"miserable failure"

[wckrause]

"It's not our fault that the right wingers are too stupid to figure out how to hack the system "

Maybe there are better things to spend one's time on.

"I want". Google is about to go public, or get purchased, its only value is that people like me visit it frequently. If the integrity of its search engine is comprimised by HACKERS, then it will lose its value, and I will lose a tool that I rely on.

"But I'll offer again that if enough people are going to the trouble to make their sentiment known, isn't it relevant?"

If they are making their sentiment known for a reason other than to see its effect on a google search, (see the above article regarding the Internet Rockstar search) then you may have a point. If its only to see something cool pop up on google, then it's HACKING. Hackers are *********s.

Hey Aurel. Do a search on Famous French War Heroes and read the single entry. Then do a search on "Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys" and spend of few days on the hundreds of entries.

[Aurel]

Now, Bill is blaming Bush`s miserable failure on hackers. Unbeleivable !

Aurel

[Aurel]

Just for the heck of it, I did a Google search on
"Cheese Eating Surrender Monkeys", as suggested by Bill. Here is what I found in the first entry I cliked on:

We have been enjoying a lovely little spate of French-bashing here lately. Jonah Goldberg of National Review, who admits that French-bashing is "shtick" (as it is to many American comedians), has popularized the phrase "cheese-eating surrender monkeys" to describe the French.



It gets a lot less attractive than that.



George Will saw fit to include in his latest Newsweek column this joke: "How many Frenchmen does it take to defend Paris? No one knows, it's never been tried."



That was certainly amusing.



One million, four hundred thousand French soldiers were killed during World War I. As a result, there weren't many Frenchmen left to fight in World War II. Nevertheless, 100,000 French soldiers lost their lives trying to stop Adolf Hitler.



On behalf of every one of those 100,000 men, I would like to thank Mr. Will for his clever joke. They were out-manned, out-gunned, out-generaled and, above all, out-tanked. They got slaughtered, but they stood and they fought. Ha-ha, how funny.



In the few places where they had tanks, they held splendidly.



Relying on the Maginot Line was one of the great military follies of modern history, but it does not reflect on the courage of those who died for France in 1940. For 18 months after that execrable defeat, the United States of America continued to have cordial diplomatic relations with Nazi Germany.



One of the great what-ifs of history is: What would have happened if Franklin Roosevelt had lived to the end of his last term?



How many wars have been lost in the peace?



For those of you who have not read Paris 1919, I recommend it highly. Roosevelt was anti-colonialist. That system was a great evil, a greater horror even than Nazism or Stalinism.



If you have read Leopold's Ghost by Adam Hochschild, you have some idea. The French were in it up to their necks.



Instead of insisting on freedom for the colonies of Europe, we let our allies carry on with the system, leaving the British in India and Africa, and the French in Vietnam and Algeria, to everyone's eventual regret.



Surrender monkeys? Try Dien Bien Phu. Yes, the French did surrender, didn't they? After 6,000 French died in a no-hope position. Ever heard of the Foreign Legion? Of the paratroopers, called "paras"? The trouble we could have saved ourselves if we had only paid attention to Dien Bien Phu.



Then came Algeria. As nasty a war as has ever been fought. If you have seen the film Battle of Algiers, you have some idea. Five generations of pieds noirs, French colonialists, thought it was their country.



Charles de Gaulle came back into power in 1958, specifically elected to keep Algeria French. I consider de Gaulle's long, slow, delicate, elephantine withdrawal (de Gaulle even looked like an elephant) one of the single greatest acts of statesmanship in history. Only de Gaulle could have done that.



Those were the years when France learned about terrorism. The plastiquers were all over Paris. The "plastic" bombs, the ones you can stick like Play-Do underneath the ledge of some building, were the popular weapon du jour. It made Israel today look tame. For France, terrorism is "Been there, done that."



The other night on 60 Minutes, Andy Rooney, who fought in France and certainly has a right to be critical, chided the French for forgetting all that sacrifice. But I think he got it backward: The French remember too well.



I was in Paris on Sept. 11, 2001. The reaction was so immediate, so generous, so overwhelming.



Not just the government, but the people kept bringing flowers to the American embassy. They covered the American Cathedral, the American Church, anything they could find that was American.



They didn't just leave flowers -- they wrote notes with them. I read more than 100 of them. Not only did they refer, again and again, to Normandy, to never forgetting, but there were even some in ancient, spidery handwriting referring to WWI: "Lafayette is still with you."



Look, the French are not a touchy-feely people. They're more, like, logical. For them to approach total strangers in the streets who look American and hug them is seriously extraordinary. I got patted so much I felt like a Labrador retriever. I wish Andy Rooney had been there.



This is where I think the real difference is. We Americans are famously ahistorical. We can barely be bothered to remember what happened last week, or last month, much less last year.



The French are really stuck on history. (Some might claim this is because the French are better educated than we are. I won't go there.)



Does it not occur to anyone that these are very old friends of ours, trying to tell us what they think they know about being hated by weak enemies in the Third World?

Aurel

[wckrause]

Oooh, touched a nerve?

[Aurel]

No, just trying to educate you a little bit, Bill.

Aurel

[wckrause]

Perhaps if France had adopted the policy of pre-emptive strike rather than appeasement, then the deaths of 30,000,000 may have been avoided. ISN'T THAT AT LEAST A REASONABLE THOUGHT????

[MrPants]

Originally posted by wckrause
I'm talking about removing opinions from Search results, not adding them. Please read the posts a little more carefully.

tomato tomahto. google works. it returned the most popular search result for miserable failure. google has an obligation to remain objective. changing results in any way undermines their legitmacy.
its a democratic process. (id also like to point out that we have all casted our vote to keep geaorge w bush at the top of the miserable failure list )
also since when has the internet been a reliable source for anything but porn?

[widebody911]

Originally posted by nostatic
It's not our fault that the right wingers are too stupid to figure out how to hack the system

No, they've spent their efforts undermining a more important system:

http://www.blackboxvoting.org/

[Aurel]

Perhaps if France had adopted the policy of pre-emptive strike rather than appeasement, then the deaths of 30,000,000 may have been avoided. ISN'T THAT AT LEAST A REASONABLE THOUGHT????

The policy of preememtive strike is part of Bush`s miserable failure. I don`t think blaming France for the deaths of 30,000,000 is a reasonable thought at all, where ever you picked that number from. If all countries applied your policy of preventive strike, then the entire world would be a permanent warzone and constant bloodshed. Like it is becomnig right now in Iraq. A miserable failure is also invading a country without having any plan for after the war, without knowing the people, and without speaking the language. War is a failure.

Aurel

[CamB]

Back off topic. Aurel - no offence intended with this (I am po'd by France hating too - but this is funny like "miserable failure" is funny):

First entry at google for "french military victories" delivers this link:

http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/text/victories.html

Warning for a pop-up (pop-ups make me cry).

[Aurel]

That was a funny one, Cameron. But a fake one, unlike the miserable failure, which is sadly real. But you`re right, I should back get on the topic of this off topic thread.

Aurel

[turbo6bar]

Originally posted by Aurel
That was a funny one, Cameron. But a fake one, unlike the miserable failure, which is sadly real. But you`re right, I should back get on the topic of this off topic thread.

So you're saying Bush IS a miserable failure and the French are not the biggest PUSSIES on earth? Bush, miserable failure, debateable. French, least successful military in recorded history, pretty much fact...

[Aurel]

Napoleon was probalbly less of a pussy than G.W. Bush who spent his military years in defending Texas against an attack from the Viet Kongs (and most of the time in bars for that matter), but HE, What ever you want to believe...At the time of Napoleon, this country did not even exist.
The french have been there, done that, and found more intelligent things to do.

Aurel

[speeder]

Originally posted by turbo6bar
So you're saying Bush IS a miserable failure and the French are not the biggest PUSSIES on earth? Bush, miserable failure, debateable. French, least successful military in recorded history, pretty much fact...

The least successful military in recorded (modern) history would be Iraq's in 2003, hands down. You know, the military that was such a "threat" to us that we had to invade them unilaterally?

I have never liked the French as much as in the last year. It took serious balls to stand up to Bush like that, the bully antics of the right wing on this board perfectly mirrors their heroes in office right now. We all know what happens to bullys.

Aurel, thanks for setting the record straight. My Dad, whose friend helped finger the "20th hijacker" in Minnesota months before Sept. 11th, (a long story but true), said, "they should have just handed him back to the French. He would have sung like a bird, and 9/11 never would have happened. The French know how to handle terrorists".

Actually, my Dad said, "the guy is a French National! (Massoui) They'd make him talk, then hand him back his nuts!"

But that would have been too logical for Bush and company, who couldn't find their ass with both hands. Who had absolutely NO POLICY on terrorism before 9/11, unlike the Clinton administration who had a fairly aggressive anti-terror operation. Too easy for the idiots who think that you can fight terrorism w/ tanks and bombers and by invading and occupying middle East countries. For a President who comes out and says, "Bring it on!" regarding guerilla fighters sniping our soldiers and Marines.

"Miserable failure" is far too mild a description for this president, it is almost too kind.

[wckrause]

"the bully antics of the right wing on this board perfectly mirrors their heroes in office right now. We all know what happens to bullys."

What are you talking about?

[nostatic]

Originally posted by speeder
For a President who comes out and says, "Bring it on!" regarding guerilla fighters sniping our soldiers and Marines.

That to me was not only the low point of GW's presidency, but pretty much encapsulated the administration "foreign policy."

However the more high level politics I'm privvy to, the more I realize that the 3rd grade playground seems to be the model for behavior. Since I have a 7 year old boy, I am perfectly positioned to be the next president.

Bring it on!

[Aurel]

In a sense, one might be tempted to cut Bush a break, because his office had to face the terrible tragedy of 9/11. But in reality, he could have done much, much better. In a nutshell, he could have:

1) Listened to the intelligence reports from the french, the germans and many other allies that warned of an imminent attack.

2) During the attacks, activated the NORAD defense systems, that might have prevented the second tower and the pentagon to be hit. It is actually still a mystery why those defense systems were desactivted during the attacks.

3) He could have kept surfing the huge wave of sympathy that many countries felt for the USA after 9/11. Most supported the invasion of Afghanistan, and were providing support.

4) Avoided to behave like a bully, acting unilaterally, lying to attack Iraq and sink the domestic debt into unprecedented records, while sending young men and women getting killed for no valid reason.

All that makes a perfect recipe for a miserable failure, next to which Clinton`s underdesk affairs appears like a much less harmful attitude for this country.

Aurel

[turbo6bar]

Alright, I give. You win.