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Touche!

I think that little paragraph sums it all up very nicely. It should be posted in big letters all over the billboards in DC along Powell's driving route.

Does anyone have any idea how to get through the stone wall of "president@whitehouse.org"? Or is the "wall" the idea, to discourage any kind of input?

You are right!!! It really belongs in the "Broken News" category! ;)

I do not think that the Israeli-Pali conflict is the 2nd Holocaust. But I DO think that the anti semitic shift in Europe is close to it!

I think the author is suffering from diarhea of the pen... and is much too impressed with himself.

I don't know... this strikes me as a thinly veiled attempt at dividing...

A famous passage is:

They came for the Jews, I did not stad up to them because I was not a Jew
Then they came for the Communists, I did not stand up to them because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Christians, but I am not a Christian...

Then they came for me... but there was noone left to stand up

If you notice, THEY always come for the Jews first!

You're an idiot!!!

I hope and pray that you did not stress your grey matter beyond it's capabilities with your insight, thought and eloquence. It would be a tragedy to lose either of the working neurons. Pray, do not endanger yourself anymore, we could not bear the loss.

I think there is a classic explanation... Have you ever seen the brilliant Peter Sellers film "Being There".

For all who have seen the film, no explanation is necessary.

For those who have not... well...

Here is a portion of the review of the movie.

Peter Sellers plays a mentally retarded gardener who has lived and worked all of his life inside the walls of an elegant Washington town house. The house and its garden are in a decaying inner-city neighborhood, but what goes on outside is of no concern to Sellers: He tends his garden, he watches television, he is fed on schedule by the domestic staff, he is content.

Then one day the master of the house dies. The household is disbanded. Sellers, impeccably dressed in his employer's privately tailored wardrobe, wanders out into the city. He takes along the one possession he'll probably need: His remote-control TV channel switcher. He uses it almost immediately; surrounded by hostile street kids, he imperturbably tries to switch channels to make them go away. He hasn't figured out that, outside his garden, life isn't television.

And that is the movie's basic premise, lifted intact from a Jerzy Kosinski novel. The Sellers character knows almost nothing about real life, but he has watched countless hours of television and he can be pleasant, smile, shake hands, and comport himself; he learned from watching all those guests on talk shows. He knows nothing about anything, indeed, except gardening. But when he stumbles into Washington's political and social upper crust, his simple truisms from the garden ("Spring is a time for planting") are taken as audaciously simple metaphors. This guy's a Thoreau! In no time at all, he's the closest confidant of a dying billionaire industrialist (Melvyn Douglas) - and the industrialist is the closest confidant of the president.

This is, you can see, a one-joke premise. It has to be if the Sellers performance is to work. The whole movie has to be tailored to the narrow range within which Sellers' gardener can think, behave, speak, and make choices. The ways in which this movie could have gone out of control, could have been relentlessly boring on the one hand, or manic with its own audacity on the other, are endless. But the tone holds. That's one of the most exhilarating aspects of the joy you can sense, as Ashby pulls this off: Every scene needs the confidence to play the idea completely straight.

There are wonderful comic moments, but they're never pushed so far that they strain the story's premise. Some of them involve: a battle between the CIA and the FBI as to which agency destroyed the gardener's files; Shirley MacLaine unsuccessfully attempts to introduce Sellers to the concept of romance; Sellers as a talk-show guest himself (at last!), and Sellers as the hit of a Washington cocktail party. The movie also has an audacious closing shot that moves the film's whole metaphor into a brand-new philosophical arena.

What is Being There about? I've read reviews calling it an indictment of television. But that doesn't fit; Sellers wasn't warped by television, he was retarded to begin with, and has TV to thank for what abilities he has to move in society. Is it an indictment of society, for being so dumb as to accept the Sellers character as a great philosophical sage? Maybe, but that's not so fascinating either. I'm not really inclined to plumb this movie for its message, although I'm sure that'll be a favorite audience sport. I just admire it for having the guts to take this weird conceit and push it to its ultimate comic conclusion.

My take is that Bush is a little bit of Chauncey Gardner.. with his simple ideas swayed and twisted by the State Dept. Also, the State Dept is a bit of Chauncey as well, having not figured out yet that life is NOT "make love not war" that they were brought up on in the 60's.

And so... the nation is busily engaged in trying to assign great depth to the simplemindedness of the WH with regards to the Middle East. Oh well, folly is never in short supply.

Growing number?? GROWING???

Hmm.. really now! I haven't heard of a new one since 6 months ago! Somebody better get a handle on reality... or stop spreading this incredible swill.

I hear they become very SOLID when packed in graves!

How about "Proximity challenged homicide bomber"?

Freeped, sealed, delivered.

ROFL! NICE ONE!

Wow... you had the stamina and stomach to read the whole article!!! I am smitten!

woa!!! she is HOT!!! Hmm.. I want reparations because I am white, and am not considered as a mate for black women!

Umm... I will get back to you with other demands when they occur to me!

Fidel will make common cause with any and every anti-American out there – and he's already doing it.

How else can we explain Fidel kissing with the utterly repulsive and foul Carter???

If I were Powell, I would watch my back now. Think about it... what kind of honor is it to be complimented on your thoughtfulness by the Arab Press???

How would SoC be seen if he was all of a sudden praised and extolled by the Japanese press during WWII???

Well, with no hopes or prospects for mating here on earth, he was anxious to get to his 72 virgins.

I hope for his sake the trip is worth it, and the virgins don't "fart in his general direction".

YES YES YES!!!! FINALLY!!!

I have been waiting and hoping for this to happen...

The ugly reality of the world is that it revolves around the dollar, or what can be converted into dollars!!!

Now, all we need to do is convince the rest of the Israeli victims (as well as the US victims of the USMC Lebanon era) to not only sue the EU, but also the UN!!!

The UN has been funding and coddling these monsters for decades!!! The time is here!!!

Unleash the US WMD! The Personal Injury Lawyer!!!

Let's spread this message far and wide, see if it takes.

Sorry... you are not consistent. Bush is not Jewish... so bashing him does Justin no good. It is only interesting if the Israeli's are the ones that can be blamed!

THAT WAS A GOOD ONE!!!

What is sad is that we can substitute "Powell" for "Carter", and the story would be unchanged!

I am just waiting for a cartoon (hint hint) showing Powell with his nose stuck in a book authored by Carter, while Sharon is desperately trying to show him evidence that Arafat is a lying, murdering terrorist with blood dripping off his hands...

The caption would read "We have SEEN no evidence that directly links President Arafat to the terror".

Ah... if only I could draw!

Well, Da*nit, I have had enough!!!

Having lived in Breshnev's Moscow, I want to check out this problem NYC is having now. Going to go there in person and will report to you! (Just remind me in a week or two!)