Gog and Magog Bring You Freedom Fries

know what else i'm tired of?Gog and Magog being the reason that we went to war in Iraq. not WMD or what-the-hell-ever made up crap we used to justify it.

GOG AND MAGOG.

...Stranger still are new accounts emerging from France describing how former president Jacques Chirac was utterly baffled by a 2003 telephone conversation in which Bush reportedly invoked fanatical Old Testament prophesy -- including the Earth-ending battle with forces of evil, Gog and Magog -- in his arguments to enlist France in the Coalition of the Willing.

"This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people's enemies before a New Age begins," Bush said to Chirac, according to Thomas Romer, a University of Lausanne theology professor who was later approached by French officials anxious to understand the context of the biblical reference.

http://www.thespec.com/article/572824 (toronto)

In the winter of 2003, when George Bush and Tony Blair were frantically gathering support for their planned invasion, Professor Thomas Römer, an Old Testament expert at the university of Lausanne, was rung up by the Protestant Federation of France. They asked him to supply them with a summary of the legends surrounding Gog and Magog and as the conversation progressed, he realised that this had originally come, from the highest reaches of the French government.

President Jacques Chirac wanted to know what the hell President Bush had been on about in their last conversation. Bush had then said that when he looked at the Middle East, he saw "Gog and Magog at work" and the biblical prophecies unfolding. But who the hell were Gog and Magog? Neither Chirac nor his office had any idea. But they knew Bush was an evangelical Christian, so they asked the French Federation of Protestants, who in turn asked Professor Römer.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/andrewbrown/2009/aug/10/religion-george-bush (uk)

Chirac recounts that the American leader appealed to their “common faith” (Christianity) and told him: “Gog and Magog are at work in the Middle East.... The biblical prophecies are being fulfilled.... This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people’s enemies before a New Age begins.”

This bizarre episode occurred while the White House was assembling its “coalition of the willing” to unleash the Iraq invasion. Chirac says he was boggled by Bush’s call and “wondered how someone could be so superficial and fanatical in their beliefs.”

After the 2003 call, the puzzled French leader didn’t comply with Bush’s request. Instead, his staff asked Thomas Romer, a theologian at the University of Lausanne, to analyze the weird appeal.

....In 2007, Dr. Romer recounted Bush’s strange behavior in Lausanne University’s review, Allez Savoir....Subsequently, ex-President Chirac confirmed the nutty event in a long interview with French journalist Jean-Claude Maurice, who tells the tale in his new book, Si Vous le Répétez, Je Démentirai , released in March by the publisher Plon.

http://www.motherjones.com/kevin-drum/2009/08/gog-magog-and-george-bush

*(so you don't think i'm just going all lefty on this, the first two links are separate non-american accounts of this international incident.)

So let's get this straight. when bush pitched a WAR in the middle east to France, part of his 'sell' was that this was HIS hand dealing with the fruition of Old Testament prophecy? well no-the-hell-wonder they said 'thanks but no thanks'. if someone came to me with that shit, i wouldn't let them MOW MY YARD. Outside of the multi-level absurdity, isn't this the very thing that we accuse Islamic extremists of doing? trying to take the world and make it over in the image of their own faith? HELL, weren't we brushing away those 'crazy' muslims that were alarmed about bush starting the crusades over again? that was just silly! we just wanted to give them 2 scoops of freedom!

THIS is why we sent kids to die while the jackasses back home demanded to have freedom fries? THIS!?! i'm so angry right now.

I Actually Wonder Where Bush IS...wait, let me explain!

A LOT has been made of the financial crisis (It IS as bad, or worse, than  you may think).  There has been an unusual call from Wall St. to have Obama begin naming his Economic team early (this is what he has been doing lately).  The idea is that this would do SOMETHING to calm the waters and help bring some stability.  That's how bad it is, the naming of just WHO will come along 2 months from now is seen as a ray of hope.  That said, it has left me thinking about bush.  Here's a true national emergency and he is no where to be seen.  Does it speak worse of the president for being an absentee leader or does it speak worse for him if we know his involvement would worsen confidence?  I can't tell.  It looks bad and I don't expect it to be good for a long while.

yay.

The Economic Crisis

Bush did have a few words to let the people know he was hard at work solving our problems:

"My first instinct," said President George W. Bush, "was to let the market work, until I realized, being briefed by experts... It turns out that there's a lot of interlinks through the financial system."

The things you learn when you get that Harvard MBA. One of the things i loathe about the President is his need to state things that are, generally, self-explained...then follow that up with a sentence elaborating on his comment like a kid giving a book report on a book he barely touched...trying to stretch for time.

On The Case! ...or Vacation...?

i was happy to see the first major report from the President about Gustav come at 11:32pm Sunday night. i will confess that i've not seen every news broadcast, but as a citizen of Mississippi i'm a little underwhelmed by the leadership of the President thus far. Now let me be clear, I'm not saying he's screwed anything up. i'm just saying i haven't seen much of anything. that's all.

A Parting Shot

I was going to say that the Republicans voted against a bill today that would allow US troops to spend equal time at home with family as they do deployed in Iraq. The ratio of home/away time for the British is 4:1. Well, if i told you they voted against it, i'd be fibbing. they actually filibustered the bill so that no one would vote on it. It would have passed and the President would have to personally veto it. My question is why do this? the Senator takes heat for not being supportive of the troops and they KNOW the president would veto the bill without worrying about political heat for re-election. maybe my thinking is off here.

The Slowest Death in Recent Memory

It appears that the final death rattle has rattled for Alberto Gonzales. For someone pronounced politically dead for months, he just kept going. The bottom line point was that the law enforcement of the Federal government was being used for Republican, Political purposes (then the Atty Gen. lied about this to congress to cover it up). The argument was made that no law was violated (debatable). This, however, begged the question of just what standards the President used for his cabinet. Can you stay if you broke the law? (seems so). Can you stay if you skirted the law, covered it up, but did it for loyal partisan reasons? (oh my, yes. could you do it again?).

What I found interesting was the treatment of Karl Rove's resignation last week. it was treated like "the successful and controversial 'architect' of the Bush success has hung up his spurs". Now, considering his involvement in the politicization of the Justice Department, one would have to see these two resignations as part of the same narrative. I believe that these resignations are tied to each other, but purposely spaced so that Rove could get cover. We'll see this week if it worked. If i can trust what i see on TV news, I'd imagine it did.

The Spirit of Our Nation Betrayed...with an Easy to Follow Map!

At the Direction of the President, our nation has taken people prisoner without charges. This is the most fundamental violation of a fair Judiciary there is. It is what we don't do...until now. It was what our parents, our grandparents, our great grandparents were told that made us different than the Communist Menace.

We also don't torture. America is a nation of freedom and protection by the law, for the people. Our laws say not we don't torture. Our morals say we do not torture. Our word and our example has been a guiding light to the world in showing how a modern democracy must exist. It is what gives us moral authority and public trust.

The map above shows the routes the President approved for trafficking people in order to torture them. You can see the routes that the President and Vice President have used to export our dignity in order to fight a war they had no idea how to fight. They'd seen it in a movie and they thought that was enough to override a legion of people who'd seen war. Our nation's soul lies on those routes...All so that men who avoided war at all costs could fight one just like they'd seen on TV.

The President and Vice President should be Impeached.

and i though 28 was the bottom

I predicted that Bush's approval ratings would not fall below 28 a while back. i felt that he'd cult-ivated about 28% of the public into thinking he could do no wrong. Well, I was wrong. now he's at 25% approval. if asked about his handling of the economy, he drops another 2 points.

Our economic recovery has primarily been in the hands of those in our various markets: stocks, real estate, etc. we've been creating wealth that shows economic growth, but that has not been spread amongst the multitudes. I think he's been selling something for 7 years and everyone has finally seen there's nothing in these bottles that the snake oil salesman keeps hawking.

28

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have hit bottom. at least 6 months ago i predicted that Bush would never dip lower in the polls than 28%. We've not hit that basement. at the time I felt that no matter how bad or inept it got, this president would still enjoy a minimal amount of blind devotion that has been cultivated for the last 15 or so years. While even that has its limits, i saw (and see) 28% as the limit. If there is any substantive drop in approval from this point, it will be more than just trouble for the president. If there is a real drop paired with a serious revelation of wrongdoing or real heinous activity...if that pair appears, you can expect serious talk of impeachment.

One More Cook for the Stew?

from the Washington Post:

The White House wants to appoint a high-powered czar to oversee the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan with authority to issue directions to the Pentagon, the State Department and other agencies, but it has had trouble finding anyone able and willing to take the job, according to people close to the situation.

At least three retired four-star generals approached by the White House in recent weeks have declined to be considered for the position, the sources said, underscoring the administration's difficulty in enlisting its top recruits to join the team after five years of warfare that have taxed the United States and its military.

OK, it may just be me, but it seems that the real problem isn't that they can't find someone to the job. the problem is that they feel the need to have such a "Czar" in the first place. Think about it. we have 2 wars, so to speak, and evidently this is too much for the President, the Sec. of Defense, and the joint chiefs of staff? I'm sorry, but if we could manage WW1 and WW2 without a "Czar",but we cannot do the same now...? Well then, the Administration is simply finding new depths to its incompetence.

The Friday Dump

I heard the white house was gonna dump a bunch of new emails and records friday. this didn't bode well for them. they (anyone) dump the bad stuff on fridays because it means they don't have to put up with a week of news cycles chewing it up. it might, just might, slide away.

well, this one won't. Alberto, Mister "was not involved in any discussions about what was going on" Gonzales has now been revealed, through records, that he did approve the firing of the US Attorneys for political payback. the documents only came after the game was up. Gonzales' deputy had agreed to testify.

The sad, funny thing was that the records show the sad attempts they were making to justify the firings, and those all became the very same crappy talking points the Republicans have been using! immigration issues, voter fraud, etc. it's just pathetic. here's the quoted blueprint:

"The one common link here is that three of them are along the southern border so you could make the connection that DOJ is unhappy with the immigration prosecution numbers in those districts," Tasia Scolinos, a senior public affairs specialist at the Justice Department, told Catherine Martin, a White House communications adviser, in an e-mail.

If they want to operate the federal prosecutor office as a political arm of the GOP, they should just say so. it would have been so much easier than this. Are ANY of the policies untainted by deceit? any?

I guess this leaves me with one thing in my mind. is anything better for america after this presidency? seriously. anything?

Finally, to echo the faux concern and apprehension i heard ad nauseum during the Clinton years: with these lies, WHAT WILL WE TELL THE CHILDREN?!

The Company You Keep

Chiquita (Bananas) Brands International has just plead guilty to funding Columbian terrorists in order to aid their domination of Fruit exports in the area. Guess who was also a major donor to the President and to Republicans at the time? At least the justice department got them. $25 million in fines are to be paid...i hear.

Payoff?

The big UN Climate change report is out, and i won't bore you with that. Global warming is real and if you think that's wrong, go sit in the corner. (dunce hat is waithing) THAT'S NOT THE REAL NEWS!! the real news is that one of the Bush-connected think tanks, THE AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE, has been taking millions in cash from Exxon/Mobile and converting it into $10,000 payoffs (plus expenses!) to scientists that can help them undermine global warming research! It's the old 'smoking doesn't hurt you' scientists with a modern spin! this time, not only do we see how much their payoff is, we have a presidential administration working hand-in-hand.

charming.