Friday fun

Not that I'm advocating violence, but do read it!

Shoot a Republican: The Sequel

Six months ago, we offered our Republican friends a unique opportunity to show up then-Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry while making a clear demarcation on what constitutes heroism, commitment and truth.

We offered to shoot them with a gun.

Or a really big slingshot.

Or a really small tank.

Mostly, we wanted to deliver into their bodies a similar amount of the metal received by Kerry while he was fighting in Vietnam. Republicans, who have always been suspicious of those who “serve” in the military—Kerry, John McCain, George Marshall—disputed how hurt Kerry actually was and, during the GOP National Convention, mocked him and his two Purple Hearts by wearing Band-Aids festooned with purple hearts. This they did while worshipfully listening to George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Bill Frist and Dennis Hastert, who, between them, served exactly—let’s see, carry the two, bring down the nine—ZERO days in Vietnam.(more...)

Down with Catkiller, Big Time, and Dubya!

I needed it! :D

confronted by people in their home towns who saw them. I know Republicans who found it as sick as we did. I can't believe that there wasn't a single Republican who took the stage who would have had the good grace to suggest that it was in poor taste and they should remove them. (Of all people, McCain saying nothing was the most disgusting - Kerry stood up for him - and saying something while endorsing Bush, wouldn't have hurt him.)

I wholeheartedly concur. The band-aid thing at the Rethug Gathering of the Damned last fall was despicable. How do those morally deformed cretins sleep at night. Al Franken had a great chapter in his Lying Liars book about what Limbaugh, O'Lielly, Cheney and * would do in actual combat. It was hilarious. (Especially as opposed to people like Kerry, Kerrey and Cleland who actually have bled for this country.)

Hey, did anybody in here go to the protest in NYC. I was kind of there, but I was just dropping my daughter off at school. (Yes, freshman orientation was the same weekend, yes, it was strange.)

but spent a lot of time there vicariously through the good offices of c-span. :-)

You know I've thought long and hard about that whole travesty, about why people would go so far out of their way to mock and tear down a wounded, decorated combat veteran and I decided it's because they're cowards, the politicians they support are known cowards and deep down they're ashamed it. It's like that saying, tell me what you hate and I'll tell you what you are.

They hate Kerry because he is what they would like to be and never could be. The only way they can fight back is to try to tear him down to their level. But in trying to do so (they can never truly succeed) they expose how small, petty and weak they really are.

there. I guess that's the Rovian campaign strategy in a nutshell. Your guy is slime, so you have no choice but to make the other guy appear slimier, no matter how many lies you have to tell to get there.

What honestly puzzles me is why so many voters are willing to buy into it. I know, the media crapfest plays a HUGE part in this, but why is it that people are so unwilling to look at the facts? It didn't really take all that much investigation to figure out the truth about Shrub's "service" record. And in spite of all the hoopla about Kerry signing the stupid "180", anyone could go and look at Kerry's records ant time they wanted to.

Laziness is part of it, but I don't believe that's the whole story. I tend to think the real answer has more to do with a deliberate rethug mass cynicism war. Something like "they're all the same, and you can't trust any of them so why bother?"

What do you think??

People are lazy but they don't want to appear like they're being "taken in." It is sooo much easier to just throw up your hands and say "They're all crooked liars" than to try and figure out who's telling the truth. So you're cynical about the whole process, you don't bother to think and read for yourself and you just vote for the guy who "talks like you" or the one your church tells you to, or the one that is already in power because it's "too dangerous to change horses in midstream."

The thing that pissed me off was all the people who would admit that everything the swiftbost liars said was untrue when faced w/ my barrage of facts but then they'd say, "But there must be something to it, you know? It can't ALL be lies." ARRRGHH, that sort of stupidity is what Rove and co. depend on.

There has been a great deal of stuff published about how * was a drunk and a deserter from his post in the service. (He was definitely AWOL when he went to Harvard and never showed up at his assigned unit up here.) Does the general public say ''there must be something to it, it can't all be lies' on him?

BTW, apathy is a stated goal of the neocon movement. (Read Thomas Frank's book "What's the Matter With Kansas.") Part of the Big Lie is to convince middle America that Liberals permanently control all media and that nothing can or will ever be done about it. (Resistance is futile.) The Neocons use this to play 'bait and switch' with their voters. They tell their voters not to bother to look to hard at the fine print. If there is anything wrong, liberals did it. Things like the Bankruptcy Bill pass because the conservative voters don't check and are not encouraged at all to 'look under the hood' of what the Rethug snake-oil salesmen are selling.

This is not a sustaining movement though. Sooner or later, perhaps through generational change, people do start looking under the hood. (Much of social change is cyclical and depends on a new generation coming in and upsetting the previous generations apple cart of ideas. This will happen. It always does.)

Like none of the immoral and iniquitous behavior of his first 40 years counts. Like "finding God" at a convenient point in his life excuses everything.

I hope you're right about the next generation waking up - something has to happen soon or I will not recognize this country anymore.

I don't believe Sen. Kerry ever lost him. Sigh! I understand about being 'born-again' and washed in the blood and all, but really. Forgiveness means that you regret doing what you did, not "Oh goodie I got a get out of jail free card." That's not genuine religious contrition. It's the easy way to a quick and painless grace that doesn't cost the person anything. Geez, I really don't get that.

Being Catholic I understand about forgiveness and starting over but we also believe in genuine contrition and also acts of penance. I've yet to see shrub show either.

And yes, Kerry has always seemed to live a life informed by his faith - and the fundies (and ultra conservatives of other faiths) gave him no credit for that.

totally disgusting! And I suppose the shrub is some courageous, honest forthright guy who went into Vietnam to serve his country. HA! He took the cowards way out and couldn't even handle the cushy duty his daddy bought him. What a bunch of freaking hypocrites those repukes are!