Evil Republicans, Or Stupid Republicans?

Current vote is in favor of "stupid." Please go here to see the prank "USA Patriot Pledge" that 237 people actually signed and mailed in. (Sample pledge: "I commit my children to pay for the wars America is fighting.")

Yo! A cool study shows that conservatives and Republicans are stooopid because they're wired differenty than creative, smart liberals! Right here!!

Here's what typical Republican Ann Coulter has to say about the wives who's husbands were burned alive in the twin towers on 9/11:

"These broads are millionaires, lionized on TV and in articles about them, reveling in their status as celebrities and stalked by griefparrazies. I have never seen people enjoying their husband’s death so much." Here's their response. Yo: Republicans! Do you buy this? Is this how you feel? Are you all warm and fuzzy with Ann?

Garrison Keillor:

Having been called names, one looks back at one's own angry outbursts over the years, and I recall having once referred to Republicans as "hairy backed swamp developers, fundamentalist bullies, freelance racists, hobby cops, sweatshop tycoons, line jumpers, marsupial moms and aluminum siding salesmen, misanthropic frat boys, ninja dittoheads, shrieking midgets, tax cheats, cheese merchants, cat stranglers, pill pushers, nihilists in golf pants, backed-up Baptists, the grand pooh-bahs of Percodan, mouth breathers, testosterone junkies and brownshirts in pinstripes." I look at those words now, and "cat stranglers" seems excessive to me. (here)

Things you can count on the Republican leadership to screw up:

The deficit. Body armor. Medicare reform. Social Security reform. The minimum wage. Port security. The National Guard. Diplomacy. The Geneva Conventions. Fair elections. Clean elections. Intelligence. Protecting the Constitution. Protecting the Bill of Rights. Government transparency. Oversight. Separation of church and state. The middle class. The poor. Tax reform. Tax cuts. Bankruptcy law. Global warming. Disaster management. Defeating terrorists. Saying no to lobbyists. Saying yes to public opinion. Pre-war planning. Post-war planning. Competence. Civil rights. Civil liberties. Civil debate. Veterans' benefits. Hiring based on ability. Legal surveillance. Morality. Energy policy. Energy independence. End-of-life decisions among spouses. Inclusion. Learning lessons from history. Learning, period. Drug policy. Fiscal responsibility. Trusting the generals. Trusting the spooks. Trusting the experts. Basic honesty. Basic health care. Education. Creating jobs. Keeping CIA operatives' identities secret. Catching Osama. Playing nice. Playing fair. Refilling ice cube trays. Making paper airplanes. Or coffee. Tying their shoelaces. Making friends. Blowing their noses. Counting to ten five three. Sharing their toys. Telling the truth. Uniting the country. Protecting underage kids from a predatory congressman. (here)

" Not all conservatives are stupid, but all stupid people are conservative." HL Menckin


Republicans: Cowards, except when it comes to sending people to die for no good reason. Then they're very very brave.

Perverts and criminals:

* Vice President Dead-eye Dick Cheney's Chief of Staff Scooter Libby resigns after being indicted on felony charges of obstruction of justice, perjury and making false statements in the CIA leak investigation

* President Bush severely criticized for his role in the domestic NSA wire

When a Republican uses the phrase "Cut and run" or "Surrender is not an option" be sure to check and see if they served overseas in the military or sat on their fat asses because of "other priorities."

Service in the Armed Forces

Democrats:

* Richard Gephardt: Air National Guard, 1965-71.
* Tom Daschle: 1st Lt., Air Force SAC 1969-72.
* Al Gore: enlisted Aug. 1969; sent to Vietnam Jan. 1971 as an army journalist in 20th Engineer Brigade.
* Bob Kerrey: Lt. j.g. Navy 1966-69; Medal of Honor, Vietnam.
* Daniel Inouye: Army 1943-47; Medal of Honor, WWII.
* John Kerry: Lt., Navy 1966-70; Silver Star, Bronze Star with Combat V, Purple Hearts.
* Charles Rangel: Staff Sgt., Army 1948-52; Bronze Star, Korea.
* Max Cleland: Captain, Army 1965-68; Silver Star & Bronze Star,
Vietnam. Paraplegic from war injuries. Served in Congress.
* Ted Kennedy: Army, 1951-53.
* Tom Harkin: Lt., Navy, 1962-67; Naval Reserve, 1968-74.
* Fritz Hollings: Army officer in WWII; Bronze Star and seven campaign ribbons.
* Leonard Boswell: Lt. Col., Army 1956-76; Vietnam, DFCs, Bronze Stars,and Soldier's Medal.
* Pete Peterson: Air Force Captain, POW. Purple Heart, Silver Star and Legion of Merit.
* Mike Thompson: Staff sergeant, 173rd Airborne, Purple Heart.
* Bill McBride: Candidate for Fla. Governor. Marine in Vietnam; Bronze Star with Combat V.
* Gray Davis: Army Captain in Vietnam, Bronze Star.
* George McGovern: Silver Star & DFC during WWII.
* Jimmy Carter: Seven years in the Navy.
* Walter Mondale: Army 1951-1953
* John Glenn: WWII and Korea; six DFCs and AirMedal with 18 Clusters.
* Tom Lantos: Served in Hungarian underground in WWII. Saved by Raoul Wallenberg.

Republicans -- the guys sending people to Afghanistan and Iraq:

* Dick Cheney: did not serve. Several deferments, the last by marriage.
* Dennis Hastert: did not serve.
* Tom Delay: did not serve.
* Roy Blunt: did not serve.
* Bill Frist: did not serve.
* Mitch McConnell: did not serve.
* Rick Santorum: did not serve.
* Trent Lott: did not serve.
* John Ashcroft: did not serve. Seven deferments to teach business.
* Jeb Bush: did not serve.
* Karl Rove: did not serve.
* Saxby Chambliss: did not serve. "Bad knee." (The man who attacked Max Cleland's patriotism.)
* Paul Wolfowitz: did not serve.
* Vin Weber: did not serve.
* Richard Perle: did not serve.
* Douglas Feith: did not serve.
* Eliot Abrams: did not serve.
* Tim Hutchison: did not serve.
* Newt Gingrich: did not serve.
* George W. Bush: failed to complete his six-year National Guard; failed to show up for required physical. Coward.
* Phil Gramm: did not serve.
* JC Watts: did not serve.
* Jack Kemp: did not serve. "Knee problem, " although continued in NFL for 8 years as quarterback.
* Dan Quayle: Journalism unit of the Indiana National Guard. Scary!
* Rudy Giuliani: did not serve.
* George Pataki: did not serve.
* Lindsey Graham: National Guard lawyer.
* Arnold Schwarzenegger: AWOL from Austrian army base.

Pundits & Preachers
* Sean Hannity: did not serve.
* Rush Limbaugh: did not serve (because of a boil on his ass!) (here)
* Bill O'Reilly: did not serve.
* Michael Savage: did not serve.
* George Will: did not serve.
* Chris Matthews: did not serve.
* Paul Gigot: did not serve.
* Bill Bennett: did not serve.
* Pat Buchanan: did not serve.
* John Wayne: did not serve.
* Bill Kristol: did not serve.
* Kenneth Starr: did not serve.
* Antonin Scalia: did not serve.
* Clarence Thomas: did not serve.
* Ralph Reed: did not serve.
* Michael Medved: did not serve.

Foot in Mouth Disease: Nice Republican Quotes

House Republican Leader John Boehner would have appointed Rep. Wayne Gilchrest to the bipartisan Select Committee on Energy Independence and Global Warming -- but only if the Maryland Republican would say humans are not causing climate change, Gilchrest said. "I said, 'John, I can't do that,' " Gilchrest, R-1st-Md., said in an interview. "He said, 'Come on. Do me a favor. I want to help you here.' (here)

"We have to change the range of that bird to 1.8 miles because my family has property in California." Department of the Interior Bush appointee Julie MacDonald. (here)

Arnold: Typical Republican Liar

"I finally arrived here in 1968.I had empty pockets, but I was full of dreams. The presidential campaign was in full swing. I remember watching the Nixon and Humphrey presidential race on TV. I heard Humphrey saying things that sounded like socialism which is what I had just left. But then I heard Nixon speak. He was talking about free enterprise, getting government off your back, lowering taxes, and strengthening the military. Listening to Nixon speak sounded more like a breath of fresh air. I said to my friend, "What party is he?" My friend said, "He's a Republican." I said, "Then I am a Republican!" And I've been a Republican ever since!"

That's Arnold at the 2004 Republican National Convention. The problem, is that in 1968 Arnie didn't speak English, and there were no Humphrey-Nixon debates. (here)

" I am a fashion god. I got it at Nordstrom's. ... Are you proud of me? Can I quit now? Can I come home now?" Michael Brown (Brownie "Heckuva Job") in the midst of Hurricane Katrina. (Here)

Representative Rep. Richard H. Baker, (in reference to hurricane Katrina) said: "We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did." (here)

Bill O'Reilly: Eeeeuwwwww!
Read actual phone transcripts concerning how Bill O'Reilly wants to "massage your back with a falafel." (Icky! He meant "loofah.")

Read how "impartial" and "fair and balanced" Bill threatens to have Al Franken "whacked." Read the transcript of his orgasm on the phone!

Jessica Simpson, on meeting Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton said, "You've done a nice job of decorating the White House." (here)

Why don't YOU get a new job?

"Why don't they get new jobs if they're unhappy — or go on Prozac?" Bush campaign worker Susan Sheybani's musings on employee options in the weak U.S. job market. (here)

Space is the Place!

Congressman Tom Feeney (R-FL) said on the 1/9/04 edition of "Scarborough Country": "Somebody is going to dominate space.  When they do, just like when the British dominated the naval part of our globe, established their empire, just like the United States has dominated the air superiority, ultimately, whoever is able to dominate space will be able to control the destiny of the entire Earth. And I think America is the only country with the moral capability and authority to." (here)

"I think that gay marriage is something that should be between a man and a woman." Arnold Schwarzenegger (here)

"Capital punishment is our society's recognition of the sanctity of human life." Republican U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch (here)

"Facts are stupid things." Ronald Reagan (here)

"All the waste in a year from a nuclear power plant can be stored under a desk." Ronald Reagan (Wrong, unless the space under your desk can store 30 tons.) (here)

"Africa is a nation with a lot of diseases." --George W. Bush (more here)

Billy Graham, speaking about Jews in America: "This stranglehold has got to be broken or the country's going down the drain." Richard Nixon: "You believe that?" Graham: "Yes sir." Nixon: "Oh boy, so do I. I can't ever say that, but I believe it. --From Nixon's secret White House Tapes (here)

"God told me to strike at al-Qaeda and I struck them, and then He instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did, and now I am determined to solve the problem in the Middle East. If you help me, I will act, and if not, the elections will come and I will have to focus on them." George W. Bush (here)

"It's amazing I won. I was running against peace, prosperity, and incumbency. It wasn't exactly a landslide, you know?" George W. Bush, speaking to Swedish Prime Minister Goran Perrson, unaware that a live television camera was still rolling.

Does Ann Coulter have a head injury?

"I think the other point that no one is making about the abuse photos is just the disproportionate number of women involved, including a girl general running the entire operation. I mean, this is lesson, you know, one million and 47 on why women shouldn't be in the military. In addition to not being able to carry even a medium-sized backpack, women are too vicious." -- Ann Coulter, missing the point for the one million and 47th time. (here)

"This is no time to be precious about locating the exact individuals directly involved in this particular terrorist attack. We should invade their countries, kill their leaders, and convert them to Christianity." --Right-wing columnist Ann Coulter (here)

"...and of course there are the 39 million greedy geezers collecting Social Security. The greatest generation rewarded itself with a pretty big meal. --Right-wing columnist Ann Coulter (here)

"Even Hillary Clinton claimed to have unearthed some evidence that she was a Jew. And that, boys and girls, is how the Jews survived thousands of years of persecution: by being susceptible to pandering." Ann Coulter (here)

Tom Delay Gets His Own Section of Stupid Quotes!

(Good riddance, Tom: Molly Ivins says goodbye.)

"I have seen these liberal psychologists and sociologists talk about there is no need for the man in the family. 'The woman can take care of it. A woman can take care of the family.' It takes a man to provide structure. To provide stability. " – House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX), in an interview, on the role of women in the home. (Christine DeLay "quickly realized that her hubby was treading on dangerous territory," admonishing, "Let's edit this out," she said. "This is not a good thing for you to be saying.") (here)

"The EPA is the Gestapo of government, purely and simply." (here)

To fix fish kills caused by acid rain: "Just sprinkle a little lime to neutralize the acid." (here)

Tom Delay's shouted reply when he was told it was a federal law that he couldn't smoke his cigar in a no-smoking area: "I AM the federal law!" (here)

(Also see Sylvester Stallone as Judge Dredd bellowing "I AM the law!")(here)

"Nothing is more important in the face of a war than cutting taxes." --Tom Delay (here)

(More on Evil Tom Delay's Evilness (here) and (here)

"How dare Senator Daschle criticize president Bush while we are fighting our war on terrorism, especially when we have troops in the field!" Trent Lott, 2/28/02, after spending the last half of the '90s criticizing Clinton's use of troops around the world. (here)

"If combat means living in a ditch, females have biological problems staying in a ditch for 30 days because they get infections. Males are biologically driven to go out and hunt giraffes." Newt Gingrich (here)

"Women are best suited for secretarial work, decorating cakes, and counter sales, like selling lingerie. --South Carolina Republican Representative Larry Koon (here)

Clayton Williams, the Republican nominee for Texas governor when running against Ann Richards compared bad weather to rape saying, "If it's inevitable, just relax and enjoy it." (here)

I have a black, a woman, two Jews and a cripple. --James G. Watt, Reagan's Secretary of the Interior describing an advisory panel. (here)

"What a waste it is to lose one's mind, or not to have a mind is being very wasteful. How true that is." --Dan Quayle (here)

Republican Governor of Alabama, Bob Riley has presented a plan to raise taxes to change what he considers a regressive tax structure that favors the wealthy and brings hardship to the poor. Marty Connors, the Alabama Republican chairman asked, "How far do you go in making a regressive tax structure progressive before it ceases to be a "moral" act and becomes a "liberal" or "Democratic" one? " (here)

"Every person who opens the door -- as long as they are white -- I'll say 'I'm James Hart and I'm running for Congress." Eugenics fan James Hart, running as a GOP Congressional candidate in Tennessee: (here)

"We will never stop thinking of ways to harm America." --George W. Bush (here)

Hypocritical Republican "God and Family" Types: Example #2,118: "Hey baby, it doesn't turn me on when you cry!"

Ah, those family values loving Republicans! "Cages, whips and other apparatus hanging from the ceiling," says the legal filing, roundly denied by the GOP Senate candidate, of course.

Jeri Ryan said her then-husband took her on three "surprise trips" in the spring of 1998 to New Orleans, New York and Paris, during which he took her to sex clubs. She said she refused to go in the first and went into the second at his insistence.

"It was a bizarre club with cages, whips and other apparatus hanging from the ceiling," she said in the court document, adding that her husband "wanted me to have sex with him there, with another couple watching. I refused."

She said on arriving at the third club, in Paris, "people were having sex everywhere. I cried. I was physically ill. [He] became very upset with me and said it was not a 'turn on' for me to cry." (here)

Hypocritical Republican "God and Family" Types: Example #2,119

(also see: Gingrich, Bennett, Bush's: Brother in Thailand)

The head of the Sinclair Broadcast Group (the broadcast company that yanked the Ted Koppel's Nightline program listing those killed in action in Iraq) apparently needs to spend more time at home reading his Bible. He got picked up a few years ago for buying a blow-job. (here)

Current Republican Chickenhawk:

Georgie himself! Read how Ben Barnes (former Texas House Speaker) got cowardly drunken Georgie into the Champagne Unit of the National Guard here.

Former Texas House Speaker Ben Barnes said he is ''more ashamed at myself than I've ever been'' because he helped President Bush and the sons of other wealthy families get into the Texas National Guard so they could avoid serving in Vietnam. ''I got a young man named George W. Bush into the National Guard ... and I'm not necessarily proud of that, but I did it,''

Scott McClellan went on the offensive against Ben Barnes for describing the "shame" he feels over helping President Bush duck service in Vietnam. "It is not surprising coming from a longtime partisan Democrat," he said. "The allegation was discredited by the commanding officer. This was fully covered and addressed five years ago. It is nothing new." It turns out that Barnes is such a down-the-line partisan that he supported Texas's Republican State Comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn for reelection in 2002.

Strayhorn is Scott's mom.

Previous winners:

Thrice-divorced blowhard Rush Limbaugh avoided service in Vietnam because of a a boil on his ass. It's true! (here)

Senator Saxby Chambliss, Georgia - did not serve, had a "trick knee" (yet somehow feels he has a right to attack Max Cleland's patriotism)

"I am angry that so many of the sons of the powerful and well-placed... managed to wangle slots in Reserve and National Guard units. . . Of the many tragedies of Vietnam, this raw class discrimination strikes me as the most damaging to the ideal that all Americans are created equal and owe equal allegiance to their country."

(Colin Powell's autobiography, My American Journey, p. 148)

Who actually served---who didn't.

Last week (or month...)

Dennis Hastert's Trick Shoulder Trumps Saxby Chambliss' Trick Knee:

John McCain: "I don't remember ever in the history of warfare when we cut taxes." Asked about McCain's remarks, Dennis Hastert (here): "If you want to see sacrifice, John McCain ought to visit our young men and women at Walter Reed and Bethesda [military hospitals]. There's the sacrifice in this country. We're trying to make sure that they have the ability to fight this war, that they have the wherewithal to be able to do it. And at the same time, we have to react to keep this country strong not only militarily but economically. We want to be able to have the flexibility to do it. That's my reply to John McCain." Where was Hastert during the Vietnam war? He was rejected for military service because of a bad shoulder.

Former winners: A three-way tie between the Pentagon officials who, according to Newsweek, cancelled flights on September 10, 2001 because of "security concerns" (here) John Ashcroft, for flying by private jet starting in July of 2001 because of "security concerns" (here) and Condi Rice for saying, ""I don't think anybody could have predicted that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile" when, as it turns out, they had already received multiple warnings in Bush's PDB (Presidential Daily Briefing) (here)

Tom Delay's words on why he missed Vietnam: "So many minority youths had volunteered for the well-paying military positions to escape poverty and the ghetto that there was literally no room for patriotic folks like me in Vietnam." (here)

Dick Cheney managed to snag five deferments during the Vietnam war. “I had other priorities in the ’60s than military service,” Cheney told a reporter in 1989, according to the Washington Post. (here)

John Murtha, Democrat with lotsa combat decorations (Two purple hearts, bronze star) from his service in Vietnam says:

"I like guys who've never been there that criticize us who've been there. I like that. I like guys who got five deferments and never been there and send people to war, and then don't like to hear suggestions about what needs to be done." (here)

Dick Cheney's Five Big Deferments!

By the time Cheney turned 26 in January 1967 and was no longer eligible for the draft, he had asked for and received five deferments, four because he was a student and one for being a new father.

"Five deferments seems incredible to me," said David Curry, a professor at the University of Missouri in St. Louis who has written extensively about the draft, including a 1985 book, "Sunshine Patriots: Punishment and the Vietnam Offender."

"That's a lot of times for the draft board to say O.K.," Mr. Curry said.

1. Mr. Cheney enrolled in Casper Community College in January 1963 — he turned 22 that month — and sought his first student deferment on March 20, according to records from the Selective Service System.

2. After transferring to the University of Wyoming at Laramie, he sought his second student deferment on July 23, 1963.

3. On Aug. 7, 1964, Congress approved the Gulf of Tonkin resolution, which allowed President Lyndon B. Johnson to use unlimited military force in Vietnam. The war escalated rapidly from there. Just 22 days later, Mr. Cheney married his high school sweetheart, Lynne. He sought his third student deferment on Oct. 14, 1964.

4. In July, President Johnson announced that he was doubling the number of men drafted. The number of inductions soared, to 382,010 in 1966 from 230,991 in 1965 and 112,386 in 1964. Mr. Cheney obtained his fourth deferment when he started graduate school at the University of Wyoming on Nov. 1, 1965.

5. On Oct. 6, 1965, the Selective Service lifted its ban against drafting married men who had no children. Nine months and two days later, Mr. Cheney's first daughter, Elizabeth, was born. On Jan. 19, 1966, when his wife was about 10 weeks pregnant, Mr. Cheney applied for 3-A status, the "hardship" exemption, which excluded men with children or dependent parents. It was granted.
In January 1967, Mr. Cheney turned 26 and was no longer eligible for the draft. Yay! (here)

"It has always seemed to me that the leaders who are the quickest to send our boys and our young to war are those who have never known war themselves." George McGovern (a decorated WWII veteran who actually saw combat). (here)

What do you think they're discussing/comparing?


Limbaugh's Rules of Order: We Couldn't Have Put It Better Ourselves

(From Wonkette)

We'd been puzzling over what to say about the news of American soldiers humiliating and torturing Iraqi prisoners. We felt we should say something; after all, there's (simulated) ass-fucking involved. But, you know, torture. Where are the laughs?

Then Rush Limbaugh put it all in perspective, after a caller remarked that the "stack [of] naked men" was "like a college fraternity prank."

RUSH: "Exactly. Exactly my point! This is no different than what happens at the skull and bones initiation and we're going to ruin people's lives over it and we're going to hamper our military effort, and then we are going to really hammer them because they had a good time. You know, these people are being fired at every day. I'm talking about people having a good time, these people, you ever heard of emotional release? You of heard of need to blow some steam off?"

Of course. That's how we like to unwind at the end of a hard day ourselves. Some soft music, a cocktail and some simulated ass-fucking. Oh, I'm sorry: Forcing someone else into simulated ass-fucking. And hey, isn't it nice to see a leader in the conservative movement finally come out in favor of a "don't ask, don't tell" policy in the military?

The report on Iraqi prisoner abuse is here.

Eloquent rant here

Rush Limbaugh's Canny Insights Into Iraqi Torture

LIMBAUGH: You know, if you look at -- if you, really, if you look at these pictures, I mean, I don't know if it's just me, but it looks just like anything you'd see Madonna, or Britney Spears do on stage. Maybe I'm -- yeah. And get an NEA grant for something like this. I mean, this is something that you can see on stage at Lincoln Center from an NEA grant, maybe on Sex in the City -- the movie. I mean, I don't, maybe-- it's just me.

(Yes, it's just you, Rush.) (here)

Media Matters for America monitored The Rush Limbaugh Show from March 15 to April 29. During that time, Limbaugh used the term "femi-Nazis" eight times; he suggested that women want to be sexually harassed; he repeatedly equated Democrats with terrorists; he twice resurrected long-discredited right-wing claims that Clinton deputy White House counsel Vince Foster was murdered; he repeatedly called Senator John Kerry a "gigolo"; he called environmentalists "total wackos"; he called Howard Dean "a very sick man"; he said Democrats "hate this country"; he referred several times to Democratic National Committee Chair Terry McAuliffe as a "punk" ... and so on.

Some Real Nice Things Rush Said:

"Some of these babes, I'm telling you, like the sexual harassment crowd. They're out there protesting what they actually wish would happen to them sometimes." [4/26/04]

"Time magazine has just discovered that stay-at-home moms are women who have made legitimate choices to stay home and raise their young children -- a cover story. Yes, it's a trend. It started years ago when the feminist movement decided that their best friends were going to be German shepherds." [3/19/04]

"I'm going to tell you is what's good for Al Qaeda is good for the Democratic Party in this country today. That's how you boil this down. And it doesn't have to be Al Qaeda. What's good for terrorists is good for John Kerry." [3/15/04]

"So the only real question is, if Al Qaeda's active and capable, what are they going to do? Because we know what they want: they want Kerry, they want the Democrats in power. They'd love that. I'm not guessing." [3/15/04]

(Media Matters for America notes: According to Reuters, an Al Qaeda letter that surfaced in March stated that the group supports Bush's reelection: "The statement said it supported President Bush in his reelection campaign, and would prefer him to win in November rather than the Democratic candidate John Kerry, as it was not possible to find a leader 'more foolish than you (Bush), who deals with matters by force rather than with wisdom.' ... [The letter added,] 'Kerry will kill our nation while it sleeps because he and the Democrats have the cunning to embellish blasphemy and present it to the Arab and Muslim nation as civilization. ... Because of this we desire you (Bush) to be elected.'" [Reuters, 3/17/04] (here)

" I'm almost going to come out in favor of war every 10 years so that we always have a group of people in this country that know what it's like. It's not healthy to go without a war for all these many years, because you get people that are born and grow up, and don't know what one is.

Note: It's worth keeping in mind that, while Limbaugh wants to have a "group of people in this country" who know what war is like, he didn't want to be in that group himself: Limbaugh didn't serve in Vietnam and told Jeff Greenfield in 1992, "I did not want to go." (here)

"ON JOHN KERRY'S BOAT"

Over at The Campaign Desk, Thomas Lang has some questions about the Wall Street Journal editorial page and its journalistic ethics.

It turns out that they finally ran their eagerly-awaited hatchet job against John Kerry from Vietnam vet/Republican shill John O'Neill. Lang read the print edition of the WSJ and noted that the editors had added something to O'Neill's contribution to the public discourse: the pull quote "I was on John Kerry's boat in Vietnam. He doesn't deserve to be commander in chief."

A pull quote is designed to break up the masses of gray type. Lang had a problem with that pull quote: "It's obviously designed to catch the attention of readers who don't actually read the article and fool them into thinking that O'Neill served alongside John Kerry. Saw him in action. Knew him personally back in the day.

Nope. 'On Mr. Kerry's boat' turns out to mean that after Kerry left Vietnam O'Neill happened to get assigned to the boat that Kerry had previously commanded. See? 'On Mr. Kerry's boat.' Cute, isn't it?"

Maybe we should ask, "Fake Republicans?"

First: the "Mission Accomplished" banner and stud-like victory prance around the deck of an aircraft carrier. Oops! Wrong! Fake! Mission Not Accomplished!

Then: Wow! Bush goes to Iraq to serve turkey to the troops! What a guy! Except...wait! The turkey was fake! Oops!

How about those cool-looking firefighters in those slick campaign ads for Bush. Hey! They're not really firemen! They're actors! Fakers! Why couldn't Bush get real firemen? Maybe it's because the National Union of Firefighters endorsed Kerry!


Mmmmm...nice and....long and....hard and....


Hai! Rumsfeld Mystic Fighting Techniques!

Stop the Presses! Cheney Tells the Truth!

If We Don't Like the Science, Lose the Scientists

Dick Cheney: Lying Scumbag

Dean's speech on the Republicans' politics of fear

Quotes From the Dark Side

Bush: Anti-Armed Forces

Democrat votes don't count, OK?

Women With Briefcases

Mr. Bennett's Little Casino of Virtues

How Much For A Piece of Plywood?

Shoot the Queers, or Anyone Different!

Free Speech! No Tape Recorders!

Public Urination! Yum!

Evil Republicans Archives

CHENEY TELLS THE TRUTH: One top Administration official who managed to tell the truth about the Administration's economic policies and its effect on jobs was Vice President Dick Cheney. He said "If the Democratic policies had been pursued over the last two or three years...we would not have had the kind of job growth that we've had." And he is correct: with a net 2 million negative job growth record over the last three years, Cheney was correctly asserting that his Democrats' policies would have stemmed the job loss tide. (here)

Dump the Scientists

Ideology trumps science yet again. The White House has consistently placed a conservative agenda above scientific fact. In yet another example, President Bush "dismissed two members of his handpicked Council on Bioethics -- a scientist and a moral philosopher who had been among the more outspoken advocates for research on human embryo cells." In their places, he "appointed three new members, including a doctor who has called for more religion in public life, a political scientist who has spoken out precisely against the research that the dismissed members supported, and another who has written about the immorality of abortion and the 'threats of biotechnology.'" The two scientists Bush removed "were often in the minority on the council as they provided dissenting views." Said Elizabeth Marincola, executive director of the American Society for Cell Biology, "It does seem alarming. It concerns me profoundly…The president is trying to ensure the advice he receives is the advice he wants to hear." (here)

Union of Concerned Scientists' Report on Bush's bending of science to policy

Dick Cheney Consorts With Terrorists

Vice President Dick Cheney, the former CEO of Halliburton, recently chastised those "who intimidate opposition, tolerate and profit from corruption and maintain ties to terrorist groups." Yet Halliburton, who has plenty of government contracts these days, maintains a mail box in the Cayman Islands in order to do business with Iran, one member of the famous "Axis of Evil" and a presumed exporter of terrorism. Cheney maintains that Halliburton has been "unfairly maligned" by "desperate" political opponents. Does anyone else think it's completely appropriate to malign a company that maintains an offshore shell company in order to evade U.S. sanctions on doing business with terrorist regimes? Does anyone wonder why many of us out here in the heartland of America find it increasingly impossible to trust anything this administration says?

Cheney's quote is here. The "60 Minutes" investigation is here.

An account of Dick Cheney's canned bird shoot is here.

(Can you say, "Weapons of mass destruction-related program activities?" No? Check this parody out: here)

"The Kay Report identified dozens of weapons of mass destruction-related program activities." - President Bush, 1/20/04 (here)

but:

"We have not uncovered evidence that Iraq undertook steps to build nuclear weapons or produce fissile material." There has been no evidence of "mobile biological production efforts." Iraq "did not have a large, ongoing, centrally controlled chemical weapons program after 1991." - The Kay Report, 10/2/03 (here)

(William Safire on secretive Republicans here )

U.S. Fights Verdict Backing Ex-P.O. W.'s

When 21 freed American P.O.'s returned home from the Persian Gulf war in March 1991, Dick Cheney, then secretary of defense, welcomed them at Andrews Air Force Base, Md.

"Every man and woman who cares for freedom," Mr. Cheney said, "owes you a very special measure of gratitude."

Of those 21 former prisoners of war, 17, who had been tortured by their Iraqi captors, would like something more tangible. This month they won a court award of almost $1 billion against Iraq, and a federal law says they may be paid from frozen Iraqi funds.

The Bush administration has expressed sympathy for the plaintiffs over what they endured but is fighting them about the money, saying it is needed to rebuild Iraq.

One plaintiff, Lt. Col. Richard Dale Storr, now with the Washington Air National Guard, said the administration's position troubled him. Colonel Storr endured beatings in Iraq that broke his nose, dislocated his shoulder and burst his left eardrum.

"It's sending a conflicting message to our troops," he said of the administration's recent court filings. "Congress and the judicial branch say, `Let's protect our guys to the maximum extent possible,' " while the executive branch is "saying the opposite."

"Disappointing," he added, "would be a good way to put it."
(full story here)

Voting For Civic Reasons Only

In April, when the Republicans on the New York City Board of Elections killed a plan to repair voting machines that had under-recorded votes in the 2000 election (with most of the unlucky voters being Democrats), Republican Commissioner Stephen Weiner denied that his party's disinterest in properly functioning machines showed bias against Democrats: "There are some people who don't want (their vote) register(ed), but who report to the polls for civic reasons." [Newsday, 4-16-03] (here)

Relentless Moral Crusader Is Relentless Gambler

By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE

WASHINGTON— William J. Bennett, author of "The Book of Virtues" and one of the nation's most relentless moral crusaders, is a high-rolling gambler who has lost more than $8 million at casinos in the last decade, according to online reports from two magazines.

The Washington Monthly said on its Web site that "over the last decade Bennett has made dozens of trips to casinos in Atlantic City and Las Vegas, where he is a `preferred customer' at several of them, and sources and documents provided to The Washington Monthly put his total losses at more than $8 million."

The Monthly said that in one two-month period, Mr. Bennett wired one casino more than $1.4 million to cover his losses.

The magazine says he earns $50,000 for each appearance in speaking fees on the lecture circuit, where he inveighs against various sins, weaknesses and vices of modern culture.

But Mr. Bennett exempts gambling from this list.(more here)

Shoot The Queers! Shoot the Liberals!

"We need to execute people like John Walker in order to physically intimidate liberals, by making them realize that they can be killed too. Otherwise they will turn out to be outright traitors." Right Wing commentator Ann Coulter, speaking at the 2002 Conservative Political Action Conference (more here)(and here)

Louie Welch, Republican of Texas, ran for Houston mayor on a "Return to Morality" platform. Once, unaware a microphone in front of him was still on, he outlined his four point plan to combat AIDS, saying, "One of them is to shoot the queers."

Todd Tiahrt, Republican from Kansas: "What is the best way for the Christian to win the race with the Muslim? The Muslim has too many babies, while Americans kill too many of theirs." (here)

Freedom of Speech! Except When I'm Talking

CLEVELAND (AP) - Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia banned broadcast media from an appearance Wednesday where he will receive an award for supporting free speech. The City Club usually tapes speakers for later broadcast on public television, but Scalia insisted on banning television and radio coverage, the club said. Scalia is being given the organization's Citadel of Free Speech Award. "I might wish it were otherwise, but that was one of the criteria that he had for acceptance," said James Foster, the club's executive director.

The ban on broadcast media "begs disbelief and seems to be in conflict with the award itself," C-SPAN vice president and executive producer Terry Murphy wrote in a letter last week to the City Club. "How free is speech if there are limits to its distribution?"(here)

Congress's War on France Is Just Starting

By SHERYL GAY STOLBERG New York Times

French fries and toast are not the only casualties of the escalating war of words between France and the United States. Add French wine, the French flag, French vanilla yogurt, French dressing, French air shows and, now, American soldiers' remains buried in France.

Angry over the French government's disagreement with President Bush's policy on Iraq, Representative Bob Ney, Republican of Ohio and chairman of the House Administration Committee, last week ordered the word "French" removed from the menus in all House cafeterias.

In Pennsylvania, a Republican state representative has proposed that state liquor stores divest themselves of Beaujolais. In New York, Washington, Chicago and San Francisco, the French-owned Hotel Sofitel is no longer flying the French flag — "a precautionary measure," said a spokesman, Paul Charoy.

The managers of the House cafeterias, perhaps fearing Mr. Ney's wrath, have extended the French ban by placing red, white and blue "freedom" stickers over the word French on the yogurt machine and on dozens of individual packets of french dressing.

Meantime, Representative H. James Saxton, Republican of New Jersey, has proposed a ban on Pentagon participation in this year's Paris Air Show, and Representative Ginny Brown-Waite, Republican of Florida, has introduced legislation that would allow the remains of World War II veterans buried in France to be brought home.

"The remains of our brave servicemen should be buried in patriotic soil, not in a country that has turned its back on the United States and on the memory of Americans who fought and died there," Ms. Brown-Waite said. "It's almost as if the French have forgotten what those thousands of white crosses at Normandy represent."
But we'll always have Paris. (here)

Public Urination: You Decide

Republican State Senator candidate Andrew Eristoff of New York, running against Liz Krueger, ran a TV spot with this tag line (screenshot below). The ad highlighted Ms Krueger's vote against a bill banning public urination, defecation, and aggressive panhandling. (here)

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