Xah Lee's Unixism

[Chuck Dillon]

<Sorry for this off-topic post but I couldn't resist.>

CBFalconer wrote:

> 
> There is no need, nor cause, to impute Bush & Co. with
> intrinsically evil intentions.  It is quite enough to point to
> their lack of capability, and bull headed 'revenge for daddy'

You should consider investing some time in learning some civics. The 
president has no power to wage war without a *mandate* from congress. 
It's assinine to suggest that the administration could have tricked or 
lied it's way into a war in Iraq.  People like Sen. Byden (D) who are 
now considered experts with more than enough experience in overseeing 
our intelligence organization take the lead on criticizing the 
administration.  But Sen. Byden and the rest were briefed before they 
voted and they had the experience to make their own judgements.  They 
chose to effectively declare war on Iraq.

There's no question the legislative branch declared war and the 
administrative is prosecuting it.  The only question is how the 
politics plays out.

> propensities.  The state of the economy, unemployment, poverty
> rate, medical care, deficit,

Yes there are economic cycles and we've been in a bit of a trough for 
the past few years.  There's nothing the government, nor any 
administration, can do to significantly effect economic cycles.  If it 
can then the Clinton administration must have intentionally induced a 
downturn for political purposes.

> death rate in Iraq (both of Americans
> and Iraqis),

But noticebly not in Chicago, L.A or anywhere else in "the great evil".

> abandonment of the Bin Laden hunt,

Capturing of OBL would be counterproductive.  The problem won't go away 
if he's caught but many people will assume it did.

> abridgement of
> civil liberties (as in the Patriot Act and the Gitmo gulag),

Back to civics 101, laws are created by the legislature.  They also 
have the power to revoke them if a problem is demonstrated.  How many 
U.S. citizens have been victimized?  How many dead U.S. citizens does 
it take to justify that victimization?  Both numbers are quire small.

> poor
> choice of companions (Halliburton and other political donors and

That's just stupid.  I'm sure the families of those Halliburton 
employees who have died in Iraq and Afganistan would take issue with 
you on this.  Are you also leary of Clinton because his administration 
contracted the same Halliburton subsidiaries in the Balkan conflict?

> trough feeders, and the 'plausible deniability' of the Swiftboat
> gang), 

It would be astounding if there was no Veteran backlash in response to 
Kerry's activities and statements after he came back from Vietnam. You 
bring up Halliburton as if it were somehow on topic and then in the 
next phrase suggest that legitimate angst against Kerry's anti-war 
activies (with Kerry building his campaign on his Vietnam service) is 
somehow invalid. Strange thought process.


> irritation of allies,

It seems to me that from a geo-political perspective it would be a bad 
thing if 100% of non-Muslim/non-Arab/non-Middleeastern states followed 
the lead of the U.S. in a seemingly rash response to 9/11.  It seems 
like it would be much better if there was an overwhelming (as there 
was) response balanced by some strong dissention so that it didn't look 
like a world war.

> inability to deal with North Korea
> (due to involvement with useless adventures),

Patience grasshopper.  Just because CNN isn't "breaking news" on a 
daily basis doesn't mean nothing's being done.  North Korea is 
extremely fragile economically.  They're not in the position to demand 
they're just trying to barter.

> abandonment of
> efforts towards a Palestinian peace, all spring to immediate mind.

You might not have noticed but on 9/11 the stakes were raised by about 
an order of magnitude.  They went up significantly again this weekend 
in Beslan.  As long as there are terrorist activities in "Palestine" 
don't expect to see anyone giving ground.

> 
> Yes, we have had no experience with a Kerry administration, but we
> have had far too much experience with a Bush administration.
> 

We know...
	- Kerry voted to effectively declare war on Iraq and still stands by 
that vote, most of the time.  He only quibbles about the details.
	- Kerry has no more power to affect the economy than W.
	- Kerry's administration would continue to contract with Haliburton 
subsidiaries.  There's no reason not to, there's no other company who 
can do the jobs they contract to do.

-- ced


-- 
Chuck Dillon
Senior Software Engineer
NimbleGen Systems Inc.