BUSH BLOG - Hypocrisy

When US POWs were put on Iraqi state TV during the invasion in March 2003, US newspapers denounced this as a war crime. The Kansas City Star [3/24/03] is a good example. "The Iraqi regime's outlaw nature was on full display Sunday as it flouted international law on how to treat prisoners of war."

The New York Daily News, Fort Worth Star-Telegraph and Washington Post [3/24/03] didn't like it either. In fact, during the invasion, Charles Krauthammer at the Post called UN Secretary General Kofi Annan "disgusting" because, while the UN leader criticized the deaths of civilians during the Iraq invasion [actually, Annan said he was, "concerned" about the deaths, but Krauthammer can be allowed a slip every once in a while can't he?], the Secretary General hadn't condemned Iraqi violations of the laws of war. At least, as these laws are understood by Krauthammer. The Post journalist was particularly galled by Iraq "parading of POWs on television."

Fast forward to December 19, 2003 for Krauthammer's comments on "the Oscar for Best Documentary Short Subject" to "Saddam's Dental Exam."

"...we show Saddam Hussein -- King of Kings, Lion of the Tigris, Saladin of the Arabs -- compliantly opening his mouth like a child to the universal indignity of an oral (and head lice!) exam. Docility wrapped in banality. Brilliant. Nothing could have been better calculated to demystify the all-powerful tyrant. It was a beautiful sight."

Limbaugh is the fellow who feels that drug addicts should be thrown on the garbage heap. Of course, now we learn that Rush has been abusing drugs [prescription drugs, so they aren't really that bad] for years. who knows, this may even explain his unusual behavior. The whole world, meanwhile, is waiting to see if Rush changes his tune once he gets out of rehab. My guess is that he won't since his paycheck and the paychecks of his staff and the radio stations that broadcast his programs rely on the constant invective and hate spewing out of his mouth. Remember, Rush is an entertainer. An actor. As such he projects are role or a persona. It doesn't matter what he thinks or feels or even if he has a brain or sensations. What matters is that the actor must read his lines and play the part to the best of his abilities.

Meanwhile, Rush's loyal followers are waiting on pins and needles for the return of their guru. And all the while they are probably thinking up ways to excuse his behavior. Like pinning all the blame on all the liberals.

What about this story from Truthout about former U.S. Representative Joe Scarborough (R-FL) who abruptly resigned a few months after winning reelection in 2001? While Gary Condit was being hounded by the media during the search for Chandra Levy, the death of Scarborough's aid in the representative's office wasn't even a blip on the media radar screen. Scarborough is now an MSNBC talk show host. Read more here and here wonder what really went on and how mystery novels don't ever quite measure up to the real world. And why Republicans can get away with their hypocrisy so easily.

Past Work Experience

-I ran for U.S. Congress and lost.
-I produced a Hollywood slasher B movie.
-I bought an oil company, but couldn't find any oil in Texas; the company went bankrupt shortly after I sold all my stock.
-I bought the Texas Rangers baseball team in a sweetheart deal that took land using taxpayer money.
-With my father's help and name, I was elected Governor of Texas.

Accomplishments as Governor

-I changed pollution laws in favor of the power and oil companies and made Texas the most polluted state in the Union.
-I replaced Los Angeles with Houston as the most smog- ridden city in America.
-I cut taxes and bankrupted Texas government to the tune of billions in borrowed money.
-I set the record for the most executions by any Governor in American history.
-I became U.S. President after losing the popular vote by over 500,000 votes with the help of major Enron money and my father's appointments to the Supreme Court.

Accomplishments as President

-I attacked and overtook two countries.
-I spent the U.S. surplus and effectively bankrupted the U.S. Treasury.
-I shattered the record for the largest annual deficit in U.S. history.
-I set an economic record for most private bankruptcies filed in any 12-month period.
-I set the all-time record for the biggest drop in the history of the U.S. stock market.
-My record for environmental issues is the least of my concerns.
-I am the first president in U.S. history to enter office with a criminal record.
-I set the the all-time record for most days on vacation in any one year period.
-After taking-off the entire month of August, I then presided over the worst security failure in U.S. history.
-I am supporting development of a "Tactical Bunker Buster" nuke, a WMD and I am getting our troops killed under the lie of Saddam's procurement of Yellow Cake Nuke WMD components, then blaming the lie on our British friends.
-I set the record for most campaign fund-raising trips by a U.S. president.
-In my first year in office over 2-million Americans lost their jobs and that trend continues every month.
-I set the all-time record for most foreclosures in a 12-month period.
-I appointed more convicted criminals to administration than any president in U.S. history.
-I set the record for least amount of press conferences than any president since the advent of television.
-I signed more laws and executive orders effectively amending or ignoring the Constitution than any president in history.
-I presided over the biggest energy crisis in U.S. history and refused to intervene when corruption involving the oil industry was revealed.
-I presided over the highest gasoline prices in U.S. history and refused to use national reserves as past presidents have done.
-I have cut health care benefits for war veterans and support a cut in duty benefits for active duty troops and their families -- in war time.
-I have set the all-time record for most people worldwide to simultaneously protest me in public venues (15 million people) shattering the record for protest against any person in the history of mankind.
-I've dissolved more international treaties than any president in U.S. history.
-I've made my presidency the most secretive and unaccountable of any in U.S. history.
-I'm proud that the members of my cabinet are the richest of any administration in U.S. history while my "poorest millionaire," Condoleeza Rice, has a Chevron oil tanker named after her.
-I am the first president in U.S. history to have almost all 50 states of the Union simultaneously suffer massive financial crisis.
-I presided over the biggest corporate stock market fraud of any market in any country in history.
-I am the first president in U.S. history to order a pre-emptive attack and the military occupation of a sovereign nation, and I did so against the will of the United Nations and the world community.
-I created the largest government department bureaucracy in the history of the United States.
-I set the all-time record for biggest annual budget spending increases, more than any president in history.
-I am the first president in U.S. history to have the United Nations remove the U.S. from the Human Rights Commission.
-I am the first president in U.S. history to have the United Nations remove the U.S. from the Elections Monitoring Board.
-I removed more checks and balances, and have the least amount of congressional oversight than any presidential administration in U.S. history.
-I rendered the entire United Nations viewpoints irrelevant.
-I withdrew the U.S. from the World Court of Law.
-I refused to allow inspectors access to U.S. "prisoners of war" (detainees) and thereby have refused to abide by the Geneva Convention.
-I am the first president in history to refuse United Nations election inspectors (during the 2002 U.S. election).
-I am the all-time U.S. and world record-holder for receiving the most corporate campaign donations.
-My largest lifetime campaign contributor, and one of my best friends, (Kenneth Lay, former CEO of Enron Corporation) presided over the largest corporate bankruptcy fraud in U.S. history.
-My political party used the Enron private jets and corporate attorneys to assure my success with the U.S. Supreme Court during my election decision.
-I have spent more money on polls and focus groups than any president in U.S. history.
-I garnered the most sympathy for the U.S. after the World Trade Center attacks and less than a year later made the U.S. the most resented country in the world, possibly the largest failure of diplomacy in World history.
-I am actively working on a policy of "disengagement" creating the most hostile of Israel-Palestine relations in at least 30 years.
-I am first president in history to have a majority of Europeans (71%) view my presidency as the biggest threat to world peace and security.
-I am the first U.S. president in history to have the people of South Korea more threatened by the U.S. than by their immediate neighbor, North Korea.
-I changed the U.S. policy to allow convicted criminals to be awarded government contracts.
-I set an all-time record for the number of administration appointees who violated U.S. law by not selling their huge personal investments in corporations bidding for U.S. contracts.
-I failed to fulfill my pledge to capture Osama Bin Laden, dead or alive.
-I failed to capture the anthrax killer who tried to murder the leaders of our country at the U.S. Capitol Building. Even after 18 months I have no leads and no credible suspects [other than my own administration].
-In the past 18 months following the World Trade Center attack I have successfully prevented any public investigation into the biggest security failure in the history of the United States.
-I removed more freedoms and civil liberties for Americans than any president in U.S. history.
-In a little over two years, I created the most divided country in decades, possibly the most divided since the Civil War.
-I entered my office with the strongest economy in U.S. history and have turned every single economic category downward -- all in less than two years.

Records and References

-I have at least one conviction for drunk driving in Maine.
-My Texas driving record has been erased and is not available.
-I was AWOL from the National Guard.
-I refuse to take a drug test or even answer any questions about drug use.
-All records of my tenure as Governor of Texas are now in my father's library, sealed, and unavailable for public view.
-All records of SEC investigations into insider trading or bankrupt companies are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public view.
-All records or minutes from meetings that I, or my Vice-President, attended regarding public energy policy are sealed in secrecy and unavailable for public review.

Being a conservative Republican pundit means wearing your hypocrisy on your sleeve, right next to your racism, prejudice and stupidity as these quotations from your favorite right-wing fascist pundits demonstrate. These people equate displeasure with their personal beliefs to be tantamount to treason. These "patriots" [e.g. Rush Limbaugh sought a military deferment for an ingrown hair follicle] opposed what they called "Clinton's War" in Kosovo in 1999 but today demand unqualified devotion to Bush's War in Iraq.

What has changed? I applaud any person who is willing to change their mind on important issues, once they have done their research and gathered good, reliable data. However, that is not the issue here. The issue is that these pundits and Bush toadies view any dissent as disloyalty. Some may call this a double standard - which is a nice way of calling these people hypocrites.

Rush Limbaugh, 3/9/03 [Baltimore Sun] said, "I want to say something about these anti-war demonstrators. No, let's not mince words, let's call them what they are: anti-American demonstrators." However, in his May, 1999 Limbaugh Letter in a headline reading, "Why Kosovo?" Rush justified his opposition to Bill Clinton's humanitarian rationale for waging war. In May, 1999, another Limbaugh Letter interviewed retired Col. David Hackworth who discussed how "uniformly despised" the president was within the military. Limbaugh responded, as any good patriotic supporter of his Commander in Chief would be expected to respond. "How long, then, can it be before there is an uprising, and why hasn't it happened before now?"

Sean Hannity, 4/6/99 [Fox "News"] said, "Explain to the mothers and fathers of American servicemen that may come home in body bags why their son or daughter have [sic] to give up their life." This, in response to using the American military in the non-oil-rich Kosovo region.

In 1999, Republican congressman Joe Scarborough joined 172 other Republican members of congress to vote against the bombing of Serbia. On 6/8/99, he told Catherine Crier [Fox "News"] "This has been an unmitigated disaster...Ask the Chinese embassy [which was inadvertently hit by a "smart" bomb]. Ask the people in Belgrade that we've killed. Ask the refugees that we've killed. Ask the people in nursing homes. Ask the people in hospitals." If Scarborough made the same comments today about the people of Iraq, how would his cohorts in congress respond?

Well, as host for MSNBC Reports, on 4/10/03, Scarborough wrote about anti-war dissent. "These leftist stooges for anti-American causes are always given a free pass. Isn't it time to make them sand up and be counted for their views, which could hurt American troop morale?" Comments like these indicate the usual lapse in cognitive skills seen within the punditocracy and right-wing political fringe. How does supporting or not supporting "our troops" bear on whether a citizen of the United States chooses to question the political motives of elected and [in the case of G.W. Bush] unelected or appointed government officials?

Michael Savage, 11/30/99 criticized his government and president over the issue of Kosovo. "These international war criminals were led by Gen. Wesley Clark...who clicked his shiny heels for the commander-in-grief [sic], Bill Clinton." Today, Savage calls for the arrest of anti-war activists and the restoration of the Sedition Act to silence dissent. "Then we can stop some of these maniacs who are encouraging our enemies, weakening our troops' resolve and confusing the American people."

Loyalty to these self-proclaimed "patriots" means supporting the wars they support. Patriotism means just what they choose it to mean. Fortunately, these right-wing conservative pundits have the freedom of the liberal press on their side since, without it, they would be unable to voice their opinions. But then, freedom of the press is only guaranteed to those who own the press.

Did you know that baseball is a Republican sport? That's what actor Tim Robbins discovered when the Hall of Fame canceled its 15th anniversary showing of the movie, Bull Durham, April, 2003. Read about it here. Meanwhile, Bush finally finds something to be passionate about - a baseball strike. Robbins replied in this speech given to the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on April 15, 2003 and published by CommonDreams.org

The Reichstag Fire and 9-11: Pretexts for Dictatorship? Like many other Republicans, Bush has a fetish it seems in comparing his enemies to Adolf Hitler. Ellen Ratner, White House correspondent and bureau chief for the Talk Radio News service says, "While people may fear a downward spiral towards brown-shirts and book burnings, the truth is that an American police state may show up in a Brooks Brothers suit with an impressive law degree."

Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia banned broadcast media from a speech in which he accepted an award for supporting free speech in this 20 March 2003 news report.

Did you know that Iran has been suing the United States in the International Court of Justice? Seems they are upset about the US delivering dangerous chemicals and deadly viruses to Iraq during the 1980s. Iran filed suit against the United States in 1992 in the highest court of the UN. Read about it here.

There is a joke going around in France that goes something like this. Q: Do you know why Rumsfeld is so certain that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction? A: He has the cash receipts. Here is a news story from November 13, 2000 in the Guardian that puts the reality in the joke.

The Bush Credibility Gap: Real Life Examples. Here is a chronology of Bush saying one thing then doing another. It's almost enough to make you mad and not vote Republican.

Phil Gramm - sought marriage deferment. Avoided the draft, did not serve, got four (?) student deferments

Ronald Reagan - served in a non-combat role during WWII in the states. He later seems to have confused his role as an actor playing a tail gunner with the real thing.

Bob Dornan - avoided Korean War combat duty by enrolling in college acting classes

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

Jack Kemp - did not serve (was fit enough for pro football, but apparently failed the physical)

Dan Quayle - avoided Vietnam service, got a slot in the journalism unit of the Indiana National Guard when the unit was at 150% capacity

Attorney General John Ashcroft - sought deferment to teach business education at SW Missouri State

Senator John McCain - Silver Star, Bronze Star, Legion of Merit, Purple Heart and Distinguished Flying Cross

Duke Cunningham - nominated for the Medal of Honor, received the Navy Cross, two Silver Stars, fifteen Air Medals, the Purple Heart, and several other decorations

Sam R. Johnson - combat missions in both Korea and Vietnam, POW in Hanoi from April 1966 to February 1973

Former VP Al Gore - served his country in uniform, 1969-71; recipient of Vietnam Service Medal

Rep. Leonard Boswell (D-IA) - two tours in Vietnam, two Distinguished Flying Crosses as a helicopter pilot, two Bronze Stars, and the Soldier's Medal

Ambassador "Pete" Peterson - Air Force Captain, POW, Democratic congressman, Ambassador to Vietnam, and recipient of the Purple Heart, the Silver Star and the Legion of Merit

Rep. Mike Thompson, D-CA - served in combat with the U.S. Army as a staff sergeant/platoon leader with the 173rd Airborne Brigade; was wounded and received a Purple Heart.

"Loyalty to my country; always.

Loyalty to my government; only when it deserves it."

- Mark Twain