🚀 go-pugleaf

On Tue, 18 May 2004 14:52:06 GMT, "Bob" <beattierobert@sbcglobal.net> wrote:


Like this belongs in *.general newsgroups?



>The liberal drum beats to put John McCain on the ticket with John Kerry.
>Yet, Sen. McCain has said that the incident at Abu Ghraib does not rise to
>the level he would call torture--having been a POW and exceedingly aware of
>what torture is.  Certainly the prisoners were abused and their civil rights
>trampled on, but why do morons like you try to elevate the incident to
>torture.  Answer:  Because libralism is a mental disease.
>
>
>"In Your Dreams" <anon5c6c@nyx.net> wrote in message
>news:1295c003.0405162029.7a137ea2@posting.google.com...
>> The Top Ten Conservative Idiots (No. 156)
>>    May 17, 2004
>>    Inhofe's Enough Edition
>>
>>    Last week's news was particularly sickening all round - from further
>>    revelations in the Abu Ghraib torture scandal to the abhorrent
>>    execution of Nicholas Berg. But there were plenty of conservative
>>    idiots ready to take this news and run with it: James Inhofe (1) was
>>    outraged that anyone was outraged about torture and Right-Wing
>>    Execution Enthusiasts (2) were keen to exploit Berg's beheading.
>>    Meanwhile, Donald Rumsfailed (3) suddenly became very concerned about
>>    the Geneva Convention and Dick Cheney (4) suddenly decided that
>>    Rumsfailed is the best defense secretary the world has ever seen.
>>    Elsewhere, the Appleton Post-Crescent (6) is having difficulty
>>    maintaining its balance, George W. Bush (8) is keeping cool, and the
>>    Republican Party (10) really needs to take a look in the mirror.
>>    Enjoy!
>>
>>    1 James Inhofe just plain evil
>>    If there was one idiot who summed up the complete and utter
>>    shamelessness of the American right-wing last week, it was Sen. James
>>    Inhofe (R-OK). At a Senate hearing on the Abu Ghraib prison abuses,
>>    Inhofe stated that torture tactics are A-okay in his book. "I'm
>>    probably not the only one up at this table that is more outraged by
>>    the outrage than we are by the treatment," said he. You know, he's
>>    probably right - there was probably at least one other Republican at
>>    the hearing who's as big a scumbag as Inhofe. But never mind that.
>>    "These prisoners, you know they're not there for traffic violations.
>>    If they're in cellblock 1-A or 1-B, these prisoners, they're
>>    murderers, they're terrorists, they're insurgents. Many of them
>>    probably have American blood on their hands and here we're so
>>    concerned about the treatment of those individuals." Well, maybe -
>>    except for the fact that the Red Cross estimates that 70-90% of the
>>    prisoners at Abu Ghraib had been "arrested by mistake," and General
>>    Taguba's report indicates that the guards weren't even keeping track
>>    of which prisoners were in which cells. So were they in there for
>>    traffic violations? Who knows. Ah, what the hell, let's stick bags
>>    over their heads and sodomize them anyway. (This actually kinda
>>    reminds me of Rush Limbaugh's theory that the death penalty is never
>>    meted out incorrectly, because if you end up on death row, hey, you
>>    must have done something.) But one of the strangest things to come out
>>    of this whole affair is the new-found moral relativism on display by
>>    the right-wing. Conservatives have always derided liberals for this
>>    "failing" - as far as they're concerned, all that exists is good
>>    versus evil. Except suddenly it's okay for America to torture
>>    prisoners of war - because even if we're forcing them to masturbate,
>>    stuffing things up their rectums, and beating them to death, at least
>>    we're not drilling holes through their skulls. So meet the new
>>    conservative moral relativism - say goodbye to good versus evil, say
>>    hello to not-quite-as-evil-as-evil, uh, versus evil.
>>
>>    2 Right-Wing Execution Enthusiasts just plain evil
>>    They've spent the last several months complaining that there hasn't
>>    been enough good news coming out of Iraq, but you wouldn't know it
>>    from last week's performance. The right-wing were suddenly overjoyed
>>    when an American civilian was beheaded by alleged al-Qaeda terrorists,
>>    because Nick Berg's terrible misfortune was a boon for conservatives
>>    who had spent the week busily defending the Abu Ghraib torture
>>    photographs. The brutal beheading was captured on videotape and posted
>>    to an Islamic militant website, where it was promptly downloaded by
>>    several news organizations before disappearing as suddenly as it had
>>    arrived. Sean Hannity and Michael Savage played audio of Berg's murder
>>    on their radio shows, and many prominent conservatives took to the
>>    airwaves and pontificated about how the video was a reminder of why we
>>    need to torture random brown people. Uh, I mean, a reminder of "what
>>    we're fighting against." Odd. I mean, they may need a reminder, but I
>>    don't know anyone who's forgotten what happened on September 11, 2001,
>>    nor do I know anyone who's forgotten why it's imperative that we track
>>    down and destroy terrorist scum. What I'm not entirely sure about is
>>    what any of that has to do with occupying Iraq and committing mass
>>    violations of the Geneva Convention.
>>
>>    3 Donald Rumsfailed flip-flopping flip-flopping
>>    Speaking of the Geneva Convention - you know, that treaty we signed
>>    which says we're not allowed to torture prisoners of war - Secretary
>>    of Defense Donald Rumsfailed came up with his own interesting insights
>>    into what it all means last week. According to Don, we're not allowed
>>    to see any more pictures of the Geneva Convention violations which
>>    took place inside Abu Ghraib, because displaying such pictures would,
>>    uh, violate the Geneva Convention. Well, shit. We wouldn't want to
>>    violate the Geneva Convention, would we? But wait - according to the
>>    defense secretary, what happened in Abu Ghraib doesn't violate the
>>    Geneva Convention anyway. Riiiiiiight. Fair enough though - personally
>>    I've pretty much seen enough to know what went on in there, and the
>>    reports coming from our elected representatives who saw a further 1800
>>    pictures on Capitol Hill last week were plenty graphic. But it is
>>    certainly curious that Don is so concerned about the Geneva Convention
>>    all of a sudden - or should I say, selectively concerned. I mean, he
>>    didn't seem that bothered about it in January (which is when he claims
>>    he first knew of the torture at Abu Ghraib). But when several American
>>    POW's were captured near the beginning of the invasion of Iraq in
>>    2003, he said, "You know, under the Geneva Convention, it's illegal to
>>    do things with prisoners of war that are humiliating to those
>>    individuals." Hmm. Geneva Convention. Prisoners of war. Humiliating.
>>    Shouldn't that have rung some bells for Rumsfailed?
>>
>>    4 Dick Cheney dumb dumb
>>    All this seems to have gone right over Vice President Crashcart's head
>>    though, because according to him, Rumsfailed is "the best secretary of
>>    defense the United States has ever had" (even better than George H. W.
>>    Bush's secretary of defense from 1989 to 1993, uh, Dick Cheney). Mind
>>    you, this is the same guy who was banging on about weapons of mass
>>    destruction waaaay after everyone else had realized that that dog
>>    wasn't just not going to hunt anymore, it had gone rabid and had to be
>>    put down (see Idiots 141). Cheney also told the world to "get off
>>    [Rumsfailed's] case and let him do his job," last week. Yeah! Get off
>>    his case! These bloody great groups of congresspeople who keep getting
>>    together and looking at hundreds and hundreds of photos of acts of
>>    torture committed by American troops are just getting in his way. Show
>>    Don some respect fer crying out loud.
>>
>>    5 Media Whores excessive spin excessive spin excessive spin
>>    Gallup, Pew, the American Research Group, Zogby and others had some
>>    devastating new poll results for the Chimp in Charge last week - not
>>    that you'd know it from the newsroom spin. The Media Whores are still
>>    desperately stuck trying to paint the race as a neck-and-neck
>>    nailbiter and John Kerry as a boring candidate who's going nowhere.
>>    Unfortunately for Bush, the evidence suggests that if he doesn't do
>>    something to stop his ratings slide, he could be screwed. According to
>>    Gallup, "no incumbent president in the post-war era won re-election
>>    after falling below 50 percent approval at this point in an election
>>    year." (Bush is currently at 44%.) In addition, every incumbent who
>>    has won re-election has had a double-digit lead over their opponent at
>>    this stage in the campaign. That's right - John Kerry is 11 points
>>    stronger against George W. Bush at this point than Bill Clinton was
>>    against Bush's father in 1992. Heard about that on Fox News lately?
>>    Nope - but you may have heard the Media Whores spreading stories about
>>    Democrats wanting to ditch Kerry. After all, when the party's nominee
>>    is doing better than any challenger in recent memory, it's always a
>>    good idea to, uh, get rid of him and find someone else. At least, the
>>    Republicans would certainly appreciate it if that could be arranged.
>>
>>    6 The Appleton Post-Crescent excessive spin partisanship dumb
>>    If polls aren't your thing and you prefer more anecdotal evidence that
>>    Bush isn't doing as well as he should be, check out this plea from the
>>    Post-Crescent of Appleton, Wisconsin. Last week the daily newspaper
>>    asked its readers to submit more pro-Bush letters to the editor,
>>    because they want to "balance things out." That's right. In a notice
>>    to their readers, the editors of the Post-Crescent wrote, "We've been
>>    getting more letters critical of President Bush than those that
>>    support him. We're not sure why, nor do we want to guess. But in
>>    today's increasingly polarized political environment, we would prefer
>>    our offering to put forward a better sense of balance... Since we
>>    depend upon you, our readers, to supply our letters, that goal can be
>>    difficult. We can't run letters that we don't have. If you would like
>>    to help us 'balance' things out, send us a letter, make a call or
>>    punch out an e-mail... We'd love to hear from you." So let me get this
>>    straight... The Post-Crescent takes it for granted that the country is
>>    "polarized" - split down the middle between conservatives and
>>    liberals. They are then faced with strong evidence to the contrary in
>>    the form of increasing numbers of letters critical of George W. Bush.
>>    So what's a good newspaper to do? Run the letters as they come in?
>>    Note that the increase in anti-Bush letters may indicate a drop in
>>    support for Our Great Leader? Nope - they ask for readers to send in
>>    more pro-Bush letters to "balance things out." After all, their job
>>    isn't to to "guess" why this might be happening, is it? No - their job
>>    is to simply parrot conventional wisdom. And if reality happens to
>>    indicate that conventional wisdom may be false, what else is a good
>>    newspaper to do but manufacture evidence to the contrary? Thank
>>    goodness for the fourth estate.
>>
>>    7 Paul Bremer flip-flopping
>>    Back to the Middle East for a moment... According to the Associated
>>    Press, current King of Iraq Paul Bremer announced last week that "the
>>    United States would leave Iraq if requested to do so by the new Iraqi
>>    government." Said Bremer, "I don't think that will happen, but
>>    obviously we don't stay in countries where we're not welcome." Hmmm...
>>    let's see here. So they've killed almost 800 of our soldiers in the
>>    last year or so, we've killed 10,000 or so of them, 80 percent of
>>    Iraqis now want us out of the country... but hey, we wouldn't want to
>>    be anywhere we're not welcome. Strangely enough, this news came hot on
>>    the heels of an announcement by Undersecretary of State Marc Grossman,
>>    who told reporters that U.S. forces "would not leave if asked by the
>>    interim government." But it's okay, because that announcement came hot
>>    on the heels of Grossman's appearance before the House International
>>    Relations Committee where he was asked, "If they ask us to leave, we
>>    will leave, will we not?" and he answered, "Yes." So I'm glad our
>>    policy in Iraq is now perfectly clear to everybody.
>>
>>    8 George W. Bush massive ego screwing the poor
>>    Iraq and the economy aren't looking too good for Bush at the moment,
>>    so he's falling back on his third-string campaign issue, education.
>>    Bush's massively underfunded No Child Left Behind act is driving up
>>    education costs everywhere as schools try to conform to rigid
>>    standards, and it's certainly having an effect on Parkersburg South
>>    High School in West Virginia. When Bush made a campaign stop - sorry,
>>    my bad, a "presidential visit" (that means the taxpayer gets to pay
>>    for it) - there last week, the school was a little sweaty - except
>>    George lucked out as usual. "We've got 1,200 students sitting over
>>    there in an un-air conditioned auditorium watching this (on
>>    television) with fans blowing on them to keep cool," said Parkersburg
>>    South librarian Brenda Brum. "Here, we've pumped in air conditioning
>>    for the President. I resent that." Ah, Brenda, at least you didn't
>>    have to lay down asphalt for him to walk on (see Idiots 147). Now shut
>>    up and go resuscitate that student. I think he's come down with
>>    heatstroke.
>>
>>    9 Dorothy Rabinowitz dumb dumb dumb
>>    How dumb can you get? Last month Wall Street Journal pundit Dorothy
>>    Rabinowitz wrote a scathing indictment of Kristen Breitweister and the
>>    9/11 widows which was published as an op-ed. This month, Breitweiser
>>    wrote an op-ed of her own and submitted it for publication in the
>>    Journal. Rabinowitz got wind of the op-ed and dashed off an email to
>>    deputy editorial page editor Tunku Varadaraja asking him not to
>>    publish it. She called Breitweiser's article "total and complete - not
>>    to mention repetitive - nonsense from people given endless media
>>    access to repeat the very same stupid charges." But that's not all...
>>    "My thoughts - we don't publish nonsensical contentions that offer no
>>    news, no insight - solely on the grounds that those who feel attacked
>>    get a chance to defend their views. For that we have the letters
>>    column." Wow. But wait a second, you're asking yourself, how do I know
>>    what was in the email? Simple - instead of sending it to Tunku
>>    Varadaraja, Rabinowitz accidentally sent it to Kristen Breitweiser.
>>    Shortly afterwards she sent another one: "Rabinowitz, Dorothy would
>>    like to recall the message, '9/11 Widows' Response - the 'jersey
>>    girls.'" Like I said: how dumb can you get?
>>
>>    10 The Republican Party flip-flopping flip-flopping hypocrisy
>>    hypocrisy
>>    And finally, thanks to the great DailyKos.com for tipping us off to
>>    this one... An alert Kos reader realized that parts of the Republican
>>    Party Platform at the 2000 GOP Convention reads like an exact
>>    indictment of everything Bush has done since coming to power - check
>>    it out: "The arrogance, inconsistency, and unreliability of the
>>    [Clinton] administration's diplomacy have undermined American
>>    alliances, alienated friends, and emboldened our adversaries" ...
>>    "Gerrymandered congressional districts are an affront to democracy and
>>    an insult to the voters. We oppose that and any other attempt to rig
>>    the electoral process" ... "Nor should the intelligence community be
>>    made the scapegoat for political misjudgments. A Republican
>>    administration working with the Congress will respect the needs and
>>    quiet sacrifices of these public servants as it strengthens America's
>>    intelligence and counter-intelligence capabilities and reorients them
>>    toward the dangers of the future." Can you believe it? See you next
>>    week!
>>
>>    Linked cites verifying the aforementioned idiots can be found at:
>>           http://www.democraticunderground.com/top10/index.html
>>    _____________________________________________________________________
>>
>>        Guns, God, & Greed are the Three G's of Republican government.
>>    ______________________________________________________________________
>