I tune in to Bill Maher every Friday night and, for the most part, look forward to laughing most of the time. After the first interview, I didn't really feel much like laughing and found myself to be thoroughly discouraged and quite depressed for the rest of the show. There were some funny things said but I didn't fell like laughing.
In this first segment, Bill interviewed Bob Woodward, famous Washington Post reporter and author of the new book The War Within. The book is the fourth in a series of books on the Bush Presidency, specifically the United States' involvement in Iraq. Woodward was allowed unprecedented access to President Bush to the point of where he has actually been given a National Security clearance and not allowed to discuss certain aspects of the meetings he attended.
One meeting he could discuss was a 2007 meeting between Admiral Fallon, Commander of US Central Command at the time, and President Bush. Woodward relates an extremely disturbing conversation between the Admiral and the president.
Admiral Fallon: Mr. President, what is our strategy going to be with Iran?
President Bush: They're assholes.
If any conversation can sum up the last eight years of US foreign policy, it's this one. I've always known that our foreign policy has been, at best, the product of a fifth grade intellect. But the above exchange really drove it home. I know there will be some of you who will be deluded enough to rip me for being "elitist" but I demand more from my president when dealing with a country like Iran. I want a president who is going to use his intellect and figure out, to the best of his ability, how to neutralize a country like Iran from every possible angle. Take a look at both the candidates we have right now and tell me who best fits that description.
As if this conversation weren't enough to depress the hell out of me, Bill and Bob discussed a statement made by Ayman Al Zawahari, co-leader of Al Qaeda, in 2000. He said that Al Qaeda's only hope of defeating the United States was to get it to beat itself economically. I look at where we are at right now and I have to say, we've done a pretty good job of realizing his dream.
Combine the bail out with the cost of the Iraq War and you're looking at 2 trillion dollars. That's how much we...as in you and I...OWE other people. When you owe other people that much, you don't have a dick anymore. And essentially, that's the problem with America today. We have no authority in the world at all. Sure we might have the best military but even the cracks are starting to show in that. The two people directly responsible for the attacks on 9-11 are living in a luxury villa in Pakistan? And John McCain doesn't want to bomb Pakistan because they are our ally? It's true...we have no dick.
Other countries are moving past us and engaging in diplomacy without us. We saw this last summer with Syria and Israel. We see it every day with Iran because George Bush and John McCain don't understand the difference between appeasement and talking. We are probably going to see more of it if McCain becomes president. If, for some reason, Sarah Palin becomes president, it will be official: The United States will be the joke of the planet.
Some say we already are. And I really haven't felt like laughing about it lately. I have been racking my brain to figure out how we got here. In fact, the search for the answer to this question is why I started this blog. I have come up with something that I think defines the problem. And by "the problem" I mean conservative ideology. Liberals have no problem taking the blame for problems. There is no doubt in my mind that liberals/Democrats have a good deal of responsibility in the mess we are in right now. Conservatives would, of course, agree.
But when it comes to reflection of their own flaws, conservatives balk, thump their chests, and call their examiners liars and traitors. They are incapable of self actualization. Or, in this case, group actualization. In looking at the fact that conservative ideology has been driving the agenda in this country for the last 28 years, one can honestly say that the results don't match the promises. Why?
When they only tool in your tool kit is a hammer, everything is a nail.
5 comments:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NU6fuFrdCJY
I don't think Republicans will ever be reflective. It's just not in their nature to questions themselves. I haven't read Woodward's new book but I am curious as to why they gave him a national security clearance.
The Dow just dropped 500 points to go below 10K. Conservatives are talking about Bill Ayers.
Need I say more?
There's a real air of desperation around the Republican Party. At this point, they have to float Ayers, Wright, and Rezko. They have nothing else in their tool kit. We have tried things there way for the last 8 years and look where we are.
It might backfire on them. I agree that people are sick of this crap, especially the independents who are the ones who need convincing. As they watch their 401Ks shrink and the idea that the wealth not actually investing in the economy as Republicans said they would, it won't take much.
Since I work in finance for a German company, we are very much aware of the goings on in the EU so we can make a living so perhaps I can share some insight on why the markets are down today.
Germanys finance minister Peer Steinbruck, like many of you, declared that America was "the source...and the focus of the crisis" on Sept 25 before heralding the end of our role as the financial superpower. Within days of that statement, Mr Steinbrück and his officials arranged a 35 billion euro ($51 billion) loan from German banks and the German government to save Hypo Real Estate, Germanys second-biggest property lender. Mr Steinbruck is not alone. European banks are collapsing at a rapid pace even as Christian Noyer, governor of the Bank of France, declared that "there is no drama in front of us". Hypo Real Estate was just one of five banks in seven European countries bailed out in three days. Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands carved up one of their own big banks, Fortis. Britain nationalised Bradford & Bingley; Belgium, France and Luxembourg saved Dexia; and Iceland rescued Glitnir. In addition to all that, Ireland took 400 billion euros of contingent liabilities onto the national balance sheet, when it stood behind the deposits and debts of its six large banks and building societies. Right about now, as Mark is racking his brain, I am also racking my brain wondering how Mr Noyer of France defines "dramatic". It's a term he himself probably can't define...kind of like fairnes, social justice, equality, having no authority on the world, respect, and many other goals people claim to want without putting forth a set definition of those terms. How can you acheive something you can't define?
Many European banks are more vulnerable than American banks — and that is really saying something given the recent sale of Washington Mutual and Wachovia, our (formerly) fourth-biggest commercial bank. American banks have lent 96 cents for each $1 of deposits. Continental European banks have lent roughly 1.40 euros for each 1 euro of deposits. They have to borrow the rest from European money-market investors, who are not especially confident in investments in Europe these days. Some Europeans, including the British, Irish and Spanish banks, have had housing busts of their own as well as their own slowing economies.
There is nothing conservative about loaning out 1.40 Euros for each 1 Euro deposit and the reason why Mark is probably racking his brain is because he doesn’t understand the conservative ideology. He thinks he does but he doesn’t. I’ll explain more when I am over there tonight.
I apologize if any of these details get in the way of your political agendas or your ability to break todays events with the stock market down into one line Elizabeth but I realize that when politics is your religion, you think that Washington DC is the center of the universe and that all problems and all solutions stem from there. Ethnocentrism anyone?
But Last in Line, I need to break these problems down into one line and dammit you’re post is messing things up for me!! If our banks don’t lend out money to people who can’t pay it back, why that’s racist and discriminatory and should be stopped in the interest of "equality" and "fairness". Then, once the results of the policies that were based on our good intentions come full circle, when you point out that it probably wasn’t a good idea for banks to lend money to people who really shouldn’t have qualified for a loan in the first place, according to blk on this blog, why that’s racism too!! You folks can’t really lose this argument can you? I’m impressed, sincerely. Rock solid. Congrats.
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