DSM---what's this crap about "fixed" meaning something different

[Inland]

among the British? Aside from the fact that Blair denied it, rather than explain this little anglicism, read the DSM and try to think of a word that could go into the marked space where "fixed" was:


C reported on his recent talks in Washington. There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now seen as inevitable. Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being ****** around the policy. The NSC had no patience with the UN route, and no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record. There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after military action.

Thought about it? Was it some word that meant something other than "made up"? NO! The entire context shouts at the meaning of the word that goes in that space! I could have put in "banana" and you would conclude that "banana" was a term meaning "made up".

I might not know a lot, but these assholes are now pretending I can't read. Is it a Pryor, asking me what I'm going to believe, them or my own lying eyes?

[donco6]

1. Any other word you put in there doesn't effect the

point of the passage. And the British would have pointed it out back in May when the minutes were released.

[Fridays Child]

2. That ridiculous and desperate bit of freeperbole was debunked...

...I believe, by Michael Smith, the Times reporter who published the minutes.

[Ignoramus]

3. Fixed in englandish means to apply glue to

So, they had the facts in paper form, but they hadn't yet applied glue to them and attached them to the policy document.

[Robbien]

4. Just a way of sidelining the discussion away from Bush's lies

Talk about the word, not the issue.

[judy]

5. Besides...

If "fixed" had a different meaning in England (what BS!!) Tony Blair when he answered the question at the Press conference, would have said: "Oh yes, intelligence was fixed...In our country it means it was double checked for accuracy"
But he said "it was not fixed at all". So there!

[jimshoes]

6. These people are Sophists

It is the art of bullshitting refined to a very high degree. They, and I suspect most lawyers are very well versed in this art. It is a prerequisite to being a republican politician.

[wurzel]

7. There are two meanings. Both equally damning.

Either it means the information was being "fixed", which implies fraud and intent to go to war. Or "fixed" means that the information was being accepted without further investigation, which implies incompetance and intent to go to war. Bush can take his choice!

[Mass]

8. Definition of fixed according to dictionary.com

Choose the meaning you want. It still means that you adapted the facts to the policy and not the other way around.

http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=fixed

1.
1. To place securely; make stable or firm: fixed the tent poles in the ground. See Synonyms at fasten.
2. To secure to another; attach: fixing the notice to the board with tacks.
2.
1. To put into a stable or unalterable form: tried to fix the conversation in her memory.
2. To make (a chemical substance) nonvolatile or solid.
3. Biology. To convert (nitrogen) into stable, biologically assimilable compounds.
4. To kill and preserve (a specimen) intact for microscopic study.
5. To prevent discoloration of (a photographic image) by washing or coating with a chemical preservative.
3. To direct steadily: fixed her eyes on the road ahead.
4. To capture or hold: The man with the long beard fixed our attention.
5.
1. To set or place definitely; establish: fixed her residence in a coastal village.
2. To determine with accuracy; ascertain: fixed the date of the ancient artifacts.
3. To agree on; arrange: fix a time to meet.
6. To assign; attribute: fixing the blame.
7.
1. To correct or set right; adjust: fix a misspelling; fix the out-of-date accounts.
2. To restore to proper condition or working order; repair: fix a broken machine.
3. Computer Science. To convert (data) from floating-point notation to fixed-point notation.
8. To make ready; prepare: fixed the room for the guests; fix lunch for the kids; fixed himself a milkshake.
9. To spay or castrate (an animal).
10. Informal. To take revenge upon; get even with.
11. To influence the outcome or actions of by improper or unlawful means: fix a prizefight; fix a jury.

[Applan]

9. It's just that, CRAP! even Michael Smith said as much

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion...

Michael Smith: There are number of people asking about fixed and its meaning. This is a real joke. I do not know anyone in the UK who took it to mean anything other than fixed as in fixed a race, fixed an election, fixed the intelligence. If you fix something, you make it the way you want it. The intelligence was fixed and as for the reports that said this was one British official. Pleeeaaassee! This was the head of MI6. How much authority do you want the man to have? He has just been to Washington, he has just talked to George Tenet. He said the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. That translates in clearer terms as the intelligence was being cooked to match what the administration wanted it to say to justify invading Iraq. Fixed means the same here as it does there. More leaks? I do hope so and the more Blair and Bush lie to try to get themselves off the hook the more likely it is that we will get more leaks.

And as a Brit, I can myself assure you that fixed means exactly what Smith says it means.

[joemurphy]

11. British use of "fixed" and Hardball

Gregory was a refreshing change from Chris Matthews. I thought the Michael Smith piece was good. Gregory didn't interrupt him or impose his own viewpoint on him -- something that Matthews does all the time.

Unfortunately I felt having administration shills like James Woolsey and David Kay on for rebuttal was rather weak. If Gregory was looking for reasoned debate from them he was mistaken as they were very much Tweedledum and Tweedledee.

Woolsey, we may all remember, was in the forefront of those clamoring for us to take on Iraq. I remember him trumpeting the need for enforcing UN Resolutions on an episode of the Diane Rehm show way before the hostilities started. Interestingly, Woolsey was all for enforcing a 3-year old UN Resolution that Iraq was violating while turning a blind eye to Israeli violations of a plethora of UN Resolutions. Woolsey was also adamantly opposed to soliciting the help of allies or taking our case to the UN before commencing hostilities. I always found it ironic that he, and other neocons like him, wanted to justify the war by claiming to enforce a UN resolution while opposing going to the UN in advance to get its OK to do so. R. James Woolsey (along with his buddies,Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Don Rumsfeld, Elliot Abrams, John Bolton, and Bill Bennett)was an original signatory to The Project for a New American Century's 1998 Letter to Bill Clinton urging Clinton to use force to take out Saddam. He's the same sort of nutcase that got us into the Iraq mess. Now 1,700 dead Americans later, and with thousands more legless, armless, or maimed in other ways, Woolsey has the gall to tell us that Saddam was a bad guy anyway and the whole endeavor was worth it.

David Kay, you may also remember, was the weapons inspector most emphatic about Saddam having WMDs prior to the war. He played the part of Bush administration counterweight every time Scott Ritter tried to tell everyone that Saddam had been defanged. He spent millions of dollars searching for weapons after the war in a fruitless endeavor to find what Saddam had destroyed in 1991. He's a worthless blowhard in my opinion. Just like Woolsey. I don't see why they have any credibility anymore.

Neither Woolsey nor Kay, both Americans, and non-linguists have any special expertise on instructing the American public on the semantics of how the Brits use the word "fixed". Anyone interested in that might care to look at a Usenet Group for linguists called sci.lang which recently had a rather colorful and instructive thread on just this matter. The Brits explaining the term on the thread were unanimous in saying that, as used in the DSM, "fixed around" meant that the intelligence was being "cooked" to fit the policy.

[Inland]

13. "He's the head of MI6 fer crying out loud!"

That's what caps it for me. This is a chief spook who can see this sort of crap happening in real time. His JOB is to separate the wheat from the chaff coming up from the services. His JOB is to exercise precisely this type of judgment and HE IS THERE LOOKING AT IT HAPPEN.

And Smith is right about the leaks, because Blair was told and didn't give a shit. Blair tries to blame it on the intel too, and he KNEW. He KNEW.

[cynatnite]

10. Blair didn't seem confused about the meaning at the press conference

Tell everyone that he knew exactly what it meant when he said that the assertions in DSM weren't true.

[burythehatchet]

12. Fixed means rendered effete. Unable to donate sperm. De-nutted.