Re: [Gnu-arch-users] [OT] the poetry of donald rumsfeld

[Tom Lord]

    > From: "Pierce T.Wetter III" <address@hidden>

    > > The "WMD thing" is a joke.  An insult to the American people and the
    > > world.

    >    That's actually unfair to the administration, Tom. You have
    > to get your info somewhere other then CNN. I'm not one of those
    > people who think that media is biased to the left or right. I
    > just think they are biased towards making money. Every time
    > anyone in the administration talked about Iraq before the war
    > they listed _several_ reasons for getting involved in Iraq. The
    > media picked 1/2 of the sexiest one, and "punched it up".

It's not just a media construction.  The "proactive" doctrine makes
logical sense but it fails the test of international law and it fails
the test of traditional USian politics.   

The WMD thing was constructed by the WH, not the press, and it was
constructed in order to not have to simply reject (only play fast and
loose with) international law.    At some point, US has to climb down
from that tree and it's a lot easier for a new administration to do
that.  



    >   However, Rumsfeld, Powell, Rice and others had lengthy pieces in 
    > Foreign Affairs* prior to all this talking about the problems.

    >   So if you feel insulted Tom, write to CNN.

No, no, no.... you're basically right that interesting information has
been put out by the administration.    I'm not making up my view of
the real motiviations out of whole-cloth:  it's what the WH has been
whispering between the lines all along the way.

But:

I think these guys believed they saw a crisis.   (Perhaps they were
right or perhaps wrong ..... we can only guess).   They were hell bent
on fixing it.   They've accomplished their agenda.

To accomplish their agenda, they threw themselves on quite a number of
swords -- sacrificing domestic policy, ecological policy,
much of multi-lateralism and international law, diplomatic
relationships all over the world, bi-partisanship w/in the US.....

They crippled themselves and lit lots of smaller fires all over the
place in order to do this.  They unified a bunch of extreme right wing
lunatics who we _really_ don't want unified.  It just makes sense that
they should lose and step down in November.


    >   In fact, if you really want to get pissed off at the US media, go to 
    > the state department website and sign up to get the transcript of the 
    > daily briefing emailed to you. You'll find certain things:

    >    1. The media ask the STUPIDEST questions. Considering its the state 
    > department, you'd think the reporters there would have at least a 
    > minimal smattering of history, political science, knowledge of other 
    > cultures. Sadly, I think they spent their college years stoned...

Don't take it out on stoners.   It's mostly a problem of capitalism.
(Thanks for the pointer, I didn't know you could get those transcripts.)

    >    2. The media regularly try to get the person giving the briefing to 
    > rephrase things so that they are more "exciting", which generally means 
    > dumbing it down and losing all nuance.

    >    3. Anytime its a slow news day, the US media regularly try to get the 
    > spokesman to say something bad about some other country just to have 
    > something to report.

The shallow understanding is that "that's what sells" and a deeper
understanding is that "that's what sells" because education is shit
and education is shit because "that's what sells" is so often the
major consideration.

    > > So far, I have the impression that Bush and Kerry are spokesmen for
    > > the same meta-organization.   There's very little essential
    > > difference.  Vote for kerry because that helps to kill the religious
    > > lunatics and the laise faire lunatics.

    >   Kerry just brings his own set of lunatics...

Yes, exactly.   Neither of these guys are especially anything to get
excited about.   Cycling through polarized lunatics is a good idea,
for now, lest any of them get too much momentum.


"Nobody for President!" -- Hugh Romney
-t