Exactly when does "incompetence" stop being a credible excuse?

[stickdog]

Florida's 2000 "Felonious" Voter Rolls: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Able Danger: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Zacharias Moussaoui: They Knew It or They Blew It.
9/11: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Flight 93: They Knew it or They Blew It.
The Bin Laden Family's 9/12-9/14 Exit Flights: They Knew It or They Blew It.
The WTC Asbestos/Heavy Metal Cover Up: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Uncaught Anthrax Murderer: They Knew It or They Blew It.
The Patriot Act's Excesses: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Total Information Awareness: They Knew It or They Blew It.
The CAPPS II Terrorist-Helping "No Fly" List: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Poindexter's Assassination "Futures" Market: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Fraud-o-Matic Voting Machines: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Osama's Tora Bora Escape: They Knew It or They Blew It.
US & Iraqi Depleted Uranium Exposure: They Knew it or They Blew it.
No Iraqi Yellowcake: They Knew It or They Blew It.
No Other Iraqi WMDs: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Curveball vs. Hussein's Foreign Minister: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Cheney's Millions of Profit in Halliburton Options: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Poppy Bush's Carlyle Group War Profiteering: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Outing CIA Agent Valerie Plame: They Knew It or They Blew It.
The 9/11 Omission: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Ignoring the 9/11 Omission's Recommendations: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Iraqi Precious Historic Artifact Looting: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Iraq UN Bombing: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Nick Berg's Beheading: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Medicare PharmCorp Plundering: They Knew It or They Blew It.
US's Biggest Export = Jobs: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Enron (& other corporate insider) Scams: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Hedge/Mutual Fund Scams: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Energy Policy Written By Enron, et al: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Record Federal Government Growth: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Homeland Security Pork Barrel: They Knew It or They Blew It
False Unemployment Data: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Gitmo Abuses: They Knew It or They Blew It.
"Iraqi Oil Will Pay For War": They Knew It or They Blew It.
"Bring It On": They Knew It or They Blew It.
Repube Staffers Stealing 1000s of Confidential Memos From Dem PCs: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Cutting Veterans Benefits: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Destroying Reservists' Morale and Retainment Percentage: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Iraqi Prison Torture: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Iraqi Oil Fund Payola-rama: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Iraqi Reporter Murders: They Knew It or They Blew It.
$330,000 a Month to Chalabi: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Where's Osama?: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Border Insecurity: They Knew It or They Blew It.
IRS Auditing Only Anti-Bush Churches: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Paid For & Planted Iraqi "News Reports": They Knew It or They Blew It.
HHS Scully Scandal: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Bush's Flag Desecration: He Knew It or He Blew It.
US Soldier Body & Vehicle Armor Scandals: They Knew It or They Blew It.
EPA's Child Mercury Danger Suppression: They Knew It or They Blew It.
EPA Letting Industries Write Own Regulations: They Knew It or They Blew It.
"No Global Warming" Pseudoscience: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Refusal To Release Documents to Congress, Courts or 9/11 Commission: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Wildly Misunderestimated Iraq War & Medicare Bill Costs: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Four Rounds of Surplus/Budget Busting Tax Breaks for Corps & the Rich: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Countless Bullshit Terra Alerts: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Gannongate: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Arrests For Wearing Anti-Bush Shirts: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Afghan Opium Production Now Through The Roof: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Wage Stagnation: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Bankruptcy "Reform" Bill: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Dollar Losing Value: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Rummy's Avian Flu Scare-mongering Profiteering: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Florida's 2004 Race-based Voter Purge "Mistake": They Knew It or They Blew It.
Pre-Election Florida FEMA Payola Bribe-o-rama: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Ohio Coingate: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Medicare Insurance Boondoggle Debacle: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Jack Abramoff's Pay to Play Felonies: They Knew It or They Blew It.
No Big Oil Public Land Royalties: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Iraqi Mosque Bombings: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Iraqi Civil War: They Knew It or They Blew It.
Zacharias Moussaoui's Trial: They Knew It or They Blew It.

Just how often are you willing to accept limitless incompetence as an excuse without getting just a tad suspicious?

Florida White Collar Vote Counting Riot: They Staged It.
Supreme Court Decision: Supremely Bad Law
Reclassification of Reagan's & Bush I's Papers (which were to be released): They Railroaded It.
Gutting the Freedom of Information Act: They Railroaded It.
Fighter Jets Sold to Pakistan on a Saturday: They Railroaded It.
First Amendment Zones: They Railroaded It.
Gutting Pollution Regulations: They Railroaded It.
Dissing the Kyoto Treaty: They Railroaded It.
Enemy Combatant Legal Limbo: They Railroaded It.
Torture Rendition: They Railroaded It.
The "Dirty Bomber" vs. the 9/11 Families For Truth Gathering CSPAN Misdirection: They Staged It.
The California "Energy Crisis": They Staged, Gamed, Bilked and Arnied it.
Saddam Statue Celebration: They Staged It.
Mission Accomplished: They Staged It.
The Gropinator Recall: They Staged It.
The Plastic Turkey Thanksgiving Drop: They Staged It.
Saving Private Lynch: They Staged It.
Halliburton Handouts: They Bilked It.
Gas Gouging: They Bilked It.
Appointing Negroponte and Bolton: They Railroaded Them In.
Pat Tillman's Death: They Lied About Him and His Death, Then Covered It Up.
The 2004 Election: They Rigged It.
Illegal Unwarranted Domestic Wiretapping: They Hid It & Lied About It, Then Screamed It Was Legal Anyway.
Downing Street Memos: They Knew It AND They Blew It.
Terry Schiavo: They Knew It AND They Blew It.
Cindy Sheehan: They Knew It AND They Blew It.
Hurricane Katrina: They Knew It AND They Blew It.
UAE Port Scandal: They Knew It AND They Blew It.

Once again, I ask, why should anyone ever believe anything these guys say?

[KnaveRupe]

1. Nice, comprehensive list. Recommended. n/t

[acmavm]

2. Recommended it myself. But truthfully, it is not a credible excuse. That's

why we're here. But we (dems, Independents, anyone against these criminals) have been marginalized by a traitorous government and worthless reps in the Senate and Congress.

[reprehensor]

3. It's as plain as day.

This is the Disinformation Administration.

Incompetence Theorists... *sigh*

They actually make the "Coincidence Theorists" look sane.

[Taxloss]

4. Wow, compounded thought AND binary logic!

I think that wins some sort of MIHOP prize!

So let me get this straight - the answer can only be one of the two options you give, and has to be the same in every instance? Hang on, in keeping with the theme, I need to end with a non-sequitur question:

"And we're supposed to believe that elephants are Presbytarian?"

[stickdog]

7. Nope. It's just not believable that it's TYPICALLY incompetence.

Some are potentially, even probably, due to incompetence -- like Bush signing the flag, for example. But overall, the pattern is clear. BushCo & his cronies get exactly what they want, and their constant and consistently incredible feats of "incompetence" serve as their "modified limited hangout" (see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modified_limited_hangout ).

[Taxloss]

8. That's fair enough.

And thanks for a level response to my somewhat inflammatory remark. However, it seems to me that incompetence in all areas (bar where complacency, ignorance and malignancy play their part) is easier to understand than incompetence in many areas and occasional flashes of pure evil genius.

In regard of this administration, it seems to me that we have a President who is basically asleep at the wheel the entire time and a Veep who is at least capable, but intensely paranoid and secretive, who limits himself to a very narrow agenda. That is not a recipe for an effective organisation.

[izzie]

5. We have 5000 years of this in some places. So?

I do not think we can claim to have put in screw ups any more than other countries have over history. Has it some times brought the countries to its knees? Some times yes and some times no. Looks like Bush and Co. are working at putting us on the bottom but we may not fail. My thinking is that we all better look at China's wage scale and make our lives around that. I still think we are in the middle of a world revolution even if we do not see it. It is OK my children do not hear me either and think I am sort of nuts.

[EST]

9. Your post got me thinking.

There certainly is historical precedent for our putting idiots, charlatans, and sociopaths into high public office. The really puzzling questions are why now, with our ability to know virtually anything about anybody and why the insane level of support, especially from the sector of society which has been regarded as firmly grounded and unflappable.

[izzie]

10. Have they ever figured out the Germans and Hitler? ANd what

about Cromwell and I am sure I could go on if I could recall all the names that have led nations right over the cliff. I guess these men just seem like they will be good to the people who voted them in. Even if they took power like Lenin they still had backers that kept them there. Heck even Henry the 8th, with birth right rule, had to have people to back him up. It is almost as if we go in waves of meanness than greatness of the people. Reading world history and it comes and goes all the time and every place. I think fear of the lose of what you have must place a big part of it all. That does seem to be playing a large part in what you hear from people now. Our way of life etc. It is returned to our ears from around the world.

[cactusrose]

17. It's the enablers

Abusers and exploiters never gain and keep power without enablers. And Bush's hardcore enablers - his worshippers - are very persistent.

They don't worship him in spite of his many flaws and deficiencies but because of them. His flaws and deficiencies are their flaws and deficiencies. He's giving them a green light to indulge everything that is worst within them. Just like he does.

Now the question is why so many of the rest of us - who should have known better, maybe even did know better - have let Bush, his cronies, and his worshippers get as far as they have?

[izzie]

24. but of course these people always stick with their like.

Now it does seem that we have the rest who keep them in power but we just can not figure out why. I bet their are 100's of reasons why they go along but I just do not know what they can be. I do hear this. Bush will save us from the terrorist. I have always voted republicans. Both those led me to believe that some people do not know the facts but if you talk to them you find they do not wish to know the facts either. And that is most likely just two of many reasons.

[cactusrose]

16. Good question!

"The really puzzling questions are why now, with our ability to know virtually anything about anybody and why the insane level of support, especially from the sector of society which has been regarded as firmly grounded and unflappable."

I think a lot of thought needs to be given to this question if we are to stop Bush Inc. and the far-right and keep them from eventually destroying the US.

Why did so many people chuck their critical thinking skills and vote for this guy the first time? There was enough known about him from his time as governor of TX to predict that he would be a disaster. Though I admit not as big of a disaster as he has turned out to be. That was mind-boggling. He has exceeded expectations when it comes to being a disaster for the US.

Perhaps more important is why so many parked what little integrity, conscience, morality, and ethics they have outside the voting booth and cast a vote for this serial liar? Again, it's not like there wasn't a well-established track record of his lies, corruption, sadism, etc.

[glitch]

21. Welcome to DU - these are good questions. I think if the 2000 bush voters

looked hard at themselves they wouldn't like what they see. A desire to be duped if it personal gain, is the best they can hope for from an evaluation.
The 2004 bush voters have even deeper issues, most likely racism, sexism, inferiority complexes.
Current bush supporters have their own reality going on, they can't get off that train without self-injury, so they don't.
Armageddon is actually the best outcome they can see for their lives.
IMO.

[stickdog]

23. I've thought about this a lot and even asked many Bush supporters

about it. He's turned former small government conservatives into lovers of nation building, record deficits and centralized powers bordering on totalitarianism.

What it the world does he have going for him to do such a thing? I can't see it, and nobody I've talked to can explain it. The closest I've come to figure it is that for many Americans the us vs. them (Nazis, Commies, Liberals, Gays, Muslims) archetype is so powerful that when combined with religion it forms a cult of personality beyond all cults.

[lwcon]

33. De Tocqueville figured it out

"It is easier for the world to accept a simple lie than a complex truth."

In an increasingly complex world, and one where mis- and disinformation travel as fast as -- if not faster than -- real information, it's easy for a cipher like Reagan or Bush II to seem like a refreshing choice, compared to a complex statesman like a Carter, Gore, or Kerry.

It's no news that presidential politics is marketing, and it's easier to mass-market something vapid. For example, it's easier to mass-market a Britney Spears than a Susan Sarandon. And remember how the Dixie Chicks fell from grace when they -- shudder -- had an opinion? Sadly, most of the time, stupid sells.

That said, something is brewing: nerd chic. We see it in the Bill Gateses, the ascendancy of comic-book based movies, and the groundswell around the wonky Feingolds and Gores.

Smart is becoming the new smart, and think we ought to embrace the "Revenge of the Nerds" theme. You tried the empty-suit flag wavers with their empty slogans, bankrupt values, and bankrupted treasury. Beer-buddy amateur hour is over. Bring in someone with a heart and a brain, for godsake, or this thing is gonna blow!

___

Hey, the liberal light is always on at the Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy. Please stop by and say "hi!"

[EST]

6. R

There is a complete book in each of these incidents. Unfortunately, nobody but those of us who are intensely interested (read patriotic?} bother to read such things.
Good contribution.

[The Backlash Cometh]

11. If Bush were serving on the bench, he'd be removed.

[stickdog]

12. Imagine if he were a doctor.

combined with

[Warren Stupidity]

13. I stopped the day I concluded it was *IHOP.

Since then I have filtered everything through my PNAC lens. It all is much clearer if you just go read their roadmap document. It ain't even a real conspiracy as real conspiracies require the conspirators to keep their plans and membership secret, not published on a damn website.

[cactusrose]

18. That's a key - the PNAC

As you point out they're not bothering to keep their plans or their membership secret. It's out there for anyone to read on their website. From their saying it would take an event like Pearl Harbor to get the American public to go along with their agenda to a wish list of countries they want to invade and overthrow. It's all there, right out in the open. And we've got Americans who keep ignoring it. Do they think the neocons don't really mean it? Won't and aren't really doing it? Wake up, folks!

I'm talking about somewhat sane-in-other-things Americans in the previous paragraph. Ever try talking to a far-righter and Bush worshipper about the PNAC and that Pearl Harbor statement? I know a Bush-worshpper who every time that PNAC website is mentioned keeps dismissing it as a crazy leftwing site spreading lies and conspiracy theories about Bush.

[specimenfred1984]

14. Fantastic List!

Thanks for posting it.

[quaoar]

15. Add a new one to your list

Hiring a Chinese company to scan incoming cargo for nuclear materials at one of our ports.

[stickdog]

22. Yep. As Lily Tomlin says ...

"No matter how cynical I get, I just can't seem to keep up."

[PATRICK]

19. Coincidence Theory plus Incompetence Theory

added to the fatalism of Sh*t Happens would create a valuable axis of acceptance matrix. Taught in the schools, coincidentally, it would create a system incompetent to really educate, but hey, sh*t happens.

Coincidentally also, accepting this would protect the ruling incompetents as the most fitting exemplars and protectors of the New World Disorder. The fatalism of Sh*t Happens would keep this Disorder from being upset by the clashing traditional binary of good vs. evil. It is a unique beauty to behold this permanent Mad Tea Party from which the testy logical lib Alice must eventually be expelled. And beheaded.

[C_U_L8R]

20. It's at least CRIMINAL incompetence

the entire Bush admin should be behind bars

[Psyclops Skydog]

25. nice list for a Dukie

Nice & too the point.

E.T. says Phone Home

Add to it failure to
overturn oregon's
death w/ dignity law. Blew it!!!

[stickdog]

27. What about that UConn goaltending scandal! (nt)

[newyawker99]

36. Hi Psyclops Skydog!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[RazzleDazzle]

26. Fabulouse work. Wish I could say the same for Dems in Congress

This list kinda make them look INEPT or something, doesn't it? I'm about to be as mad with them as I am with Bush.

[Vidar]

28. Incompetence is not inconsistent with profound evil.

[cassiepriam]

29. For themselves they are brilliant, for any one else, the could care less

[leveymg]

30. Incompetence becomes criminal when it leads to negligent injury

That happened a long time ago. If they had simply prosecuted Bush-Cheney right after 9/11 for 3,000 counts of negligent homicide, we could have avoided nearly that whole long list of subsequent crimes.

Now, that brings up the issue of prosecutorial negligence and the issue of culpability by those charged with enforcing the laws.

[DFW]

31. John Ashcroft was Attorney General

You are asking the fox to prosecute those who raided the henhouse

[Disturbed]

32. Great list. Thanks.

I don't call it incompetence. It is criminal activity.

[lwcon]

34. Listen, pal

He's sort of cute, in a Morocco Mole kind of way
He from America's heartland (the Texas part of Connecticut)
He's got a ranch, and he clears the brush all by hisself
He loves Baby Jesus (better than the old Jesus, with that "Sermon on the Mount" shit)
He's the kind of guy you'd like to go drinking with (if he weren't a drunk driver and drug addict)
He makes up adorable nicknames for foreign leaders (Putin="Pootie-Poot," Tony Blair = "My Bitch")
He's a refreshing political outsider (for a guy whose dad was President, Vice President, and CIA chief)
He knows Saddam had WMD (because his administration is full of the guys who gave them to him)
He knew there'd be terrorists in Iraq (once we killed 30,000 Iraqis)
He loves your freedom so much, he'll spy on you to protect it

So, cut him some fucking slack, will you?

___

Hey, the liberal light is always on at the Vast Left-Wing Conspiracy. Please stop by and say "hi!"

[stickdog]

35. Brilliant. (nt)