Brennt Paris? (Is Paris Burning?)

Funny links, Shark - just one point - prognostication works better the longer term the vision - less chance of being proved wrong.

Vaguer predictions help too. And of course, starting from a non-delusional perspective also helps.

Dave

ElitistPig: "...starting from a non-delusional perspective also helps."

Call me when you acquire one.

============

Speaking of DELUSIONAL, check this out, Davey; this is yer boy:

(how quickly we forget, eh?)

-- excerpts --
MEET THE PRESS
Mar. 16, 2003

MR. RUSSERT: If your analysis is not correct, and we're not treated as liberators, but as conquerors, and the Iraqis begin to resist, particularly in Baghdad, do you think the American people are prepared for a long, costly, and bloody battle with significant American casualties?

VICE PRES. CHENEY: Well, I don't think it's likely to unfold that way, Tim, because I really do believe that we will be greeted as liberators. ...The read we get on the people of Iraq is there is no question but what they want to the get rid of Saddam Hussein and they will welcome as liberators the United States when we come to do that...

...

MR. RUSSERT: The army's top general [Gen. Shinseki] said that we would have to have several hundred thousand troops there for several years in order to maintain stability.

VICE PRES. CHENEY: I disagree. [Wait, fans of DELUSION; let's read that again!]

VICE PRES. CHENEY: I disagree. We need, obviously, a large force and we've deployed a large force. To prevail, from a military standpoint, to achieve our objectives, we will need a significant presence there until such time as we can turn things over to the Iraqis themselves. But to suggest that we need several hundred thousand troops there after military operations cease, after the conflict ends, I don't think is accurate. I think that's an overstatement.

...


MR. RUSSERT: Every analysis said this war itself would cost about $80 billion, recovery of Baghdad, perhaps of Iraq, about $10 billion per year. We should expect as American citizens that this would cost at least $100 billion for a two-year involvement.

VICE PRES. CHENEY: I can't say that, Tim. There are estimates out there. It's important, though, to recognize that we've got a different set of circumstances than we've had in Afghanistan. In Afghanistan you've got a nation without significant resources. In Iraq you've got a nation that's got the second-largest oil reserves in the world, second only to Saudi Arabia. It will generate billions of dollars a year in cash flow if they get back to their production of roughly three million barrels of oil a day, in the relatively near future...

Shark, you forgot the part where Shrub asked Colin Powell how things were going in Iraq, and Powell, who'd already humiliated and disgraced himself for this administration in front of the entire world, said "we're losing". Shrub told him to fuck off, and appointed people who tell him what he wants to hear.

Oh, one correction, I don't think Cheney and Rumsfeld would ever urge dropping nukes on Loggins and Messina, they would much prefer ripping their hearts from their chests and eating them in front of the soft-rock duo.

Also because Cheney and Rumsfeld need to consume a still-beating human heart on every full moon, and soft-rock duos aren't as common as they once were. And the Olsen twins aren't large enough to sustain them (plus Mary-Kate and Ashley already have a "pay or play" deal with Satan).

Wow Jim, didn't know you were a fly on the wall in the White House.

(there was another comment here but I deleted it as too offensive even to say to Carruthers - though it was amusing)

Dave

"Vaguer predictions help too"

Is vaguer a word?

"Shrub told him to fuck off, and appointed people who tell him what he wants to hear."

This actually did happen, that's the scary part. Bush's new cabinet need know only two words, "yes sir." (funny story, all of them do know only those two words - except Condoleezzzza - she knows "impugn" as well)

No fly on the wall, just the regular newspapers, like the Washington Post, which knows a thing or two about the nefarious deeds which go on inside the 'murrican version of The Kremlin.

Or the direct source.

It's still legal to read dissent in your country?

Odd, the Washington Post is my paper of choice and I don't remember reading anything about the scene you describe in its pages. As for your direct source, it's a seminar hosted by extreme leftist activists and has nothing to do with the conversation you reference at all.

Dave

DaveNalle, you friggin' deluded Pollyanna.

So you don't believe Colin "Steppin' Fetchit" Powell said we're losing in Iraq?

How 'bout a report from our own intelligence folks?

"WASHINGTON - A U.S. intelligence report prepared for President Bush in July offered a gloomy outlook for Iraq through the end of 2005, with the worst scenario being a deterioration into civil war, government officials said Thursday.

"The alarming possible future in Iraq as outlined in the classified National Intelligence Estimate is in line with the view of many analysts and members of Congress, and the Bush administration has slowly begun to shift away from an optimistic tenor. [Not DaveNalle, though!]

"...The National Intelligence Estimate, which is a compilation of views from various intelligence agencies, predicted three scenarios, from a

tenuous stability

to political fragmentation

to the most negative assessment of civil war, officials said.

"There doesn't seem to be much optimism," one official said.

Other officials said the intelligence report stated little more than the obvious, that there was a difficult road ahead in Iraq, hurdles to overcome and many factors that could affect the outcome in an unstable environment.

"It's not illuminating beyond what everyone understands is the spectrum of possibilities here," an official said.

White House press secretary Scott McClellan said it was up to policy-makers to address the challenges outlined in the National Intelligence Estimate.

However, he added, "the Iraqi people are proving that those scenarios are wrong by the progress that they are making to build a better future."

====end of excerpt =====

Again, that article does not have any reference to the supposed conversation between Colin Powell and Pres. Bush in which he said we were losing Iraq and Bush told him to 'fuck off'.

I'm not disputing the intelligence assessment from last summer, I've only questioned Carruthers delusional statement about private conversations in the White House which he has no actual knowledge of.

Dave

James C. (gawd bless 'im!) is a big fan of poetic hyperbole, (at which he is The Master, btw) --- but his point still stands: Powell was possibly the only realist and semi-rational primate in the Bush Administration -- and he's either been booted by the Hallucinogenic Neo-Con Brown Shirts -- or decided to resign and salvage what tiny shreds of self-esteem and integrity are left.

Either way, MY POINT ALSO STILL STANDS:

Iraq is a FUCKING DISASTER and WILL CONTINUE TO BE FOR YEARS, Dave, despite your Pollyanna mind-warp and yer little "democratic election" to be held *tomorrow.


*"Mission Accomplished! Again!"

QUIZ: This will replace the last Bush Marketing Mind Fuck for the American Public; when was it, and what was the hypno-slogan?


Answer:

When: June 2004

Slogan: "We'll Turn Over Sovereignty and Things Will Be Swell!"

What astounds me is that given the observable results, a scene is not considered plausible by the credulous. Colin Powell is forced to repudiate his own policy on USA military involvement internationally, then forced to go in front of the UN and give a presentation which has been shown to be nothing more than lies. And then, at a time of international aggression and occupation, loses his job to an academic who is skilled at politics and backstabbing in the name of ideology.

I guess the US foreign policy looks a lot like this 1946 photo from Warsaw which was in today's Globe and Mail.

Is the US government controlled by a cult of alchemists?

Nalle, when I supply a link to the Washington Post (from last year) at least you should do the courtesy of reading it before dismissing it. It's not like the lede is hidden.

So, how much are you being paid by the White House to spread disinfo? I bet it's not very much.

Dissension Grows In Senior Ranks On War Strategy

U.S. May Be Winning Battles in Iraq But Losing the War, Some Officers Say

By Thomas E. Ricks
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 9, 2004; Page A01

Deep divisions are emerging at the top of the U.S. military over the course of the occupation of Iraq, with some senior officers beginning to say that the United States faces the prospect of casualties for years without achieving its goal of establishing a free and democratic Iraq.

I just realized Nalle is probably such a simpleton, when he read my use of the colloquial phrase "fuck off", he thought I was talking about an adventure involving sex and travel.

He was wrong, and we regret his error.

I think you meant to say "Bomb Mecca And MEDINA" unless you believe the US should take action against Jim Messina for not doing a reunion tour with Kenny Loggins.

Carruthers, there's no indication in your Post article - which I read when it first came out and reread when you posted it - that anything like the conversation you describe took place. In fact, if such a conversation had taken place it would have been sometime last year, yet Powell didn't resign until after the election. If your silly anti-American perspective is so valid, why do you need to compose 'hypothetical' (read fictional) events to support it.

What I want to know is why you're so full of hate and spite for everyone in the world, from well-meaning Americans who just want to help make life better in Iraq, to soldiers willing to sacrifice their lives for other peoples freedoms, to Iraqis desperately struggling for freedom. Do you believe that it is possible to do good in the world? Your outlook is so negative, so pessimistic, that it doesn't allow you to even consider the possibility of a good outcome from any efforts made by America. To you we're the great Satan, and no matter how good our intentions or how great our efforts, even the most positive results will be tainted - at least in your mind.

You're a sad, pathetic cess-pit of negativity and I'm glad I don't have to live your wretched, hate-filled existence.

Dave

ElitistPig: "...To you we're the great Satan..."

And he's a Canadian!

Just think how the friggin' Arabs feel!



PFCSki, re: My targets in the Middle East -- thanks for the correction. That American-hating *Canadian already caught it; I was gonna change it, but it would negate yall's jokes. So it stands.

* btw, when we invade Canada, (and don't think it ain't on the list) -- we'll hunt Carruthers down and put panties on his head and hot wires on his testicles. We mean bidness.

(I wonder if the CIA has any French speakers in its ranks...?)

James, the warsaw photo was a classic.


(Must add note to Bush from the ghosts of dead GIs and Iraqi civilians:

"Wish You Were Here!")