# Bushbots, since I can't ask for your brains, get yer asses in here... **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 14, 2005, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushbots-since-i-cant-ask-for-your-brains-get-yer-asses-in-here/284669 "2005-01-14T05:24:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 20
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushbots-since-i-cant-ask-for-your-brains-get-yer-asses-in-here/284669/381 "2005-01-20T15:27:32Z")
Well, really, the whole unguided missile thingy isn’t all that complicated, just a matter of “leading” the target, in much the same manner as a hunter leads a flying duck with a shotgun, save that the “duck” in this instance is traveling several hundreds of miles per hour, at range of thousands of yards. Piece of cake. Simply unmount the missile from its housing (in order to acheive aiming mobility), and carry it on the shoulders of several Iraqi volunteers. One such volunteer aims down the length of the missile, probably using a stabilizing fin as a handy aiming point. Having calculated the speed of the target, its approximate range, the aimer leads the target at the appropriate point. When he is satisfied that he has optimized the leading allowance, he then fires the missile, flash-broiling himself and the missile bearer-aimers in the process. This will vastly enhance the possibility of an actual intercept, lowering the odds against an actual hit from the galactic down to a mere few million to one. Assuming that the pilot doesn’t do anything unsportsmanlike and uncooperative, like turn left, or right, speed up, slow down, or change altitude. Care should be taken that disinformative propaganda is not posted by infidel little black ducks, such as Arabic signs declaring “Wabbit Season!” ---
**Author:** ![RedFury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ec9cab/32.png) [@RedFury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedFury)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushbots-since-i-cant-ask-for-your-brains-get-yer-asses-in-here/284669/382 "2005-01-20T15:30:32Z")
**AQA** , I agree the downing of the gunships is irrelevant to the discussion of the targeting of aircraft in the non-UN sanctioned no-fly zone. So the question is, why did you bring it up? Besides, I’ll note yet again, that as much as those aircraft being fired upon constitutes an act of war, so does the violation of a nation’s sovereign air space. As for **SA’s** continued delusions, I can only thank him for illustrating in detailed fashion – to the tune of _sixty posts_ in this thread alone – the prototypical Bush sycophant I had in mind when composing this OP. Bad enough that this delusional thought process comes from pedestrian supporter on a message board, downright scary when you realize that the President’s isolated himself with like-minded ideologues. To wit: [Powell gives bleak assessment of Iraq security problems](http://financialtimes.printthis.clickability.com/pt/cpt?action=cpt&title=FT.com%2B/%2BHome%2BUK%2B-%2BPowell%2Bgives%2Bbleak%2Bassessment%2Bof%2BIraq%2Bsecurity%2Bproblems&expire=&urlID=12860830&fb=Y&url=http%3A//news.ft.com/cms/s/ff15191c-6507-11d9-9f8b-00000e2511c8,ft_acl=,s01=1.html&partnerID=1734) > [@](#): > > Colin Powell, outgoing secretary of state, says he would like to see US troops leave Iraq “as quickly as possible” but that the strength of the insurgency does not allow the Bush administration to set a timeframe for a withdrawal this year. > > Mr Powell told National Public Radio yesterday the US leadership had been “in almost non-stop meetings for the last couple of days” reviewing the security problem while coalition forces were adjusting their “tactics and strategy and deployments”. > > “It’s not possible right now to say that by the end of 2005, we’ll be down to such and such a number. It really is dependent upon the situation,” he said, referring to the training of the new Iraqi army and police. > > Mr Powell’s bleak assessment, less than three weeks before Iraqis are due to elect a parliament, reflects what advisers close to the administration and former officials describe as an understanding in the State Department and Pentagon of the depth of the crisis. > > **But, they say, this is not a view accepted by President George W. Bush.** > > One counterinsurgency expert said Donald Rumsfeld, defence secretary, had a “brutally accurate” picture of the situation and the potential dangers. > > **But a member of an influential neoconservative policy group said that such warnings “stop well short of the president”.** > > According to Chas Freeman, former US ambassador to Saudi Arabia and head of the independent Middle East Policy Council, **Mr Bush recently asked Mr Powell for his view on the progress of the war. “We’re losing,” Mr Powell was quoted as saying. Mr Freeman said Mr Bush then asked the secretary of state to leave.** (my bolding) Grim picture. Meanwhile, reality continues unperturbed by the Faith-based warriors in Washington. [Bloody day In Iraq As 29 Are Killed](http://news.scotsman.com/international.cfm?id=69512005) **SA’s** mantra-like response seems particularly fitting: > [@](#): > > And the war is resulting in fewer Iraqi deaths by virtue of its own government as we speak. Best quit talking so much, **SA**. 'cause it appears that everytime you do, someone dies in Iraq. That’s reality for you. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushbots-since-i-cant-ask-for-your-brains-get-yer-asses-in-here/284669/383 "2005-01-20T15:36:26Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > Simply unmount the missile from its housing (in order to acheive aiming mobility), and carry it on the shoulders of several Iraqi volunteers. One such volunteer aims down the length of the missile, probably using a stabilizing fin as a handy aiming point. Having calculated the speed of the target, its approximate range, the aimer leads the target at the appropriate point. When he is satisfied that he has optimized the leading allowance, he then fires the missile, flash-broiling himself and the missile bearer-aimers in the process. This will vastly enhance the possibility of an actual intercept, lowering the odds against an actual hit from the galactic down to a mere few million to one. Assuming that the pilot doesn’t do anything unsportsmanlike and uncooperative, like turn left, or right, speed up, slow down, or change altitude. Even easier then that, get about 10 Iraqis, and place a queen size sheet on the ground. Place the missile in the middle of the sheet, and when the plane is just about to fly overhead, the Iraqis yank the sheet, snap it tight, and BOING! up into the sky it goes. Look out American imperialist pilots! ---
**Author:** ![RedFury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ec9cab/32.png) [@RedFury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedFury)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 3:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushbots-since-i-cant-ask-for-your-brains-get-yer-asses-in-here/284669/384 "2005-01-20T15:44:13Z")
> [@World Eater](#): > > I strongly believe that in waging this war, we’ve created more terrorists then we’ve eliminated. We’ve given the next group of jihadists some nice hands on battlezone training (like the mujaheeden in Afghanistan got), that is above and beyond what they would get running through some tires at OBL’s training camp. Thanks to blowing up civilians willy nilly, a new generation of American haters is being breed as we speak. Each kid who is orphaned, or had a friend blown to pieces, will grow up chanting “death to America”. Simply put, we’d be better off (futurewise) if we hadn’t gone in. Bad news for you, **World Eater** , you’re spot on. [War will spawn new breed of terrorists, says CIA](http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-1440917,00.html) > [@](#): > > **IRAQ has replaced Afghanistan as the training ground for a new generation of “professionalised” Islamic terrorists, who will be dispersed across the globe and wreak havoc, according to a CIA report published yesterday.** > > The report, released by the National Intelligence Council, the CIA’s think-tank, says that “the dispersion of experienced survivors of the conflict in Iraq” to other countries will create a new threat over the next 15 years that will be more difficult to uncover and defeat than the al-Qaeda network. > > \ > > **The report, which is based on the analysis of the work of 1,000 US and international foreign policy thinkers, suggests that the Iraq war has created a training and recruitment haven for terrorists.** The report is to help US policy makers prepare for short- to mid-term global threats and challenges. (my bolding) Now might be a good time to join the Make Our Own Reality crowd. No doubt **SA’s** willing to share his Kool-Aid. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushbots-since-i-cant-ask-for-your-brains-get-yer-asses-in-here/284669/385 "2005-01-20T15:53:24Z")
What blows my mind is how anyone can see it any other way. ---
**Author:** ![Squink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/b5e925/32.png) [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushbots-since-i-cant-ask-for-your-brains-get-yer-asses-in-here/284669/386 "2005-01-20T16:17:08Z")
> [@RedFury](#): > > Bad news for you, **World Eater** , you’re spot on. > [War will spawn new breed of terrorists, says CIA](http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,7374-1440917,00.html) You do know that the white house immediately labeled the CIA’s report as [speculative](http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20050115/ap_on_go_pr_wh/cia_report) don’t you? > [@](#): > > “This is a speculative report about things that could happen in the world,” press secretary Scott McClellan told reporters on Air Force One as President Bush traveled to Florida for an education speech. It seems the administration has _finally_ learned the art of **downplaying** potentially grave and gathering threats to the homeland. I look forward to a future _without_ constant bombardment by stories of nuclear-tipped anthrax-drone submarines patrolling our eastern seabord. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Merijeek](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f05b48/32.png) [@Merijeek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Merijeek)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushbots-since-i-cant-ask-for-your-brains-get-yer-asses-in-here/284669/387 "2005-01-20T16:41:43Z")
> [@World Eater](#): > > What blows my mind is how anyone can see it any other way. You ain’t been blown yet, baby. Once the current crisis is over (via a civil war, most likely) this new generation of terrorists will have a name other than AQ. Then you’ll get to hear about how Our Fearless Leaders have destroyed AQ. Might want to keep some paper towels nearby so your loved ones can scrape your brains off the wall… -Joe ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushbots-since-i-cant-ask-for-your-brains-get-yer-asses-in-here/284669/388 "2005-01-20T16:50:50Z")
> [@Merijeek](#): > > You ain’t been blown yet, baby. > > Once the current crisis is over (via a civil war, most likely) this new generation of terrorists will have a name other than AQ. > > Then you’ll get to hear about how Our Fearless Leaders have destroyed AQ. > > Might want to keep some paper towels nearby so your loved ones can scrape your brains off the wall… > > -Joe Funny, I was thinking that very thought this morning reading the paper. The article was saying how we almost totally dismantled AQ. I rolled my eyes and thought, yeah but they just changed their name. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2005, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushbots-since-i-cant-ask-for-your-brains-get-yer-asses-in-here/284669/389 "2005-01-20T18:09:24Z")
**Rojo** , _companero_, I read your post about Powell and Bush with mixed feelings: shock, horror and dismay mixed with the usual fear and loathing. So where is the “liberal media” in all of this? If there were truly a liberal bias in the media, wouldn’t I expect to see headlines **“Bush Don’t Know Diddly-Squat!”**. One notes, however, that you link to that solidly lefty-socialist rag, _Financial Times_. You really can’t expect our Tighty Righty brethren to accept such a source so closely identified with left-wing agitation, now can you? The post about AlQ brings to mind a blurb from months past, from the Bushiviks, to the effect that 75% of the top leadership of AlQ had been captured or neutralized. One cannot help but be struck by the numerical precision of that estimate. It implies a knowledge I didn’t know we possessed. If we know that the figure is “75%”, that states a level of knowledge much different than simply saying “a whole bunch of 'em!”. Certainly, it means we know, at least approximately, how many AlQ there are. I mean, if you don’t know if there are 100 or 10,000, a figure like 75% becomes impossible, no? So, we knew how many there were to begin with, subtract how many we have liquidated, and badda-boom, badda-bing, 75%. From whence? Did someone give us the mailing list? Do we have a membership roster, with addresses and cell phone numbers, and we just cross them off as the occassion permits? Or is this…how to put this politely, so as not to offer offense…somewhat speculative. Very speculative. A great honking pile of bullshit. Neutron density crapola. Something along those lines. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2005, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushbots-since-i-cant-ask-for-your-brains-get-yer-asses-in-here/284669/390 "2005-01-21T01:45:38Z")
> [@RedFury](#): > > What the fuck is wrong with you people? I mean, seriously, _what the fuck_ is it with you lot? When I got to my late teens, I thought about voting. What would voting accomplish, I wondered. Was there a pure and ethical politician I could cast my vote for? I looked over the likely candidates for the next election and saw there was not. Was there at least a man running who would be true to his word and not just say things that he thought voters would want to hear and then once elected fuck over the public by doing whatever the hell he felt like? I looked over the likely candidates for the next election and saw there was not. Would my vote even count in the grand scheme of things, given that I live in a state that awards all the electoral college votes to the winner? I looked over the figures for the political stance of my state and saw that it would not. So, did that mean my one small vote had no power at all, I wondered. And then it hit me. There _was_ something I could do with my vote. I could use the power of my one vote to **piss people off**. How could I, a single person, piss the most people off? I looked at the republicans, and saw that they considered democrats to be misguided, and had a “they don’t know any better, so what do you expect?” attitude about the opposition. Then I looked at the democrats and saw that they were not only utterly convinced that their largely untenable plans were morally right, but that people who opposed them were in league with the very devil himself. Thus I knew where the power of my solitary vote lay - and chose to become a republican. ---
**Author:** ![RedFury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ec9cab/32.png) [@RedFury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedFury)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2005, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushbots-since-i-cant-ask-for-your-brains-get-yer-asses-in-here/284669/391 "2005-01-21T03:01:15Z")
Damn it, **delucidador**! Would ya kindly stop making me laugh while I’m trying to slap some sense into some of your more erm…_reality-challenged_ compatriots? I mean, hell, it just cuts right into that lather I work so hard to get into to. Seriously though – and you’ll have to excuse me, 'cause I know just how much you dislike praise – that’s one hell of a spirit you’ve got going there. Don’t you _dare_ ever lose it. _:::::chapeau’s off, Señor::::::_ * * * > [@elfkin477](#): > > So, did that mean my one small vote had no power at all, I wondered. And then it hit me. There was something I could do with my vote. I could use the power of my one vote to piss people off. How could I, a single person, piss the most people off? I looked at the republicans, and saw that they considered democrats to be misguided, and had a “they don’t know any better, so what do you expect?” attitude about the opposition. Then I looked at the democrats and saw that they were not only utterly convinced that their largely untenable plans were morally right, but that people who opposed them were in league with the very devil himself. > > Thus I knew where the power of my solitary vote lay - and chose to become a republican. Nurse! ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2005, 3:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushbots-since-i-cant-ask-for-your-brains-get-yer-asses-in-here/284669/392 "2005-01-21T03:17:18Z")
> [@RedFury](#): > > …Seriously though – and you’ll have to excuse me, 'cause I know just how much you dislike praise – that’s one hell of a spirit you’ve got going there. Don’t you _dare_ ever lose it… Isn’t mine. It’s ours. If you lose yours, mine no longer matters. _…I get by with a little help from my friends Get high with a little help from my friends Gonna try with a little help from my friends…_ Venceremos! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bushbots-since-i-cant-ask-for-your-brains-get-yer-asses-in-here/284669.md?page=19)