h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

How come Bush Administration thought IraQ would be easy?
How come we like *global* talk until it affects something the US wants or does wrong ,like the enviornment, health.

How come we spend an amount in 1 yr on Iraq that could have paid for real securtiy for several years?

Ok Where's the food, electricity and phone,gas and police force. When it was decided to send all those troops to Iraq they should have stayed to take care of the aftermath properly with a plan in hand. It could have been practice for home security in such dire condition if nothing else alturistic. It looks like a kid going after a dream never considering all the consequences. Only looking at what they wanted.

Why did they not start the war for Humanitarian reasons. to begin with? Half of the people that were "behind the war" did so because it tipped in the balance of doubt. Why couldnt we ask for a pre-emptive strike for humanitarian reasons? Will that ever be allowed in the future?

Where is he and why is Osamas name rarely mentioned? Why is Iran mentioned more. Why does Bush think he can fix things that no one else could?
Remember Kadafi and Eddi Ahamen what happened to them ? Are they safe & comfy somewhere?

How come we cannot have election and campaign reform?

How come the sodomy laws that were just repealed in Texas (other paces too no doubt) were only ever enforced for homosexuals , not heterosexual as it was oringinally wriiten for.

How come they let Howard Dean talk for the Dems he is more harmful than helpful. "they" call him left of left Could be a Republican plant coached by hollywood


How come ultra Conservatives Buchanan and Newt are as disturbed about the course of events the US has started in the same way I am?. As disturbed as many independants and liberals.

How come the Dems think they can run only on Anti-Bush rhetoric?
Where is vision and leadership?

80 Million was spent on researching Clintons sex habits.
98 million new homeland security in the US a year.

Dick Gregory(comedian) says if Jesus came to the US, the same course of events would probably take place, only he'd be put to death in an electric chair. He says;Does that mean Christians would have little chairs hanging around their necks in that case!

How come the lottery monies are not used for the ederly and poor?
People will give it to the parks and animals before the poor people.

Why can't there be a National Service like during the depression to rebuild the infrastructure of America? America needs a road mapThe dams and bridges are in awful shape. Flood planning and beach planning for Hurricanes needs to be done. The enviornment needs to be cleaned up. All our our toxic and outdated weapons need to be accounted for and stored properly or destroyed for safety of all.

How come the Catholic church is only in trouble in the US or do we just not hear about other Countries? People are the same all over. The church is pretty much the same all over.

To the passing of Katheryn Hepburn
What an interesting and wonderful outspoken woman who was ahead of her time.

RIP Sen Thurmond.
3 times - more than one paper ,had misprinted notification of his death this time it was true. 100 years.

Even bigger than all this and foremost in my mind is the US supreme court. Bush wants to appoint someone so bad he can taste 'em! They have announced unofficially someone is SURELY retiring since before Bush was elected. I think it will happen before Bush gets out of office Bush wants abortion blocked,government secrecy increased and private citizens privacy decreased,no tougher election reform amoung others
*screams -cold sweats-nausea*

How come there has not been one movie portraying the US President lately? Remember all the different types of movies when Clinton was in office ?

Oprah for president!

Lots tp think about here...

Who is Howard Dean??? Sorry, I don't know.

When did Katherine Hepburn die?

I am not sure if Oprah would make a good president....sometimes her spiritual side gets spooky.

Andrea

Katherine Hepburn this weekend

see this news item
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/3030792.stm

Okay....couldn't wait just did a search to find out that Katherine Hepburn died today....VERY SAD.

She always impressed me as having a lot of courage.
And an unusual kind of beauty.

I think she would have made a better president than Oprah would.

Andrea

I know

Katherine Hepburn was wonderfull unesco goodwill ambassador.

Well, this one surprised me, not because Abbi couldn't do it, but because she actually got it all together for everyone to look at. I think it's important to get all your questions together for people to look at because maybe they got the same questions too or similar ones.

So I've pondered these questions too or at least some of them and maybe the attempts at answers can be as useful as the questions.

Bush thought Iraq would be easy because in the corporate world when you outsource something you think it'll go without much trouble. That's what you're paying for. So he outsourced his personal vendetta against Saddam to the US military. They did a fine job too, just according to the modern manual or whatever, but they didn't really anticipate there being a real war. Sort of a remote war, a shocked and awful war, but it ain't over. They forgot about Vietnam in their frantic efforts to erase it.

It'll be interesting to see if the oil revenues even come close the covering the costs, even if you're cynical as hell and don't give a shit that it was all pursued for selfish corporate aggrandisement. People should be shocked and awed. It's the most shocking awful thing that's happened in a long time. And they still haven't found the weapons of mass destruction or Saddam or Ozama or anything remotely related to 9/11.

And while Congress spent 80 million proving Clinton had sex with women, they haven't even begun to spend anything to find out why we trashed Iraq for reasons that seem to be lies. Why is that?

The US can't solve anybody's problem even their own. But they can make a few people richer, that they can do.

Fisk or Frisk or whatever that majority leader's name is says he believes marriage is a sacrament, and therefore that should like filter down into the civil law. That's why he supports a constitutional amendment being sort of secretly framed in Congress that would define marriage as between a man and a woman.

I got a better idea. Let's frame a constitutional amendment that limits government's power to define marriage or anything else of a personal or family nature. The Bill of Rights was never intended to extend the power of government but to limit it. The Republican majority leader seems to have forgotten that in his zeal to push the fundamentalist Christian agenda. He's really no different than Trent Lott. I just wonder what he tells people in his unguarded moments at the club. Probably something really crass like God will know his own.

I biked by a Baptist church yesterday. It had a bunch of signs inviting me to a good old fashioned family cookout where I could celebrate America. I passed on by sort of hoping they would burn their fingers cooking hotdogs. I don't need to celebrate America or be saved from sin. I need to saved from Baptists and America both. I need to celebrate life and the freedom to live it.

Jesus would be detained at Guantanemo Bay indefinitely. He was obviously a terrorist with middle eastern connections, although not Saudi connections that would have saved him maybe.

We don't hear about the Catholic Church in other countries because we hear very little about anything in other countries unless it can be shown to have a direct impact on the buying habits, perceptions of personal security or comfort levels or whatever of Americans.

The lottery's used for green stuff because that's how they got passed in the first place. Many people think gambling is evil and supporting the poor is more evil. Two evils to them don't make a good, so they sort of split it between the evil and the good which makes nothing at all by their accounting.

I wish I could remember Hepburn's line from the Lion in Winter about families. Maybe somebody else can remember it. Somehow I think it might be very relevant to what's going just now in the world.

And finally, Strom is dead, but his dixiecrat agenda isn't. It's actually spread all over the place appropriately disguised to avoid being political incorrect but it's no less pernicious. The agenda's hidden, but given what Bush has managed to drag by the American people so far, it won't be long before they can rest comfortably back in the fabulous fifties, fabulous because they were a confablation of the worst elements of the dominant culture's capacity for self-deception.

Don't worry, there'll be a movie sooner or later. It just takes awhile to make a hero out of pile of feces, even for hollywood. They can't make fun of him because he's sensitive about that so consequently they need to find some justification for his worldly canonization or sanctification. And the idiot just can't seem to pull off a miracle to save his soul.

Buh!!!

Thanks for pointing this out Analiese.
"The Bill of Rights was never intended to extend the power of government but to limit it."

I will post a bit about H. Dean, from last weeks "Meet the Press" if I can. I will find something for Andrea O. to read on this Democratic candidate. I'll also look for K Hepburn quotes. She would have been better than Oprah as President! Yes!

Oprah gets a lot right but nah she would not make it as PresidentI am all for spiritual endevours (my own)but not by the Government. Her religious views could get "spooky" on a massive scale, anyones would be. If a Theocracy is bad for IraQ, it is bad for us too.

Yeah, that's true, except Iraq ain't a theocracy. Iran is though. Need we say more?

Hepburn quote as Eleanor of Aquitaine:

"I never made poor Louis take me on crusade. How's that for blasphemy? I dressed my maids as Amazons and rode bare-breasted halfway to Damascus. Louis had a seizure and I damn near died of windburn, but the troops were dazzled."

But that's not the one I was thinking of. Still it's pretty good, don't you think?

"What family doesn't have its ups and downs?" asks Hepburn as Eleanor. That's the one I was thinking of.

So her family has problems deciding who to leave grandma's china to, the china being the realms of England, Aquitaine, Normandy, et al and they have problems with the neighbors which would be France, and there's sibling rivalry, and a sweet young thing for papa under the christmas tree ala Playboy holiday edition and on and on. And is Richard really gay? And does anyone know why nobody wanted to be King John after Lackland?

And you thought we had problems.

I need to watch that movie!
I believe I have missed it somehow.
Good quotes of Hepburns.

I was reading about her parents , they were pushing for birth control rights when she was a young girl! (she died at 96)She never changed her name to a stage one and never had an agent much to the dismay of the studios. She by-passed the studios when they did not think she was star material and bought the Phiadelphia Story so she could be in it. She never had to worry about being wanted by them after that.

I know Iraq is not a Theocracy because the US concentrated on that NOT happening.

From Analiese:
"The fabulous fifties, fabulous because they were a confablation of the worst elements of the dominant culture's capacity for self-deception."

Agreed!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39680-2003Jun27.html?nav=hptop_ts
Howard Dean Wash Post-an article & links to his words

http://www.deanforamerica.com/site/PageServer >>His site
Dean on the draft: "I went for the physical. They told me to come back when the country was really in trouble. Well, here I am."

He sounded good until he started talking more> He contradicts everything he says! Usually in the same sitting. "Meet the press" show has a transcript on there site also.

Skipping most of your first post abbi, and *all* of the backlog:

"How come there has not been one movie portraying the US President lately? Remember all the different types of movies when Clinton was in office ?"

Can British Researchers here let us know if there's anything close to Spitting Image in terms of political satire on British tv just now? Rory Bremner maybe?

Sorry, Abbi, the US had nothing to do with it. Saddam was viciously anticlerical to the chagrin of the local Iraqi fundamentalists. That's why the US alleged Al Quaida connection was bogus from the start. So now we know why nobody complained about Saddam's persecution of the theocrats don't we?

It'll be interesting to see what happens now. How the crusade will probably produce the very theocracy it allegedly intended to suppress.

So like remember the Taliban? They came to power in Afghanistan with US aid. The US also props up the Saudis who are about as theocratic as you can get.

There's probably a certain ideological affinity between the Islamic fundamentalists and the US homegrown Christian fundamentalists after all. They all act like they're mortal enemies but deep down I think they share a lot more than they'd like to admit.

Yes. Understood!

Gee ,Maybe I should read my post again

It was a topic the news concentrated on, due to general fears of it happening. I did state that badly! I knew it was not intended because of all the US press talk.

Down the road,I am not sure we will have a lot to say about it either way.

The irony is that a Democratic election process could produce one eventually.

Nah, Spitting Image isn't on in Britain any more. Believe it or not, it's now on french TV (and I think a few other countries'). Rory Bremner is about the best real satire on UK TV now. Their episodes when 'Gulf War 2' was in full swing were very astute and really asked some hard questions which no other program was asking.

'Have I Got News for You' used to be ok, but it's now more about just comedy rather than satire. I'm afraid I can't think of anything that's on at the moment which says anything special.

If you like satire and since you said you believe that 'nothin changes' you should read 'The Satyricon' written nine hundred years ago by Petronius. Nero's Rome sounds awfully like our capitalist cities do today.

I don't guess I got the point of that Satyricon thing. Some guy called Trimalchio throws one of those infamous lascivious parties for most of it. I guess it's not exactly intact so there's probably a lot that's been lost and not just between the lines. The Romans should have stuck to building aquaducts I think. As authors they don't exactly take the world by storm or at least that's how it looks to me.