How hearbreaking, that at a time when the civil war in Iraq is escalating out of control the blogs are focused on a single non-issue, a stupid mistake by a senator who isn’t even running for office this year. Yes, Kerry screwed up, and he should apologize just to get this stupidity off the table. But it’s a sign of just how desperate the right is for anything, anything at all, that can deflect attention away from the horrors their man has wrought. It’s irrelevant, it’s inconsequential and it’s just plain silly. And yet all day the right-wingers, led on as always by the deranged Michelle Malkin, have been seizing on this idiocy as proof that the Democrats are incompetent villains, never mind the legacy of corruption, lies and failures for which the Republican leadership now stands. Never mind Jack Abramoff or Abu Ghraib or Gitmo or Duke Cunningham or Halliburton’s no-bid contracts. Never mind depraved anti-gay-marriage amendments and the rape of America’s environment by mining and oil companies. One dumb remark by a Democrat wipes out all the horrors Bush has wrought in Iraq, and in America.
John Cole, who is fast becoming my favorite blogger and who was once outspokenly pro-Bush and pro-Iraq war, puts it best.
A general rule of thumb regarding controversies like this is to count how many posts Michelle Malkin has about the issue, and to note that there is a positive correlation to how trivial the matter is and how many posts she has about it. At my last count, she had four on her site [ed. note: it’s now up to 10] , two on her spin-off site Hot Air (who I still think ripped their name off from me). That would tell me that this issue would be somewhere between Cindy Sheehan and crescent-shaped 9/11 memorials and Terri Schaivo in importance, but the possibility is there for a new record.
Red crescents and Cindy Sheehan. Emotional hot buttons that Michelle and Charles and Assrocket et. al. know how to push to obfuscate issues and push people to act on raw, ignorant impulse. How dare we surrender our critical faculties to these guttersnipes? How dare we let their banshee-like shrieking over this non-event silence serious debate on life and death issues and overwhelm us with a hate-driven mob mentality?
Can the American public be so foolish, so short-sighted and naive as to allow this idiocy to be a determining factor in next week’s election? I want to think not, but I have seen Rove and his demons too many times take pure bullshit (Ann Richards is a lesbian; McCain is mentally ill; John Kerry’s wounds were self-inflicted) and use it to delude voters into making disastrous decisions that go directly counder to their interests. Now, after so many years of being lied to, brow-beaten and manipulated, after so much needless carnage in Iraq, after so many outrageous acts of deception – after all this, will the American public really fall for yet another Big Lie? If so, then I will really have to give up all hope for America. We are dying a death from a thousand cuts, all inflicted by the Bush administration and the cronies who support them, and Americans finally seemed to be getting this. The thought that a one-line gaffe from a junior senator who isn’t running for election could threaten to reverse the trend toward realizing we’ve all been had, we’ve all been screwed, our country has been fucked – it’s just too unbearable.
I still have hope in America. I believe Malkin and Rush and Drudge will fail. But it certainly won’t be for lack of trying. Today they have reared their heads and shown their true faces. They are whores and parasites who somehow, through some fluke of fate, some great and incomprehensible accident, have won sway over the minds of millions. Until I see them and the depraved “ideals” for which they stand defeated and discredited, I have no intention of moving back to the country I once loved so deeply.
I know comments are still down, so debate may have to wait until tomorow.
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By otherlisa
Run, don’t walk to crooksandliars.com and watch Olbermann’s “Special Comment.” He demolishes the Adminstration’s Kerry-bashing and much more besides. He dissects the odious “politics uber alles” mindset of this Administration and calls them out for being the lying scum they are.
I watched the Kerry clip and it was obvious that Kerry was referring to Bush, not the soldiers, as getting “stuck in Iraq.” Typically the Rovian machine distorts, lies and smears.
Meanwhile, the Administration’s actions have lead to tens of thousands of dead and maimed US soldiers that they claim to care about.
November 2, 2006 @ 10:57 am | Comment
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By richard
My God, I’ve never heard Olberman go so far or be so blunt. Incredible. You;re right, Lisa. People should run to hear it.
November 2, 2006 @ 11:28 am | Comment
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By OtherLisa
That’s the one thing I wish you’d update in your rant, Richard – the dumbest thing about Kerry’s gaffe is what’s being made of it. You watch the clip in context – the crowd understood what Kerry was saying, even if he muffed the punchline somewhat. So he’s a bad comedian – he’s not the one responsible for killing and maiming US troops and cutting VA benefits for when they get home.
KO just rocks. So glad you posted it.
November 2, 2006 @ 12:32 pm | Comment
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By Bukko in Australia
This latest outrage makes me think about P.W. Botha of South Africa and Slobodan Milosevic.
Botha died this week. He was the last hard-core apartheid leader in S.A. He should have known that keeping his country divided between white and black would weaken it economically and ulimately fail. But he used that to cling to the power that his faction gave him. Same with Milosevic. The Yugoslav economy was going down, his political party was unpopular, so he stoked ethnic tension so the Serbs could keep control of the organs of the state. And it all came apart bloodily.
This thing with Kerry is another instance of pitting the rabid right against anyone who stands in the way of whatever has been decreed by the Cult of the Leader. (Should be familiar to observers of Asian politics too!) The strategy is to divide so they can conquer. There is the core 1/3 of the population who are committed to the cult. Big Brother can easily whip them into the “Two Minutes’ Hate” on a minute’s notice.
Part of me wants to say “Who cares about these waterheads? They’re stupid and marginal.” The trouble is, it’s THEIR opinions that count with the U.S. leadership. And their viewpoints predominate in large swathes of America such as the South and Midwest.
What worries me is that BushCo will whip the cultists into an increasing frenzy that will become physical. By labeling a Democratic win as “a win for the terrorists” he makes the Democrats into terrorists. And it’s OK to attack terrorists… Worked for Pik and Slobo — for a while.
November 2, 2006 @ 1:51 pm | Comment
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By Richard Walker
Your question, “Can Americans be so dumb…” — absolutely, especially here in the south. Rather than laugh at the Republicans for attempting to make a mountain out of a mole hill, many Democrats are, themselves, demanding an apology from Kerry. This is simply scary. I know the Republicans will be heading to the polls with their permanently attached ear plugs and blinders in place, but I thought the (hopefully) thinking half of the country would recognize that the statement was aimed squarely at Bush. Alas, no … and the stupidity continues.
November 2, 2006 @ 3:26 pm | Comment
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By richard
The cowardice of these Democrats is more painful to me than Malkin’s poison, Richard. It’s playing right into Rove’s hands. I still want to think American’s can’t be so deprived of gray matter they’d allow a less-than-non-issue sway their vote, but as you and Bucko note, they can be easily manipulated. I’m going to remain cautiously optimistic. If Rove wins on this bullshit, I’m ready to officially declare America to be a nation of sheep.
November 2, 2006 @ 6:30 pm | Comment
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By Ames Tiedeman
John Kerry is a leftist who has shown his true colors.
November 3, 2006 @ 10:52 am | Comment
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By otherlisa
Oh, brother….
November 3, 2006 @ 11:04 am | Comment
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By richard
And you, Ames, are an idiot.
November 3, 2006 @ 11:28 am | Comment