrrying through with promises to help build a nation. Thus, it ought to be a lesson to Democrats that the US should stay in Iraq and it ought to be a lesson to Republicans that Iraq is more then an opportunity for Haliburton and numerous private contractors (some of whom are of very questionable ethical or moral calibre) to get rich. But the American public (as is the Canadian public... I am not anti-American in this, it seems to be a universal trait in western society) has a very short attention span, so Afghanistan is an non-issue.
No, according to what I have read and heard, the issues are the price of gas, the cost of health care, the 'immigration problem' and the war in Irag.
The immigration problem is another classic example of the power of the 'frame'. Illegal immigration is an issue for one reason and one alone: the habit of American emploers hiring illegal immigrants. Prosecute the employers, and they will stop hiring, and the jobs for which the immigrants come into the country disappear. Not only would fewer immigrants come (why bother?) but many of those here now might well go back home.
9/11 has nothing to do with the price of gas, altho the unrelated war in Iraq does.
Health care is a farce... other civilized countries have great health care systems, in terms of universality, at reasonable costs, but the US way is to sacrifice the health of the undeserving poor (if they weren't undeserving, they'd have trust funds like so many of the top 5% of the population) on the altar of 'free enterprise'.
So to say that the election is related to 9/11 is absurd... the only relationship between 9/11 and the 'top issues' lies in the mind of republican propagandists and their victims.
3. It may well be true that the Democrats will self-destruct: a number of respected commentators have made that very point. The nonsense lies in assertion that Bush has 'protected' the country.
While the opinions of foreigners counts for very little in the US, it surely ought to mean something even to the most insular, parochial American that a country so closely linked to the US as Canada voted, in an opinion poll, that Bush represented a more serious threat to world peace than did bin Laden.
Bush, and his cohorts, have arguably increased the number of people who hate the US by the greatest margin in the history of the country.
That represents 'protection'? Well, America is famous for the protection rackets that used to and maybe still do form a significant part of gang revenues, so maybe the use of the word 'protect' is more appropriate than it seemed.
And to assert that the media has distorted matters... if it weren't so serious for the rest of the world, I'd laugh. I have seen and read the treatment afforded Bush by Newsweek and Time: the articles read as if written by White House staffers.
So, while the analysis of why the Democrats may lose has merit, the slavish adoration of the most inept and dangerous president your great country has ever elected that I see reflected in the post is truly nonsensical... at least that's the way it appears to a fellow North American.
Let me add, that as a Canadian, my 'right' to comment on Ameican politics is miminal at best... but the truth is that what happens in the US impacts the rest of the world (and Canada in particular) to an extent probably unimaginable to an American. What happens in Canada is the next thing to inconsequential to most Americans: the converse is not true for us... nor for, shall we say, Iraqis?
'one of the great markers of the advance of human kindness is the howls you will hear from the Men of God' Johann Hari