With the huge victory by Lamont last night, we are once again hearing the inevitable call of “Democrats are weak on security”. We hear it from Dear Leader himself. We see it on GOP.com. And no doubt, the talking meatsticks at Faux News will be parroting it.
And yet, I am once again reminded of a jedi mind trick-like game that my friends and I used to play in college when we were caught doing or saying something that is either embarrassing or something we didn’t want to get caught doing. And that was “Deny. Deny. Accuse.”
With the chickenhawk neocon war criminal republicans, we are long past the “Deny. Deny.” phase and are well into the “Accuse” phase. But amid all of this accusing by the republican cowards, I am also reminded of a cruder but just as appropriate phrase:
“He who hath smell’t it, hath dealt it.”
And boy have the republicans dealt it.
Weak on security. Hmmmmm…..where shall we begin? Maybe with this summary of prominent republicans, Democrats and talking meatsticks who have served in the military. Quite a list – including Cheney’s five and Ashcroft’s seven deferrals. Of course, none of the neocons who crafted up their little game of failed world domination served. Nor did Newt, Jebbie, Dr. Cat Killer, Hastert and all of our favorite “pundits”.
Of course, we know who stepped up to serve their country when duty called.
But there is no reason to stop there. Because WWII, Korea and Vietnam are so, you know, “pre-9/11”. And considering that the republicans who are so strong on security have controlled all three branches of the government during this little fiasco of a half decade, they got noone but the one in the mirror to blame for where we are now.
- Weak security at ports? Check
- Weak security at borders? Check
- Weak in dealing with natural disasters? Check
- Weak in dealing with illegal immigration? Check
- Weak on airport security? Check
- Weak in Iraq? Check.
Well, you get the picture. Deny, deny, accuse is a very powerful tool. Hell, it helped the republicans steal win elections in 2000, 2002 (if you count Cleland and probably a few other races) and 2004. So with a track record like that, of course they are going to trot that strategy out again in 2006.
It fooled enough people in 2002 and 2004. And hopefully in the words of Dear Leader himself:
fool me once, shame on you. Fool me—you can’t get fooled again.
Let’s not let people get fooled again.
gave me the well wishes and kind words about being on the front page. I really appreciate it.
but congrats clammyc. now, i get to read your great posts at kos and here!
thx, PD – haven’t seen you around lately. Been on vacation or have we just been missing each other?
just been hit and miss lately. actually posted 2 diaries in the past week, i think, which may be a record of sorts. just checked. actually 3, pretty sure that is a record. Never have time. Glad you are fp’d cause love your writing.
thx for the props. I am psyched, to say the least…..
Great post, Clammyc!
I’ve been wondering for a while now when GOP utopia will be achieved? They have held Congress since what, 1994? Add the White House since 01, and darn near the Supreme Court now. I can’t for the life of me figure out why thing are so screwed up at home and abroad, can you?
just like under Reagan and Poppa Bush – it is conservatism at work. Or “not work” since it is obvious that conservatism has failed America time and time again.
We also heard this from Lieberman before he bolted.
A new enemy every election cycle – this Osama, that Taliban, this foreign terrorist in Iraq, that Al Queda in Iraq, this Hamas, that Hezbollah, all those terrorists “out to get the United States.”
The truth is that Bush/Cheney/Rove sees us, the Democratic Party as the enemy and their objective is to eliminate us by any means. Because they only have the objectives of the Republican Party in mind, then they surely don’t have time to run a government and provide security for the people – the “mythical little guy(s), according Sen. Cornyn.”
Every time the bad guys say “this shows the Democrats are weak on security” the response should be “No, this shows the voters have no faith in the current administration and are using the ballot box to bring it to an end.”
During 2000 and 2001, it was President George W. Bush’s most solemn duty to protect the USA from attack.
Judging by the nearly three thousand murders and the hundreds of billions of dollars in damage that were incurred on 9/11, it is just and reasonable to maintain that President George W. Bush failed to do his highly referred to most solemn duty during 2000-2001.
In direct response to those horrific and expensive attacks of 9/11, President George W. Bush with the leadership of the GOP then attacked and occupied Iraq with the result being a newly and inadvertently fathered in Iraq a burgeoning fundamentalist Islamic republic which has extremely close and long standing ties to Iran which Bush deemed an `axis of evil’.
9/11 + Iraq = Bush’s Fundamentalist Islamic Republic
WTF????
In direct response to the 9/11 attacks, Bush and the GOP deposed a teetering Saddam Hussein which in turn caused the inadvertent empowering of Islamic fundamentalists in Iran, Iraq, Palestine, and Egypt.
This is strong on security?
Bush’s recent empowering the Islamic fundies is like Truman giving a hand job to War Minister Hideki Tojo for the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor?
“George W. Bush broke up Iraq when he ordered its invasion in 2003. The United States not only removed Saddam Hussein, it also smashed and later dissolved the institutions by which Iraq’s Sunni Arab minority ruled the country: its army, its security services, and the Baath Party. With these institutions gone and irreplaceable, the basis of an Iraqi state has disappeared.
The End of Iraq describes the administration’s strategic miscalculations behind the war as well as the blunders of the American occupation. There was the failure to understand the intensity of the ethnic and religious divisions in Iraq. This was followed by incoherent and inconsistent strategies for governing, the failure to spend money for reconstruction, the misguided effort to create a national army and police, and then the turning over of the country’s management to Republican political loyalists rather than qualified professionals.”
Congrats over here also!
ron=ron=cybaasd.
The thwarted Heathrow airplane attacks, presumably planned by Al Qaeda, just emphasize the pointlessness of the Iraq fiasco.
CNN has already started reporting unnamed administration officials attributing the “attacks” to Al Qaeda. These were probably genuine, there is too little information to say otherwise, but it looks like we are in for 3 months of frequent terror alerts.
Dems. weak on security? Under who’s watch did the 9/11 tragedy happen? This administration is certainly one of a kind.
I’m so glad you think we should be stronger on Iraq.
I don’t remember Bill Clinton declaring a war on Terror when the WTC were bombed the first time. Or what about the USS Cole? Or the military base in Syria?
Weak.
P.S. Liberals should REALLY be against Drugs! Illegal drugs kill over 12,000 americans A YEAR.
During the course of the Iraq war, over 38,000 americans died from illegal drugs.
During Iraq, Over 1.2 million americans died from cigarette smoking.
consider weak is doing everything possible to bungle the response to 9/11, which included bombing the hell out of a country who had nothing to do with it. Clinton didn’t declare a War on Terror™ because he understood that it takes diplomatic pressure and allied responses to the underlying problems that fuel terrorism, not pre-emptive war that is a violation of int’l law.
Wait, let me get this straight.
You can diplomatically pressure Osama to just give up?
Yeah, right. Great comedic effort.
Allied responses? I assume you mean Iraq where we didn’t get French or German support.
Need I remind you, Jacques Chirac took millions in bribes from Saddam Hussein?
Oil-for-food scandal. Heard of it?
Short memories the dems have.
I’d also like to add, Clinton put our troops alongside Bosnian MUSLIMS who waved the NAZI flag.
The Bosnian green berets call themselves the 1944 Handzar SS Division. They still wave the same nazi flag, and your “tough on islamo-fascism” Clinton put our troops alongside a Muslim nazi flag.
Interesting.
As for “a country that had nothing to do with it”
Are you referring to Osama-harbouring Afghanistan? Or Iraq, where just yesterday they caught 20 Al Qaeda members?
the facts don’t support your assertions.
Iraq was over resolution 1441 which Jacques Chirac’s France, which gave Saddam a tour of a nuclear reactor, even voted for.
The WMD are in Syria. Open your eyes.
type this slowly for you:
Al-Qaeda was not in Iraq until after we engaged in Shocking and Awful. Saddam had nothing to do with 9/11.
By the way, where are all those Weapons of Mass Destruction?
Syria. Du’h.
Syria is Ba’ath! Saddam has family there!
don’t care that not one WMD was found in Iraq despite all the fear-mongering done by every single top-level official in the Bush Administration? How many lies are you willing to ignore?
The only lie I know he told was that Islam is a religion of peace.
They moved the WMD programme to Syria! HELLO?!
Top senior Syrian journalists fled Syria to Europe and reported the SPECIFIC locations even. Al-Baida, Sjinsjar, and Tal Snan.
General Shalish, along with the help of Russian and French specialists moved the WMD PROGRAMME to Syria.
My guess is George Bush is being “diplomatic” and not calling on France and Russia to stop their support of terror. Or we don’t have the military to occupy the former french-colony of Syria right now either.
P.S. Part of the reason France is so invested, is they sell nuclear technology to Iraq (aside from the well-known 1975 nuclear reactor deal with Saddam). Even liberal CNN, reported that Russia gave Iraq infrared technology days before the war.
Imagine if we DO invade Syria and find a French label on the WMD programme. Which we would. Bush doesn’t want to cause that kind of chaos, I suppose. For better or worse.
P.S. Saddam Hussein visited France, and Jacques Chirac gave him a tour of a nuclear reactor there.
Ahh, bonding!
Ahh, bonding!
Yeah? He helped arm Iraq AND Iran, preventing EITHER FROM GAINING HEGEMONY.
Silly, we didn’t want a Mideast run by either Iraq OR Iran. We didn’t hand him a NUCLEAR REACTOR like France!
Chirac GAVE Saddam two NUCLEAR reactors, and a tour.
Nothing like gaining friendship while watching nuclear weapons being made!
given your interpretation of historic events, I would assume that you would agree that it’s much more likely that the labels that might be found on wmd’s; which no longer exist btw, having been destroyed in the 90’s as a result, in large part, of sanctions imposed by, and inspections supported by, the Clinton administration, would be just as likely to bear the Made in USA™ label.
Your woeful dissemination of neo-con talking points and inability, or unwillingness, to differentiate truth from propaganda and fiction, leads me to suspect that your motives here do not align with the pursuit of the truth.
It is, however, amusing.
Perhaps this approach would be more to your tastes.
G’day
Saddam’s defense minister said they HAD A WMD PROGRAMME.
It was moved to Syria! Hello?!
It’s like you ignore those words completely.
What historic interpretation of events?
Like Bosnian muslim magazine Vox which had a cover with a Muslim in full Nazi gear with his foot on a beheaded Serb and said “Welcome to the Fourth Reich”
Bill Clinton thought those Bosnian Muslim terrorists needed protection. So Clinton put US troops alongside the bosnian green berets wearing nazi getup and waving a nazi flag.
You don’t realize what evil is, do you?
Evil doesn’t appear evil. It appears under false idealism and appears GOOD. Confusion and lies are the tools of evil. Appealing to false ideals.
(Now keep in mind Bush is more of a moderate, but he is very Progressive in other regards)
Progressive
Believes in sweeping reforms, strong centralized government. Believes in human “progress”.
Conservative
Believes power corrupts, changes should be slow and gradual, and government should be limited and decentralized.
Which sounds like false idealism to you?
By the way, both Nazism and Communism are “Progressive” movements.
so Bush is evil but appears good to you. I understand. It’s nothing an exorcism couldn’t solve for you.
Listen. There are no WMD in Syria except the WMD that Syria made all by theirselves. We don’t hear much about them, though, because it is not quite yet time to roll out Part Two: Operation Damascus. We’ll hear about Syria chemical weapons soon enough.
Are you afraid of Syrian chemical weapons? I’m not. I am a little afraid that the Bush administration seems to show no interest in protecting our domestic chemical plants. Attack one of those and you might take out Pittsburgh.
When it comes to Iraq, all you have to ask yourself is this…
How’s it working out?
Name me one thing that has happened in Iraq that was not predicted by the left blogosphere, the CIA analysts, the Scowcroft crowd, etc.
We said, all of us, no flowers, no chocolates, not enough troops, an insurgency, a division of the country, an uptick in global terrorism, an occupation accompanied by My Lai type atrcities, won’t be paid for by oil, and we will be stuck there for 7-12 years. We said capturing Saddam would not help, and would probably hurt. We said the elections would probably just accelerate the civil war.
Bush and Cheney and Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld and Rice have been wrong at every step, and we have been right. And yet you continue to believe them.
That tell me all I need to know.
Now each time you write “Syria! Hello?!” does a cute little koala bear come along and crap a rainbow in your brain showing you the way to Syria’s magical unicorn farm…er.. WMD program? You and Curt Weldon should arrange a little getaway for two to Syria with some jeeps and shovels. Anyway, pass some of that magic koala crap my way, because I’ve had a long day at the office.
You should stay off drugs.
During the course of Iraq, Illegal drugs have killed 38,000 americans.
As for Syria, quite literally THE MOST RESPECTED Syrian journalist Nizar Nayyouf reported this to a dutch newspaper when he fled from Syria.
He’s famous for being tortured by the Syrian government and going on a hunger strike, nearly killing himself, to get his release.
Why do you have such a hard time facing the facts?
The WMD were moved to Syria, this is fact.
wow. Chris asked for magic koala crap and you produced on queue like a good little dittohead. I’m impressed. The below is from a piece I did in May of 2005.
have another drink…
gotta go…G’day
So just because the 9/11 mastermind wasn’t trained in Iraq, you discard all the other evidence?
Like Saddam’s former defense minister SAYING THEY HAD A WMD PROGRAMME.
Like the most respected Syrian journalist saying they MOVED the WMD to Syria.
Syria being Ba’ath, and Iraq being Ba’ath… surely that can fit over your head. He had plenty of time to make the transfer during the months of weak diplomacy at the UN.
i have a rule against posting bill o’reilly talking points on this board.