Neocon watch - who's a traitor?

In a heavily Republican district in Illinois, a dubya dittohead (i.e. debt is good, war is great for business, women should have less rights, government should be able to freely pry into personal lives, anyone should have quick access to military-level assault weapons, science is bad, all that crap) named Peter Roskam rolled out one of the typical neocon talking points during his debate with his challenger, former Army Captain Tammy Duckworth.

Since Captain Duckworth served in Iraq, she saw firsthand what is going on, and advocates a phased redeployment of the military to leave the middle of the Iraqi civil war (aka dubya's war for oil), so that those forces can be used in the war against terror. Like all armed service veterans (save one) who are currently running for Congress, she is a Democrat. This caused the scripted knee-jerk personal assault from Roskam against Duckworth. In a debate, Roskam called Duckworth a "cut and runner".

Captain Duckworth lost both of her legs in Iraq. That is her sacrifice for her country. The ruling party's response to her sacrifice is to poke fun at her literal inability to run. And deploy Dick Cheney and Laura Bush to personally raise money to help him get elected via a smear campaign. How pathetic is that? What was once a great political party, the Republicans are reduced to such tactics, and have no conscience or remorse in doing so.

Conservative articles on the incident:
CNN
MSNBC

A must see commentary

Once again, Olbermann shows the guts it takes to be in the mainstream media, and point out the truth, what people are really thinging, and present a commentary on that. Very refreshing in these days when the mainstream media has largely been reduced to outlets for populating politically motivated talking point, and spewing hate as "fair and balanced" news.

Cost of dubya's war

When dubya pre-emptively attacked Iraq, throwing the country into a state of civil war, creating a factory for terrorists, setting up huge swatches of Iraq where al Qaeda can train their minions and causing widespread destabilization in the Middle East, one of the promises given to the American public is that this war would be free, since Iraq's oil revenues would completely pay all US costs. This was, of course, an outright lie. Here's what it means to the bottom line of US taxpayers:

Of course, I should hope that the cost in human lives and massive ill will the world now has for the US should be compelling enough to opposed dubya's war for oil, but if none of those topics matter to you, perhaps the cost will.

(political cartoon credit to Mike Thompson)

What will he wipe next with the flag

Considering how every little aspect of his scripted public appearances are so planned as to play to people's gut reactions, I wonder what the motivation behind making sure this was one of the symbols of yesterday?



"By showing respect for our flag, we show reverence for the ideals that guide our nation. And we show appreciation for the men and women who have served in defense of those ideals."
GWB, advocating a constitutional amendment against flag desecration, 6/27/06

If you're still, you can hear Cheney laughing in the background. One thing's for sure, dubya still can amaze. I never would have thought he'd have the guts to desecrate a flag in public as part of a 9/11 remembrance. I'm sure it's pure poetry to his handlers that are systematically removing liberties and freedoms from the American people, but it makes me sick.

To paraphrase George Orwell: "If you want a vision of the future, imagine a shoe stamping on a symbol of freedom - forever."

And, for anyone whose defensive reaction is: oh, he obviously didn't see it because he was looking away, he'd never desecrate a flag intentionally - well, sorry...
news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/060911/ids_photos_ts/r2976054383.jpg


thinkinganddriving.com/blog/2006/09/11/appropriate-sept-11-tribute


www.salon.com/politics/war_room/2006/09/11/flag/index.html


news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/060911/ids_photos_ts/r1066002127.jpg

A true must-watch

A very articulate editorial in response to Donald Rumsfeld's recent, rather horrifying, justifications for reaching our current state of foreign policy:
www.crooksandliars.com/2006/08/30/keith-olbermann-delivers-one-hell-of-a-commentary-on-rumsfeld

Keith Olbermann is a wonderful dose of just what this country needs to hear and understand.