Book Scrutinizes Bad Bush Ideas
By Nicole Belle Sunday Feb 10, 2008 6:15pmNPR's All Things Considered speaks to author Fred Kaplan about his latest book:
Fred Kaplan, author of Daydream Believers: How a Few Grand Ideas Wrecked American Power, says the Bush administration's world view is based on several misconceptions. For one, he says, the administration thought of freedom as a gift from God, without understanding the practical requirements of developing democracies.
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I have bad dreams about the Bush administration all the time. Sometimes nightmares. \
Number of Operations Iraq Freedom and Enduring Freedom casualties
as confirmed by U.S. Central Command: 4417
"Book Scrutinizes Bad Bush Ideas"
...this must be the longest book in the history of man.
We lost. Get used to it.
Am I to understand Fred Caplan thinks...
"the administration thought of freedom as a gift from God, without understanding the practical requirements of developing democracies."
#$%&* you have lost me Fred!
Bush thinks freedom is a gift from god? LOL
Daydream Believers
Monkees big hit.
L.A. Confidential @ 3:
Ya, that'll be something wingers will try to blame liberals for. They beat us, it's over.
Christopher Turkel @ 5:
Oh right. If Hill or Oba win's I can just see it.
We didn't need a book to tell us that these dumb shit did everything wrong.
All you have to do is listen to bush stumble through a speech, that says it all.
nu-cu-lur
"For one, he says, the administration thought of freedom as a gift from God, without understanding the practical requirements of developing democracies."
The classic leftist canard has been to BELIEVE in Bushco's obviously spurious religiosity.
Who buys that stuff? I still can't figure it out. Such obvious lies, from such obvious liars.
This whole exercise has been to INSTALL AIRBASES. Period. It has ZIP to do with 'demockery,' and nothing to do with religion, except as a holy grease for the Auschwitz rails.
Osama Bin Laden won. Big time.
L.A. Confidential @ 9:
He did say . . Quote: "Don't worry the United States will implode from within."
L.A. Confidential @ 3:
What is that supposed to mean?
Paul in LA @ 11:
Oh I just realized the futility of trying to change the Wing Nuts.
Thats impossible so seven years of wasted effort sums it up.
L.A. Confidential @ 12:
Seriously how do you change people who think they are Gods gift to the planet?
[Deleted. Off topic-Sitemonitor]
A debate is whether Bush is simply incompetent or is a calculating criminal.
Submit that he is a narcissistic moron, who is manipulated by very evil people.
Getting rid of Bush (if that's what happens -- I'll believe it when I see it) won't get rid of the very evil, very powerful individuals behind the curtain.
Had a sickening thought today: Obama seems to be inspiring hope the way RFK did. Remember June 4, 1968. Remember it well.
VietVet8666 @ 15:
Bush Co knows what they are doing. And get away with it.
Bad ideas, my ass. How about just flat out corruption, cronyism, and war-profiteering? If only all Cheney/Bush were guilty of were bad ideas, we'd be living in a much better world.
L.A. Confidential @ 13:
You expose their crimes. Educate the masses. And prevent them from ruining any more of our future.
Bush is, and always was, irrelevant. Like Ronald Reagan before him, he is merely a figurehead for the agenda of right wing oligarchs and the Military Industrial and Big Energy Complexes that they control.
L.A. Confidential @ 12:
I don't know where you get your attitudes from, but I don't consider any of my efforts in the last seven years 'wasted.'
This same MIC is the problem now, next week, next year, next decade. This is the SAME fight against the same enemy as with Vietnam. It has continued not seven years, but my entire adult lifetime. These are historic forces, and we are arrayed in battle from long ago.
IF we transition back to democracy next year, then turning around our first successful U.S. domestic coup in seven years was quite an accomplishment (most coups last ten to twenty years).
I have not yet begun to fight. For some people, that is also literally true. Obama is bringing out a lot of people who have been sidelined, and we have restored much of our voting system. We are retaking the Congress on a huge scale this November. I'm looking forward to putting the legal screws of a NEW Justice Dept. to these motherfuckers as soon as we can.
Sorry, but Bush never had an original idea of his own good or bad, he is just a moron marionette!
Snowball @ 19:
He is the President. That is in no way 'irrelevant.'
And Ronald Reagan was legally elected. Bush wasn't. A coup is not irrelevant.
Orangutan. @ 18:
If you can get the masses attention. Good luck on that. "Folks" like you and me are just considered weird, radical, crazy, lazy conspiracy nuts with too much time on our hands.
VietVet8666 @ 15:
And hope is the path, so we cannot let the RFK murderers hold us down in fear, Vet.
it wouldn't take you as long to get through War and Peace.
America read this and you may agree with me that Bush likely violated the United Nations Resolutions, besides violate the Iraq resolution, besides the Constitution.
Oh God have mercy on us. Please bring justice to America, I’m reading the original Iraq resolution specifically stated if military force is used it must be according to the Constitution. Ladies and Gentlemen of America straight away the Congress sets the guidelines for war. Not Bush, this is an International mess.
Preamble for the United Nations>>> Look familar
WE THE PEOPLES OF THE UNITED NATIONS DETERMINED
• to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, which twice in our lifetime has brought untold sorrow to mankind, and
• to reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small, and
• to establish conditions under which justice and respect for the obligations arising from treaties and other sources of international law can be maintained, and
• to promote social progress and better standards of life in larger freedom,
AND FOR THESE ENDS
• to practice tolerance and live together in peace with one another as good neighbors, and
• to unite our strength to maintain international peace and security, and
• to ensure, by the acceptance of principles and the institution of methods, that armed force shall not be used, save in the common interest, and
• to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples,
HAVE RESOLVED TO COMBINE OUR EFFORTS TO ACCOMPLISH THESE AIMS
Accordingly, our respective Governments, through representatives assembled in the city of San Francisco, who have exhibited their full powers found to be in good and due form, have agreed to the present Charter of the United Nations and do hereby establish an international organization to be known as the United Nations.
And Republicans cheered at cpac the ideal of one hundred years of war. I don't think that war will be with just Iraq after reading this we all might agree it will be world war.
L.A. Confidential @ 23:
I don't know where you live, but you do not describe a HUGE number of people in the masses, many of whom are now more informed than most politicians.
Gloom and doom will NEVER equal a strategy.
Paul in LA @ 20:
Won't happen.
Paul in LA
I'd make you A.G.
Bush's bad ideas? A book that has a look at something like that could be distilled into a single question and a one word answer....
The question... What's so wrong about Bush's ideas, any and all of em....????
And the one word answer....
EVERYTHING!!!!! JD
Well, that's the way it goes when the Project for a New American Century Committee takes over the White House, and their advisors are dilettantes like the American Enterprise Institute. How could anyone expect anything else?
Paul in LA @ 26:
I'm going to go out on a limb here and say the same place you live though I don't know I could possibly deduce that.
"The administration thought of freedom as a gift from God, without understanding the practical requirements of developing democracies."
When Republicans talk about freedom, they are talking about the freedom of big business to exploit workers. That is why they call it human resources. Workers rights, minimum wages, unions, worker safety standards, regulations, these are all restrictions to the freedom that Republicans see as God given rights.
Maybe they'll come out with a flyer chock filled with all of Bush's good ideas. I'm sure there will be plenty of extra space...
Ruthless People @ 31:
Hell even Jeff Skunk Baxter is advising the Pentagon and Homeland Security now on a regular basis.
So much for Peace Love Dove.
In 20 years the 60's will be a totally forgotten decade. Just a footnote in the new history books.
L.A. Confidential @ 27:
Yes, because YOUR job is as Chief Defeatist of the "Won't Happen" party.
L.A. Confidential @ 34:
http://tinyurl.com/3asrda
VietVet8666 @ 28:
I'm not a lawyer.
L.A. Confidential @ 23:
That's true.
Paul in LA @ 35:
Look sucker in order to be effective you have to have a plan. Idealism, fantasy, and wishing isn't going to make it so. Now get off my case.
"Misconceptions." Ha, that's a good one! The best of intentions for humanity gone awry. That sums up these gangsters perfectly. Quintessential NPR and "establishment Left." It's amazing anyone can still believe such crap.
Orangutan. @ 38:
It's going to take time. The right wingers are to far ahead with think tanks and strategy groups funded by big money.
How come the Left hasn't done this?
Listen to the Music
http://www.fredericksburg.com/News/FLS/2003/092003/09082003/1094228
L.A. Confidential @ 13:
Snowball @ 19:
This is a good thread.
Snowball @ # 18
Exactly.
Foo @ 2:
This is "Volume 1: A through C."
Paul in LA @ 20:
dream on , theier way ahead of you!
Ruthless People @ 31:
I was suggesting that I live in Los Angeles, and people here are NOT as dimwitted as suggested.
Bangkok Bob @ 7:
Funny how President Carter said nu-cu-lur too but he managed to not sound like a big dumb*ss, isn't it? I'm serious.
L.A. Confidential @ 41:
You answer your own point.
War, and multinational corporate piracy, is unbelievably profitable.
forge @ 47:
Carter had a BA in nuclear physics, and was one of the first officers to serve in the nuclear submarine Navy.
His local speech pattern was not the result of ignorance, as with Boy Wonder.
tyree @ 47:
I believe that 'dreaming on' AND FIGHTING FOR CHANGE is the basis of being American.
Paul in LA @ 52:
Paul in LA @ 50:
We're in a bad jam dude. I'm with you on that. For those who understand the benefits of a Peace, the current situation is very nasty. I dread the bad Karma and ill will the cons have dragged Americans into.
tyree @ 53:
you cant fight with words , it takes force , brute force !
Senator Dodd is on fire in the Senate right now. Watch it!
Snowball @ 20:
And the Ghost of Ike Eisenhower stands up and says "Dammit, I told you all this years ago."
Paul in LA @ 51:
That'd do it. I knew about his nuclear experience. I still (heart) Mr. Carter to death.
tyree @ 55:
Martin Luther King Jr. disagreed. And he succeeded in changing our world (along with a President who needed the CYA in history).
The age of violent revolution has ended.
Paul in LA @ 59:
oh yeah ,look how far weve come all the way to a dictatorship!
Paul in LA @ 23:
I think he honestly believes he won fair and square. I think that man honestly believes everything he says he does, including that it's still a good idea to try to "democratize" Iraq... and Iran.
I heard this one last week. It's a good interview, and Kaplan's much sharper than his fellow Slate author Jacob Weisberg, who has some insights, but was pro-war and is still an apologist.
tyree @ 60:
It has ended not because dictatorship has ended, but because technology has advanced the defending power far further than we can break down.
Microwave weapons and sound weapons and TASERs and drones armed with advanced crowd-control gases, and so on. Flintlocks won't get it done.
forge @ 61:
You have to be freaking kidding.
Bush is COMPLETELY AWARE of what a traitor he is.
Paul in LA @ 63:
seems like i heard that copout with the red coats have a larger army , and a navy wich we dont have , luckily citizen soldiers were dunb enough to overlook such worries huh?
Paul in LA @ 64:
I agree. It just pisses him off knowing that you know it.
Paul in LA @ 64:
"You had me at hello."
Sitting quietly in the Paul cheering section 'til now...
Fred!!!! Get a Life!!!
tyree @ 55:
On the other hand, it might be coming time to fire up the guillotine... (not a snark, Tyree)
Proud2bHumble @ 69:
proud its been my dream!
after the flood and all the animals debarked, noah swept all the crap
out of the ark and that's how the gop and bush/cheney were created.
tyree @ 70:
i would make an excellent rope let goer!
tyree @ 65:
Right, tyree, but PIL said: "Microwave weapons and sound weapons and TASERs and drones armed with advanced crowd-control gases, and so on. Flintlocks won't get it done."
You didn't bother to read it, so there it is again.
Paul in LA @ 73:
you didnt bother to read mine ether , a determined army has to improvose adapt overcome , steal the enemys weapons a piece at a time, look at the iraqys , the afganistanys think they care were useing tanks planes gases , if they wanted subjugation theyd stop fighting , but they got guts , and guts is enough!
tyree @ 74:
Maybe it's best to have both ways going at once. Can't imagine Sinn Fein getting anything done without the IRA. "Walk softly and carry a big stick" and all. If things get much worse, the pitchfork parade may start organizing anyway... I'd rather see the wealthy infrastructure take the hits without bloodshed, though.
Proud2bHumble @ 75:
well as the saying goes its better to have a government thats afaid of its people then a people whos afraide of its government! and i believe that all the way down to my bones!
Paul in LA @ 59:
Martin Luther King Jr. disagreed with racial segregation and concept that all men were not equal and he succeeded in changing our world without violent revolution.
Then, Dr. King went up against the MIC and Vietnam. Once that happened, goodbye Dr. King.
See how far nonviolent revolution will take us when private companies are being trained to shoot to kill those who disagree with martial law.
"Eight years of smirking my ass off and no one could do shit about it. I was the best thing that ever happened to this country."
G. W. Bush in another year or two.
tyree @ 74:
No, it isn't. Not by a longshot.
Paul in LA @ 79:
it aint if you aint got any!!!!!!!!!
Tommy Gunn @ 77:
The FBI broadcast his location to every racist in the South. His death does not require a MIC hit, and it was highly likely he would be killed doing what he did.
Still, he DID NOT support violent action, which was the point of bringing him up. And he DID produce the results he sought, even by his death (which brought forward the Fair Housing Act).
tyree @ 80:
It has never been enough. It's a USMC bad joke, not a reality.
Proud2bHumble @ 69:
The guillotine produced Napoleon. Any idea how many people died as a result of that? MILLIONS.
Paul in LA @ 82:
tell that to the troopers in iraq and the russians from the afganistan defeats!
Proud2bHumble @ 69:
I'll sharpen the blade
Fundamentalist are scary, from any religion. This one, Bush, has a $650,000,000,000.00 military budget behind him.
(What me worry?)
And by the way...
what incident/accident/disaster can we expect in the summer so he can cancel the election so he can spend all of it.
tyree @ 76:
well as the saying goes its better to have a government thats afaid of its people then a people whos afraide of its government! and i believe that all the way down to my bones!
Great saying... I'm sure many of us feel violently angry toward the regressives and the wealthy death profiteers that have taken over our government. I do. At the same time, I agree with Paul's non-violent principles for moral and practical reasons, and he makes a brilliant case for that approach which I generally agree with. Perhaps there is a way to combine them. I've lately considered that an income redistribution program in the general mold of Robin Hood might be effective. Taking the guillotine remark as a metaphor for cutting the assholes off from their $$ in any way possible without causing physical injury or loss of life appeals to both sides of the argument for me. As for guts, Ghandi was one of the bravest, most effective examples of non-violent resistance we've seen. There are many ways to be gutsy, one of the gutsiest of which is to face guns without one... Still, it'd be great fun to beat the crap out of some fat rich leech.
"And that's all I have to say about that!" - F. Gump
Even though the Bush administration has done a horrible job at implementing the vision, what's wrong with believing there is a Higher Power which desires for people to live in freedom? Our founding fathers believed that people "are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness." If that's not the embodiment of freedom, it's hard to imagine what is.
enor @ 86:
It's not only the religious fundamentalists which are dangerous. Watch out for the ideological ones, too.
peaceful easy feeling @ 89:
Especially the languid effortless emotive demagogues. They seem all nice and mellow, as they smother the ideas of others with boring platitudes. Especially insidious, those, as they objectify others with different viewpoints, substituting 'which' for 'who', hoping to go unnoticed...
Kaplan willfully ignores what the 'freedom' that Bush seeks to 'share' with the world. Bush has frequently said that 'Freedom is the gift of the Creator'. The problem is that the only 'freedom' Bush the Lesser believes the Creator has given mankind is the oxymoronic 'freedom to comply'. Indeed, it is the version of 'freedom' that Bush seeks to impose on the rest of the world. Kaplan ignores it because he knows it to be a contradiction of terms. There is no such thing as the 'freedom to comply'.
I can't believe that any American didn't see this coming the entire time.
Charles @ 92:
Who knows what that's supposed to mean?
It's really just a blame troll statement. After an earthquake comes to Los Angeles, you're on FOX talking about how much you hate earthquake victims. They should have known they lived in Los Angeles.
It has, however, been amazing to see how little the Republican public is willing to do to oppose the takeover of the country by rightwing forces. It's a party that deserves what it has got coming.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRr-sNlddRo
"the administration thought of freedom as a gift from God"
Then he should read his Bible. God is the anti-freedom!
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