Molly Ivins: "Just when you thought it couldn't get worse"

[Bluebear]

"There's no reason to believe (Social Security) is heading for an iceberg, and many good reasons to believe it is not. One of those very good reasons is the Bush administration's record on veracity. The last time the Bushies whipped up a great crisis was over weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Even the administration has finally quit pretending they are still looking for the nonexistent WMD: The inspectors were recalled before Christmas. No one in the administration was fired over the huge lie about WMD -- Bush just gave George Tenet, the man theoretically responsible, the Medal of Freedom. Colin Powell, the only Cabinet member who opposed the folly of Iraq, was asked to resign.

These are the same people who passed a huge tax cut for the rich on the grounds that we had a huge surplus -- as in the case of the WMD, there was no such thing. And those are just the biggest lies with the most disastrous consequences. More minor misinformation gushes forth every day.

And now comes yet another low. According to Newsweek magazine, the administration is planning the ultimate idiocy. Not enough that it has engaged in torture, it is now considering setting up as terrorists themselves. It is impossible to tell how seriously the administration is taking this proposal, but it is being discussed. It's called "the Salvador option" -- backing death squads to target Sunni insurgents and their sympathizers. Newsweek quotes one military source: "The Sunni population is paying no price for the support it is giving the terrorists. ... From their point of view, it is cost-free. We have to change that equation."

Just when you thought it couldn't get worse ...

http://www.creators.com/opinion_show.cfm?next=3&ColumnsName=miv

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. >>It's called "the Salvador option"

don't you???

Salvador = Savior Ironic, isn't it?

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/
W and Dostoevsky
George W. Bush is a man possessed
by Justin Raimondo
>>A fire in the mind – surely, I thought, Bush's speechwriters can't have inserted this phrase without knowing its literary origin. It is taken from Dostoevsky's novel, The Possessed, a story set in pre-revolutionary Russia in which the author chronicles the intrigues of the emerging revolutionary movement: one of the main characters is based on the infamous nihilist Sergei Nechaev, whose aim is to make a revolution of such destructive power that bourgeois society will be completely destroyed. Their strategy is to provoke a violent crackdown on all dissent – which will then spark an explosion of revolutionary violence.<<

[Ms. Clio]

2. Bringin' on the End Times

Raimundo:

The result is an uprising of murderous anger, a volcanic eruption of nihilistic violence that consumes the provincial capital in a great fire. In the end, Governor Lembke stands amid the crowd watching his mansion go up in flames:

(snip)

In Dostoevsky's novel, that fire in the minds of men is not a yearning for liberty, but a nihilistic will to power that can only end in destruction. Put in George W. Bush's mouth, those words are not a paean to freedom, but a manifesto of pure destructionism."

http://www.antiwar.com/justin/

And, of course, many of the neo-cons are former Marxists.

[Nothing Without Hope]

4. Excellent article. Has it been posted on the DU political forum?

(snip)

This is quite possibly the most worrisome and even frightening speech ever delivered by an American president. Its imagery of a fire burning up the world, coupled with the incendiary promise to aid "democratic reformers" against "outlaw regimes" worldwide, evokes the spirit of another murderous "idealism" – one that made the 20th century the age of mass murder. As he ranted on and on – "the expansion of freedom in all the world"; "Advancing these ideals is the mission that created our nation"; "When you stand for your liberty we will stand with you." – Bushed sounded more like Trotsky addressing the Red Army than an American president addressing his people. ...

Worth reading in its entirety, with many links to explain and expand the meaning.

If you haven't posted this article on the political discussion forum already, please do!

[Nothing Without Hope]

3. Molly has got it right. Again.

She's living proof that not all Texans are like the blivet**.

Thanks for the heads-up. I'll send this link to friends, who will pass the word on.

[Parche]

5. molly

always the same...its just a shame...thats all