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Defense of Bush
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Quotes from the Neighborhood 9-29-04 - Norbert should get a job and leave the politicking to the experts. - Claude Perkins, head of the local chapter of War Without End. 9-26-04 - Nobody's going to use any nuclear weapons. They're just too horrible and also they're impractical. And there won't be any nuclear accidents because the people in charge are keeping a good eye on things. - Sidney, the perennial drunk who hangs out in the alley out back 9-22-04 - You know, I used to hear the joke that the difference between us and the Russians as far as the news we get is that they knew their papers were lying and we believe it. Funny isn't it? - Natasha 9-18-04 - It's just like it was back in Italy in the thirties. Your strong unyielding president, your cowardly media, and your willing population remind me of the times of Il Douche. I just wonder how much destruction you will take before the mindless flag wavers wake up. - Vito the barber 9-15-04 -Look - Bush has gotten us into an enormous, bloody mess in Iraq. It's gonna be hard for Kerry to deal with it, but it shouldn't be left to the bungling dunces that got us into it. - Jim the mailman 9-13-04 Bush's image as a strong military leader is just that - image. No substance. In fact, it's always the opposite from what he shows with him. - name withheld 9-12-04 - Hey! I'm the one who suggested to you that the choice between Kerry and Bush was like that between Julius Caesar and the sadistic psychopath Caligula or maybe, at least later on, Nero. Caesar was into empire but wrote poetry and cared about the common people. So give me credit you thief! - Norbert's next door neighbor to the West, Herminie 9-11-04 - The main thing I see in the Bush administration's reaction to 9/11 is a complete lack of sensitivity and being sensitive means to have ones eyes and ears open, to be aware. - Timmy Smedly 9-10-04 - "What the heck is going on is this
crazy world?"
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Norbert's September Comments on September quotes and other ramblings There's a link in each day's comments below to that day's quote |
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AS Marvin Kalb said of the Bush-Gore debates, "No one took into account the possibility that if you set the bar real low for Bush, all he had to do was pronounce America properly and it would be a terrific thing. And that is in fact what happened." - today's quote from Jim Lehrer News Hour, Campaign Coverage, November 7, 2000. If you look at the source of that quote though, you'll see something more ominous than the media's shortcomings - the shallowness and gullibility of the voting public. Remember that news conference that Bush had a few months ago - one of the few he's had (in contrast to his father and Clinton)? After his pathetic performance I was shocked to see that about half the people thought he did quite well. It looks to me like you can fool about half the people most of the time. So, I pray that Kerry does well in the debates, that he is perceived to have done well, and that more than half of the American electorate wakes up to the fact that we are not in living in Wonderland. Check out Paul Krugman's Sept. 28th column on the same topic called Swagger vs Substance in which he opens by saying, "During the debate, President Bush will try to cover his record with swagger." I'll try to get it up here but no time now. Bye.
That's all for today. Gotta run. 9-27-04 - Greetings. Norbert here. How about today's quote. I really like this article by Joe Klein from Time magazine. It says the sort of thing that the media should be saying - the pres says x but y seems to be true but he seems to be able to convince most Americans that he's right. Most news leaves out the "y seems to be true" part. Think about what Klein is saying:
I think that each of us who doesn't want our nation's foreign and domestic policies to be based on these nefarious lies should try to do what we can to help to awaken the sleeping, hypnotized masses. Don't leave it up to Kerry and politicians. Don't complain about them. Remember - we want to get them in so we can gripe at them about their shortcomings. But there is no doubt in my mind that the level of incompetence with them will be far lower. And the level of evil will be far far lower as well. Look at this picture of George W. Bush made from the faces of soldiers who died in Iraq last year. It is composed by the great contemporary artist Chuck Close. Mr. Benz of Portland, who sends this artwork our way, calls it another masterpiece of the artist. From this picture you can go to a larger one.
Here is the complete quote which I got off the Rainforest Action Network's site. It's from something she wrote promoting the book and is undated.
Oh gosh - we must tell the candidates and the media that they're overlooking something even more important than what they're focusing on. Do it today! And speaking of today, today we have another Episode of In Defense of Bush - #7 which explores Bush's personal relationship with God and what countries God tells him to invade. This is the same quote that was featured in our calendar on September 4th.
And now it's time for another episode of In Defense of Bush - #6 in which Ned Needleman defends the Bush-Cheney White House against the accusation that the U.S. is pursuing contradictory and seemingly self-destructive nuclear policies. And don't miss the compelling message from the Rowboat Veterans for Truth.
Thanks to Sophie Rubenking for the cartoon Moosalini George 9-23-04 - Greetings. Norbert here. Thanks to E.L. Doctorow for today's quote. I think what he's saying is very very true and is part of the Mussolini effect. I think we have a sociopath president. I think he's very dangerous - but he's got quite effective PR. And time for another episode, #5, of In Defense of Bush.
How our media is failing us is one of the biggest story of all the stories swirling around these days in books such as The Republican Noise Machine: Right-Wing Media and How It Corrupts Democracy by David Brock and in documentaries such as Fahrenheit 911 and Outfoxed: Rupert Murdock's War on Journalism and in websites such as Truth Out and Media Matters and on radio with Air America. Here are two voices telling us not to be wimps and despair: Put Away Your Hankies...a message from Michael Moore and the San Francisco Chronicle's John Carroll whose column yesterday said Get over yourselves. If any of these links don't work, tell me because I have the articles and can put them up myself. Thanks.
And here's another In Defense of Bush - #4 about how Bush is taking sedatives with reference to the book, Bush on the Couch, that talks about his mental health. And this time it looks like Ned might be right. To me it's like someone said that there's a sadistic sociopath with their right index finger on the trigger and someone else said that's not true! - it's their left index finger.
This is a bag of nails for the coffin of the Bush administration if the media and public will pay attention to what's most important rather than a lot of silly name-calling. I like that image - not just nails for the coffin, but bags of them being brought forth by the likes of Bob Graham and Jeff Nussbaum. So to complete the image, people have to be made aware that the nails are there before they will pick of the hammer of the ballet and drive them in. Ha ha ha. This brings to mind what to me is the key - to get the important information before people. After ECC (this site) has had enough of these national security type quotes, me thinks we should start looking at the role media is playing in the madness of these days. And, most importantly, figuring out how to get to undecided people with this info which seems to me to include trying to get the mainstream media to report on it. Anyway, look at an article on truthout.org on Graham's comment about impeaching Bush for his lies that led us into war and comparing it to the criteria of the Republicans' impeachment of Clinton.. And, remember that actually, today's quote is from an article that primarily emphasizes the Saudi Bush connection and the stunning favoritism Bush gave to Saudis even though they, not any Iraqis, had solid connections to 911. Oh my gosh just look at the Homeland Security site, HSToday's bookstore. It's got quite a large and excellent list with a little graphic of the covers.
And here's another episode of In Defense of Bush. Here's a fun thing to
do:
9-17-04 - Hi. Norbert here. How about today's quote? So much to report, so many shocking and disgusting and highly important obvious and glaring ways in which Bush and his gang say one thing and do another. In fact it's pretty much always the opposite of what they say. Their propaganda machine uses 911 to wrap them in the flag while at every turn they've been on the wrong side - blithely ignoring the many warnings, responding ineptly, using 911 to pursue other goals which sabotage the real business at hand, and, as today's quote indicates, doing their best to ignore those who want both real accountability and practical measures taken. Remember - if they say it, they're doing the opposite. Today's quote is not actually how he said it. It's a totally verbatim transcript and he made a mistake and had to correct himself so I left out the mistake. He said "We used to think it would take another attack" and then corrected himself to say just "take an attack." Now these guys who are not pro Kerry and anti Bush. They're talking about what needs to be done. I think that Kerry is much more aware of what they're talking about and open to dealing with it than Bush. But they're waiting to see. The moderator is Warren Rudman, the Republican co-chair, along with Gary Hart, of the Hart-Rudman Commission on national security whose report came out in January 2001, leading off with the warning of a dire attack by terrorists on US soil. Bush refused to meet with both Rudman (who had campaigned for other Republicans) and Hart. Cheney, who was in charge of this area for Bush, didn't meet with them. Bush and Cheney fiddled around with missile defense and grumbling about Iraq while, along with the media, ignoring the Hart-Rudman report. After 9/11 they paid some attention. But not enough. I must say that after reading it and other such material in the last few days, I think everyone should make sure they have a month's water, food, medicine, and are prepared for the temporary collapse of our infrastructure. I never took the Y2K thing seriously but I thought, oh, maybe something else is coming that they're preparing us for while not realizing it. I've never been into any of the preparedness trips before but now I'm thinking a little bit might be like carrying a spare tire in your car.
Yesterday focused on what a disaster the war in Iraq is, and for more on that I suggest you look at Paul Krugman's recent column where he urges Kerry to take on the myth, the myth that things are going well from any point of view in Iraq. But today's quote looks at
the incompetence of the war on terrorism being waged by the Bush administration.
Surely a good deal of what they're doing is harmful to enemies of the US, but
the insensitive and reckless way they're going about it, is, if one looks at it squarely, greatly increasing the danger to us. Check out The Neglected
Home Front I'm going to keep hitting on this theme. It's not only ridiculous for the neo-cons, with the hypnotized cooperation of the media, to have most Americans thinking they're safer with Bush and Cheney, it's gruesome in its possibilities. Kerry and Edwards are well aware of the arguments Flynn makes and have spoken, for instance, about spending money protecting America's ports rather than invading incidental nations. Incidentally, I find it interesting how little press Al Gore's recent hard-hitting talk got. It's hard to find anything about it, even on the Internet. In it he said that Bush talked tough but was weak and he compared attacking Iraq with America having attacked Indonesia instead of Japan after Pearl Harbor. In the recent New Yorker profile on him he said that Bush's brand of fundamentalism was akin to fundamentalist Islam and said that Bush was a bully. He's feeling his oats and the neo-cons are calling him crazy, on acid, wild-eyed. I love it - you can just hear the planning in their choice of words. So much more I'd like to say but that's all for today except for another episode of In Defense of Bush.
But for the catastrophic reality of this war, just start looking. How about starting with this article from Newsweek, "It's Worse Than You Think.." I'm going to look for some more to put here but better get this up now.
But first today's quote. Really it's hard to choose from the shocking and horrible and almost uncountable crimes of this administration. Okay, but I had to choose something so how about this - here's today's quote: "And when America gives its word, America keeps its word." I know that sounds innocuous, but it's pretty serious. Check the links and all. So much more could be done with this. Here's the beginning of a list of damning stuff on the Bushites and not in a order of magnitude and just a start - what I can think of right now. That would be a nifty project. First list their mistakes, crimes, incompatancies (if that's a word), plots, programs, etc and then order the list in terms of importance, of impact. And we should look for links to list and articles to read and copy (so that if in the future the link's gone we still have the information). Okay. So here's the beginning of the list of stuff to consider: 1 - The role of Sun Yung Moon and his organization in the new right, elections, and this election - the Washington Times and the huge amount of money he's given to politicians and right wing think tanks like the Heritage Foundation. 2 - enemies of the environment, of clean air and water and soil. See Crimes Against Nature by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in the Rolling Stone. 3 - enemies of women, of the freedom to choose and other women's' issues. 4 - The Bush administration is making us less safe for sure and any perceptions to the contrary are listening to what they've said but not looking at what they've done. They are fanning the flames of anti-Americanism. They are not sensitive which means they do not perceive, are not competent. 5 - no five yet - let's wait till another day. Hey - Madcatmusic has sent some dynomite stuff. How about this site: Bush Speaks, a site which has done well and interestingly for a while what I am doing here. But they're way ahead of me. It's a site of polished humorous political posters with quotes just like I'm using. But they're pros with good graphics. If you don't like what you see at first, keep hitting Next Cartoon and you'll see some great presentations of the political insanity that we are communally into. It's really terrific.
An exciting announcement! After intense negations, Election Countdown Calendar Dot Com has finally made a deal with Ned Needleman of In Defense of Bush who is moving from his present web site to this one. This is a veritable feather in our sideways baseball cap. Needleman, known for his unflinching support for the President will reproduce on this site transcripts of the eight radio interviews that he already has revealed through his present site (which according to the contract as signed cannot be mentioned) and he has agreed to present here another eight new episodes of In Defense of Bush. I know there are those out there who think that we shouldn't be presenting Bush's side, but we here at Election Countdown Calendar Dot Com have agreed that this is an important move for us into the mainstream of election-time media which could lead to lucrative careers for some of us. And so here is the Home Page of In Defense of Bush wherein Ned Needleman takes on Ron Reagan, son of President Ronald Reagan.
Wee hours - Greetings. Norbert here. Today is a day to remember how important it is to be sensitive, to perceive sensory information. If our leaders do not do that they put us in peril. George Bush does not do that. Dick Cheney ridicules the idea. We'll never know if Al Gore would have thwarted 9/11 but I say there's a much better chance he would have than Bush because Gore wasn't possessed with the ten or so year old Neo-con obsession of invading Iraq. After hearing in a briefing of Bin Laden's determination to attack within the US, Bush can only think of Saddam. That's obviously because he and his neo-con advisors are looking for an excuse to invade Iraq, something the neo-cons petitioned Clinton to do. Gore, like Clinton, was keenly aware of the threat of Osama Bin Laden and terrorism, while Bush, in terms of security was glued onto periferal issues like Iraq and missile defense and stopping stem cell research. From Bushlies.net we find 1 – Number of times the Bush administration mentioned al Qaeda prior to 9-11. This was in a notice continuing an executive order issued by President Clinton. 2 – Number of public statements by the Bush administration mentioning Osama bin Laden prior to 9-11 (excluding press briefings and press questions which would raise the total to 19) 104 – Number of public statements by the President Bush on Saddam Hussein from January 21 to September 10, 2001 As today's Quote from the Neighborhood (to the upper left) says, we are in the mess we're in now because of the insensitivity of our leaders which means they did not have their eyes and ears open, were not perceiving data, were closed up in their own little private worlds. Bush is not a focused, curious, or sensitive, person. Neither is his VP or boss Cheney. They are fanatic ideologues whose minds are clouded with their secretive schemes. So they just don't see what's right in front of them. Cheney ridiculed Kerry for using the word "sensitive" and acquainted it with softness. Local football hero Joe Montana was a sensitive quarterback. He won games. Macarthur was a sensitive warrior. He won battles. We have insensitive louts in charge of this country now and we've got to get them out of office or loose big and suffer more and more from the lack of competence caused by their insensitivity and manic maniacal machinations. We are not safer with Bush - that's just something they say. He and his radical handlers are putting us in grave danger and must be sent to pasture. The link to the Washington Post article that today's quote came from doesn't work. But reference to it can be found under August 7 in Condi Rice & the White House: Pre 9/11 Priorities. Read this April 10, 2004 CNN article. If you have trouble with that link, it's: [www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/04/11/911.investigation/] Here's a Washington Post
article called Bush
Gave No Sign of Worry In August 2001 www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/04/11/1081621819966.html?oneclick=true I have trouble getting some of these links from subscription sites and have to work with this more. I'll get them searching then when I put them on this site they lead to a sign up page. You can always fill in the form to get to them or I may go back and copy the text and put them on a page of this site so they're more reliable. But for now gotta take my wolverine to the vet.
And while you're at it, see this article, just a straight uninspiring piece from the NY Times which reports what the candidates said and where a couple of days ago. Now, for someone who's also got something to say about the quality and character of Cheney's threat, take a look at this excellent and brief appraisal by Matthew Rothschild from The Progressive.
But guess what? Kerry and Edwards have a malpractice reform plank that seems fair and practical. This is a link to their site's plan for lowering health care costs which have been going up dramatically. And here's more from Kerry's website on health care reform which also includes more on malpractice reform. I especially like the part about helping all Americans buy into the same coverage as members of Congress. I'm surprised how clear and readable the Kerry site is. You want to know what he wants to do just go there. Of course, once he's elected we'll be attacking him but at least we'll be dealing with, as Howard Zinn says, someone who gives us a ledge to stand on. Read this bit from the NYTimes on this statement by Bush and a doozy by Kerry where he makes fun of himself as not being able to make up his mind. The Republicans will surely pick up on it and use it against him.
Bush made today's comment (about the rich being his base) in jest at the Al Smith dinner in New York on October 20, 2000. Other politicians such as Al Gore, Hillary Clinton, and Rick Lazio who lost the senate race to her were there and said silly things too. So Bush was just cuttin' up which is cool. It's just that he often exposes the truth better when he jests than when he's serious. This quote was made famous by Fahrenheit 911. Check out this and other quotes from Fahrenheit 911. There's one quote I can't find if anyone knows where to get it. Dubya was with some people whom he said represented a spectrum of income levels or something like that and someone asked who represented the rich and he said, "I do." I might have seen it on film. Thanks in advance if you can help. wee hours - Hi there. Norbert here. Please excuse the tirade last night. A bit of booze. As for the Haves and the Have Mores (I don't repeat the apostrophic blunders of the notice I saw: horrors! - "have's" and such.) I'm working on what to say for today which means that I am not doing anything but staring. Something soon though on today's posting because it deserves explanation, an explanation of why there are two quotes in a row that emphasize George Jr.'s devotion to the super rich. My dear sister wanted more info on the last quote about the rich and taxes. I had just left it credited to Albuquerque and the date. So now, okay, I got that and where it really came from and what was really said. (got it)
Bush says this in one way or another quite a bit. Check out articles based on this quote from the Tax Policy Center, the Nation, and from Daily Kos (with other examples of the same line of reasoning). I spent an hour tonight arguing with a barkeep who said she was moderate though she was going to vote for Bush. Oh, god. I couldn't get to her. She said how great it is we live in a country where we can have this discussion. I told her we could have had this discussion in Germany in 1933 or in Japan in 1915 or in Italy in 1934. She said I'd have to prove to her that Bush was Hitler. I told her I didn't say that. I just said we may be sliding down an old slippery road. Wow - we talked about a woman's right to choose and all which she was into but still, as I saw it and told her so, she was under the right-wing spell. Sometimes when I look at Bush I hear a song with a chorus which goes, "It's the Mussolini effect." Thought of the day: It's amazing to me that those entrusted with keeping us safe seem to do as much as possible to flame the fires rather than calm them. We have a choice here in this election of two candidates that accept some assumptions I do not. Both candidates totally support Israel so there's not much difference there - or is there? Really, without looking to petty differences in their pasts, isn't John Kerry the one who would be most likely to take a wise and peaceful path in this turbulent arena? Isn't Bush's total lack of knowledge of this issue, not having done anything about it but not watch for four years, and sort of knee-jerk whacko rightist take on it sort of maddening? Isn't Bush obviously the one who, while being able to talk real tough, has backed up his tough talk with incompetent leadership? While Bush was snorting cocaine and drinking to oblivion with me, Kerry was being real serious about everything. He was against it and then he enlisted and went into combat! Good lord! And then he returned and protested it and then he became a politician and got into that. Wow. This guy is more into the system than I am but he has paid his dues! Rather him than a shallow opportunist. And look at his history of activism and voting. If you don't get into the simplistic adolescent put-down trip then there's no comparison between these two guys. Kerry's a dedicated champion of the people and Bush is a pawn of the mega-rich. I know it sounds ridiculous but it was fun to write - and I think it's true. It's so obviously true that it's profoundly disturbing that people don't media doesn't who does? see it. Maybe we should list the accomplishments and good points of John Kerry even though it's gratifying just to list the horrifying limitations of GWB. Kerry's just a politician but he's not bad, not a psychopath or is that a sociopath? Stay posted.
I think it's important not to hold the president to what he said as much as what he meant to say. We don't want to be like a bunch of kids jumping up and down yelling "you said it! You said it!" which is much too much like what these people do in their campaigning. I submit that here he got confused and used the word "eroding" when he meant the opposite - something more like "strengthening" as in strengthening "the important bridge between church and state." And he may have wanted to say something about how godless Democrats have been "eroding the important bridge between church and state" so we needed these faith based initiatives to strengthen it. I wonder if I could get some of that government money going to faith based folks. I'm a priest, well, I used to be and I could always don my robes again. I wonder how much of that money has gone to Buddhists and liberation Theology Catholics and Hindus and Moslems and what about witches and Satanists - Moonies (they're big supporters of the right). I'll poke around and see if I can find anything. In the meantime, may the Force be with you. Howdy. Today's quote is a joke right? "If this were a dictatorship, it would be a heck of a lot easier — so long as I'm the dictator." Check out the context from the Jim Lehrer News Hour. Cool. I think presidents should be allowed to make sick jokes. I do. I loved it when Reagan joked about nuking Russia not realizing his mike was live [more to tell there]. But with Bush I think that this statement and many others are revealing in a chilling way. I say that it is undeniable that he and his crew have worked faster and harder than any president's men in memory to cement as much power, control, and secrecy as they can. They don't care what anyone thinks. They've got a plan, a sort of plan that doesn't include much of what they're saying. What they say is just strategic. There's hardly a connect with what they do. It's more like opposite. And so many people eat it up like candy. And almost all the media is, to my mind, in unintentional cahoots. This whole idea of trusting them is ridiculous. You don't trust government or governmentors any farther than you can overthrow it or them. Remember? These guys are Mister Big Bad Governments. Look at what they do, not what they say. Hmm. What to do? Oh well. Enough for now of that. Calm down Norbert - I hear my wife calling from under her Saab. Other thoughts: I cheated and put in some quotes for September 1st through 3rd even though the first day of quotes on this site was September 4th, September 3rd being the first quoteless day. It was confusing to some people who had tried to find those prior days. So here they are, magically created by me, Norbert, who in cyberspace can change the past. Also, here I'll share a few plans I have for ECCDC (Election Countdown Calendar Dot Com). Soon we will put up a links page. There are already many Bush quote sites. Just write "bush quotes" or "bush lies" or "bush flip flops" in Google. So We'll link to them and to other sites that everyone knows about. And list books and articles. But not forever because it's endless and not really necessary cause it's all so easy to find, but it seems like the neighborly thing to do. Also, I want to have quote categories. Some are just obvious harmless mistakes showing that the prez doesn't think clearly if you consider that harmless when you're talking about someone with all that power like trigger on nukes that could kill all higher forms of life through carelessness. So some are harmless dyslexia or whatever, but many quotes seem to me to reveal his deeper motivations, pathologies, and some rather dangerous, reckless, immature, bungling tendencies. But, to be fair, we will present THE other side here. You can see by the title of the quotes as "Inspirational" that I'm not totally in control. I have a friend who listens to Fox who says that these quotes inspire her so I named them that. And I've got another friend who listens to PBS and NPR and who says that all this anti-Bush stuff is all wrong and one-sided. But more to the point - right now we are deep in negotiations with Ned Needleman of "In Defense of Bush," Hamlin Piper of the ubiquitous World Suicide Club, people from the incredibly powerful Enemies of the Earth, the mighty Thanks for the Votes Suckers, the potent Unstoppable Chaos, and unforgettable Reptilian Brain Trust - all strident supporters of George Jr. or sort of Jr. More groups to be mentioned later. Heck, it'll be a section of this site. Anyway, that's enough for now. Later, Norbert
9-03-04 - Norbert Here. Greetings. How about today's quote? Good to know that our president understands the poor so well.
9-01-04 - Hi. Norbert Here. Here's our first quote and first day for the calendar. We have a president who is not curious and does not want to look into things in depth. How did this come to be? 8-31-04 - What to do?
How about a calendar? ---------------------------- Today's Calendar Page Tomorrow
Everyday Index
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9-30-04
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statements in contrast to Alice's uncertainty and pessimism. The fact that the
Queen had made an insane mess of things would be quite beside the point - and
not good for the careers of the journalists.
Lastly,
I want to plug Air America and especially the Al Franken show, from noon to 3
East Coast and 9 to noon West.
He's got the money. He's got the power.