Republicans Peddling Fear Again

The Republican State Committee of Pennsylvania just sent out a mass mailing to its faithful filled with lies and distortion.  It is increasingly obvious that the only thing they have to offer is paranoia.  What they said and an analysis is below the fold.

You may ask how I, a dyed-in-the-wool Wellstone Democrat, would get such a mailing.  Well, the vaunted GOP GOTV  machine still hasn't figured out that the guy I bought my house from six years ago doesn't live here anymore.  Nice, fresh data.

On to the mailing.  The front cover has a phony I.D. card with a black silouette stamped "TERRORIST."  The rest of the card says:

Type:  LEGAL IDENTIFICATION
Name:  JOHN DOE TERROR
Occupation:  TERRORIST

followed by a red block with bold, white letters:

IF ONLY IT WERE THIS EASY TO IDENTIFY THE ENEMY...

Inside, the mailing boldly states:

Democrats want to end programs that stop terrorists from killing innocent Americans.

Well, this is true.  But the program they want to stop is the Bush Doctrine of preemptive war, which has now claimed the lives of more innocent Americans than the 9-11 attacks, to say nothing of the more than 20,000 wounded, many of who have left significant parts of themselves in Iraq.  Of course, the number of Iraqi dead dwarf these numbers, most of whom were innocent of any activity that could be characterized as "terrorism."

Democrats are putting our Security in Jeopardy.

How, exactly, can it be fairly said that it was Democrats who have put our security in danger when the latest intelligence from Iraq says clearly that it is Bush's policy that is sounding the clarion call to jihad?

Under pressure from liberals, Democrats want to repeal the Patriot Act and take away law enforcement's tools to track, capture and detain terrorists.  They want to block the U.S. government from listening to calls made by al Qaeda terrorists calling from overseas into the U.S., despite the program's proven success.

The strawman comes up again.  What liberals have pressured which Democrats?  Name one. ... Anyone? ... Bueller? ... Democrats have had the audacity to ask the U.S. government to merely follow its own Constitution and duly enacted laws, such as the Fourth Amendment and FISA.  In the meantime, the Republican-controlled Congress has folded like a house of cards every time this administration sneezed.  They even went so far as to abolish the Great Writ of habeas corpus and gave the President and Secretary of Defense the power to "disappear" people, U.S. citicen or not.

The mailing ends with this sage advice:

Do your part to Protect America.  VOTE REPUBLICAN.

and attaches two absentee ballot request forms.

Franklin Roosevelt, in an attempt to convince this Nation to rise up and move ahead, once said "The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."  It is increasingly clear that the only thing Republicans have to offer is fear itself.  Let us all take the opportunity on November 7 to show them that we FEAR NOT, and bravely, courageously, and confidently vote to rise up and move ahead.