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| Illustration by Su Blackwell |
His Majesty McCain said, (of Susan Rice). "Sure. She can, I'd give everyone the benefit of explaining their position and the actions that they took. I'd be glad to have the opportunity to discuss these issues with her. Why did she say that, why did she say that al Qaeda has been 'decimated' in her statement here on this program? Al Qaeda hasn't been decimated. They're on the rise."
Mirriam Webster Dictionary - dec·i·mat·eddec·i·mat·ing
Definition of DECIMATE
1
: to select by lot and kill every tenth man of
2
: to exact a tax of 10 percent from
3
a : to reduce drastically especially in number decimated
Decimation according to Wikipedia was a form of military discipline used by officers in the Roman Army to punish mutinous or cowardly soldiers. The word decimation is derived from Latin meaning "removal of a tenth ...A unit selected for punishment by decimation was divided into groups of ten; each group drew lots and the soldier on whom the lot fell was executed by his nine comrades, often by stoning or clubbing. The remaining soldiers were given rations of barley instead of wheat and forced to sleep outside the Roman encampment.
Because the punishment fell by lot, all soldiers in the group were eligible for execution, regardless of the individual degree of fault, or rank and distinction. The leadership was usually executed independently of the one in ten deaths of the rank and file.
To be fair Senator McCain may have been thinking of definition three but 1 and 2 are the ones that come to my mind and they are first. After all they can lose a 10th of their numbers and still have a formidable force left (90%).
Rachel Maddow commented in her blog about the right's hang up on the word -
Excoriated
is the word used to describe what the Republicans did to Ambassador Rice - It means:
This wasn't in the news but everybody should have one:
Rachel Maddow commented in her blog about the right's hang up on the word -
McCain was eager to complain about it yesterday on Fox, but he's not the only one. Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) demanded answers about Rice's word choice last week, and Rep. Raul Labrador (R-Idaho) complained about it last week on "Meet the Press."
There's no great mystery here. "Decimated" does not mean "permanently destroyed." Rice said al Qaeda's network has been decimated because it really has been decimated.
For someone like John McCain, who's eager to see new and expansive wars, these details are apparently inconvenient, but as Ian Millhiser noted, the National Counterterrorism Center reported this year a sharp drop in the number of al Qaeda attacks, and 22 senior-level al Qaeda operatives and leaders were captured or killed -- including Osama bin Laden -- between May 2011 until May 2012.
is the word used to describe what the Republicans did to Ambassador Rice - It means:
1: to wear off the skin of : abrade
2
: to censure scathingly
And in this case I am sure they are using definition two although the Ambassador may feel like she has had the first done to her. I do not understand how they can be so very rude and still be in office. But then I am very naive.
And of course there is filibuster. Wikipedia has this interesting history of the word: A filibuster is a type of parliamentary procedure where an individual extends debate, allowing a lone member to delay or entirely prevent a vote on a given proposal. It is sometimes referred to as talking out a bill, and characterized as a form of obstruction in a legislature or other decision-making body. The English term "filibuster" derives from the Spanish filibustero, itself deriving originally from the Dutch vrijbuiter, "privateer, pirate, robber" (also the root of English "freebooter". The Spanish form entered the English language in the 1850s, as applied to military adventurers from the United States then operating in Central America and the Spanish West Indies such as William Walker.
The term in its legislative sense was first used by Democratic congressmanAlbert G. Brown of Mississippi in 1853, referring to Abraham Watkins Venable's speech against "filibustering" intervention in Cuba
Steven Benen writing at The Maddow Blog has this to say about the current controversy over Fillibusters. He concludes: "Given all of this, it's not even clear why McConnell is whining so incessantly. He and his caucus have brought obstructionism to heights unseen in American history, and Democratic reforms would allow the GOP to keep blocking every bill they don't like. The "rights" of the Senate minority would be largely unaffected; we'd only see a slightly more efficient chamber, in which Republican filibusters would come about more quickly, and be more dramatic once attempted."
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