Lies, Damned Lies and Republican Talking Points

From time to time we have Republican propogandists come by and regurgitate warmed over (not even fresh!) Republican talking points. When the complete falsehood of their claims is pointed out, they almost never respond, simply waiting around for another chance to regurgitate the pre-digested pap Rush Limbaugh or Bill "bomb America" O'Rielly have fed to them.

Our main pet regurgitator has been "MrMe," and his latest is here. Interestingly in that latest rant he seems to be claiming some kind of censorship around here even though we have been approving his comments for months and months despite their complete lack of substance. And, ironically, if he simply signed up he wouldn't need our approval to post, but that task seems to have evaded his abilities. So, instead, if we don't approve his comments fast enough, he claims censorship.

But that point aside, the simple fact is he is typical of a whole group of apologists for the right wing extremists and very little of what he says has a grain of truth. It isn't even traditional Republican conservativism he supports because traditional Republican conservativism didn't include the idea of giving the Federal government the power to push aside all states rights, Constitutional rights and checks and balances on the President to allow the President to run the nation like a dictator. But the current worshippers of the Bush Idol are more than willing to see unprecedented power concentrated in the hands of Bush.

Let's examine some of MrMe's talking points.

He claims that somehow Bush is defending us from Islamic extremism and opposition to Bush and the McCain/Bush/Lieberman escalation somehow delivers our daughters into the hands of Muslim extremists. Well, the most obvious flaw in this is the fact that Bush's best friends are the Saudi Royal family, well known for their association with the Islamic fundamentalist Wahabi branch of Sunni Islam and their staunch support of oppressing women. His main target has not been al-Qaeda and their supporters, but rather Iraq, a nation that was SECULAR and whose only relationship to al-Qaeda was to battle them for far longer than the US has. Bush has in essence enabled al-Qaeda at every turn. He reversed the international financial reforms that Clinton had set in motion to cut off funding to al-Qaeda. He refused to listen to the warnings of Bill Clinton, the FBI and the CIA, calling Clinton "obsessed with al-Qaeda." Consequently, THIS is what we saw from Bush on 9/11:

Wow. Great bulwark against extremism. Remember, he sat there doing nothing while we were attacked and AFTER he had been warned that "Osama bin Laden determined to attack the US." Wish Bush had been a little more "obsessed with al-Qaeda."

Clinton may have been obsessed with al-Qaeda (who has, indeed, attacked Americans repeatedly), but Bush has been obsessed with Iraq. And I am not sure why. Every single excuse Bush offered for his Iraq invasion turned out to be a blatant lie, something that arguably is impeachable, though the precedent for that has not yet been set. Bush got us into a quagmire in Iraq for no clear reason, based on lies and with no exit strategy or clear benefit to the US. And to MrMe who still tries to link the invasion of Iraq to al-Qaeda, remember this:

THIS MAN (shaking hands with Donald Rumsfeld):

Had NOTHING to do with THIS EVENT (which I experienced first hand):

So all Americans need to ask THIS MAN:

when we will catch THIS MAN:

That's right. Osama bin Laden. The man who really was responsible for attacking America. The man Bush has publically said he isn't really interested in catching. The man we had cornered, then let slip away so we could move our troops for the Iraq invasion. Meanwhile Muslim extremism has been growing in Somalia, Pakistan, Afghanistan and even in Bahrain, once a bulwark of moderate Islam. Bush's insane foreign policy has aided and abetted the spread of fundamentalist Islam. Only Bush could turn bin Laden and Hussein BOTH into heros throughout the Muslim world. And even among the most centrist, formerly pro-American Arab circles, Bush has become despised.

Bush has failed America. He has let the man who attacked us go free while he picks fights with nations that, though horrible in their own way, had nothing to do with attacks on America. He has, quite simply, picked a fight with Islamic groups so averse to eachother and so distinct that it really does appear to the Muslim world that we are indeed on a crusade against all Islam.

And what of this McCain/Bush/Lieberman escalation that Republican extremists love so much? Well, NO ONE ELSE seems to think it is a good idea. Britain, our main ally, is initiating an immediate scaling back of their forces, distancing themselves as much as possible from the McCain/Bush/Lieberman escalation. Other allies are not too keen on furthering their involvement in the quagmire. Denmark is pulling out. Lithuania is thinking of pulling out. Many reluctant allies left long ago. Americans oppose the escalation 2:1. Hell, even a handful of Congressional Republicans are finally feeling like enough is enough. For example:

Rep. John J. Duncan Jr. (R-TN): When you find out you are going down the wrong way on the interstate, you do not keep going. You get off at the next exit." (Democrats have been saying that for years)

Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX): "The biggest red herring in this debate is the innuendo that those who don't support expanding the war somehow don't support the troops." (Democrats have been saying that for years)

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Me.): "My conclusion was that it would be a mistake to send more troops to Baghdad. I think the sectarian violence there requires a political, not a military, solution." (Wow...Democrats have been saying that for years!)

Welcome aboard, a little late I would say.

There is NO EVIDENCE whatsoever that Bush has succeeded in doing anything to make America safer. He has simply run up the largest deficits in American history, failed to prevent attacks on the US, failed to stop those who attacked us, lied repeatedly to us, violated the Constitution by his own admission, and all in all acted like an arbitrary dictator with no coherant policy or moral values.

And THIS is what people are defending?

Bookmark/Search this post with:

| | | | |