300: Homophobic Propaganda for Bush’s Upcoming Invasion of Iran?
The movie 300, based on the Frank Miller graphic novel, has earned $70 million at the box office, breaking some records. But if you read some of the commentary out there you might not be too interested in seeing it.
All the villains are gay. All the good guys are white and the bad guys are black. The whole thing is just Frank Miller’s thinly-veiled cheering for Bush to invade Iran. Etc.
Now, 300 is definitely not a historical documentary. But I don’t think the criticisms mentioned above are completely true-although I can certainly see why many people may have jumped to them.
The President Takes Responsibility - Or Not
A lot of people thought invading Iraq was a bad idea. A lot of people thought the invasion and occupation plans were unrealistic and wrong-headed. With the results of the war so far, you might think those people were right.
When President Bush addressed the nation this evening, no one thought he would outright admit to the gigantic series of mistakes this war has been. No one who has watched this administration seriously expects the President to take responsibility for a problem, take the blame, or apologize.
But he did! At least, according to some news reports. Bush Takes Blame in Iraq, Adds Troops, says the San Francisco Chronicle. Bush’s new strategy includes rare public contrition, says the Seattle Times.
George Bush is in Listening Mode
Many, many Americans have been wondering - how can we win the War in Iraq? Up until recently, the President was not one of them. He knew exactly what needed to be done. But times have changed. The President is officially in listening mode.
How to Win the War in Iraq
What do you do When you find out you are wrong?
Not just wrong about one thing, or a little bit wrong. What do you do when you find out you are very wrong, and consistently wrong, and there are really big consequences?
President Bush, after three years, seems to finally realize he has been wrong. Well, not really. But he has finally acknowledged the big consequences part. Part of the problem has been that he has only gotten advice from those willing to tell him what he wants to hear. So the formation of the Iraq Study Group was a good thing, right? Finally, some independent experts would weight in, and tell the President some things he wouldn’t like to hear.
Except they weren’t really experts. And their advice has little to do with Iraq. And Bush isn’t really listening anyway.
So how do we win the war in Iraq? Maybe, just maybe, it wouldn’t hurt to ask the real experts - the military people actually in Iraq. In fact, one of our troops has given us a PowerPoint presentation. That’s right, it’s even in the preferred format of upper management everywhere. Seriously, go there right now and watch the presentation, it’s only 18 slides.
Bush thinks you are stupid - 9-11 and the Iraq War
Monday marks 5 years since the 9/11 attacks.
This not a particularly political site. I’ll let others hash out the differences between liberals and conservatives. But I will say that the current administration apparently thinks I, and the rest of America, are idiots. President Bush thinks we are stupid, and afraid, and they think they can sway us with ridiculous, illogical arguments.
At a press briefing on September 8th, Press Secretary Tony Snow said the following:
“But, more importantly — if we have people who want to re-litigate that, that’s fine, but the President’s stated concern this week, as you’ve seen, is to think, okay, we’ll let people quibble over three years ago; the important thing to do is to figure out what you’re doing tomorrow, and the day after, and the month after, and the year after to make sure that this war on terror is won.”