AUGUST IN PICTURES ONLY
I'm sure you've all heard that Chile's Augusto Pinochet has shuffled off to the great hereafter, joining the 3,000+ people he sent there against their will, and before their time, some 30 or so years ago.The portrait at left tells you just about all you need to know about the guy. And if it doesn't, read up on the coup that put him in power. Or about the Dirty War he conducted against his own people.
Or, just look the picture below to the right. Maybe that's the one that tells you all you need to know about the guy.
Anyway, I'm trying to become more dignified and respectful when I hear
that a famous person of whom I'm not a fan has moved along. So I'll save the barbs. Let's just say, though, I won't be joining his grieving family members at the funeral, nor should they expect flowers, nor donations in lieu thereof.
posted by Mike at 7:42 AM
24 Comments:
Another asshole who didn't die soon enough. There's alot of them still out there unfortunately.
I guess it's true. Only the good die young.
Only the good die young.
About 3,000 of them did thanks to this bastard.
And you guys see the pile of shit Mark Steyn wrote, praising Pinochet? Ugh. What crap.
Totally off the subject, but without starting my own blog, which I am far too lazy to do, I don’t know where else to air this thought.
Iraqi president Talabani has most recently joined the chorus deriding the Iraq Study Group’s recommendations. Interestingly, Dead Eye Dick Cheney was in the neighborhood last week. My guess is Talabani gets his orders just like Limbaugh, the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal. Dubya’s handlers want to maintain the status quo in foreign affairs, but for the life of me, I cannot imagine why.
Non-rhetorical question: Where is the fucking profit in this? Halliburton is not the correct answer.
Seems as if he says what Cheney tells him.
I'm not so sure that Halliburton's not making some serious coin on the Iraqi misadventures, though. I mean, there are millions of dollars worth of contracts to feed & house the soldiers and ops in Iraq.
Plus, with all the destruction, there must be a LOT of rebuilding planned. I believe that one of Halliburton's subsidiaries (Kellogg?) is involved in this.
And on a bigger level, it's not just Halliburton, but the entire military/defense/defense contractor industry that keeps winning huge contracts. Whether directly tied, as with Halliburton, or only indirectly through lobbying & deal-making, Bush & Cheney and their friends at Raytheon, Boeing, General Dynamics, etc are having a very good decade so far.
I hear you can't go left in his Cadillac.
I hear you can't go left in his Cadillac.
Exactly!
You know, I've had "Joe Stalin's Cadillac" in my head all morning since I read about this. I actually meant to ask you at your place if you've been singing "General Pinochet's cadillac . . ." as well. But, I got sidetracked with my Bush rant, and lost me' way.
I guess this answers my question though.
(Although, for the last hour or so, I keep getting stuck at "Gonna drive my Cadillac off a bridge . . .")
I haven't read Mark Steyn's piece, but I can already imagine its contents. This morning on NPR's Marketplace they discussed the wildly successful economic legacy of Pinochet's regime. Oooh GDP and growth in Chile! Weeeeh! And all it took was several thousand political murders and torture! Woo hoo!
And all it took was several thousand political murders and torture! Woo hoo!
And therein lies the important aspect of the story that the Pinochet apologistas conveniently ignore.
Even the most passionately anti-Pinochet have to acknowledge that for whatever set of reasons, the Chilean economy was in disastrous shape under Allende. The economy did eventually improve in the late 70s and 80s following a deep recession after the coup.
But to ignore (a) a coup (b) against a democratically-elected President, followed by (c) repression and the suspension of the free press and republican government, (d) and the murder of 3,000 dissidents shows Pinochet's "supporters" for who they really are.
Apologize for Pinochet on any level, and you're apologizing for someone who was an anti-democratic, anti-classic liberalism, murderer.
I just read that Mark Steyn piece. What a fuck. Just like a right-winger. Apologize for and defend brutal dictators....then turn around 2 generations later and attack them for being brutal dictators.
Another thing about the Steyn piece. When will pundits (of both sides, but more of the right recently) stop with the whole "Well our guy can't be 'bad,' by definition, since Hilter & Mao & Stalin killed more people than he did" argument.
So weak. So irrelvant. The worst form of debating you come across. Generations of apololists for Castro did it from the left ("Well, how bad can Castro be, their health care system is better than ours . . . ," and we get it daily from the asshats on the right ("You America haters can keep bashing Bush, but would you rather have bin Laden or Saddam or Kim Jong Il as your president?"
Tiresome.
You said it, Mike. "Hey, 3,000 ain't that bad compared to 6 million, right? And they even got a good economy, so it's all good!"
Horrible arguments, and as you say, tiresome. Saying that bad isn't as bad as...bad? Twisted logic to be sure.
I don’t think it is money. As Ratliff said about Flem Snopes, “there’s some things a feller just won’t do just for money.”
I am usually the last person to become alarmed, but I’ve watched the Middle East for almost forty years and I don’t think I’ve ever seen the pot so ready to boil over. If it does it will scald a lot of people. Money is too easy to make (especially for these guys) to risk starting a real shit storm. Has to be some other agenda.
Normally I would think “power,” but they are fracturing their own constituency to pursue this path. So what is it that they want?
WFTA-
Agree ont eh current state of the ME. Very volitile, very alarming.
But as for this: Money is too easy to make (especially for these guys) to risk starting a real shit storm. Has to be some other agenda.
Not sure. Seems to me that the very, very rich try hard to get even richer.
Normally I would think “power,” but they are fracturing their own constituency to pursue this path. So what is it that they want?
This is where it all comes apart for me . . . except for the defense/contracting angle. Except for a blanket statement that "they're all just crazy," no other explanation satisfies.
The money just keeps getting better.
Donald Rumsfield sells medical supplies to the troops, then denies orders for bullet proof vests and armor plating.
Halliburton get paid to pump the oil, refine the oil, ship the oil, then the cost of selling the oil. After all that, they keep 100% of the profits.
Lockheed Martin and others get paid hamsomely to convert nuclear waste into munitions, turning an expense (waste disposal) into a taxpayer funded profit center.
The devilish part of this is that no single person needs to be really evil to keep this going. All you need to do is to spread the cash around, and buy people's souls in small installments.
The really evil people involved are few in number, the thousand others that allow this to go on, are simply paid to look the other way.
Most people will engage in a little sin for big bucks. in the case of our Congresspeople, we have a group that come into office, already compromised by a thousand little acquiences. Now they are asked to help with a war they didn't start, for the 'Good of the Country'. and they offered cold hard cash not to upset the gravy train.
Some say that one in 25 people are sociopaths. That means the US has 11.8 million sociopaths. Most don't engage in evil per se. They are just simply, empathy impaired. But that leaves plenty of room for people who don't mind making money off weapons made from nuclear waste or selling medical supplies in a war you've started and manage.
Jeffrey Dahlmer only killed thirteen people that we know of.
He's not nearly so bad as Pinochet!
Jeffrey Dahlmer only killed thirteen people that we know of. He's not nearly so bad as Pinochet!
There you go. It's easy. We can all be frothing-at-the-mouth pundits.
But to ignore (a) a coup (b) against a democratically-elected President, followed by (c) repression and the suspension of the free press and republican government, (d) and the murder of 3,000 dissidents shows Pinochet's "supporters" for who they really are.
Look, all they want is someone who can make the trains run on time. What's wrong with that?
When will pundits (of both sides, but more of the right recently) stop with the whole "Well our guy can't be 'bad,' by definition, since Hilter & Mao & Stalin killed more people than he did" argument.
It is funny how the right can deride the supposed "moral relativism" of the left when it comes to abortion rights or gay marriage, all day long, but as soon as we're talking dictators and genocide, well, everything's relative.
as soon as we're talking dictators and genocide, well, everything's relative.
This is true. Corruption, graft & scandles also seem to fall into the everything's relative category. You know, underage congressional page is just as bad as "of age" White House intern, that sort of thing.
Steal a few hundred bucks and go to prison.
Steal millions from Medicare and Medicaid, and you can become a Senator that brags about the joy he feels when he holds a beating heart, he just cut out of a cat.
holds a beating heart, he just cut out of a cat.
I'm not familiar with that one. Frist?
Yes Frist.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Frist_medical_school_experiments_controversy
http://tinyurl.com/836zz
Jeez, what a freak.
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