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THE ABSURD TIMES
THE ABSURD TIMES
Keith illustrates exactly how the administration reacted to Scott's book. We talkd about their reaction in the last issue. Other work can be found at www.whatnowtoons.com;
For this edition, I am enclosing a response for one of the readers and a good friend. It not only provides a very good summary of the book, but also talks about some matters of theological doctrine that I found very interesting.
Intelligent Life On This Planet???
Friday, May 30, 2008 1:21 AM
Scott McClellan. As you've probably heard, Bush's former Press Secretary, Scott McClellan has written a book (an expose') entitled "What Happened Inside the Bush White House and Washington's Culture of Deception" (published by Public Affairs). Among other things, he charges that the Bush administration manipulated intelligence to justify the war in Iraq, and, took a "permanent campaign approach" to governing at the expense of candor and competence. Also:
• McClellan charges that Bush relied on "propaganda" to sell the war.
• He says the White House press corps was too easy on the administration during the run-up to the war.
• He admits that some of his own assertions from the briefing room podium turned out to be "badly misguided."
• The longtime Bush loyalist also suggests that two top aides held a secret West Wing meeting to get their story straight about the CIA leak case at a time when federal prosecutors were after them - and McClellan was continuing to defend them despite mounting evidence they had not given him all the facts.
• McClellan asserts that the aides - Karl Rove, the president's senior adviser, and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, the vice president's chief of staff - "had at best misled" him about their role in the disclosure of former CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity.
On "Countdown", with Keith Olbermann, this evening, McClellan said that Bush saw 9-11 as an "opportunity to implement the idealistic vision he had of spreading democracy throughout the Middle East". He said that "several people in the administration, including the Vice President, Secretary Rumsfeld, the President himself, and some others, took the broad view that they were going to do some things that they wanted to do probably even before 9-11". He also stated that "intelligence was packaged together in a way to make it sound more ominous, more grave and more urgent than it really was".
Most of all, this just confirms what has been previously widely suspected. He, McClellan, now joins Colin Powell, both close Administration "insiders", who have come forth, much after the fact, to expose the despicable behavior of this snake of a President and his Administration accomplices. In doing so, they perhaps merit some degree of redemption, however, they, themselves, still remain complicit.
In my opinion, George Bush bears personal responsibility for the deaths of the now 4,085 U.S. troops and the tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis who have died, as if he had pulled the triggers and detonated the explosives himself. His minions in his Administration and the members of the do-nothing House of Representatives (who could have withheld additional funding for the war, at any time, thereby complying with the overwhelming mandate handed them by voters) share that personal responsibility. And, even though they have now come forth, Colin Powell and Scott McClellan both share that personal responsibility, as well. How many of those 4,085 troops, and thousands of Iraqis would still be with us now, had they and/or the House of Representatives, taken a stand and spoken up at the time, instead of waiting so long. We will never know.
Now, !!!
Don't know if you've heard, but, on May 13th, a Vatican official, Fr. Jose Gabriel Funes, S.J., Director of the Vatican Observatory, at Castel Gondolfo, Italy (the Pope's summer residence) and, also, their program at the Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, pronounced it o.k. for Catholics to believe in intelligent extraterrestrial life. He did so in L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's official publication, in an article entitled "The Extraterrestrial Is My Brother".
What???
I've long believed that it's arrogant to think that there is no other intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. However, how can this pronouncement really be reconciled with Christianity? Galileo must be spinning in his grave! Where was this level of understanding when he was being persecuted for his much more provable beliefs? Perhaps this pronouncement is an effort to avoid the Vatican's having to say "Oops!" hundreds of years later and having to un-excommunicate anyone. The pronouncement does raise many theological questions (or perhaps dilemmas is a more appropriate description). Are our green little friends born with original sin? Do they have to be baptized in order to be saved (what if there is no holy water on their planet, or any water at all?)? What about man being created in God's image (where does this leave our extraterrestrial brothers)? What about the Bible? There are so many irreconcilable issues. I could go on and on. Just when I didn't need any more, another reason for the way I feel about organized religion presents itself. It just gets sillier and sillier! Still, perhaps, it should be of some comfort to have this recognition of the potential for intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, since it does seem to be so endangered on this our planet.
Note: I had a long commentary about doctrine that I seem to have lost, so tha's it for today.
On "Countdown", with Keith Olbermann, this evening, McClellan said that Bush saw 9-11 as an "opportunity to implement the idealistic vision he had of spreading democracy throughout the Middle East". He said that "several people in the administration, including the Vice President, Secretary Rumsfeld, the President himself, and some others, took the broad view that they were going to do some things that they wanted to do probably even before 9-11". He also stated that "intelligence was packaged together in a way to make it sound more ominous, more grave and more urgent than it really was".
Most of all, this just confirms what has been previously widely suspected. He, McClellan, now joins Colin Powell, both close Administration "insiders", who have come forth, much after the fact, to expose the despicable behavior of this snake of a President and his Administration accomplices. In doing so, they perhaps merit some degree of redemption, however, they, themselves, still remain complicit.
In my opinion, George Bush bears personal responsibility for the deaths of the now 4,085 U.S. troops and the tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis who have died, as if he had pulled the triggers and detonated the explosives himself. His minions in his Administration and the members of the do-nothing House of Representatives (who could have withheld additional funding for the war, at any time, thereby complying with the overwhelming mandate handed them by voters) share that personal responsibility. And, even though they have now come forth, Colin Powell and Scott McClellan both share that personal responsibility, as well. How many of those 4,085 troops, and thousands of Iraqis would still be with us now, had they and/or the House of Representatives, taken a stand and spoken up at the time, instead of waiting so long. We will never know.
Now, !!!
Don't know if you've heard, but, on May 13th, a Vatican official, Fr. Jose Gabriel Funes, S.J., Director of the Vatican Observatory, at Castel Gondolfo, Italy (the Pope's summer residence) and, also, their program at the Steward Observatory, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, pronounced it o.k. for Catholics to believe in intelligent extraterrestrial life. He did so in L'Osservatore Romano, the Vatican's official publication, in an article entitled "The Extraterrestrial Is My Brother".
What???
I've long believed that it's arrogant to think that there is no other intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. However, how can this pronouncement really be reconciled with Christianity? Galileo must be spinning in his grave! Where was this level of understanding when he was being persecuted for his much more provable beliefs? Perhaps this pronouncement is an effort to avoid the Vatican's having to say "Oops!" hundreds of years later and having to un-excommunicate anyone. The pronouncement does raise many theological questions (or perhaps dilemmas is a more appropriate description). Are our green little friends born with original sin? Do they have to be baptized in order to be saved (what if there is no holy water on their planet, or any water at all?)? What about man being created in God's image (where does this leave our extraterrestrial brothers)? What about the Bible? There are so many irreconcilable issues. I could go on and on. Just when I didn't need any more, another reason for the way I feel about organized religion presents itself. It just gets sillier and sillier! Still, perhaps, it should be of some comfort to have this recognition of the potential for intelligent life elsewhere in the universe, since it does seem to be so endangered on this our planet.
Note: I had a long commentary about doctrine that I seem to have lost, so tha's it for today.
