| This half is about the debate, the other half is general commentary.
I enjoyed last night's Cheney v Edwards debate (script), mostly because I have a lot of respect for both of them — they're both incredibly intelligent, accomplished, and hardworking men at different ends of the spectrum. There are polls claiming each one won — personally I think each did a good job stating their case as well as knocking holes in each other. So I won't argue “who won” — clearly each side believes their guy won… However, this debate really frames what question the election is going to actually answer. In simple terms, are Americans stupid, gullible people? Cheney is a loyal soldier. He does what the party asks of him. I agree with Edwards — I believe that Cheney loves his gay daughter, and I believe that his answer to the question about her showed that in the clearest of terms. However (and more importantly), Cheney has consistently voted against gay rights, AIDS issues, and women's rights — because that's what the party has told him to do. But it's also his downfall. When Cheney plays the “talking points” game where he repeats these bizarre and obvious lies like claiming Kerry wants the US beholden to a “global test”, or parrots that Edwards is too inexperienced, when in fact he has more years of federal government experience than Bush had when he took office in 2000, or says “we've added 1.7 million jobs” when in fact there has been a net loss of jobs, or says that over ten million people are going to vote in Afghanistan when there are less than ten million eligible voters even if there was 100% voter turn out, or the myriad of other lies. I could go on and on. It's really quite shocking when you look at it from outside. Now, some of these subjects are very disconnected from day-to-day life and I don't expect the average uninformed person to understand them. But when it comes to lies like jobs, the economy, or even the constant stream of misrepresentation like “global test”, one has to wonder: are Americans stupid? There should be no question to anyone with even a hint of objective reasoning ability that the Bush team both now and during his term have lied pathologically to the American people and the world — and that alone should be more than enough to kick them out, wherever your political views may lie. I know that a lot of you reading this can see through the lies. But disturbingly, at the same time I know that somehow there are a lot of people reading this that really do believe all those claims (more) like the ones I mentioned two paragraphs earlier… why? How is it even possible for someone to believe these things? What brings them to a point in their lives where they are able to so suspend reality, believe things they should know are false, and then to vote for someone who is literally hurting them? It's not really related to this commentary, but have you ever seen Harold and Maude? If you haven't, you should. Go learn to play the banjo (more). Maybe I'll do that today. |
Oops, it turns out that Saddam not only had no al Qaeda ties (more), but that he destroyed his WMDs back in 1991 like he was supposed to, and that none are left in the country, and Iraq was not a threat according to the chief US arms inspector in Iraq (more, more, more). Sorry about that Iraq, please excuse all the killing. Ignore the fact that the US knew the intel they were using was fraudulent at the time (more)… Both Bremer and Rumsfeld as well have admitted that things were fubar (more) — and please ignore the cockpit videos of American pilots going out joy-killing innocent civilians (more). They're just kids having fun, you know.
Whatever you do, don't criticize the President — even if you're a military expert, questioning the war empowers the enemy (more). What??? You thought poor strategy and bad planning empowered the enemy? Modern war is fought exclusively by good vibes, positive thinking, and the power of prayer. In other great news, thanks to help from their North Korean friends, Iran says it's got a 2,000 km range missile (more), and the US has said that it won't take steps to keep nukes out of those missiles (more). Even in rural Iraq, American soldiers keep dying (more), with some of them killing themselves upon returning home (read this) — thanks to neo-con lies, there is so much more grief and pain and suffering in this world (more). The Bush Cabal is terrified that people — especially young people — are going to wake up and vote. For starters, Let's see what else… Remember how Bush and Cheney have been whining about trial lawyers since Edwards is possibly the best trial lawyer to work in the last twenty years? As well as pointing out what Edwards did — that this amounts to one half of one percent of healthcare costs — I'll add that corporate lawsuits outweigh private lawsuits by a margin of four to one (more). Addressing other lies, Bush has said that there won't be a draft. Well, the Navy, the Air Force, and the Army are all reporting lowered applications. We already know that the US is short on troops and is back-door drafting (more, more), and we already also know that a lot more troops are needed if America “stays the course” (the hole already dug is quite deep — even under Kerry this could happen). With applications down, there's only one place they can come from, and that is a draft (more). It gets boring just pointing out lies, but Cheney also made noise about small businesses (and as a US small business owner, his tax statements are simply inaccurate in my experience)… Turns out the $47 billion put aside for “small businesses” all went to companies that had all made over $100 million from the DoD over the past six years. Oops, fuck you Joe Dirt. Sorry, Dierté. Oh, and I linked on this earlier, but took it down because I wanted to check the sources some more. Here's the new link: Is Bush Wired? |
