|
|
Fastwalker
Joined: 26 Mar 2003
Posts: 832
|
 Fri May 16, 2003 8:32 pm
|
 |
|
May I ask which coutry it is that you come from, which you consider useful? |
| |
|
|
Hornblower
Joined: 29 Apr 2003
Posts: 91
Location: central europe |
|
Fri May 16, 2003 8:42 pm
|
|
|
Originally posted by Fastwalker:
May I ask which coutry it is that you come from, which you consider useful?
So that you can stomp on it? Make sure that it doesn't measure up to your hi standards?
No, I don't think so. You guys/gals are so toxic in the head, you'd probably spray us with chemtrails!
|
| |
|
|
Fastwalker
Joined: 26 Mar 2003
Posts: 832
|
|
Fri May 16, 2003 8:47 pm
|
|
|
That's called wimping out in America, Horatio. It would seem only fair of you though, given that you are so blatantly stomping on America. I want to see what incredible county you come from, so I can fully understand it's importance and magnificence in the world and how America pales by comparison.  |
| |
|
|
Mech
Joined: 06 Jun 2001
Posts: 8237
Location: THE 4th REICH USA |
|
Fri May 16, 2003 9:07 pm
|
|
|
ANTI AMERICANISM GROWING LIKE WILDFIRE WORLDWIDE.....THANKS BU$H.
I loathe America, and what it has done to the rest of the world
By Margaret Drabble
(Filed: 08/05/2003)
http://opinion.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2003/05/08/do0801.xml
I knew that the wave of anti-Americanism that would swell up after the Iraq war would make me feel ill. And it has. It has made me much, much more ill than I had expected.
My anti-Americanism has become almost uncontrollable. It has possessed me, like a disease. It rises up in my throat like acid reflux, that fashionable American sickness. I now loathe the United States and what it has done to Iraq and the rest of the helpless world.
I can hardly bear to see the faces of Bush and Rumsfeld, or to watch their posturing body language, or to hear their self-satisfied and incoherent platitudes. The liberal press here has done its best to make them appear ridiculous, but these two men are not funny.
I was tipped into uncontainable rage by a report on Channel 4 News about "friendly fire", which included footage of what must have been one of the most horrific bombardments ever filmed. But what struck home hardest was the subsequent image, of a row of American warplanes, with grinning cartoon faces painted on their noses. Cartoon faces, with big sharp teeth.
It is grotesque. It is hideous. This great and powerful nation bombs foreign cities and the people in those cities from Disneyland cartoon planes out of comic strips. This is simply not possible. And yet, there they were.
Others have written eloquently about the euphemistic and affectionate names that the Americans give to their weapons of mass destruction: Big Boy, Little Boy, Daisy Cutter, and so forth.
We are accustomed to these sobriquets; to phrases such as "collateral damage" and "friendly fire" and "pre-emptive strikes". We have almost ceased to notice when suicide bombers are described as "cowards". The abuse of language is part of warfare. Long ago, Voltaire told us that we invent words to conceal truths. More recently, Orwell pointed out to us the dangers of Newspeak.
But there was something about those playfully grinning warplane faces that went beyond deception and distortion into the land of madness. A nation that can allow those faces to be painted as an image on its national aeroplanes has regressed into unimaginable irresponsibility. A nation that can paint those faces on death machines must be insane.
There, I have said it. I have tried to control my anti-Americanism, remembering the many Americans that I know and respect, but I can't keep it down any longer. I detest Disneyfication, I detest Coca-Cola, I detest burgers, I detest sentimental and violent Hollywood movies that tell lies about history.
I detest American imperialism, American infantilism, and American triumphalism about victories it didn't even win.
On April 29, 2000, I switched on CNN in my hotel room and, by chance, saw an item designed to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam war. The camera showed us a street scene in which a shabby elderly Vietnamese man was seen speaking English and bartering in dollars in a city that I took to be Ho Chi Minh City, still familiarly known in America by its old French colonial name of Saigon.
"The language of Shakespeare," the commentator intoned, "has conquered Vietnam." I did not note down the dialogue, though I can vouch for that sentence about the language of Shakespeare. But the word "dollar" was certainly repeated several times, and the implications of what the camera showed were clear enough.
The elderly Vietnamese man was impoverished, and he wanted hard currency. The Vietnamese had won the war, but had lost the peace.
Just leave Shakespeare and Shakespeare's homeland out of this squalid bit of revisionism, I thought at the time. Little did I then think that now, three years on, Shakespeare's country would have been dragged by our leader into this illegal, unjustifiable, aggressive war. We are all contaminated by it. Not in my name, I want to keep repeating, though I don't suppose anybody will listen.
America uses the word "democracy" as its battle cry, and its nervous soldiers gun down Iraqi civilians when they try to hold street demonstrations to protest against the invasion of their country. So much for democracy. (At least the British Army is better trained.)
America is one of the few countries in the world that executes minors. Well, it doesn't really execute them - it just keeps them in jail for years and years until they are old enough to execute, and then it executes them. It administers drugs to mentally disturbed prisoners on Death Row until they are back in their right mind, and then it executes them, too.
They call this justice and the rule of law. America is holding more than 600 people in detention in Guantánamo Bay, indefinitely, and it may well hold them there for ever. Guantánamo Bay has become the Bastille of America. They call this serving the cause of democracy and freedom.
I keep writing to Jack Straw about the so-called "illegal combatants", including minors, who are detained there without charge or trial or access to lawyers, and I shall go on writing to him and his successors until something happens. This one-way correspondence may last my lifetime. I suppose the minors won't be minors for long, although the youngest of them is only 13, so in time I shall have to drop that part of my objection, but I shall continue to protest.
A great democratic nation cannot behave in this manner. But it does. I keep remembering those words from Nineteen Eighty-Four, on the dynamics of history at the end of history, when O'Brien tells Winston: "Always there will be the intoxication of power… Always, at every moment, there will be the thrill of victory, the sensation of trampling on an enemy who is helpless. If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - for ever."
We have seen enough boots in the past few months to last us a lifetime. Iraqi boots, American boots, British boots. Enough of boots.
I hate feeling this hatred. I have to keep reminding myself that if Bush hadn't been (so narrowly) elected, we wouldn't be here, and none of this would have happened. There is another America. Long live the other America, and may this one pass away soon. |
| |
|
|
Fastwalker
Joined: 26 Mar 2003
Posts: 832
|
|
Fri May 16, 2003 10:53 pm
|
|
|
quote:
I loathe America, ......
First honest statement you've made, Mech... |
| |
|
|
Hornblower
Joined: 29 Apr 2003
Posts: 91
Location: central europe |
|
Sat May 17, 2003 6:39 am
|
|
|
quote:
Originally posted by Fastwalker:
I want to see what incredible county you come from, so I can fully understand it's importance and magnificence in the world and how America pales by comparison.
You see what you want to see. Nothing will change that. I don't even believe you are a person; more like a programmed slave.
See you in Hell, sucker!
|
| |
|
|
Fastwalker
Joined: 26 Mar 2003
Posts: 832
|
|
Sat May 17, 2003 6:47 am
|
|
|
Oh that's a nice sentiment. Sounds like you already are in hell seeing as how you are so ashamed to even say what country you are living in.
I hear it's warm there though...you can get a nice tan, but to tell you the truth, I don't even have plans to visit. Enjoy your stay, but don't get your hopes up on seeing me there...
|
| |
|
|
shatoga
Joined: 23 Nov 2002
Posts: 1291
|
|
Sat May 17, 2003 1:10 pm
|
|
|
Free to agree with rethuglicans or shut up!
>Are We Looking at the New
Sicherheitsdienst and
Gestapo?
Unter direkter Parteikontrolle???
DeLay's Plumbers?
Homeland Security
Tracks Democrats http://www.thenation.com/thebeat/index.mhtml?bid=1&pid=669
The Nation
The Online Beat
05/14/2003 @ 6:18pm
The Department of Homeland Security's
Air and Marine Interdiction Division (AMID)
says its mission is to "Protect the Nation's
borders and the American people from the
smuggling of narcotics and other contraband
with an integrated and coordinated air
and marine interdiction force."
So it is easy to understand why Texans were
scratching their heads when they learned that
the division's Air and Marine Interdiction and
Coordination Center in Riverside, California,
played a critical role in tracking down the
Democratic legislators who went missing
from the Texas Capitol this week.
The revelation that the federal anti-terrorism
agency joined the Republican-sponsored hunt
for the Texas legislators has sparked a fury
in Austin and in Washington.
While the Texas Democratic Party is calling
for an accounting of all the state and federal
resources employed in the partisan dragnet,
Congressional Democrats in Washington are
demanding to know how and why a
Department of Homeland Security
tracking center in California was pulled
into the service of the Republican
leadership in the Texas State House.
The federal angle is the latest twist in the
bizarre saga of Republican abuse of power
and Democratic counter moves in Texas.
The story of the absent legislators is big
news, not just in Texas but in Washington.
US House Majority Leader Tom DeLay,
R-Texas, was furious with the Democrats,
whose absence will prevent enactment of
a redistricting plan DeLay had crafted to
increase the number of Texas congressional
districts likely to elect Republicans from
15 to 19.
The legally-dubious gerrymandering
scheme has been a top priority of DeLay;
the powerful Republican leader admits he
has even discussed it with President Bush,
a former Texas governor, who reportedly
told DeLay, "I'd like to see that happen."
As it became increasingly clear that DeLay
would not get his way -- the absence of the
Democratic legislators has denied the Texas
Republican leaders the quorum needed to
approve the redistricting plan before a
Thursday deadline -- he blew up.
The man politicos refer to as "The Hammer"
was so angry that he speculated on Tuesday
about whether federal law might allow FBI
agents to travel to the Oklahoma hotel
where 51 Democrats were staying, arrest
the lawmakers and return them to Austin
before the deadline.
U.S. Representative Lloyd Doggett,
D-Texas, said it appeared that
Republican leaders were trying to
make federal law enforcement
agencies "Tom DeLay's personal
police force."
DeLay's dream was not to be, however.
When Texas House Speaker Tom Craddick,
DeLay's man in Austin, asked the Federal
Bureau of Investigation or the US Marshall
Service to do the GOP's bidding, the offical
response was "no."
US Department of Justice spokesman Jorge
Martinez told reporters that responsibility
for tracking down the legislators "falls
squarely within the purview of state authority,
and it would not warrant investigation by
federal authorities."
But, according to the Fort Worth Star-
Telegram, the federal Air and Marine
Interdiction Division did get involved in
the investigation.
The division, a combination of old
Customs Department agencies that
now operates under the jurisdiction
of the Bush Administration's Homeland
Security Department, has long used its
California facility to monitor efforts to
illegally enter the United States via the
skies or waterways.
The Star-Telegram reports that, after
the Texas Democratic legislators went
missing early this week, "The agency
got a call, it's unclear exactly from when
or from whom, to locate a certain Piper
Turbo-Prop aircraft."
The Air and Marine Interdiction and
Coordination Center in Riverside reportedly
tracked the aircraft in question -- which
belongs to former House Speaker Pete
Laney, one of the departed Democrats
-- to Ardmore, Oklahoma.
When questioned, Republican Tom
Craddick admitted that the information
about the plane's location was critical to
solving the mystery of where the
Democrats had disappeared to.
"We called someone and they said they
were going to track it," Craddick said of
the plane. "That's how we found them."
As it turned out, Oklahoma authorities
laughed off attempts by the Texas
Department of Public Safety to extend
their authority across the state line.
So knowing where the Democrats were
sleeping was of little consequence.
But the nagging question of how the
Department of Homeland Security got
pulled into the investigation lingers.
Craddick won't say who it was that
promised to track Pete Laney's place.
And the usually precise Tom DeLay goes
a little vague when it comes to answering
questions about his meddling in state
and federal affairs.
That hasn't stopped Texans from asking
questions, however.
"I thought the Department of Homeland
Security was supposed to be busy
monitoring terrorist threats -- especially
external terrorist threats," says Sarah
Wheat, a Texas abortion rights activist
who, like many Texans, says she is glad
the Democrats went AWOL. "The only
threat the Democratic legislators pose
is to Tom DeLay's political agenda and
a whole bunch of bad bills."
Texas representatives in
Washington from trying to get
to the bottom of what appears
to be a serious abuse of federal
power.
U.S. House members from Texas have
written U.S. Attorney General John
Ashcroft, Homeland Security Secretary
Tom Ridge and FBI Director Robert Mueller,
demanding details regarding federal
involvement in the search and seeking
an investigation of DeLay's efforts to
enlist federal help in the search for
the Texas legislators.
[My comment: Good luck with that demand!]
U.S. Representative Martin Frost,
D-Texas, expressed his outrage by
making a historical comparison,
explaining that, "Not since Richard
Nixon and Watergate 30 years ago
has there been an effort to involve
federal law enforcement officials in
a partisan political matter."<
zieg....
|
| |
|
|
 
|
|
 Goto page Previous
1, 2, 3, 4
All times are GMT. The time now is Sat May 26, 2012 6:55 am
|
|
|
|
|
Login
