Green USA

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

John McCain's Dirt on the Cross Lies

The exposure of another likely plagiarism, this time originally pegged to plagiarizing Solzhenitsyn, by the McCain Campaign has them and their surrogates hypocritically attacking the patriotism of a Navy Veteran:

First of all, I would like to thank the people who have sent their encouragement and kind messages to me. I have been complimented on my "good citizen journalism" and have seen people take my idea and raise it to the level such that it is being talked about in the mainstream media.
Of course, along with the good comes the bad, and I have been called a traitor, a terrorist, un-American, and someone who wants to destroy Christianity. I have been called a "pro-Obama Dungeons & Dragons" player who loves to "disparage a fellow countryman's memory of war from the comfort of mom's basement" by the McCain people. Because of these attacks, I feel that it is necessary to tell a bit about myself, and to highlight what it is that we are really up against in the candidate that is John McCain.

I served in the Navy as a Nuclear Plant Operator for over 14 years. I served onboard the USS Texas (CGN-39) in Operation Desert Storm. I served onboard the USS Arkansas (CGN-41) in support of Operation Desert Fox. I was a crewmember of the USS Carl Vinson (CVN-70) when airplanes struck the Twin Towers on 9/11, and our ship was the first ship that was flying attack missions into Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. I am a father, a husband, an active member of VoteVets, and I take personally any attack on my character or on my morality.
...snip...

They have used McCain's POW history to create a firewall to shield from all criticism, and as a universal qualifier for all things that pertain to foreign policy or to the military.
Here are some examples:

- Any question of McCain's integrity is instantly an insult to all military personnel and all veterans who have ever served.

- Any opposition to McCain's ideas must be prefaced with a disclaimer honoring his military service.

- Any McCain misstep or gaffe is instantly forgiven because he was once a Prisoner of War, and must be honored as such.

- John McCain's war hero status overrides the Ten Commandments, because according to Sean Hannity, his adultery is erased by the fact that he was imprisoned in Vietnam.

The Legend of John McCain^TM has been perpetuated by the Republican party and the Corporate Media to crush all dissent and create a teflon candidate that is beyond reproach.

Previously Brewed in New Milford:

Alexander Solzhenitsyn Or John McCain?

Who are you going to believe?

You read. You watch. You Decide:

Here is a story about Alexander Solzhenitsyn from his times in the Soviet Gulags.

Along with other prisoners, he worked in the fields day after day, in rain and sun, during summer and winter. His life appeared to be nothing more than backbreaking labor and slow starvation. The intense suffering reduced him to a state of despair.

On one particular day, the hopelessness of his situation became too much for him. He saw no reason to continue his struggle, no reason to keep on living. His life made no difference in the world. So he gave up.

Leaving his shovel on the ground, he slowly walked to a crude bench and sat down. He knew that at any moment a guard would order him to stand up, and when he failed to respond, the guard would beat him to death, probably with his own shovel. He had seen it happen to other prisoners.

As he waited, head down, he felt a presence. Slowly he looked up and saw a skinny old prisoner squat down beside him. The man said nothing. Instead, he used a stick to trace in the dirt the sign of the Cross. The man then got back up and returned to his work.

As Solzhenitsyn stared at the Cross drawn in the dirt his entire perspective changed. He knew he was only one man against the all-powerful Soviet empire. Yet he knew there was something greater than the evil he saw in the prison camp, something greater than the Soviet Union. He knew that hope for all people was represented by that simple Cross. Through the power of the Cross, anything was possible.

Solzhenitsyn slowly rose to his feet, picked up his shovel, and went back to work. Outwardly, nothing had changed. Inside, he had received hope.

[From Luke Veronis, "The Sign of the Cross"; Communion, issue 8, Pascha 1997.]

Now watch this John McCain ad:

Does anyone else get the feeling that McCain's old war stories that he rattled on about during the Forum on Faith, and during this campaign, are nothing more than a heaping, steaming pile of BS? Hey! it wouldn't be the only lies John McCain told in that church last night...

Further reading for your homework pleasure:
TomP: Cross in the Dirt, a recap of what we know
Calouste: No "cross in the sand" for McCain in 1973
Throwing Stones: McCain lies, contradicts himself on Cross story

[update] It appears that even the Freepers have known McCain's story was all a lie since way back in 2005:
And McCain had just published his latest book of embellished tales. A Freeper posted the reference to the Cross-in-the-Dirt story, and Freepers accepted it with, lets say, something less than enthusiasm.

http://www.freerepublic.com/...

Among some of the responses are:

Do I sense a run for president coming up? Sorry if I'm too cynical.

Perhaps McCain is making obvious Christian statements to gain support for 2008.
----
Perhaps??? :-)

and of course:

This guy is so full of $hit his eyes are brown. He is a sellout RINO. I would not believe a word he says.

But my jaw hit the floor when I read this:

Hmmmm. Looks like McCain has been reading Solzhenitsyn.
From The Mayor's daily posts at FR's Finest and The Canteen from the devotional "Our Daily Bread" comes Sunday's reading...

World-famous Russian author Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn was sent to a Siberian prison because he criticized communism. Languishing there under intolerable conditions year after year, he decided to end his life. But suicide, he firmly believed, would be against God's will. He thought it would be better for a guard to shoot him.

So at a public assembly of the prisoners, he sat in a front row, planning to get up and walk toward an exit, compelling a guard to kill him. But to his surprise, another prisoner sat down, blocking his exit. That unknown man leaned over and, to Solzhenitsyn's astonishment, drew a cross on the dirt floor.

Here's a direct link to that response:
http://www.freerepublic.com/...
So... Both the left and the right seem to be in agreement that McCain is full of, ummm? Let's just say McCain has brown eyes, OK?

So far we have established that McCain has had different versions of the story to recount in more recent years - since about the year 2000 - for campaign purposes, a pretty clear indication that McCain can't keep the lies straight:

It's worth noting that pursuing the cross-in-the-dirt evangelical parable as it might have happened to McCain is in no way impugning anyone's war record. No one is disputing in any way what McCain did in Vietnam, his heroism, his sacrifice or any jot and tittle of his combat in arms and time in captivity. What we're curious about is how an urban legend in Christianist circles (attributed to Solzhenitsen but originating, so far as one can tell, in Chuck Colson) reshaped and altered an actual, utterly believable story of rare humanity in a prison camp. And how a campaign not only adopted the improved story but then wielded it in a campaign ad and as a critical message to evangelicals. If that ad is not actually true - and its depiction of the cross in the dirt we know is false (according to McCain, it was done with a sandal; in the ad it is done, as in Colson's account, with a stick) - it's a question of challenging a campaign's veracity, and what can only be called a cynical use of religion. Could the campaign confirm that the ad itself is visually incompatible with the Salter story? Or were they unconcerned with such detail, assuming no one would be foolish enough to question a war hero's unconfirmable anecdote - and eager merely to show the deeper (and true) point that McCain relied on God to survive the unimaginable?

And, clearly, many of the witnesses the right wing have trotted out to provide cover for the plagiarism charges in the last week claiming McCain told them before have been so contradictory in their stories it is laughable.

From May of this year:
“I don’t recall us talking specifically about our faith,” says Orson Swindle, one of McCain’s closest friends and a fellow POW. “We talked about our friends, families, our resistance posture, and that our country didn’t seem to have the will to win.”

Belief in a higher power helped them survive the routine torture and daily indignities, Swindle says. “It would help us endure what we had to endure. But we knew God wasn’t going to come down and wave a magic wand.”
Swindle's recollection today is here.

Spin reactionary right wing thugs. What a joke... His life and faith altering moment was so important that there is no recount in his earlier recounts of Christmas stories:

I just want to point out that there's a chapter specifically devoted to three Christmases of McCain's captivity in The Nightingale's Song, Robert Timberg's critically acclaimed 1995 book, which helped put McCain on the map as a political celebrity -- and the cross story does not appear. Nor does it appear anywhere else in the book.

The chapter is titled "'Tis the Season to Be Jolly." It says that on Christmas Eve 1968, a guard tried to compel McCain to attend a church service that was being staged for the benefit of visiting photographers. McCain decided "to ruin the picture," letting out a series of curses ("'Fu-u-u-u-ck you, you son of a bitch!' shouted McCain, hoisting a one-finger salute whenever a camera pointed in his direction"). There's certainly no mention of a cross in the sand in this account.

On Christmas Eve 1969, we're then told, McCain had a civil conversation with ~~the Cat, the one guard he's said in other accounts was considerate to him~~ a guard called the Cat (see Calouste's correction in comments) -- but again there's no mention of a cross in the sand. (Timberg tells us that McCain and the Cat discussed the Cat's tie clip and cigarette lighter, as well as McCain's decision not to accept early release.)

On Christmas 1970, Timberg writes, McCain was transferred to a cell with his friend Bud Day -- "the perfect Christmas present" because he'd just spent two and a half years in solitary. Again, no cross.

(The chapter also includes an account of the car accident in which McCain's first wife, whom he later divorced, was seriously injured. The accident took place on Christmas Eve 1969.)

Never mind that his rock solid faith was so affirmed by all of his experiences as a POW that as soon as he got home he cheated on his first wife repeatedly... Before divorcing her.

Do you really think anybody is believing a word that comes out of McCain or his campaign anymore?

If McCain's lips are moving... He is lying:

The problem is that in an era where things can easily be verified, “I don’t remember” is sometimes passable and “I never said that” or “I never did that” is unacceptable and easily verifiable.

We know that he lied about not writing letters to the FCC to benefit one of his campaign contributors;
We know that he lied when he said that he never asked for nor received a single earmark;
We know that he lied about privatizing Social Security;
During the primaries, he lied about his potential running mate, Romney on more than one occasion;
Over the past week, he lied about Obama and visiting the troops. In fact, his new ad on this is also a lie.
He lied this week (again) about not using the word “timetable”;
He lied about his admission that he is the damn fool when it comes to the economy;
His campaign lied about oil spills after Hurricane Katrina;
He lied about his voting record when questioned by a veteran about it;
He recently lied to either a child or to conservative bloggers about immigration;
He lied about his POW experience (i.e., Pittsburgh Steelers vs. Green Bay Packers), and while this isn’t as big a deal to me, it should be raised if stupid petty nonsense about Obama gets raised.
Of course his wife Cindy lied about her recipes for cookies when she stole them from Family Circle magazine. Of course, stealing is something that she knows well, as she also stole painkillers from a veteran’s charity that she was in charge of.
He lied recently to FoxNews about a Town Hall event they were working together on;
He lied about decreasing oil prices being because Bush lifted the offshore drilling ban;
He has lied about Obama’s and Clinton’s health care proposals;
He lied about his position on Bosnia and Kosovo in trying to prove his credentials;
He lied about Clinton and Obama’s comments regarding renegotiating NAFTA;
He lied about his opting into public financing when it was convenient for him to opt back out;
He lied a few months back about Iran-Contra.
He lied about his involvement (not sexual but political) with Iseman and her firm.
And that is just off the top of my head and a quick search.
So let’s start calling him what he is. A full on liar. Not only “forgetful”, not only “misinterpreted”, not only “misquoted”, not only mean-spirited and stretching the truth.

And, please remember you insane right wing nuts... That if you really want to address who started all of these plagiarism accusations in the first place: Right wingnut Freepers at the Free Republic. Yeah, that's right... YOUR OWN RIGHT WINGNUT SMEAR CAMPAIGN BUDDIES.

Can we help it if it is pretty darn clear that it is true?

[update] The long trail of this mythology/story on the conservative side of the aisle makes it pretty darned clear that any right wingnut could have cobbled this campaign lie together for McCain:

But it turns out that this episode probably never happened to Solzhenitsyn at all, and according to a Solzhenitsyn biographer it appears nowhere in his published writing. Columbia University professor Michael Scammell, the author of Solzhenitsyn: A Biography, says the episode "never happened," and didn't appear in Solzhenitsyn's book, Gulag Archipelago, either.

This only solves a piece of the mystery, but it's a key piece. It doesn't necessarily rule out the possibility that McCain or his biographer, Mark Salter, picked up the tale that this happened to Solzhenitsyn elsewhere and embellished it for their own purposes.

But it takes one well-trafficked theory off the table: That McCain, a fan of Solzhenitsyn, picked it up straight from his works. More broadly, it also skewers once and for all the cherished right-wing falsehood that this happened to Solzhenitsyn at all.

Of course, it's still possible that McCain or Salter picked this up from the sort of right-wing circles that it first originated in. After all, this tale was bandied about by Chuck Colson and many other wingnuts for years; McCain or Salter could have picked it up from such circles, as the notes from Colson's 1983 book, Loving God, explain:

"The story about Alexander Solzhenitsen and the old man who made the sign of the cross was first told by Solzhenitsyn to a group of Christian leaders and later recounted by Billy Graham in his New Year's telecast, 1977. It has been retold subsequently, most publicly by Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC)."

Those investigating this story have also pointed out that no one can find evidence that McCain referenced this episode until his 1999 book -- it didn't appear anywhere in a lengthy 1973 article McCain wrote about his captivity. It does seem odd that McCain would not have discussed such a pivotal moment until twenty-five years later.

What is becoming clear is that this is just more of the typical GOP and conservative crap that is made up and inserted into the mythology of any campaign or far right wingnut cause that wants to abuse the truth.

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Thanks to the Dictators

It's not as if these Wackos of Mass Distractions at every level of the failing bush government could get any more stupid and incompetent:

Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s decision to suspend the constitution, seize emergency power, and round up leading opposition figures is bringing quiet joy to the State Department. “Thank heavens for small favors,” an aide to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said, referring to Musharraf’s actions. Compared to Pakistan, “Iraq looks pretty good.”

I am sure that these guys are not thanking heavens for this distraction from the republican warmongers' failures in Iraq:

Year	US Deaths	US Wounded
2003	486	2,411
2004	849	8,003
2005	846	5,948
2006	822	6,398
2007	846	5,411
Total	3849	28171

You can bet these guys aren't praying for distractions from the GOP's failures:

"U.S. soldiers comfort each other at their base after a roadside bomb exploded as a U.S. convoy was driving by in Saddam Hussein's hometown Tikrit, Wednesday, Oct. 1, 2003. Three soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division were wounded." (AP Photo/Karel Prinsloo)

Get out of here!

Friday, July 20, 2007

Via Think Progress:

War supporters responded yesterday to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-NV) call for an up-or-down vote on Iraq withdrawal legislation by threatening a permanent Iraq filibuster. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell proposed “an automatic 60-vote threshold for all key Iraq amendments.”

Meanwhile, as the GOP gets set for this little overnight filibuster what is Joe neocon Lieberman doing? He is out here using soldiers as PROPS on the very day he plans to stab them in the back... The video and more is here.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Republican + Terrorist = No MSM

If these scumbucket republicans aren't annoying enough:

Brian David Anderson was arrested in Spain in March, but you don't hear a thing as his ties to the card carrying Republican Al Qaeda terrorist Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari are going unreported in the American MSM. Hundreds of people defrauded, MILLIONS in fraud, terrorism ties, BUT nothing from the MSM.

Brian David Anderson was arrested in Spain in March. This guy was supposedly running a ponzi scheme and was picked up after defrauding hundreds of people out of millions of dollars.
A Canadian under investigation in British Columbia and Ontario for allegedly scamming millions from investors was arrested in Spain yesterday for his suspected role in financing terrorist training camps.

Spanish police said they had arrested businessman Brian David Anderson at a Madrid hotel for his alleged involvement in financing terrorist camps in Afghanistan.

The arrest followed a joint investigation led by the FBI, which arrested Mr. Anderson's business partner, Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari of New York, on terror financing charges last month.

Remember the Republican terrorist, Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari? (AKA Michael Mixon)

Ok... So the terrorism part first:
Terrorism charges brought Friday against the administrator of a loan investment program claimed that he secretly tried to send $152,000 to the Middle East to buy equipment such as night vision goggles for a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan.

Abdul Tawala Ibn Ali Alishtari, 53, of Ardsley, N.Y., pleaded not guilty in U.S. District Court in Manhattan to an indictment accusing him of terrorism financing, material support of terrorism and other charges. The charges carried a potential penalty of 95 years in prison.
But would you really believe me if I told you he was a Republican?
CBS News has confirmed that Alishtari is a donor to the Republican Party, as he claims on his curriculum vitae. Alishtari gave $15,500 to the National Republican Campaign Committee between 2002 and 2004, according to Federal Election Commission records. That amount includes $13,000 in 2003, a year when he claims to have been named NRCC New York State Businessman of the Year.

Alishtari also claims to be a lifetime member of the National Republican Senate Committee's Inner Circle, which the NRCC describes as "an impressive cross-section of American society – community leaders, business executives, entrepreneurs, retirees, and sports and entertainment celebrities – all of whom hold a deep interest in our nation's prosperity and security."
The Republican party needs to be placed on "The List" of terrorist related organizations and watched very carefully.

It is pretty apparent that the FBI and Homeland Security are wasting their time watching us liberal/peacenik/Quaker/progressive/etc. types.

Go read the rest...

Feeling Lucky?

Thursday, January 11, 2007

Murtha: Ixney on the funding, eh?

Arianna Huffington over at HuffPo has the scoop:

Murtha Again Taking the Lead on Iraq:
"When we asked about the likelihood of the president sending additional troops to Iraq, Murtha was adamant. 'The only way you can have a troop surge,' he told us, 'is to extend the tours of people whose tours have already been extended, or to send back people who have just gotten back home.' He explained at length how our military forces are already stretched to the breaking point, with our strategic reserve so depleted we are unprepared to face any additional threats to the country. So does that mean there will be no surge? Murtha offered us a 'with Bush anything is possible' look, then said: 'Money is the only way we can stop it for sure.'

To this end, Murtha, the incoming Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense, is planning to hold wide-ranging hearings, starting January 17th, that will focus on the depleted state of our military readiness , as well as contractor corruption in Iraq and Afghanistan. The goal is to turn the spotlight on how drained the military has become, and on how any talk of a troop surge is utterly irresponsible (as well as strategically misguided). 'The public,' he said repeatedly, 'is already ahead of us on all this.

He says he wants to 'fence the funding,' denying the president the resources to escalate the war, instead using the money to take care of the soldiers as we bring them home from Iraq 'as soon as we can.'"

Murtha will deny the stupid politicians the McCain/Lieberman option of sending more targets to Iraq.

Friday, November 03, 2006

Olbermann: Mr. Bush Might Be Stupid

No further comment neccessary...

Desperate Republican Vote Theft?

If you have electronic voting machines in your district check your votes carefully before you leave that voting booth:

CHECK YOUR VOTES VERY CAREFULLY!

Thursday, November 02, 2006

Buying Votes The Lieberman Way

Connecticut Bob has a clip from an interview with Conservative Alan Schlesinger saying that he thinks that it has to be "STREET MONEY":

For those of you unfamiliar with the term...
It means money used to BUY votes.

And Schlesinger says "It makes no other sense."

So Joe... What are you really trying to hide by not disclosing who all of that $387,000 in "Petty Cash" went to? This scandal ain't going away just becsause you chose to hide your campaign finance ledgers from the public.

Feeling Lucky?

Lieberman = The Definition Of Insanity

Ned Lamont drives the point home in a new add:

Vote for Ned Lamont!

Connecticut For Lieberman? Yeah right...

Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Why Nutmeggers Are Against Lieberman, Johnson, Shays & Simmons

"Are you with us or against us?"

Last night on the NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, columnist Mark Shields dropped this little bombshell:

MARK SHIELDS: The highest ranking or certainly one of the highest ranking men in the United States military today has recommended that we remove all troops from Baghdad

...snip...

JIM LEHRER: So who did he make this recommendation to?

MARK SHIELDS: He made it to the civilian leadership of the United States.

Of course there is no doubt that the Bush administration will follow the soldiers suggestion since Bush claims that he always takes their advice... So that there is no question concerning the Bush's intentions for winning the hearts and minds of Iraqis the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Karen Hughes headed off to the Middle East, to deliver "news" of the newest Bush plan:

Substantially expand…[the] “Micro scholarship” program…targeted at youth in key disadvantaged areas in Iraq, such as Sadr City or Anbar Governorate.”

Create a fund to support media projects by Iraqis, such as documentaries, short films, animation, audio-visual productions and other material that would show Iraq’s reality to pan-Arab and pan-Islamic audiences.

Revive book publishing in Iraq to fill the intellectual vacuum…and support…Iraq’s hard-pressed intellectuals.

Hey wait a second? That sounds suspiciously more like "RE-EDUCATION" AND PROPAGANDA PROGRAMS, like the previous propaganda programs run by the Lincoln Group in Iraq, than it does like pulling out of Baghdad.

“Donald Rumsfeld is backing off his claim last week that the Pentagon had stopped paying to plant stories in the Iraqi news media,” the AP reports.

On Sunday’s ABC This Week, Stephen Hadley acknowledged that President Bush has not yet ordered the shut-down of the Pentagon’s propaganda campaign in Iraq.

The UK Independent presents examples of the Lincoln Group’s propaganda work in Iraq, which one military specialist described as “comical.” One exaggerated headline: ‘IRAQI ARMY DEFEATS TERRORISM.’

We all know how successful those PROPAGANDA PROGRAMS were. Just look at where we are now, eh?

In a freaking vicious cycle of "Stay the course!", even while this BOZO administration and their supporters like Lieberman, Johnson, Shays, and Simmons, are denying that fact. And all because of the Bush administrations refusal to do what everyone in America knows they should do.

Listen to the military that is telling you that we need to get out of this mess. Listen to the American people, that obviously know better than you OR any of your supposed "Foreign Policy Experts". Propaganda will not win anything in Iraq.

"Change the Course!"

Those of you that support the failed Bush administration's policies - Lieberman, Simmons, Shays and Johnson - are going to get a rude awakening on November 7th.

Because "We, the outraged people", are changing the course whether you like it or not! For all of you propaganda spouting turds on the failed GOP side, I have only one question for you:

"Are you with us or against us?"

Lamont Has Grassroots Support

The Democratic establishment in Washington isn't doing much for Ned Lamont:

Ned Lamont got little financial support from congressional Democrats - and none from Connecticut Sen. Christopher J. Dodd and key Senate veterans - in the crucial weeks after he won the party's Senate nomination Aug. 8, according to new campaign finance data.

Lamont has alot of money, money that he has ponied up on his own, and money from the grassroots. Lamont doesn't get much from the entrenched establishment because they are afraid of him. But having the largest base of grassroot support in Connecticut is a good thing if you are looking to fix what is broken on Capitol Hill. Lamont hasn't taken anything from corporate lobbyists, and nothing from any PACs.

Ned Lamont's support is people powered.

Joe Lieberman has alot of money. He had a HUGE war che$t. But where does all of that money come from? Lobbyists and PACs and from republican supporters that want to see the Connecticut-bush-clone "Stay the course!"

Joe Lieberman's support is the problem that needs to be fixed.

Face the facts... Influence for votes on Capitol Hill is a bought and sold commodity to the entrenched establishment. Lobbyists for special interests, PACs, and corporations are buying the old guard establishment on a daily basis, and we are the ones that are losing out.

Voting for Ned Lamont is one little step that can help stem the tide of corruption. It can help take back one of those votes in the Senate and make it ours. It can help make that one vote beholden to us Nutmeggers and NOT to the entrenched establishment that is afraid of what the Lamont campaign means to them.

Can we afford to miss this opportunity to take back that one Seanate vote for ourselves? Not if we truely want to fix what is wrong with our government.

Change the course!
Vote for Ned Lamont

Monday, October 30, 2006

Lamont Rocks!

There is no doubt that
JOE HAS GOT TO GO!

Democratic candidate Ned Lamont will
"CHANGE THE COURSE!"

Lieberman info

Sunday, October 29, 2006

Hastert Lies AGAIN...

Hastert Just can't seem to stop getting caught lying. Tuesday the man behind the Foley cover-up released a statement that was... Well? An outright lie. To put it mildly.

Democrat Leader Pelosi’s plan is to leave our borders open, grant blanket amnesty and provide Social Security benefits to illegal immigrants. Is THAT their plan? Democrat Leader Nancy Pelosi has NEVER visited the border. She claims to understand the needs of those on the front lines but has never visited those agents and offers no solutions.

How do we know it was another Hastert lie?

Here is a snippet from the Pelosi response:

“I visited the southern border in March with Congressman Silvestre Reyes, who had a distinguished career of leadership in the Border Patrol. I was able to see firsthand the Republicans’ record of failure on border security.

“This morning, the President plans to sign legislation authorizing a 700-mile border fence that his own Administration does not plan to build and for which the Republican Congress has not provided construction money.

“This fence that will not actually be built is a perfect symbol of the Republicans’ unwillingness to make controlling our borders a priority."

The Texas Congressman Reyes, after confirming Pelosi's visit to the border, had this to say about it all:

Perhaps that is why after six years of controlling the White House, the Senate, and the House, their ‘signature achievement’ on border security is a 700 mile fence along a 2,000 mile border. This fence doesn’t come close to solving our problem.

Unfortunately, no amount of photo-ops or signing ceremonies is going to take the place of real leadership on this vitally important issue.

I am certain the planned 12 foot high fence will increase the sales in Mexico of 13 foot ladders to get over it and shovels to dig under it, but I doubt it will stop many illegal border crossings. I also think that Hastert doesn't understand the real needs concerning securing our borders and hasn't offered any real solution at all.

Now that Hasterts latest lie has been exposed, I wonder how long it will be before he addresses his earlier lies about the Foley cover-up? Brian Ross at ABC news' The Blotter has an update on another Republican being investigated:

A source close to former House Clerk Jeff Trandahl told ABC News that Arizona Congressman Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) was one of a small number of "problem members"

...snip...

Kolbe was also asked by reporters to respond to reports that the U.S. Attorney in Phoenix has opened a preliminary inquiry into a 1996 camping trip Kolbe took with two high school boys, both former pages, following a report by MSNBC that one adult member of the trip was "creeped out" by "fawning, petting and touching" on the arms, shoulders and back of one of the teenagers by Kolbe.

"I know there are a number of inquiries underway, and we're cooperating fully with all those inquiries, and I'm sure at the end of the time it will show that we acted appropriately and did exactly the right thing," Kolbe said.

"A small number of "problem members""?
"A number of inquiries"?
"All those inquiries"?

IS ANYONE ELSE SEEING A LOT BIGGER PROBLEM HERE?

Just how many Republicans are being investigated? I am starting to think that I will have to keep my kids locked inside my home, at least until the elections are over, just in case a Republican comes to the neighborhood campaigning... Because you never know if they are one of the ones being investigated... Because Hastert and the rest of the GOP leadership covers up for all of them.

Is Nancy Johnson Wrong AGAIN? CT- 05

Fuzzy Turtle pointed me to an online paper called The Corner Report:

Tuesday was a bad day for Republican Congresswoman Nancy Johnson.

First, the AFL-CIO issued a “report card” on the congresswoman’s record on working family issues during her 24 years as the Republican representative in the state’s Fifth Congressional District – a report card with a failing grade.

Next, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee distributed a list of Johnson’s record on health care, including the $739,000 she’s taken from pharmaceutical companies.

Then, signs began sprouting on trees on Rt. 7 and elsewhere in the Northwest Corner that say “Nancy Johnson is WRONG.” But the word “is” is written in such small letters that drivers passing by see only the words “Nancy Johnson WRONG.”

--- Read the rest at The Corner Report

Apparently there are alot of people that think NANCY JOHNSON is WRONG. Welcome to the club that seems to grow exponentially as the campaign season progresses towards

"NATIONAL KICK THE CORRUPT REPUBLICAN BUMS OUT DAY"

The Corner Report is a pretty good read. It has the look and feel of a typical Blog, but the writing style of a hometown paper. I couldn't help but stop and check out a few of the articles while I was there. Definately worth repeat visits.

The article also reminded me of a little sign problem we have in our town:

There is an empty house for sale a couple of streets over from where I live. I noticed a "Vote Johnson" sign up there a few times but it kept disappearing. There one day, gone the next. A couple of weeks ago I saw the people that used to live there and as I watched they removed the sign and tossed it in the garbage. The sign still keeps popping up on that empty for sale house.

And it keeps *POOF* vanishing.

It is obvious that someone keeps putting the sign there against the owners will in the hopes of "creating" a view of alot more local support for Johnson than there really is.

It's like Joe Lieberman's $387,000 illegal slush fund that was apparently used to pay for out of state people, from NJ and elsewheres, to campaign for him here because he doesn't have that sort of volunteer base in Connecticut like Ned Lamont does. Joe's support is strictly lobbyists' and other Republican money sources funneled through back-channels that pays for campign muscle. Some call them the "Liebergoons". lol

I guess Lieberman and Johnson are both pretty darn pathetic! That is what happens to career politicians when they sell their souls to corporate lobbyists and continue to cling to the failed policies of the Bush administration...

They lose touch with the people, and they lose all of their local support.

Certainly there are still some hardcore right-wing-nuts that will support any republican candidate regardless of their corruption and incompetence. But, thankfully, their numbers are obviously dwindling.

Thursday, October 26, 2006

How Does The Incompetent Bush Admin. Confirm Intel Reports on WMDs?

They wait for things to BLOW UP!

Buried in the bowels of a Washington Post story by Glenn Kessler, while travelling with Condi Rice on a "Junk It" in Moscow, reveals the incompetent Bush administration's strategy for assesing North Korea's advances in developing their nuclear technology:

Before North Korea announced it had detonated a nuclear device, some senior officials even said they were quietly rooting for a test, believing that would finally clarify the debate within the administration.

Yep... Just sit back and wait for the explosions.

Isn't that the same tactic they used to assess the threat when reports that "Al Quaeda determined to attack within US" hit the administrations' desks before 9-11? The same tactic that resulted in a "Goat" eyed president frozen from fear and staring at the bright lights of jets crashing into buildings.

The GOP and their pet neocons still sit and wait for the explosions...

While the rest of America has to watch the American death toll get higher and higher in the biggest military blunder ever in American history. You know? The "Civil War in Iraq". The one that everyone lays much of the blame at the feet of Donald Rumsfeld for his gross incompetence, bordering on negligence when it comes to equiping our soldiers with the needed equipment to do the job. A situation that to this day has yet to be rectified.

And just in case you weren't already worried enough about the Bush administrations' innumerable past failures, whom do they put on the job to protect us from the next attacks?

After 9/11, the United States launched an extensive effort to stop the spread of weapons of mass destruction. The Special Operations Command, which has been directed by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to take the lead in planning and leading U.S. counter-terror campaigns, is playing a major role.

SOCOM’s commander, Army Gen. Bryan D. Brown, told the conference that he has given Rumsfeld a 600-page plan to fight a global war, including a strategy to prevent terrorists from using mass-casualty weapons against the U.S. The plan went through six revisions before Rumsfeld accepted it, Brown said.

He revealed few details of the plan. A key concept, however, is in the slogan, “no borders, no boundaries,” he said. “We don’t have geographical boundaries in special operations,” he said. “We have a global defense.”

That slogan also is meant to be taken intellectually, he said. “The borders and boundaries in our minds are those of our own making,” he said. “In fighting this war, we have to think outside the box.”

National Defense Magazine - February 2005

Donald
"The Most Incompetent Neocon Of Them All!"
Rumsfeld...

Apparently, given their actual track record, their idea of "thinking outside the box" is to wait for the "mushroom cloud" here in the USA... Then, and only then, will the Bush administration be able to confirm reports that terrorists wanted to attack us again.

But Bush won't mind if that happens.

In an all-out PR assault, co-ordinated by Rove with the "embeded MSM", Bush will just declare that:

"They are blowing us up over here because we are winning over there!"

And some Americans, the kind that blindly cheered when a similar meek-minded battlecry eminated from the Cheerleader in Chief's office, the kind that blindly follow the incompetent bush and support lying GOP candidates without question as to where the GOPs' real loyalties lay, will hail this as a combination of both foreign & domestic policy genius.

Genius MY ASS!

Those kind of GOP supporters should do themselves a favor. Go and buy themselves a new campaign T-shirt with this self-evident GOP campaign slogan boldly emblazoned upon it:

"I'M WITH STUPID...
VOTE GOP"

Just add a few "Faux-Patriotic" stars and stripes and the picture will be complete. And then those GOP supporters can sit and wait with all of the patience of the ranting and raving lunatics that they are (much like their idiot leader Bush) for the next explosion coming to a city near them if they get their way in the November 7th elections.

Bush and Lieberman in Hot Water

"Stay the course!"
That is all you will get from both Bush and Lieberman.

Despite President Bush's recent denials that "We've never been stay the course" and the NY Times' FALSE assertions to counter Ned Lamont's caqmpaign charges that Joe Lieberman has been a consistent cheerleader for Bush's failed "Stay the course!" policy, the fact remains that this is a bold face lie that exposes BOTH Bush and Lieberman's penchant for polticizing this war by telling people whatever they have to in order to cover their political asses and get more votes. It also doesn't say much about the researchers and writers at the "Post Judy Miller" NY Times.

In Bush's and Lieberman's own words:

BUSH: We will stay the course. [8/30/06]

LIEBERMAN: We have to stay the course in Iraq now and continue to build a stable, modernizing, democratizing country there. [01/04/04]

BUSH: We will stay the course, we will complete the job in Iraq. [8/4/05]

LIEBERMAN: We can do better. I will do better. I will make it international. I will stay the course, and I'll create a stable, democratizing, modernizing Iraq, which would be a tremendous step forward in the Middle East and the Islamic world and in our war against terrorism. [01/11/2004]

BUSH: We will stay the course until the job is done, Steve. And the temptation is to try to get the President or somebody to put a timetable on the definition of getting the job done. We’re just going to stay the course. [12/15/03

LIEBERMAN: Well, let's put it this way. What I'm most happy about is that he said that he will stay the course in Iraq until we finish the job, and the Iraqis are in control of their own destiny. [07/28/04]

BUSH: And my message today to those in Iraq is: We’ll stay the course. [4/13/04]

LIEBERMAN: We want to not only stay the course: we want to achieve victory. [04/26/04]

BUSH: And that’s why we’re going to stay the course in Iraq. And that’s why when we say something in Iraq, we’re going to do it. [4/16/04]

LIEBERMAN: "I thought the president gave the strongest case that I can remember him giving about why we went in and why we have to stay the course," Lieberman said, adding, "We've got to adopt a strategy of success. A defeat will create chaos in Iraq, chaos in the Middle East, and will embolden the terrorists in a way that will endanger our future and our children's future." [04/15/04]

Here is over 30 examples of Bush saying we must "Stay the course!" in some form or another. Media Matters has the goods on more of Lieberman's "Bush enabling" statements that mirror Bush administration talking points as perfectly as if they had come straight out of Karl Rove's mouth, even emulating the GOP talking point that defeat will create chaos "and will embolden the terrorists" that we have heard so often from every mouthpiece for the Bush administration.

If defeat will create chaos then we must be losing pretty badly since those terrorists are getting pretty emboldened according to defeatist Republican Senator Lindsey Graham:

"We're on the verge of chaos, and the current plan is not working," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., said in an Associated Press interview. U.S. and Iraqi officials should be held accountable for the lack of progress, said Graham, a Republican who is a frequent critic of the administration's policies.

Asked who in particular should be held accountable Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, perhaps, or the generals leading the war Graham said: "All of them. It's their job to come up with a game plan" to end the violence

Bush and Liberman clearly say stay the course over and over. Because you never know who you might embolden in defeat. Now BOTH Bush and Lieberman are trying to hide from their mutual love of staying the course. It's almost like they are freaking flip-flopping clones.

This is why Ned Lamont is correct in attacking Lieberman's support of the failed Bush policy of staying the course. And Lieberman hates that.

And Senator Graham is right in laying alot of blame on Donald Rumsfeld. Here is what Rumsfeld has to say about Bush cutting and running from his "Stay the course!" policy:

Rumsfeld called media reports about Bush’s reversal “nonsense,” and said “of course” Bush is “not backing away from staying the course.”
---CLICK HERE TO LISTEN

The ever-incompetent Rumsfeld says that "Stay the course!" is still the Bush plan, regardless of the Bush "cut and run" posturing.

Lieberman and Bush are both in some hot water over their attempts to hide from their "Stay the course!" whitewash. If you vote for Joe Lieberman you are clearly voting for more of the same CHAOS. And all of the Bush backpeddling and NY Times' lies can't hide Lieberman from his own public record of support for the failed "Stay the course" Bush policy.

Vote For the Democratic candidate Ned Lamont, because he will work to "CHANGE THE COURSE!" of Lieberman's and the Bush administration's failed policies.