Ah, fellow Kossacks, you never cease to amaze me with your brilliance, and I call upon you now to help me appear far more intelligent and politically knowledgeable than I actually am.
In response to this column in my local paper, entitled (prepare to vomit)Spreading the Fruits of Freedom, I have entered into a correspondence with the journalist and that's where I need your help.
Follow me.
Here is an excerpt where he basically canonizes Bush and claims he has single-handedly begun the march to freedom and democracy throughout the world.
And then there's Iraq. OK, Saddam Hussein didn't possess weapons of mass destruction at the time the U.S.-led coalition invaded. But he killed between 300,000 and 1 million of his own people, tortured countless others and was the world's most notorious eco-terrorist. That's more than enough to justify his violent overthrow.
Of course the United States can't invade every country with a repressive regime. But Bush's freedom-based foreign policy can inspire a population to take democracy in its own hands, as we've seen in former Soviet republics. It can also intimidate oppressive leaders to begin to accept the first steps of democratic reform, as we're witnessing in the Middle East.
Now that Bush is back home after experiencing first-hand what liberty means to people who have lived through oppression, exporting democracy won't just be our foreign policy. It will become Bush's personal and presidential legacy.
Did you vomit yet?
In response, I hastily fired off an email, and it was rather inarticulate, but apparently somewhat effective nonetheless:
What a load of hooey. This president is surely spreading something, but freedom isn't what comes to my mind. Perhaps death. Perhaps plunging record numbers of Americans into poverty. Perhaps religious hypocrisy. Perhaps a further stratification of the country's class system.
This president and his henchmen have spread nothing but lies.
Early the next morning I received the following reply, with his responses inserted into the body of my email:
Sent: Wednesday, May 11, 2005 8:34 AM
Subject: Re: Spreading the Fruits of Freedom
What a load of hooey. This president is surely spreading something, but freedom isn't what comes to my mind. Perhaps death. Perhaps plunging record numbers of Americans into poverty.
(How do you figure that? The poverty level has stayed pretty level over the past 30 years. What has changed is the standard of living for poor people has risen compared to the 1960s when many programs were implemented.) Perhaps religious hypocrisy.
(The president says very little about religion and usually only when asked by reporters) Perhaps a further stratification of the country's class system.
(There's has been a widening of income gaps, and they've been significant under this adminstration)
This president and his henchmen have spread nothing but lies. (Name them.)
Again, I fired off an early morning response without really thinking it through. Please forgive the inarticulateness of it and remember that I'm just a housewife, folks, so cut me some slack.
I like how you completely ignored the part about the prez spreading death, like it's nothing. Nearly 2000 American soldiers and, reportedly, 100,000 Iraqis.....dead for a lie. There were no WMDs. The prez knew there weren't and he deliberately manufactured false information to support his single-minded desire (check out British news reports that have Blair privately promising Bush British troops in the SUMMER of 2002, 9 months before the start of the war) to invade Iraq to reshape the middle east. Do a Google search on PNAC, and believe what you read because that's who's really running this country. BTW....if you're so patriotic that you support this war, I'm sure you'll be running to join now that they're in dire straits and needing recruits. Too old? Easily fixed. Since you and other conservative voices around the country became mouthpieces which so easily whipped up public support for this war, you can now do the same and encourage young conservatives, age 18 to 38 to join the military. It's the least you can do.
Poverty you ask? 48 million people without health insurance. Real income plunges since Bush took office. The minimum wage is worth less in real dollars now than in was in the 1970's. The Republicans fight hard to keep it that way, so they can afford people, many of them brown-skinned as I've heard you describe yourself, to clean their houses and take care of their children and drive them around town.
The prez misses no opportunity to point out what a good christian he is. Now that it's become a controversy and the so-called religious right has proved they've got republicans everywhere by their collective scrotum, he's backed off somewhat on public support. That doesn't mean he hasn't laid the groundwork.
Well, I think I've done pretty well for 6:30 a.m, and pre-coffee to boot, but I'll get back to you later on your ridiculous assertion that the standard of living for poor people has risen lately. I do believe that's the first column of yours that I read and felt the bile rise in my throat. I think they published a LTE from me on that subject. Thanks for the fodder BTW.....I can always count on you for inspiration.
LMC
So, here's where you all come in. I need some quick facts and some logical, reasonable and yet cool zingers to fire at this guy.
What lies has Bush spread?
Has the standard of living for the poor really risen since the 1960's?
How has Bush used religion as a wedge?
Anything else you want to say to a right-wing newspaper journalist?
Thanks, guys. This fellow is a tool but he apparently enjoys my company so I want to reward him with my (your) brilliance.
Permission to flagrantly plagiarize or cut and paste pieces of your responses?