That particular kind of smile is visible on the face of Bill Frist as he tries to portray our outgoing president as a savior of millions. George Bush is a healer, he says. I know, but be careful that nothing flies into your
mouth while it gapes in amazement. No, he's not talking about the hundreds of millions of lives, perhaps billions of lives affected by his economic policies nor the uncounted lives of Iraqi civilians who he has killed or maimed, the millions exiled, the millions forced into fear and abject squalor, he's talking about the lives he's saved in Africa.While millions have been hacked to pieces, raped, dismembered and starved in Africa without any interference by the United States of America, Bush has none the less committed 15 billion dollars to fight AIDS, according to smiling Bill Frist. Some, of course question the accounting and questionable accounting is the most visible Bush family trait as has been demonstrated. No mention makes Frist of any number of lives that might have been saved by advocating condoms to prevent infections because that, of course, would offend the Christian Right. God, after all, provides sinners so that we can be saintly in our condescension and preventing the infections just gets in the way of God's plan.
Frist has the nerve to continue on and on about how Bush has done wonders for education and health care and I'm sure it's not that he's a damn liar or that he lives on another planet that he doesn't realize that Bush failures in these departments contributed heavily to the fact that Frist is no longer the Majority Leader. That Bush and Frist and their party of God are saintly men, misjudged by sinners and Liberals, is an article of faith for Republicans but they're no different than other men. It's just that faith makes liars of us all.
Swash, these guys *ARE* from anotehr planet. To be precise, they hail from an alternate Earth in the 8th dimension: "Htrae."
ReplyDeleteBeing the 8th dimension, their planet exists in opposition to our own, sort of like left- and right-handed molecules. On Htrae, up is down and left is right. Black is white and good is bad. Every day is Opposites Day.
This is why they regard defeat as victory, disaster as accomplishment, and good government as a problem to be solved.
"Iraqi civilians who he has killed or maimed, the millions exiled, the millions forced into fear and abject squalor,"
ReplyDeleteOh yes why Iraq was a paradise before we came in, right? Saddam hardly killed anyone, right?
The vast majority of civilians killed in Iraq have been killed by the insurgents. But wait...that's our fault too, right?
"While millions have been hacked to pieces, raped, dismembered and starved in Africa without any interference by the United States of America, Bush has none the less committed 15 billion dollars to fight AIDS, according to smiling Bill Frist"
So what is your point here? That Bush should have invaded Rwanda, Sudan, Somalia, Zimbabwe etc to stop their various wars? And you would have supported this? Right....
And yes Bush has done a lot to fight AIDS in Africa. Linking to some idiotic leftist kook blog like "bushwatch" as a source for "questionable accounting" is, well, kooky.
Is it even necessary, much less productive to address the rants of someone who calls himself a "redhunter?"
ReplyDeleteI think not. Go kill a Commie for Christ or something, but just go.
Why is it always all or nothing with these folks?
ReplyDeleteOh yes why Iraq was a paradise before we came in, right? Saddam hardly killed anyone, right?
The only one saying any such thing here appears to be you... Good luck beating up on your straw man, though...
The vast majority of civilians killed in Iraq have been killed by the insurgents. But wait...that's our fault too, right?
Maybe... How many insurgents were in Iraq before we invaded & occupied, and how much power did they wield?
So what is your point here? That Bush should have invaded Rwanda, Sudan, Somalia, Zimbabwe etc to stop their various wars? And you would have supported this? Right....
The point, Tom, is that conditions in Iraq were no worse for the citizens or for US security than conditions in South Africa. Many argue that where citizens are concerned, conditions in South Africa were & continue to be worse.
If the logic of invading Iraq was sound, it would've been at least as sound in supporting invasions elsewhere...
Personally, I'm more isolationist, & believe that the US military shouldn't serve as the world's policemen, though I do favor UN multinational forces in situations where genocide is taking place. (Perhaps I could even've gone along with such a thing in Iraq, if the countries of the UN were willing... without the US bribes & arm-twisting, I mean...) I don't support unilateral, offensive, preemptive wars, however.
Bush's fight against AIDS in Africa is to be commended, but that one bright spot does not wipe his less commendable actions away.
Perhaps it's the nihilist in me, but I could care less about Bush. His time is nearly past. Go on & celebrate those things you folks believe to be his accomplishments, and continue convincing yourselves that after we're all dead & gone, people wiser than ourselves will hold holidays in celebration of Bush's wisdom & political prowess... I see no reason to rain on your "thankathon" parades, because whatever anyone claims about him, be it for or against, the actual facts remain the same. Right & left, for or against, our lasting impressions about (almost former) President Bush have already been set.
Personally, I'm lookin' forward, not back.
When you run out of "reds" I guess anything is fair game. Thanks Repsac3, for the explanations.
ReplyDeleteI hope you're right, that the Age of Bush is at an end, but ages seem to come back in proportion to their ugliness. Frist's effort to whitewash the Bush wall is no different than the many efforts to portray Nixon as misunderstood and mistreated. He's only now beginning to emerge as the SOB he was.
I'm not sure that Bush's efforts to fight AIDS in Africa were more than a stage set. I think much of the money never got there and the insistence that the emphasis be on drugs and not prevention is scandalous.
"The only one saying any such thing here appears to be you..."
ReplyDeleteSo you've never heard of Michael Moore?
"The point, Tom, is that conditions in Iraq were no worse for the citizens or for US security than conditions in South Africa. Many argue that where citizens are concerned, conditions in South Africa were & continue to be worse."
Wrong. Black Africans immigrated to Apartheit South Africa to get jobs. South Africa didn't mass murder it's citizens. South Africa didn't invade it's neighbors. South Africa didn't develop or use poison gas.
But if you don't want to like the invasion of Iraq, fine. But for you to go after him on fighting AIDS in Africa is ridiculous. You reveal yourself to be a partisan hack.
So you've never heard of Michael Moore?
ReplyDeleteI have heard of Michael Moore. I have never heard him refer to pre-invasion Iraq as a paradise, or say that Saddam hardly killed anyone, however.
If he actually did say either of those things, he was wrong. But if he did, your argument is with him, not with anyone here.
Here, you are the only person making those ridiculous statements, and then arguing against them as though one of us--rather than you, yourself--had made them.
As I'm curious, can you cite where/when Michael Moore made these statements?
As for South Africa, you obviously believe that it was a safer more free place than Iraq. Be that as it may, there are plenty of people, including folks in the know, who say different. Perhaps they're looking at the civil & tribal wars as not being all that different from being murdered by your government. Dead is dead.
The point is, that like Iraq, South Africa was also not a paradise, and like Iraq, people were dying in vast numbers. Personally, I believe that if America is in the liberation & lifesaving business, these people could've used it just as much as the Iraqis. As long as we're the world's policemen, there will always be peoples in need of rescue, regimes ready for change, and nations ripe for rebuilding, in our own image, if possible.
I can't really address the AIDS thing, because I wasn't the "partisan hack" who questioned it. (Though now that Fogg brought it up, I do intend to research it further...)
For the record, I was the one who basically said that good deeds do not overcome evil ones. I already know you agree with that sentiment, since that was exactly what you said as regards the rumor that the United Nations Population Fund helps China fund its one child policy-- and is therefore eeeeevil, regardless of whatever amount of good it does throughout the world.
Tom: please rethink your views about the benevolence of South Africa during the apartheide era. Blacks were nothing more than ultra cheap labor. I read an old book written bu Gary Player. In it he lamented the upkeep of some of the golf courses he played around the world. He also said South African courses were well maintained because labor was so cheap. This not to cast any ill will on Gary Player. He is a great man and supported the end of apartheide. I just think humans owe humans better than to just consider each other no more than cheap labor.
ReplyDeleteYes, Michael Moore. Waving his name like a battle flag is a last resort when you have no real argument but a huge attitude to support. Michael Moore has been the goat of choice since he was amongst the first to publicly call George Bush a failure, which of course he is. Tom isn't thinking at all, just platitudinizing by the numbers.
ReplyDeleteIf Tom were someone who thought in the first place much less rethought, he wouldn't still be hunting down "Reds" now would he?