Myopia

If John Kerry scares you more than George Bush scares you, you scare me:

The following is from - http://www.thepoorman.net/archives/003137.html.

1. Iraq didn't have any WMD, or any significant ties to al Qaeda! The war has cost over $200 billion dollars, and Iraq's oil wealth has not paid for reconstruction! Also, Iraqis have not welcomed coalition troops with flowers and candy, and over 1,000 American troops have died, the country's falling apart in ethnic and nationalist violence, and the best excuse for this clusterfuck anyone can offer is some happy talk about painting schools and turning metaphorical corners!

2. George W. Bush is not a West Texas rancher whose simple heartland values and quiet inner strength have guided his climb to political and financial success! Actually, he was born into a wealthy Eastern establishment family, his grandfather was a US Congressman, and his father was a US Congressman, Director of the CIA, and Vice-President and President of the United States! George W. Bush went to Harvard and Yale, where he didn't work very hard; he was a spoiled rich wastrel until at least his 40th birthday; he summers in tony Kennebunkport, Maine; he has relied on his family's wealth and influence to get everything he got in life; and his Southern accent is totally phony!

3. The economy is not strong, and it's not getting stronger! In less than four years, George W. Bush has lost 2 million jobs, taken the United States from record budget surplus to record deficit, saddled the American taxpayer with hundreds of billions of dollars worth of federal boondoggles, and transferred the tax burden of the ultra rich to the poor and middle class! Indeed, his former chief economic advisor, Paul O'Neill, wrote a book which charged the President neither understood nor cared to understand anything about economics!

4. The reputation of the United States has been demolished over the last four years! We have alienated allies, embarrassed ourselves in front of the UN, and undermined the struggle for human rights around the world by holding secret prisoners, sending innocent people abroad to be tortured, and torturing prisoners to death in Iraq and Afghanistan!

5. George W. Bush is an idiot! Really! He can't form a coherent sentence, he shows no aptitude for or interest in any intellectual pursuit, and he routinely embarrasses himself and the country with his shocking displays of ignorance! He falls down constantly, and he almost died eating a pretzel!

6. George W. Bush is a horrible President! When given a daily briefing entitled "Bin Laden determined to attack in the United States", he took no action, went on vacation, and a few weeks later 3,000 people were dead! Then he failed to get the guy behind the attacks because he had to invade another country which had nothing to do with anything! Now, North Korea and Iran are well on their way to developing nuclear weapons, view us as an immediate threat to their survival, and we lack the diplomatic clout or ability to organize the world against them! Meanwhile, Bush's major concerns are gay people getting married, putting a man on Mars so we can say we did, and getting steroids out of sports! America is weaker, poorer, less safe, less respected, and less sane than it was before George W. Bush became President, it's pretty much all his fault, and he just isn't interested!

TheGladio

Okay, let's address this.

1) Sarin was found in Iraq. What's more, you can't logically state "they had no WMD" - only that they've found nothing that you classify as WMD, and don't forget - they used long-range missiles that they weren't even supposed to have. They were in violation of what the UN required. There's no way around that.

2) What does this have to do with anything? You could say the same thing about nearly any politician... and it'd still be a waste of your breath.

3) I have to say, I dig your use of exclamation points. Despite that, the US economy *is* getting stronger, although it's still grappling with the effects of a recession. The transfer of tax burden isn't quite valid, either.

4) Yeah, the UN is just who I want to impress. The UN is a tool, nothing more - a useless one, at that, that makes declarations and has no intentions of backing them up. The UN wants Kerry, because Kerry has given them what they want, a statement to the effect that "The UN can be the brains, the US will be the brawn." I don't consider the UN to be worth considering when it comes to US interests.

5) So you want a talking head in office? I don't think Bush's accent or his ability to speak on his feet is really an indicator of his intellect. Nor do I think an accident involving eating a pretzel is relevant. Zachary Taylor died from drinking spoiled milk; was he an idiot, by definition, too?

6) Clinton had the same kind of brief.

Sorry, I just disagree with you. :)

You know, the thing is: I'm not really a Bush SUPPORTER. I think Kerry'd be a horrible president, but I would rather vote for none-of-the-above, if it came down to it.

I guess what's amusing about all this is that I'm enough to the center that all the people on different sides think I'm anti-them. Plus, I'm willing to consider the, you know, facts instead of whether I think his accent is real and stuff. :)

"and I think everything Kerry says scares the heck out of me, what with him saying that our competitors will be consulted about our interests."

Just don't consult them, then don't whine if they crash planes int o your houses. Or at least, don't be suprised when they crash planes into your houses. Sound cynically, but well.

And I won't argue with people who only have FOX, NBC and CNN about WMDs ;-)

Stephan Schmidt [stephan@mud.de]

Okay, so you're saying it's okay if I do something for myself that doesn't contribute to your largesse, and then you retaliate by killing people?

I don't think so.

>He supports the war when it's politically
>expedient, and doesn't support it... when it's
>politically expedient to be anti-war. I'd rather he
>made a stand, but I'm not sure he remembers how -
>and if he did, I might not agree with it anyway.

Do you also believe that Gore claimed he invented the internet? The Flip-Flop-Image of Kerry is a fabrication of conservatives. Please read up on Framing: http://del.icio.us/tag/framing

Also I don't understand:
>what with him [Kerry] saying that our competitors
>will be consulted about our interests.

Do you have a quote handy?

But the fact that you believe that most bloggers support democrats, shows (IMHO) that your reading habits are not influenced by your political opinion - because there are a lot of conservative bloggers. If you only count americans - I wouldn't be surprised if the difference was rather small. However if you count all english-speaking weblogs obviously there'll way more anti-bush sentiments (obviously, since Non-Americans have a really hard time understanding how someone like him ever became president - and the things he has done, have made the world a lot more dangerous).

Interested Reader

No, I don't think Gore claimed that he invented the Internet. I don't think I'm stupid, thank you.

Kerry on the UN: "I'm an internationalist. I'd like to see our troops dispersed through the world only at the directive of the United Nations." (Do a search on google with that data for attributions.)

My reading habits are pretty voracious. I read a few conservative bloggers, to be sure, but let's just say the vast majority of them are anti-Bush.

A question. After 4 years of the Bush administration, do you think America's standing in the world is higher or lower? You might not care, but it DOES have a major effect on us.

Let's go back a bit. This country had a golden opportunity after 9/11 to cement its position as world leader. Indeed, our friends and allies rushed to support the action in Afghanistan, after which US credibility was at an all time high. But we then went on to invade a country that had NOT attacked us. To justify the attack our President quoted intelligence sources (Intelligence Agencies are NOT responsible for policy by the way and should NEVER be used to justify policy decisions - there are many more factors to making a policy decision that just relying on "we think they are ..."). Oh and by the way, these same Intelligence Agencies had just missed the biggest attack on US soil since Pearl Harbor - a credibility increase from 0% to 100% overnight! Moreover, even with the huge standing the US had post 9/11, the President could not persuade a majority of the Security Council (most of whom were our friends and allies) of the strength of his case.

The simple fact is that the President is guilty of making a massive blunder and error of judgement by authorizing the attack on Iraq. Without question. Despite what spin is now put on it - there was no reason to invade Iraq. Using emotions to put the Fear of God into people to gain support for a war (which is what has been done) is morally reprehensible.

What effect does this have on the US? The rest of the world is, to put it mildly, bemused. It believes that the Bush Administration is an aberration, and is hoping against hope that a new Administration takes over. If we do not sack the guy responsible for Iraq, the rest of the world will begin to turn its back on America, and American interests will suffer. People will not buy our goods if alternatives exist, will not choose to deal with Americans, will shun us. I kid you not.

So forget all the politics. Look at the results. This country is mired in a horrible war of its own creation. We have an opportunity to put our hands up, take responsibilty, sack the man who caused this problem, and begin to regain some dignity. Remember that the US needs the world as much (if not more) than the world needs the US. Your job depends on it.

As for all the Kerry "statements", well, remember the context. Kerry is challenging the most powerful man in this country (used to be the world, but the President has lost a tremendous amount of influence, and as diplomatic weaponry, in this post-cold war era, nukes are useless to the US). Moreover, political science has made leaps and bounds, and the President has access to more of it at higher quality. Techniques exist that aim to influence your emotions at the expense of your judgement. And Carl Rove is good at using them. Therefore, I urge you to ignore the jibes made by both sides. Stick to the facts. Would you keep your job if you made a massive, corporate-threatening mistake. Why should Bush?

PS - I am not a registered Republican nor a Democrat. I AM a very concerned citizen

Dave Butler