What is the meaning of this Bushism?

[Jen]

Why can't we just call it what it really is?







edited to add linky

Pentagon keeps dead out of sight

 

[SGB]

I hadn't heard that one yet; I had to look it up.

If the Bush administration can't use clear and honest language about this, how is the American public to trust them on anything else?

 

[SlaveToTheGrind]

If the Bush administration can't use clear and honest language about this, how is the American public to trust them on anything else?

All government, esp. the feds use this type of language. It is not unique to one administration or another.

Why do they have to call a pen a "personal handheld writing implement." It's a damn pen.

 

[SGB]

All government, esp. the feds use this type of language. It is not unique to one administration or another.

Agreed. But that don't make it right!

!@#$% "weasle wording" is what it is.

 

[Jeff]

OK....well what is it?

 

[Jen]

It's not really funny at all. See link I added above.

 

[Rumpy Tunanator]

And to think I thought it was reusable condoms, wait, that gives me an idea.

 

[SkeLeton]

I got it right! it was body bags and I guessed it!
Gee, I can't believe the Bush administration was critizing the Iraqi minister of information about hiding the facts... when they're doing the same!

 

[gkmo62u]

Read the article. It was coined by the pentagon in 1991.

 

[Planderella]

Wow. That article drips in anti-Bush sentiment. Granted, it is from a Canadian newspaper.

 

[Planderella]

Read the article. It was coined by the pentagon in 1991.

I think maybe Skel was referring to the irreverent way in which deceased American soldiers are returned to this country. It shouldn't be a hush hush secret affair. Let the world see what Bush is willing to sacrifice in the name of democracy.

 

[Tom R]

war

The first casuality of war is truth.

 

[jordanb]

Read the article. It was coined by the pentagon in 1991.

Better read it more closely.

But today's military doesn't even use the words "body bags" — a term in common usage during the Vietnam War, when 58,000 Americans died.

During the 1991 Persian Gulf War, the Pentagon began calling them "human remains pouches" and it now refers to them as "transfer tubes."

 

[Habanero]

It doesn't surpise me. A Texas State GIS prof worked on maps for the Gulf war for Dippy Sr and said instead of having the symbol for troops look anything like real human figures Dippy had the maps changed to something that wouldn't remind him how many troops were there. He said that was too hard to deal with for the former Dippy.

 

[Big Easy King]

I'm sickened that American soldiers are dying everyday in Iraq.

 

[El Feo]

I'm sickened that American soldiers are dying everyday in Iraq.

Me too. But that doesn't mean I don't think it isn't the most pragmatic alternative right now to having civilians die at the hands of jihadis every day right here in America.

War = deaths of soldiers. It's the sad price we pay for preserving civilization in a nasty, brutal, world.

 

[gkmo62u]

Jb my point was that it is a Pentagon term, not a President's term as implied by this once again Bush bashing Cyburbia thread.

 

[gkmo62u]

Planderella, I suggest that we all defer to families who have lost soldiers and have taken part in any ceremony at an air base, before we refer to the event as "irreverent." I'll let ElGuopo take a shot, as my gut tells me the care and private ceremony afforded our heroes is anything but irreverent.

 

[Tom R]

w

Jb my point was that it is a Pentagon term, not a President's term as implied by this once again Bush bashing Cyburbia thread.

Being that W is the C & C of the US military, I guess it is a Bushism afterall.

What happened to the press in all this stuff going on? There's no more cozy "embedding" as before.

"Heraldo the Wimp" is nowhere to be found. Surely there is a rock over there that he can hide under.

 

[Planderella]

Planderella, I suggest that we all defer to families who have lost soldiers and have taken part in any ceremony at an air base, before we refer to the event as "irreverent." I'll let ElGuopo take a shot, as my gut tells me the care and private ceremony afforded our heroes is anything but irreverent.

Irreverent is not really what I meant. It was the first thing that came to mind. More like clandestine. My post was sort of tongue-in-cheek and in direct reference to that obviously-biased newspaper article.

What's wrong with bashing Bush or any elected official for that matter?

 

[Jeff]

I'm sickened that American soldiers are dying everyday in Iraq.

They wouldn't have to if everyone wasn't so PC about rounding up all illegal immigrants, shipping them back to wherever they came from, stopping all flights to and from the Mid East, encouraging a little more racial profiling when it comes to young middle eastern males, etc etc.

The US won't let the US fight the war at home, so its gotta be done abroad.

 

[Michele Zone]

They wouldn't have to if everyone wasn't so PC about rounding up all illegal immigrants, shipping them back to wherever they came from, stopping all flights to and from the Mid East, encouraging a little more racial profiling when it comes to young middle eastern males, etc etc.

The US won't let the US fight the war at home, so its gotta be done abroad.

Well, but that would be Uncivilized. We can't do anything that smacks of racism, etc, -- no matter how Practical it would be. We are not the land of the Free: We are the land of the Pretending Our Ideals Are So Much Higher Than Everyone Else's. Thus, to extrapolate on the comment about "it is better that many guilty go free than that one innocent go to jail": clearly, it is better that a few thousand true patriots die on foreign soil than that a few thousand illegal immigrants have their civil rights violated.

Oh, wait -- I have a question: legally, do illegal immigrants have 'civil rights'? Or are we so nice merely as a sign of how Decent we are? ( The rest was sarcastic BS, but this is a serious question: Does anyone know the answer?)

 

[donk]

Oh, wait -- I have a question: legally, do illegal immigrants have 'civil rights'? Or are we so nice merely as a sign of how Decent we are? ( The rest was sarcastic BS, but this is a serious question: Does anyone know the answer?)

First, I too share this question, why do we treat people with no legal standing in our country as a person who has a right to be here?

If it is anything like it is here, and from my watching the american media it appears to be here is my answer.

I think the answer comes from the recognition that they are people just not "people" and that as "people" we have an obligation to treat others with a degree of repsect. As an example, just because the guest is boor does not mean that you don't treat them somewhat politely, even as your throw their sorry a$$es out the door.

There are some ethnic words that describe this concept so clearly, but I can't think of them right now. I'll check my books at home and probably edit tomorrow.

 

[Michele Zone]

Well, Donk, I make every effort to treat everyone with respect and decency, even when I feel they are really being jerks towards me. But I am not The Government, The Police, etc. It is not part of my job to enforce these rules. In situations where it is My Job -- like as a parent -- I make it very clear that "Civilization exists by AGREEMENT ONLY -- and don't think I am going to continue to be The Nice Mommy in the face of continued abuse. If you like living with The Nice Mommy, I had better have Nice Sons. It is not your god-given right to get treated well by me whilst you walk all over me."

The topic of this thread is an issue that I personally think is an example of people in general wanting the world to be a nicer place than it really is and willing to look the other way and tolerate a greater evil in order to uphold their fantasy that things can be Clean or Perfect or something. Would racial profiling really be a bigger evil than invading some foreign country and having folks on both sides die? Really -- I think we have far more right to use racial profiling within our borders in order to create Homeland Security than we have to go invade someone else's country and act like we think we are policemen to the world. Racial profiling means checking up on folks that fit a certain profile -- that is all. It isn't remotely the same thing as "Jim Crow" laws, 'Separate but equal policies" or other forms of race-based discrimination. And is it really all that different from targetting scantily dressed babes who hang out on street corners as 'most likely being prostitutes'?

So: It IS okay to 'profile' potential Floozies but it is NOT okay to profile potential terrorists? WHY?!!!!

 

[el Guapo]

I think Americans should see the true cost of this war. But how to allow respectful access and yet how to keep the Assholes like Katie Couric from asking a freshly minted war-widow: "Mrs. Jablowme, your husband, PFC Jablowme was recently disembowled by a Iraqi landmine and he died a slow and grusome death while wimpering for his dead mother. As his wife, now his widow, how does the Bush policy of waring against inocent people while the rest of the world protests this illegal war make you feel? Was his death an empty gesture forced upon your family by our cowboy president?"

 

[gkmo62u]

Thank you Guap.

I am up on line here awaiting local election results dictating whether my private sector existance for the next 4 years will be no gowth, some growth, or, pro growth.

Its all fun for me, just easy or difficult for clients.

 

[The Irish One]

What Mike D. and Michelle said.

 

[Michele Zone]

"Mrs. Jablowme,

So, I am assuming this name is German in Origin, which makes the J pronounced like an English Y?

 

[El Feo]

What Mike D. and Michelle said.

Ditto to that. I think the real answer to why illegal imigrants are treated as they are lies in the unholy alliance between the "lower-the-cost-of-doing-business-at-any-price" right and the "race-and-ethnicity " pandering left. Whenever those two groups agree about anything, put your hand over your wallet and watch as the value of your citizenship declines.

I think we should be seriously advertising the way to legally immigrate, and let those that have done so know how much we appreciate their respect for law and how much they are treasured as fellow-citizens.

Michelle Z asks a question I'd like to understand more about - I think that vistors to our country enjoy the same rights and prvileges as we do by virtue of our constitution and law, but "visitor" is different from "immigrant" and "legal" is sure as hell different than "illegal." So when are those rights and privileges forfeit for non-citizens?

Sorry - what was this tread about again?

 

[Michele Zone]

Sorry - what was this tread about again?

I think it was about "re-usable condoms" -- you know, something the Bush administration uses For Protection...no, wait, it must have been about "condoms being buried in a landfill, euphemistically known as a 'graveyard' "...oh, hell, I don't know -- you figure it out: the Bushism in question was "transfer tube".