President Bush, in contrast, is on the Fear Tri-cycle. Now, strangely, he is accusing Kerry of being the one using fear to influence public opinion. I can only imagine that this would backfire if there was still a rational person left supporting Bush. Since it doesn't seem that any of them are 'thinking' in the traditional sense,
I guess this logically follows.
THE VILLAGES, Fla. (AP) - President Bush is urging Florida seniors to reject what he calls John Kerry's "politics of fear."
At a rally in The Villages, a Florida retirement community, the president said Kerry's trying to scare people into thinking he'll privatize Social Security in a second term, and that it will mean a cut in benefits.
Bush declared, "Nobody's going to take away the checks of those on Social Security."
Note the compound sentence. Bush has PROMISED to privatize social security in his second term, and can only guarantee that benefits won't go down if he can also guarantee the stock market won't go down. I wouldn't doubt they have an ideology ready to tackle that problem too.
Note, we mentioned the '
politics of fear' almost a year ago. Umm, Kerry wasn't even running at that point. [our view at the time..."This next U.S. Political Season (up through '04) is going to be some of the nastiest, meanest, dirtiest politics that have ever been played. This, ultimately, is the great thing about democracy. It sucks for exercising Imperial power because once Control of the World comes up for grabs, people spend more time fighting over it than they do enjoying it.
If such a thing is even possible." -w]
The hypocrisy inherent is Bush's statements is moved further away from reality when Bush talks about those darn Flu shots.
Earlier, speaking in St. Petersburg, Bush sought to allay seniors' fears they won't be able to get flu shots because of the sudden shortage.
He said "millions" of doses are on hand for "the most vulnerable Americans," and (m) millions more are on the way. But Bush made no mention of Kerry's charge that the administration at first ignored, then hid, problems with vaccine supplies.
"First ignore, then hide". Yup, that sounds like the pattern.
The funny thing, and I mean hilarious, about this vaccine flub and the 'politics of fear' quote, comes from one of Bush's accusations in the debate. I believe it was..
BUSH: In all due respect, I'm not so sure it's credible to quote leading news organizations about -- oh, never mind. Anyway, let me quote the Lewin report. The Lewin report is a group of folks who are not politically affiliated. They analyzed the senator's plan. It cost $1.2 trillion.
The Lewin report accurately noted that there are going to be 20 million people, over 20 million people added to government-controlled health care. It would be the largest increase in government health care ever ['government health care' is one of the best plans available. As Kerry keeps saying, it is the same place the Senate and House use. -ed].
If you raise the Medicaid to 300 percent, it provides an incentive for small businesses not to provide private insurance to their employees. Why should they insure somebody when the government's going to insure it for them? [again. this makes no sense. If people get the health care from a 'government plan' their employer doesn't have to cover them. This makes employing someone cheaper and less risky for the employer. -ed]
It's estimated that 8 million people will go from private insurance to government insurance. [or from NO INSURANCE to government insurance. That's who wants it, jackass. -eh]
We have a fundamental difference of opinion. I think government- run health will lead to poor-quality health, will lead to rationing, will lead to less choice.
Yes, this is same guy quoted above,
[Bush] said "millions" of doses are on hand for "the most vulnerable Americans," and (m) millions more are on the way. Phrases like 'the most vulnerable' are used when one is 'rationing'. So, uh, under Bush's health plan, we are
already rationing.
Also, supporting Bush makes it harder for you to get laid. Even if you are married to a liberal female and are currently a famous movie star.
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said his love life suffered after he endorsed President George Bush in his speech at the Republican National Convention.
"There was no sex for 14 days," joked Schwarzenegger, whose wife, Maria Shriver, belongs to the famously Democratic Kennedy clan. "Everything comes with side effects."
Yea, like war. BTW, Schwarzenegger is also on board with stem cells,
making him a supporter of "baby-killing" in the Neocon lexicon.
California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger bucked fellow Republicans in Washington Monday, announcing his endorsement of a $3 billion plan to fund embryonic stem cell research, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Proposition 71 has been ahead in the polls, but by a somewhat thin margin, the newspaper said. The initiative would provide some $300 million annually for stem cell grants and facilities over the next decade, including creation of a private California Institute for Regenerative Medicine, the Times reported.
Remember, this is the same guy that
defined "Republican" a while back.
If you believe that government should be accountable to the people, not the people to the government, then you are a Republican! [and should hold Bush accountable for his misleading statements. -ed] If you believe a person should be treated as an individual, not as a member of an interest group, then you are a Republican! [and you should not vote for Bush because of his interest in interests groups. -ed] If you believe your family knows how to spend your money better than the government does, then you are a Republican! [and you should, again, vote out Bush because of how poorly he has spent your money. -ed] If you believe our educational system should be held accountable for the progress of our children, then you are a Republican! [if you believe our education system requires more than just 'accountability', you should vote out Bush. -ed] If you believe this country, not the United Nations, is the best hope of democracy in the world, then you are a Republican! [and forget that Democracy is more than a jingoistic rationalization for way. We must work with the world and the UN, or we fight against 'Democracy'. And, ladies and gentlemen, if you believe we must be fierce and relentless and terminate terrorism, then you are a Republican! [and if you believe that ALL Muslims are terrorists, then you fall squarely under the 'genocidal' label as well. -ed]
There is another way you can tell you're a Republican. You have faith in free enterprise, faith in the resourcefulness of the American people, and faith in the U.S. economy. To those critics who are so pessimistic about our economy, I say: "Don't be economic girlie men!" [yes, ignoring deficits and watching billions disappear is quite economically 'manly' -ed]
That was fun, but let's return to our current "Republican" President, who was again caught lying during the third debate.
And I quote again... BUSH: Gosh, I just don't think I ever said I'm not worried about Osama bin Laden. It's kind of one of those exaggerations.
Click on that quote to see Bush not saying he's not worried about Osama bin Ladenn. Quite an exaggeration.
And AGAIN, speaking of hiding the facts about reality, we are faced again with the 9/11 tragedy.
According to the intelligence official, who spoke to me on condition of anonymity, release of the report, which represents an exhaustive 17-month investigation by an 11-member team within the agency, has been "stalled." First by acting CIA Director John McLaughlin and now by Porter J. Goss, the former Republican House member (and chairman of the Intelligence Committee) who recently was appointed CIA chief by President Bush.
The official stressed that the report was more blunt and more specific than the earlier bipartisan reports produced by the Bush-appointed Sept. 11 commission and Congress.
"What all the other reports on 9/11 did not do is point the finger at individuals, and give the how and what of their responsibility. This report does that," said the intelligence official. "The report found very senior-level officials responsible."
And we won't hear about who was it until after the election. The buck never stops with Bush, it just keeps getting passed around
until it disappears.
WASHINGTON -- About half of the roughly $5 billion in Iraq reconstruction funds disbursed by the US government in the first half of this year cannot be accounted for, according to an audit commissioned by the United Nations, which could not find records for numerous rebuilding projects and other payments.
One chunk of the money -- $1.4 billion -- was deposited into a local bank by Kurdish leaders in northern Iraq but could be tracked no further: The auditors reported that they were shown a deposit slip but could find no additional records to explain how the money was used or to prove that it remains in the bank.
Auditors also said they could not track more than $1 billion in funds doled out by US authorities for hundreds of large and small reconstruction projects.
And just to continue to litany of facts that would seem to point to Bush being a less than stellar President, we have this '
executive summary' from the 181 page report by the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
This report finds that President Bush has neither exhibited leadership on pressing civil rights issues, nor taken actions that matched his words. The report reaches this conclusion after analyzing and summarizing numerous documents, including historical literature, reports, scholarly articles, presidential and administration statements, executive orders, policy briefs, documents of Cabinet-level agencies, federal budgets and other data.
Finally, lets finish with a bit of humor. A nice funny joke.
The question is...on who?
----
....and one more time for the record. If you watch a lot of Fox News, the jokes on you.
On October 18, President George W. Bush delivered a speech in Marlton, New Jersey, on national security, and Senator John Kerry delivered a speech in Tampa, Florida, on health care. FOX News Channel carried Bush's speech live for 47 minutes -- four minutes more than MSNBC and eleven minutes more than CNN. Before going to live coverage of Kerry's speech, FOX News Channel anchor Martha MacCallum said: "And now we take you directly for fair and balanced coverage in Tampa, Florida, where John Kerry will be speaking moments from now." FOX then carried Kerry's speech live for just under 10 minutes -- 30 minutes less than MSNBC and 25 minutes less than CNN.
[
original posting.]