'Have you no sense of decency, sir?'
It is to our deep national shame—and ultimately it will be to the President’s deep personal regret—that he has followed his Secretary of Defense down the path of trying to tie those loyal Americans who disagree with his policies—or even question their effectiveness or execution—to the Nazis of the past, and the al Qaeda of the present.
Today, in the same subtle terms in which Mr. Bush and his colleagues muddied the clear line separating Iraq and 9/11 -- without ever actually saying so—the President quoted a purported Osama Bin Laden letter that spoke of launching, “a media campaign to create a wedge between the American people and their government.”
Make no mistake here—the intent of that is to get us to confuse the psychotic scheming of an international terrorist, with that familiar bogeyman of the right, the “media.”The President and the Vice President and others have often attacked freedom of speech, and freedom of dissent, and freedom of the press.
Now, Mr. Bush has signaled that his unparalleled and unprincipled attack on reporting has a new and venomous side angle:
The attempt to link, by the simple expediency of one word—“media”—the honest, patriotic, and indeed vital questions and questioning from American reporters, with the evil of Al-Qaeda propaganda.That linkage is more than just indefensible. It is un-American.
Mr. Bush and his colleagues have led us before to such waters.
We will not drink again.
And the President’s re-writing and sanitizing of history, so it fits the expediencies of domestic politics, is just as false, and just as scurrilous.
“In the 1920’s a failed Austrian painter published a book in which he explained his intention to build an Aryan super-state in Germany and take revenge on Europe and eradicate the Jews,” President Bush said today, “the world ignored Hitler’s words, and paid a terrible price.”
Whatever the true nature of al Qaeda and other international terrorist threats, to ceaselessly compare them to the Nazi State of Germany serves only to embolden them.
More over, Mr. Bush, you are accomplishing in part what Osama Bin Laden and others seek—a fearful American populace, easily manipulated, and willing to throw away any measure of restraint, any loyalty to our own ideals and freedoms, for the comforting illusion of safety.
It thus becomes necessary to remind the President that his administration’s recent Nazi “kick” is an awful and cynical thing.
And it becomes necessary to reach back into our history, for yet another quote, from yet another time and to ask it of Mr. Bush:
“Have you no sense of decency, sir?”
Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Keith, Finished With A Rummy Appetizer, Slices Up Some Sharply Spanked Bush Butt
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Big Blogger, Big Brother?
Or is it Coded Homophobia? Our friend Alex sent us a screen shot of the his last comment to GT12 (see 'And Then There's This Woman").
Notice the Word Verification selection >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>.
A Must Read Column
Read the Rest Here.The Rise of the Lincoln Democrats
By E. J. Dionne Jr.Tuesday, September 5, 2006;PHILADELPHIA -- The North will rise again.
If Democrats win control of the House of Representatives in November, that inversion of an old slogan is likely to be a central factor in their victory.Although no one anticipates a Democratic sweep in November on the order of the Republicans' 1994 triumph, the forces that were at work 12 years ago are in play this year -- but in reverse.
One key to the Republican takeover of the House under Newt Gingrich was the completion of a long-term realignment to the GOP in the South. White Southerners started supporting Republican presidential candidates in large numbers as long ago as 1952, but many of them did not bring their congressional voting habits in line with their presidential votes until 1992 and, with a vengeance, 1994.
But a quiet counter-realignment has been under way in the Northeast and Midwest. Post political writer Dan Balz was one of the first to notice after Bill Clinton's 1996 reelection that longtime Republican suburban bastions in Pennsylvania, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, New York and New Jersey were moving the Democrats' way.
More Getting Back To Work!
From NYT
The major legislation on the floor in the House this week is a bill that would ban trading in horses to be slaughtered for human consumption.
More Southern Tradition From the Boy From Palos Verde
Remember, whatever George Allen says about celebrating Southern Culture, it weren't his culture. This child of CA has worshipped the Rebel Cause from afar for much of his life.
This photo should kill his Presidential Aspirations. The CCC (quick, what other consonant has the same sound as a 'C'.... It's not a coincidence) are, well, a cover group for the Klan. And George, and many other fine Southern Pols (Trent Lott, Bob Barr) have happily posed with them to prove their Johnny-Reb-White-is-Right Cred.
George is on the left. Crazy Chuck Heston there on the right. Posed at a NRA Convention
And They Thought That The French Were Rotten Allies
Cause you win no friends. From Raw Story:
Press secretary to the president of Pakistan tells ABC Osama bin Laden will not be captured if he agrees to live 'peaceful life'
Ron BrynaertPublished: Tuesday September 5, 2006
Major General Shaukat Sultan Khan, press secretary to the president of Pakistan, tells ABC News that -- if found -- Osama bin Laden won't be arrested, as long as he promises to behave like a "peaceful citizen."
"If he is in Pakistan, bin Laden 'would not be taken into custody,' Major General Shaukat Sultan Khan told ABC News in a telephone interview, 'as long as one is being like a peaceful citizen," report Brian Ross and Gretchen Peters at ABC's blog, The Blotter.
"No, as long as one is being like a peaceful citizen, one would not be taken into custody," said Khan. "One has to stay like a peaceful citizen and not allowed to participate in any kind of terrorist activity."
"The surprising announcement comes as Pakistani army officials announced they were pulling their troops out of the North Waziristan region as part of a 'peace deal' with the Taliban," reports ABC.
Pakistan will also be returning many Taliban prisoners and seized weapons.
Well, that certainly played out just like we wanted. Read the rest here.
Throw Gay Dad Under The Train
I'll let Andrew Sullivan finish..
A new book says he was gay, and that Rove had a good and loving relationship with him. So today's Republican hierarchs don't seek merely to persecute their own gay sons and daughters, they also retroactively demonize their own parents. Hey, if bashing your dad's relationship gets you Ohio, you do what you gotta do. It's called family values. Or the pursuit of power. Take your pick.
