I know I have asked the question of why congress is so apparently without a spine when it comes to dealing with the chimp in chief. I usually ask this question when congress rolls over and shows their soft, white underbelly at the command of DUBYA; more like obedient dogs than human beings. And since that happened more than once this week, I guess it once again bears asking, "why is congress so reticent to stand up to DUBYA, or Dick(LESS), or even one of the DUBYA minions that has now rejoined "private" life, such as Hot Karl Rove?"
I'll start with perhaps the most unnerving and ridiculous thing that happened this week: the condemnation of MoveOn.org for the "General Petraeus or General Betray Us?" ad campaign. Instead of reading the ad, questioning whether or not it was correct, or even close to true, they fall into lock step behind DUBYA and the RepuliKKKan smear machine, and condemn MoveOn.org. They do this instead of doing something like, oh, maybe swearing the liar Petraeus in, or finding out the identity of the ghost writer from the White House that cooked the books on the progress in Iraq.
Perhaps the "...Betray Us" ad is completely scandalous. Perhaps it makes statements that are SO hyperbolic in nature as to have crossed the line into misinformation. Perhaps everything in the ad is wrong. Perhaps Gen. Petraeus is just an unfortunate victim of a vicious smear campaign by political malcontents. Perhaps what is written is so disrespectful and scandalous that its very writing eclipses any of the scandals in which DUBYA and Dick(LESS) have been implicated.
Let's take some time to analyze that ad, and see if the brouhaha is nothing more than a wholesale bout of mental masturbation.
General Petraeus is a military man constantly at war with the facts. In 2004, just before the election, he said there was "tangible progress" in Iraq, and that "Iraqi leaders are stepping forward." And last week Petraeus, the architect of the escalation of troops in Iraq, said, "We say we have achieved progress, and we are obviously going to do everything we can to build on that progress."
Every independent report on the ground situation in Iraq shows that the surge strategy has failed. Yet the General claims a reduction in violence. That's because, according to the New York Times, the Pentagon has adopted a bizarre formula for keeping tabs on violence. For example, deaths caused by car bombs don't count. The Washington Post reported that assassinations only count if you're shot in the back of the head-not the front. According to the Associated Press, there have been more civilian deaths and more American soldier deaths in the past three months than in any summer we've been there. We'll hear of neighborhoods where violence has decreased. But, we won't hear that those neighborhoods have been ethnically cleansed.
Most importantly, General Petraeus will not admit what everyone knows: Iraq is mired in an unwinnable religious civil war. We may hear of a plan to withdraw a few thousand troops. But we won't hear what Americans are desperate to hear: a timetable for withdrawing all our troops. General Petraeus has actually said American troops will need to stay in Iraq for as long as ten years.
Today, before Congress and before the American people, General Petraeus is likely to become General Betray Us.
Well, there it is in shocking detail. There it is in all its stark, unpatriotic brilliance. Those four paragraphs above are the reason why the Senate went out of its way to condemn MoveOn.org. As I peruse it, I don't see anything at all disrespectful. I also don't see anything shocking, offensive, out of the realm of possibility, or even new. For those interested, here is a Washington Post fact check Of the ad.
As you can see, MoveOn.org did fudge some of the facts, and others were true. In consideration of the batch of bullshit disguised as news with which we are deluged daily, it's pretty much average, if not a bit more good than bad. In other words, barring the tone in which it was delivered, it was a fairly accurate assessment of the situation.
So let's look at the tone. The general idea is presented in a matter of fact fashion. There is an obvious anti-war slant to the article, but I see nothing even remotely disrespectful...that is unless telling the truth has somehow morphed into disrespect. I should know. I have written more than one disrespectful article and comment. My use of DUBYA is meant to be both disrespectful and derogatory. I know from disrespectful!
Another criticism of the ad is that it is offensive. To be sure, it calls the patriotism of General Petraeus into question. For sure, it could be seen as offensive, if one is offended by the telling of a truth that keeps getting spoken; the truth that the American people are sick of the Iraq War. It is offensive if one is easily offended by the suggestion that perhaps a general's job IS NOT to be the mouthpiece of the president. It is offensive if you consider questioning anyone who is involved in this mess in Iraq offensive.
Therefore, it can be seen that MoveOn.org stretched a truth here or there. And depending upon how you look at the ad, it could be seen as disrespectful and offensive. One would have to be possessed of skin as thin as the average onion, or be very easily offended to be offended by the ad. I have written stuff that was way more offensive...it was engineered to be!
So, while I will grant that the ad might be less than perfect, and might actually be done in a possibly disrespectful, derogatory, and offensive manner, I have to ask whether or not the ad is any more disrespectful, derogatory, or offensive than the Swift Boating of John Kerry, the slurring of Senator Max Cleland, or the outing of Valerie Plame? I mean really, is it?
Petraeus betrayed the military. In my eyes he is a coward and a boot licking suck up.
This administration has betrayed, and continues to betray, the people and our military.
Move on at least spoke up on how they felt. That's more than the majority of our elected are willing to do. Although one of them said Petraeus should be sworn in before 'testifying' and was arrested for it. Heaven forbid any of the lap dogs be sworn in to tell the truth!
Please, would someone tell me just what freedoms we have left that our Constitution granted? I can't seem to come up with any.
by
Rae (0 articles, 1 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 217 comments)
on Saturday, September 22, 2007 at 3:43:57 PM
Freedom of lying, crooked, Constitutionally criminal, weak, meak and insipid to run for office.
There are exceptions, but so few, and I honestly believe that it not so much the people who need changing, but the system. I've seen it in my own city where someone who was honest and well-intended became corrupted by the system or the power or both.
by
Sandy Sand (129 articles, 0 quicklinks, 145 diaries, 1127 comments)
on Saturday, September 22, 2007 at 5:37:25 PM
Maybe Fallon's words had to be in a newspaper ad to get attention.
If only there'd been such an ad when Powell went to the U.N. It might not have done any good, but it would have been worth the try. Now Petraeus is a member of that elite club of men who tarnished their own reputations by speaking the truth when it was far, far too late.
Pubs are louder and nastier than Dems. Always have been; always will be. Maybe it the left brain/right brain thing. I just can't remember which side does which.
The Republicans remind me of the smokers' and nonsmokers' tables we used to have in my old work's lunch room.
The smokers table -- figuratively representing the Dems -- was full of joking, laughing, boisterous, outgoing people who were openly having fun and not ashamed of it.
At the nonsmokers table were the Repubican wax figures, sitting quietly, reading, not talking and occasionally firing off daggered glances at the smokers' table. They are the ones who can only have fun in a shameful way, inside dark, dank cubbies where no light ever shines...except when they get caught.
by
Sandy Sand (129 articles, 0 quicklinks, 145 diaries, 1127 comments)
on Saturday, September 22, 2007 at 6:11:42 PM
Texas guns? Actually, my official act of ringing in the equinox was to go to a gay pool party. The water was as cold as the reception I got, but such is life.
Anyway, this article was a qucikie. The one I told you about earlier this week will be upladed later on tonight...after midnight so it comes in after the equinox. Hope it gets published...Hope you like it.
Got your pics, by the way. Nice place! You're right, it needs a little less brown!
Blessed be! Pappy
by
Pappy (61 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 863 comments)
on Saturday, September 22, 2007 at 11:54:52 PM
Please, would someone tell me just what freedoms we have left that our Constitution granted? I can't seem to come up with any.
How about the right to sit the fuck down and shut the fuck up? Those are the only two rights we lave left under this shit-sucking regime! And the sad thing is we are the ones that voluntarily gave up whatever rights we once had. The day that we traded our "safety and security" for our freedoms, that's the day we all became complicit in giving away our freedoms.
And look what we have to take their place. We have another military puppet sucking on the ass of his chimp in chief, a president who would serve the world better if he was feeding worms, and a government of, by, and for the rich.
Well, at least the pigs at Halliburton will sleep in warm comfort. All that money they have made has to be the cure for their consciences...oh wait, I forgot, the have no consciences.
Blessed be! Pappy
by
Pappy (61 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 863 comments)
on Saturday, September 22, 2007 at 11:06:30 PM
They could get a huge wave of popular support behind them, but they waste ever chance, every opportunity, every small gesture that would even reassure We The People, even if things kept on in their present helter skelter fashion.
I ask, am I speaking the truth above or what? If the Democrats really stood up, really found their spine, really went to ground with their promise to listen to the people, would you not be happy, impressed, willing to give the a bit more benefit of the doubt? I know I would.
And when you consider the amount of timidity shown by the Democrats in congress, you have to know it wouldn't take that much courage to stand out. It's easy to look like a genius if you are surrounded by the mentally retarded! It's easy to look brave if you are surrounded by cowards!
Mr. Smith, where did you go?
I confess my friends, sometimes I really get all torn up inside by the disgraces I see happening in our government. I see nary a one of those disgraces answered with more than the same irritated grumble your dog gives you when you throw him off the couch. I wish I got paid to blow a lot of hot air, and pretend I was working hard against my adversaries. No wonder the members (as in gold MEMBERS) of congress like their cushy jobs so much.
This congress wasted no time in getting nothing done, but putting on a good show...ok, so the show sucked, too. What do you want for nothing....R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-R-Rubber Biscuit?
Blessed be! Pappy
by
Pappy (61 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 863 comments)
on Saturday, September 22, 2007 at 11:34:16 PM
There are exceptions, but so few, and I honestly believe that it not so much the people who need changing, but the system. I've seen it in my own city where someone who was honest and well-intended became corrupted by the system or the power or both.
I don't know what needs to be changed, I just wish the change would happen.
I am tired of having to hear governmental disaster after governmental scandal, with no resolution to any of it. It's like listening to a piece of music loaded with diminished chords and minor sevenths, without even visiting the Ionian mode, or trying to strike a major chord of any kind. Too much tension. Imagine Hamlet without the comic relief provided by the gravedigger and Yorick's skull.
It is crazy-making!
Blessed be! Pappy
by
Pappy (61 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 863 comments)
on Saturday, September 22, 2007 at 11:49:22 PM
What is it that's so hard to understand about the operation of our government?
Legislation can be either initiated in the House or the Senate, but it must be approved in both houses--which means the Senate essentially has a lock on governance.
For those who don't seem to be able to count, Democrats hold 49 seats in the Senate, plus (when they feel like cooperating, 2 independents, one of whom is Joe Lieberman--nuff said)
It takes 60 votes to invoke cloture, which is the ending of debate so that something can be voted on.
49 is not 60. 51 is not 60. 60 is 60 and Democrats are at best 9 votes short and at worst, 11.
WHAT IS SO HARD TO UNDERSTAND ABOUT THAT?
by
Jim Freeman (107 articles, 40 quicklinks, 150 diaries, 326 comments)
on Sunday, September 23, 2007 at 6:53:16 PM
Why they refuse to fight. Why when they do actually fight, it's always a weak, token gesture.
Perhaps I am an idealist, but I fail to see how congress doesn't know that if they really went to work, they might make things happen...and the people might get behind them again. They wouldn't have to fight too hard for too long to get our attention, either. They could place themselves into lovely win-win scenarios.
Instead, I hear nothing but excuses.
I said it above, and I will say it again, it would take just a bit of effort and a bit of perseverence, and maybe they could wrangle those votes, and maybe a few more. It's not like the American public would fault them for doing thier jobs...or behaving as if they had spines, guts, balls...whatever you want to call it.
They are facing off against the most unpopular president in history, and still, they can't figure out how to twist an arm or two to get what they want? Either their really stupid, really cowards, or really on the take from someone somewhere.
The RepubliKKKans in congress twist arms all the time. DUBYA does it as well. If he can do it, why the hell can't Pelosi? Why can't impeachment be put on the table? Don't they realize the support that would fall behind them if they but looked into the mess that is the DUBYA regime? Don't they remember we voted their sorry asses in to end the war? Up to now, they haven't done dick but roll over on command from DUBYA. It's disgusting!
The force of the populace is a very strong thing. It put cowardly Democrats in to take the places of the ineffectual Republicans. It could depose our ruler if we were but to fiercely force OUR point of view on them.
Ah, but I am dreaming.
So, I get how government works, I just don't get how congress can't know how much we the people want them to quit dicking around and get the fuck out of dodge. This madness called the Iraq War can lead to no good in the short run, or the long.
Blessed be! Pappy
by
Pappy (61 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 863 comments)
on Monday, September 24, 2007 at 2:42:27 AM
...I just sent the article of which I spoke earlier. It's definitely going to be released after the equinox, since it's about forty-five minutes from now. Keep an eye out for it.
Kisses
Blessed be! Pappy
by
Pappy (61 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 863 comments)
on Sunday, September 23, 2007 at 3:13:20 AM
