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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bill who wrote (708072)	10/20/2005 3:51:50 PM
From: pompsander	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769670

Defense lawyer in Saddam trial kidnapped-police 28 minutes ago BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A defense lawyer involved in the trial of Saddam Hussein and seven others has been kidnapped by gunmen, said police and Interior Ministry sources on Thursday. ADVERTISEMENT Police said initial reports identified the abducted lawyer as Saadoun Dulaimi. A legal source confirmed the kidnapped man was involved in the trial which started on Wednesday. Saddam was represented by two lawyers in the court, lead attorney Khalil Dulaimi and Khamees al-Ubaidi.

To: Bill who wrote (708072)	10/20/2005 4:05:11 PM
From: HPilot	Respond to of 769670

Exactly! It's not the vote per se, it's the way you get to the vote. Sorry, its mostly the vote, if Ginsburg had carried on and on about foreign law, but voted opposite, I would have been happy.

To: Bill who wrote (708072)	10/21/2005 12:06:58 PM
From: goldworldnet	Respond to of 769670

Rhetorical Fallacies Arguments are flawed when they rely on faulty reasoning or do not allow for the open, two-way exchange of ideas upon which most meaningful conversation depends. These fallacies of argument can be divided into those that unfairly appeal to the audience’s emotions (emotional fallacies), those that unreasonably advance the writer’s own authority or character (ethical fallacies), and those that depend upon flawed logic (logical fallacies). The definitions and examples below explain and illustrate the various fallacies of argument. EMOTIONAL FALLACIES • Sentimental Appeals tug at an audience’s heartstrings to the point of ignoring the facts, perhaps to keep the audience from disagreeing with the writer. Example: Our relief program has admittedly lost track of some donations, but just think of all the suffering children we’ve saved from starvation and disease. • A Red Herring attempts to distract an audience by shifting attention away from an important issue. Example: People can keep debating whether the camping ban is unconstitutional, but what we need is decisive action now. Do you want homeless bums discouraging customers from doing business with you? • Scare Tactics try to frighten people into agreeing with the arguer by threatening them or predicting unrealistically dire consequences. Example: If you don’t support the party’s tax plan, you and your family will be reduced to poverty. • Bandwagon Appeals encourage an audience to agree with the writer because everyone else is doing so. Example: Why be the only parent on your block whose kids don’t have the Water Widget Fun Set? • Slippery Slope arguments predict enormous consequences from relatively minor causes. Example: Not allowing students to pray before football games not only infringes on their right to free speech but undermines the very foundation of our government. • Either/Or Choices reduce complicated issues to only two possible courses of action. These fallacies can also involve scare tactics or slippery slope arguments. Example: The patent office can either approve my generator design or say goodbye forever to affordable energy. ETHICAL FALLACIES • False Authority appeals ask audiences to agree with a writer based simply on his or her character or the authority of another person or institution. Example: Red’s Dippin’ Sauce must be great—the Carlton County King of Barbecue likes it. • Dogmatism shuts down discussion by asserting that the writer’s beliefs are the only ones acceptable. Example: I’m sorry, but I’m right and that’s that. • Moral Equivalence compares minor problems with much more serious crimes (or vice versa). Example: These mandatory seatbelt laws are like something out of Nazi Germany. • Ad Hominem arguments attack a person’s character rather than reasoning through the issues. Example: Why should we think a candidate who recently divorced will keep her campaign promises? • Strawperson arguments excessively simplify an opponent’s viewpoint to argue against it more easily. Example: Allowing criminals to serve probation instead of jail time is nothing less than an attempt to set murderers and rapists free on our streets. LOGICAL FALLACIES • A Hasty Generalization draws conclusions from scanty evidence. Example: I wouldn’t eat at that restaurant—the only time I ate there, my entree was undercooked. • Faulty Causality confuses chronology with causation: one event can occur after another without being caused by it. Example: A year after the release of the violent shoot-’em-up video game Annihilator, incidents of school violence tripled—surely not an accident. • A Non Sequitur (Latin for “It doesn’t follow”) is a statement that does not logically relate to what comes before. An important logical step may be missing in such a claim. Example: If those protesters really loved their country, they wouldn’t question the government. • Equivocation is a statement that is partially correct but that purposefully obscures the entire truth. Example: An accused murderer’s response when asked if he had communicated with the victim, to whom he had sent an e-mail message: “No, I didn’t speak with her.” • Begging the Question occurs when a writer assumes that a statement under dispute is in fact true; such an argument is circular. Example: Since I’m a good writer, I certainly don’t need to revise my writing. • A Faulty Analogy is an inaccurate, inappropriate, or misleading comparison between two things. Example: U.T. is like a game of Monopoly: the campus is the board, the students are the pieces, each department is a hotel, and that longed-for diploma is a “Get Out of Jail Free” card. uwc.fac.utexas.edu * * *