Some politcs . . .
"I will hereby list the following things people, especially those on the political fringes, just don't get about America:
1. Hey, Europe and all you other foreigners--love your culture, love your music, but we have not forgotten how much we hate your politics, even hundreds of years after your politics drove our starving, persecuted ancestors to these shores. We still do not think that internationalist movements and parties that are blatant shills for your interests are anything we want to touch with a ten-foot phallic symbol. We hate foreign politics so much that we can't wait until we feel safe pulling out of Iraq. Believe it, don't believe it, we could give a rodent's hindquarters what you think.
2. 200 years is not old for a nation, but it is, in our opinion, old enough for us to damn well know what our best interests are. We act on them, as much as we expect France, Russia, and Germany to act in their own best interests. Sometimes our interests will coincide, sometimes they won't. Don't expect anyone outside of some self-hating morons we don't take seriously to argue for screwing ourselves in favor of another nation's interests, especially when our national security is at stake. Don't play schoolmarm with us, citing your alleged ancient wisdom on one hand, then complain about being overrun when we go our own way those times when our interests differ. We're all grownups here, and we'll catch you on the flipside on those things on which our interests do converge.
3. Especially since 9-11, Americans get really torqued off when some numbnuts uses national security as some kind of political football. If you start treating the War on Terror as Bush's version of the Blue Dress Incident, expect to be called nasty names.
4. George Bush is just a guy who won a very controversial election, and has had one damn thing after another happen during his Presidency. Anybody who has decided he is the Antichrist, or takes a dump on the Constitution every night as he plans to send black helicopters to arrest intrepid multi-pierced tenured graduate students is taking politics too damn seriously, and needs a long vacation, probably involving detox and finally losing ones virginity. This goes the same for anyone who thinks the same about Bill Clinton.
5. Number 4 above is caused by the unfortunate tendency to mistake ones particular political orientation for the Destiny of Nations. That guy across the aisle merely differs from you in the way he or she wishes to run things in a free, democratic nation. He is not the great evil that must be stamped out to usher in the Age of Aquarius, the Second Coming, the Revolution, or whatever apocalyptic bovine scatology you buy into.
6. If Karl Marx and all those folks who clog the airwaves worldwide bleating about the plight of the working classes are themselves working class, I'm the Virgin Mary. Their efforts are resented, not because the people are in some kind of media-induced trance, but mostly because these efforts at improving the lives of the poor resemble the dance thrown by the "reformers" in Gangs of New York, i.e. they tend to show a complete lack of understanding of the wants and needs of anyone outside the well-fed bourgeoisie. Americans of all classes can figure that one out for themselves."
CLINTON vs. BUSH
Similarities?
Mr. Clinton (March 24, 1999): "Now [Serbian troops have] started moving from village to village, shelling civilians and torching their houses. We've seen innocent people taken from their homes, forced to kneel in the dirt and sprayed with bullets. Kosovar men dragged from their families, fathers and sons together, lined up and shot in cold blood. This is not a war in the traditional sense; it is an attack by tanks and artillery on a largely defenseless people whose leaders already have agreed to peace. Ending this tragedy is a moral imperative."
Mr. Bush (Jan. 28, 2003): "The dictator who is assembling the world's most dangerous weapons has already used them on whole villages, leaving thousands of his own citizens dead, blind or disfigured. Iraqi refugees tell us how forced confessions are obtained by torturing children while their parents are made to watch. International human rights groups have catalogued other methods used in the torture chambers of Iraq - electric shock, burning with hot irons, dripping acid on the skin, mutilation with electric drills, cutting out tongues and rape. If this is not evil, then evil has no meaning."
***
Mr. Clinton (March 24, 1999): "Our mission is clear: to demonstrate the seriousness of NATO's purpose, so that the Serbian leaders understand the imperative of reversing course, to deter an even bloodier offensive against innocent civilians in Kosovo, and if necessary, to seriously damage the Serbian military's capacity to harm the people of Kosovo. In short, if President Milosevic will not make peace, we will limit his ability to make war."
Mr. Bush (Sept. 12, 2002): "If the Iraqi regime wishes peace, it will cease persecution of its civilian population, including Shi'a, Sunnis, Kurds, Turkemens and others - again, as required by Security Council resolutions. ... The United States has no quarrel with the Iraqi people. They've suffered too long in silent captivity. Liberty for the Iraqi people is a great moral cause and a great strategic goal. The people of Iraq deserve it. The security of all nations requires it. Free societies do not intimidate through cruelty and conquest. And open societies do not threaten the world with mass murder. The United States supports political and economic liberty in a unified Iraq."
***
Mr. Clinton (March 24, 1999): "I am convinced that the dangers of acting are far outweighed by the dangers of not acting, dangers to defenseless people and to our national interests. If we and our allies were to allow this war to continue with no response, President Milosevic would read our hesitation as a license to kill. There would be many more massacres, tens of thousands more refugees, more victims crying out for revenge. Right now, our firmness is the only hope the people of Kosovo have to be able to live in their own country without having to fear for their own lives."
Mr. Bush (Sept. 12, 2002): "We can harbor no illusions, and that's important today to remember. Saddam Hussein attacked Iran in 1980 and Kuwait in 1990. He's fired ballistic missiles at Iran and Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Israel. His regime once ordered the killing of every person between the ages of 15 and 70 in certain Kurdish villages in Northern Iraq. He has gassed many Iranians and 40 Iraqi villages."
1. Hey, Europe and all you other foreigners--love your culture, love your music, but we have not forgotten how much we hate your politics, even hundreds of years after your politics drove our starving, persecuted ancestors to these shores. We still do not think that internationalist movements and parties that are blatant shills for your interests are anything we want to touch with a ten-foot phallic symbol. We hate foreign politics so much that we can't wait until we feel safe pulling out of Iraq. Believe it, don't believe it, we could give a rodent's hindquarters what you think.
2. 200 years is not old for a nation, but it is, in our opinion, old enough for us to damn well know what our best interests are. We act on them, as much as we expect France, Russia, and Germany to act in their own best interests. Sometimes our interests will coincide, sometimes they won't. Don't expect anyone outside of some self-hating morons we don't take seriously to argue for screwing ourselves in favor of another nation's interests, especially when our national security is at stake. Don't play schoolmarm with us, citing your alleged ancient wisdom on one hand, then complain about being overrun when we go our own way those times when our interests differ. We're all grownups here, and we'll catch you on the flipside on those things on which our interests do converge.
3. Especially since 9-11, Americans get really torqued off when some numbnuts uses national security as some kind of political football. If you start treating the War on Terror as Bush's version of the Blue Dress Incident, expect to be called nasty names.
4. George Bush is just a guy who won a very controversial election, and has had one damn thing after another happen during his Presidency. Anybody who has decided he is the Antichrist, or takes a dump on the Constitution every night as he plans to send black helicopters to arrest intrepid multi-pierced tenured graduate students is taking politics too damn seriously, and needs a long vacation, probably involving detox and finally losing ones virginity. This goes the same for anyone who thinks the same about Bill Clinton.
5. Number 4 above is caused by the unfortunate tendency to mistake ones particular political orientation for the Destiny of Nations. That guy across the aisle merely differs from you in the way he or she wishes to run things in a free, democratic nation. He is not the great evil that must be stamped out to usher in the Age of Aquarius, the Second Coming, the Revolution, or whatever apocalyptic bovine scatology you buy into.
6. If Karl Marx and all those folks who clog the airwaves worldwide bleating about the plight of the working classes are themselves working class, I'm the Virgin Mary. Their efforts are resented, not because the people are in some kind of media-induced trance, but mostly because these efforts at improving the lives of the poor resemble the dance thrown by the "reformers" in Gangs of New York, i.e. they tend to show a complete lack of understanding of the wants and needs of anyone outside the well-fed bourgeoisie. Americans of all classes can figure that one out for themselves."
CLINTON vs. BUSH
Similarities?
Mr. Clinton (March 24, 1999): "Now [Serbian troops have] started moving from village to village, shelling civilians and torching their houses. We've seen innocent people taken from their homes, forced to kneel in the dirt and sprayed with bullets. Kosovar men dragged from their families, fathers and sons together, lined up and shot in cold blood. This is not a war in the traditional sense; it is an attack by tanks and artillery on a largely defenseless people whose leaders already have agreed to peace. Ending this tragedy is a moral imperative."
Mr. Bush (Jan. 28, 2003): "The dictator who is assembling the world's most dangerous weapons has already used them on whole villages, leaving thousands of his own citizens dead, blind or disfigured. Iraqi refugees tell us how forced confessions are obtained by torturing children while their parents are made to watch. International human rights groups have catalogued other methods used in the torture chambers of Iraq - electric shock, burning with hot irons, dripping acid on the skin, mutilation with electric drills, cutting out tongues and rape. If this is not evil, then evil has no meaning."
***
Mr. Clinton (March 24, 1999): "Our mission is clear: to demonstrate the seriousness of NATO's purpose, so that the Serbian leaders understand the imperative of reversing course, to deter an even bloodier offensive against innocent civilians in Kosovo, and if necessary, to seriously damage the Serbian military's capacity to harm the people of Kosovo. In short, if President Milosevic will not make peace, we will limit his ability to make war."
Mr. Bush (Sept. 12, 2002): "If the Iraqi regime wishes peace, it will cease persecution of its civilian population, including Shi'a, Sunnis, Kurds, Turkemens and others - again, as required by Security Council resolutions. ... The United States has no quarrel with the Iraqi people. They've suffered too long in silent captivity. Liberty for the Iraqi people is a great moral cause and a great strategic goal. The people of Iraq deserve it. The security of all nations requires it. Free societies do not intimidate through cruelty and conquest. And open societies do not threaten the world with mass murder. The United States supports political and economic liberty in a unified Iraq."
***
Mr. Clinton (March 24, 1999): "I am convinced that the dangers of acting are far outweighed by the dangers of not acting, dangers to defenseless people and to our national interests. If we and our allies were to allow this war to continue with no response, President Milosevic would read our hesitation as a license to kill. There would be many more massacres, tens of thousands more refugees, more victims crying out for revenge. Right now, our firmness is the only hope the people of Kosovo have to be able to live in their own country without having to fear for their own lives."
Mr. Bush (Sept. 12, 2002): "We can harbor no illusions, and that's important today to remember. Saddam Hussein attacked Iran in 1980 and Kuwait in 1990. He's fired ballistic missiles at Iran and Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and Israel. His regime once ordered the killing of every person between the ages of 15 and 70 in certain Kurdish villages in Northern Iraq. He has gassed many Iranians and 40 Iraqi villages."