What
would it take?
February 28th, 2006
The Bush administration
promulgates one disaster after another in both foreign and domestic policy,
and yet their poll numbers rarely drop below 40% popularity. This indicates
that the Republican base in America is solidly behind George Bush & Co.,
regardless of their failure rate, or the number of serious political
scandals they are involved in.
Let's take a look at some of the
disasters, scandals, and deceptions foisted on the US public by the Bush
administration, and then decide how much of a scandal the same offense would
have been perceived by Republicans if a Democrat were involved.
We can start with the relatively
trivial hunting accident PR debacle where Dick Cheney shot a friend and
fellow hunter in the face and neck and chest rather than shooting the quail
he was aiming at. Now imagine if this had happened to John Kerry during the
last election. The media frenzy would have been far worse, and the
accusations coming from the Republicans would have been vicious. They
would've talked about how Kerry knew nothing about hunting or proper hunting
safety techniques, how he was incompetent, couldn't shoot straight, and if
he didn't reveal it to the press for 24 hours there would be constant talk
of an attempted cover-up. How do you think Republicans who forgive
five-deferment Dick Cheney would have felt about John Kerry if he had
accidentally shot a hunting buddy?
Then there is the warrant-less
spying on Americans by the Bush administration, which is a clear violation
of existing law by bypassing the FISA court system set up for just such
surveillance oversight. Considering how berserk Republicans went over the
FBI files that were reviewed by the Clinton administration, mostly files of
White House personnel such as groundskeepers, doesn't it seem a little bit
surprising that Republicans are all for spying on Americans as long as
Republicans are in charge?
How about lying America into an
unnecessary war? Remember how the Republicans responded when Bill Clinton
wanted to intervene in Serbia or go after Osama bin Laden? The Republicans
said “no war for Monica”. Republican senators said that it wasn't worth
losing a single life to stop the bloodshed in the ex-Yugoslavia, and in the
end, not a single US soldier was lost due to enemy fire in that conflict.
Compare that with the death toll and injury toll in Iraq. And yet many
Republicans still feel that we are fighting the good fight in Iraq.
What if the Republicans had caught
the Clinton administration torturing prisoners, and setting up secret
detention centers around the world? Can you imagine the level of outrage?
And how about if Bill Clinton or Hillary Clinton were accused of
purposefully outing a covert CIA agent for political purposes? What a media
frenzy that would have been. And what if Clinton had told the American
people that the war in Serbia would cost $1 billion, but then it ended up
costing $300 billion? Think about how big a scandal it would have been if
Bill Clinton had dismantled FEMA and allowed over a thousand people to die
in New Orleans after the hurricane.
So my question is, what would it
take for Republicans to finally come around to the idea that the Bush
administration is not defending the Constitution, but is rather shredding it
day by day? What would it take for Republicans to realize that it is
ludicrous to fight for freedom in Iraq while simultaneously eroding our
freedoms at home? I think it will take a complete change of mindset because
currently many Republicans seem to treat politics as a contact sport rather
than the means by which we govern our country. To them it is win or lose,
and where sports are involved, winning is everything. I believe that much of
this mindset has to do with the split in our news media where we now have
hard-core right wing news, mainstream wishy-washy news, and a smattering of
hard-core left wing news. The population is split into two sides that get
their information from different sources. This fuels a sports mentality view
of politics. Until the vast majority of the US population recognizes the
fact that politics are not sports, and that the outcome of elections really
matter, there will not be sufficient public pressure to change the status
quo. I have to wonder after all that has happened, what will it take to run
the bums out of town, and reunite America?
Dr John
The
gang that couldn't shoot straight
February 15th, 2006
Getting shot in the face neck and
chest with a shotgun blast is no laughing matter. If you're in doubt about
that, try it sometime. It is somewhat astounding to me that everyone seems
to be making light of the fact that the vice president shot someone in his
hunting party. The victim, Mr. Whittington, is 78 years old and I don't care
how good shape he's in, he is going to have a long hard road to recovery,
that is if he does fully recover.
The levity that has been
associated with this hunting accident is misplaced, and the trademark
secrecy that has surrounded the incident is emblematic of the Cheney White
House’s disdain for disclosing information that should be public. Both the
levity and secrecy emanate from Cheney's office itself.
Perhaps the most disturbing part
of the entire incident is the fact that like all other disastrous mistakes
he has made, Dick Cheney blames the victim. This is a quintessential Dick
Cheney trait: it's always someone else's fault. Dick Cheney is flawless, of
course. So when Dick Cheney ignores the basic rules of a hunting, including
making absolutely certain you have identified your target, he still has the
gall to claim that the accident was the victim's fault. When the vice
president is hunting, the rules change and everybody better just get out of
the way.
My guess is that Mr. Whittington
will get worse before he gets better, that is if he does actually get
better. Reports are that he has between 100 and 200 lead pellets embedded in
his body, and that they are shifting position. One has lodged in his heart
muscle causing a minor heart attack, and we can only assume that his
condition will worsen over the next few days as more pellets migrate.
To me, this incident is telling of
the way the Cheney White House operates in general. “The hell with the
rules, the hell with public opinion, the hell with the evidence - we are
going to do what we want to do and damn the consequences.” Cheney couldn't
shoot straight on weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, Cheney couldn't shoot
straight when it came to disclosing the identity of a covert CIA agent for
political purposes, and Cheney couldn't shoot straight in the response to
the worst natural disaster in recent US history. In short, Cheney can't
shoot straight and everybody else is the worse for the wear.
But of course, the gang that
couldn't shoot straight is going to keep the wall so safe from terrorists
and natural disasters, so you can all put on your orange hunting jackets and
relax.
Dr John
The
Ostrich Effect
February 11th, 2006
Every time I watch the news I
am amazed at the level of denial amongst Republicans. No matter how many
egregious Bush administration crimes are reported, Republicans stick
their heads in a hole and pretend nothing happened. There was no CIA
leak. There were weapons of mass construction. There were connections
between Iraq and Al Qaeda. They couldn't have anticipated the levees
would break. They didn't know the levees broke until the next day. There
was no other choice but to go to war in Iraq.
All contentions completely
false, but you hear them repeated by Republicans day in and day out all
over the news. Now clearly many of these pundits know that they are
spewing falsehoods publicly, and they are doing it on purpose to confuse
the issue. However, when I here Republican citizens calling in to talk
shows and repeating the same erroneous talking points I have to think
that many of them believe what they are saying is true.
In order to facilitate this
self-deception, it requires that most Republican Americans forego
reading what I consider to be conservative newspapers such as the New
York Times or the Washington Post. These papers have supported the Bush
administration in the run-up to the war and in many other circumstances,
and yet they still continue to run stories that punch tractor-trailers
sized holes in the Republican talking points on an almost daily basis.
For example, in the Washington
Post today a top-tier official from the CIA says that the Bush
administration kept pushing for the information they wanted, and ignored
all the information that contradicted their plans for attacking Iraq.
The CIA intelligence reports clearly indicated that Saddam Hussein was
“in a box”, and that the best way to keep him contain was to maintain
the status quo and increase the inspection schedules. Instead Bush and
Cheney took us to war under the false assumption that we would be
greeted as liberators.
So as dozens of scandals play
out ranging from the indictment of a top White House official to the
Abramoff lobbying scandal to the warrant-less spying on American
citizens, Republicans must shove their heads deeper and deeper into the
hole while chanting the Battle hymn of the Republic to drown out the
disturbing news. But they will never turn on the Republicans because
that is their team, and you always have two root for your team in
America. My team right or wrong, my party right or wrong. The hell with
the truth.
The ostrich effect is in full
swing throughout the Red States of America.
Dr John
Who
You Gonna Call?
February 10th, 2006
George Bush & Co. want you to be
very afraid that the bogeyman is going to get you. This is a Dick
Cheney-modified version of the Cold War, and it is meant to trample civil
rights, civil liberties, freedoms, and dissent against the administration
and its policies. Bush and Cheney will chant their mantra of “we are a
nation at war” over and over until they feel confident that you are
paralyzed with fear, and they can get away with anything.
As we head in to another election
year they will use this trick over and over to try and fool the American
people into thinking they are all about to die, and that only Republicans
can save them. Childish? Yes, but in America it seems to work very well.
You are going to hear all lot from
the Republicans about how the Democrats are soft on terrorists, and soft on
protecting America from threats. They will tell you that the Republicans are
really mean and a really tough, and they will get the job done.
This of course assumes that you
haven't paid any attention over the last five years at how poorly Bush and
Cheney have protected the American people and our troops from harm. Pulling
our troops out of Afghanistan and sending them to Iraq did not make America
safer, it squandered over 2000 lives and hundreds of billions of dollars
with the result of an inflamed and enraged Middle East rather than a
pacified one.
When it came time to protect
Americans during one of the worst natural disasters in American history, the
Bush administration set around playing guitars and talking about how
wonderful it was that New Orleans “dodged the bullet”. Tough talk from
incompetent and irresponsible draft dodgers.
A month before September 11, 2001
George Bush was on a month-long vacation. He received a daily brief that
said Osama bin Laden was going to attack the United States sometime soon.
George Bush, the guy who wants you to think he will protect you, pretty much
remained on vacation until after the terrorist attacks had occurred. Does
that sound like someone who is going to protect you?
In every single case, George Bush
and Dick Cheney, with the incompetent help of Donald Rumsfeld have made our
military and our civilian populace much less safe rather than more safe. So
when the next election comes, and the incompetent fools in the White House
ask you “who you gonna call?” to protect you from terrorists, the answer is
clear. If you're smart, you're not going to call the king of cronies who has
failed to protect America against enemies or natural disasters for over five
years.
We have found the enemy, and he is
in the White House.
Dr John
Everything going wrong? The Democrats did it!
February 2nd. 2006
In case you hadn't noticed,
the president and the Republicans are now employing a typical
kindergarten tactic; when you mess up real bad, blame it on innocent
little Billy who is sitting quietly next to you.
Just about everything that
president Bush and the Republicans have done for the last five years has
been a debacle, ranging from there unwarranted and ill-advised attack on
Iraq, to torturing detainees, to their handling of the massive Katrina
disaster in New Orleans, to warrant-less spying on the American public.
But rather than take
responsibility for their reckless policies and the enduring negative
consequences, they instead are trying to shift the blame to the party
that has been out of power for years. The Democrats did it!
According to George Bush and
Donald Rumsfeld, the only way we could possibly lose in Iraq is if
Democrats continue to criticize the war effort. That will give aid and
comfort to the enemy, and our mighty army will be defeated simply by a
few critics in the United States.
Typical Republican hogwash. We
already won the war in Iraq when Saddam Hussein was captured. If we had
really intended to turn the country over to the Iraqi people we could
have phased our troops out and then and turned security issues over to
the Iraqis themselves. But we pressed on with ineffective hit and run
tactics, with troops that were spread too thin and improperly equipped.
Now our heavy-handed tactics
have fueled a countrywide insurgency that may last for years, and
leaving now would certainly lead to civil war. So they have turned
victory into defeat and want to blame it on the Democrats. What
sniveling cowards they truly are.
Dr John
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