"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings: "

[Coexist]

"My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:

Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!"

Nothing beside remains: round the decay

Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare,

The lone and level sands stretch far away.

- Percy Bysshe Shelley


Wonderful Perspective piece from the Sunday paper.

http://www.sptimes.com/2006/03/12/Columns/A_hollow__failed_pres.shtml

A hollow, failed presidency

Archive
By ROBYN E. BLUMNER, Times Perspective Columnist
Published March 12, 2006

<snip>
Like a modern day Ozymandias, President Bush doesn't know that his legacy has already crumbled, leaving nothing but ruin behind.

Despite the weight of the evidence, Bush hasn't figured out that Iraq is a lost cause. He nods when the vice president confabulates about the insurgency in its "last throes." He nudges people like Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, onto Sunday talk shows to assure us all how "very, very well" things are going. He should be listening to William F. Buckley Jr., who wrote a Feb. 24 column in the National Review titled "It Didn't Work," in which the fierce conservative argues that Bush's next step is "the acknowledgment of defeat."

<snip>
The administration denounces the soft racism evident in the opposition to the Dubai ports deal, but thought nothing of subjecting 5,000 largely Muslim and Arab men to preventive detention in the United States after 9/11, embracing an overt "Arabs are terrorists" racism. To this day, not one of them stands convicted of a terror-related crime.

<snip>
Our own Ozymandias has visions of grandeur, but in reality Bush has planted the seeds for a more destabilized world, a more vulnerable America and a nation stripped of its fiscal footing and principled creed. As we look on his works, we will despair indeed.

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Exc ellent article. Thanks for posting.

[Swede]

2. The poem is apt.

He will go down in history as a failed man,and leader.

[Richard Steele]

3. One of my favorite poems, even if not an apt comparison.

At least Ozymandias BUILT something, which later crumbled.

B*sh has done nothing but DESTROY.

He has destroyed lives, cities, the reputation of the USA,
and the very IDEA of "the rule of law".

He's a regular "King Merdes"; everything he touches turns to sh*t.

[Coexist]

5. I agree - but you know Bush considers himself a King

btw - I adore your quarter.

[Richard Steele]

6. Yeah, that was my only point of contention.

Ozymandias was a REAL king (in the poem, that is).

The chimperor is just a delusional, spoiled child playing dress-up.
No one is ever going to build any monuments to the fool.

Glad you like the quarter! Feel free to spread it around.

[Lisa]

15. no monuments to Bush -- well, except for this ...

"Presidents Park" in Williamsburg, VA (6-meter busts of all the presidents, though, not just Junior).


http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/feat/archives/2004/03/01/2003100770/print

[babylonsister]

4. Thank you, and it's gratifying to see this coming from a FL paper! nt

[Coexist]

7. the St. Pete Times is an amazing paper

Now, if I had seen this in the Tampa Tribune, I would feel more like celebrating.

[leeroysphitz]

8. The "Ozymandias" reference is dead on. Appalling Hubris. nt

[DavidDvorkin]

9. Blumner is always good

[WinkyDink]

10. I posted "Ozy" on whichever previous thread had Bush with that

bust of himself.

I once taught BritLit. Heh.

[Coexist]

11. you mean this one?

"President George W. Bush admires a bust of himself presented in his honor Thursday, Feb. 9, 2006 at the National Guard Memorial Building in Washington"

You just KNOW that he was secretly hoping that they would erect a giant statue of him after they took down the one of Saddam.

[Binka]

12. THE BUST Ogles His Bust!

What a malignant narcissistic fuckwittage!

[Raksha]

17. So this is what you get when you cross Narcissus with Ozymandias?

Oops, forgot...they are both male, so it can't be done. That picture makes me sick to my stomach--it is SOOOO revealing!

But I really hope Bush DOES erect a life-size or bigger Saddam-like statue of himself somewhere. Then we can have the pleasure of pulling it down, preferably after he is tried at the Hague and found guilty.

[FatDave]

19. Notice the dates...er, date

2001 - ?

I wonder if it's blank in case of death, impeachment, or a repeal of the 22nd ammendment?

[blogslut]

16. We got your Ozymandias

right here in West Texas:





http://www.roadsideamerica.com/tips/getAttraction.php3?tip_AttractionNo==1242

We built it PREEMTIVELY! :bounce:

[Boojatta]

13. Something similar from a movie

Will you do me a favor and walk to the back of this classroom...
and read for us the plaque hanging over that door?

"I am Shutruk Nahunte,
King of Anshand and Susa,
Sovereign of the land of Elam.
I destroyed Sippar, took the stele
of Niran-Sin, and brought it
back to Elam, where I erected it
as an offering to my god."

Is anyone familiar with this fellow?
Texts are permissible, but you won't find it there.
Shutruk Nahunte, King!
Sovereign of the land of Elam! Destroyer of Sippar!
Behold, his accomplishments cannot be found in any history book. Why?
Because great ambition and conquest...
without contribution...
is without significance.

[twenty4blackbirds]

22. movie where Kevin Kline is teaching a rascal :-)

Quite like that bit, but not the entire movie. :hi:

sometimes a scumbag is a scumbag

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

14. "FAILED presidency of George Bush!" YES! SOMEONE is starting to say it!

[tinfoilinfor2005]

18. Our own Ozymandius on DU is a king among kings...

he has been very generous and kind to me with words of wisdom and advise when I have been lost in the forest of the stock market. We want to be careful and not taint his good name. :)

[Coexist]

23. you don't have to tell me

I check that thread every day!

[auagroach]

20. Cheney is Ozymandus, Bush is Herod

n/t

[Blue_Tires]

21. ttt n/t