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we can win this thing
We can win this thing.
Not Kerry. WE. US. Americans.
And the American America they love (sorry, just started Franken's book last nite).
Bush: "The enemy understands a free Iraq will be a major defeat in their ideology of hatred. That's why they're fighting so vociferously."
"We did. The world is safer without Saddam Hussein."
"And that's why it's essential that we have strong alliances, and we do."
"And when Iraq is free, America will be more secure."
"But the best way to protect this homeland is to stay on the offense. You know, we have to be right 100 percent of the time. And the enemy only has to be right once to hurt us. There's a lot of good people working hard."
"Of course we're doing everything we can to protect America. I wake up every day thinking about how best to protect America. That's my job.
I work with Director Mueller of the FBI; comes in my office when I'm in Washington every morning, talking about how to protect us. There's a lot of really good people working hard to do so.
It's hard work. But, again, I want to tell the American people, we're doing everything we can at home, but you better have a president who chases these terrorists down and bring them to justice before they hurt us again."
"And a free Iraq is going to make this world a more peaceful place."
Kerry: "But that doesn't mean it wasn't a mistake of judgment to go there and take the focus off of Osama bin Laden. It was.
Now, we can succeed. But I don't believe this president can."
"I think we need a president who has the credibility to bring the allies back to the table and to do what's necessary to make it so America isn't doing this alone."
"And the test is not whether you're spending more money. The test is, are you doing everything possible to make America safe? We didn't need that tax cut. America needed to be safe."
The enemy our President is so fond of describing is radical Islamist terrorists.
Iraq was a secular state led by a man whom radical Islamist terrorists considered insufficiently Muslim to make alliances with.
The Iraq we had was not a threat to the security of America, it was a threat to the security of the Iraqi people and incidentally, the security of Israel.
The Iraq we had was a considerably lower threat, on the basis of actual attacks launched on American soil, compared to the Afghanistan and possibly Saudi Arabia we had and do have.
The Iraq we have now is not free.
The Iraq we have now makes America less secure.
The Iraq we are destroying is making America and Americans increasingly unsafe, both on the ground there, and here at home.
The Iraq we are destroying bears little resemblance to the free states with which we have alliances.
In fact, Iraq is starting to look a lot like Israel, with terror attacks everyday and hatred between a vicious homicidal minority group and a large and powerfully equipped army, which spawns an atmosphere of suspicion and contempt between the civilian non-participants in the violence.
The Iraq we are getting is not increasingly free, it is a Texas-sized hotbed of chaos where radical Islamists now have a great opportunity to seize power.
The enemies now have a free state whose collapse is the most effective terrorist recruitment tool the world has ever seen.
Thanks to Bush's stated support for the USA/Patriot and Patriot II Acts, we have an America which is both less free and less secure.
Thanks to Bush's lies, people believe that all he does is think about how to protect us, whilst all his actions show he is clearly not thinking.
Thanks to Bush's policy of perpetual offense, we have launched on a string of conflicts which amount to a state of perpetual war. This is the hallmark of a leader who has no skill, a leader who has no desire to lead, but instead must demand ever greater shows of loyalty from the populace, who needs the marshal drumbeats to set the pace of his heart, who achieves his apotheosis in the perpetual realization of his nation's military might. Maximum Leader. Hail Caesar.
How about this notion? A free America makes the world more secure.
Our struggle is at home. Our struggle is about America. This President has made America less free and less secure. This President has made America less free and less secure. This President has made America less free and less secure.
But the facts and the evidence are on John Kerry's side. It's time the people were on his side too.
We must recruit non-voters and undecided voters. We must each devote some time to asking people to vote and to please vote for John Kerry. I'm taking some time off to participate in voter drives. I know for sure I'm taking November 2 off to help get people to the polls. I don't know what else I'm doing yet, but by God, I'm going to do something.
"It is hard work. It is hard work to go from a tyranny to a democracy." President Bush said that on September 30, 20041. He was talking about the hard work of making a free Iraq. He was right, of course. It's hard work. So let's get to work, dammit, and move America from tyranny to democracy. The one sure way that this false President and his administration of lies cannot confound, cannot comprehend: peacefully and with votes.
Yay! Hope is on the way and all that pretty stuff! Victory is coming!
1 "It is hard work. It is hard work to go from a tyranny to a democracy. It's hard work to go from a place where people get their hands cut off, or executed, to a place where people are free. But it's necessary work. And a free Iraq is going to make this world a more peaceful place.2
2This was repeated often. Repetition does not make it so. Repetition makes it believed, because that is how the Big Lie works.3
3 See that? Yep. I just compared the Bush method to the Nazis'. This debate has officially entered the gutter. I don't care much anymore. We have facts and truth on our side, and their behavior is like the behavior of fascists and national socialists. They are not Nazis, their behavior is like that of the Nazis. Curious for such "strong supporters" of Israel.4
4 Tired of these footnotes yet? Well, here's some info on how Neocons don't really care about Israel
Particularly odious to me, as a Christian, is the rise of Biblical fundamentalism (which in the hands of current fundamentalists is, in fact, just the opposite of being fundamentally in line with Bible truths) and its vision of Israel.
“THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT also supports Israel for theological reasons, based on a literal interpretation of the Bible. A key text is the Book of Revelation, which predicts Armageddon – the final struggle between the forces of good and the forces of evil – and the Day of Judgement. This apocalyptic approach is particularly associated with the growing numbers of Christian Zionists, who are particularly strong in the Southern states. (Ken Silverstein & Michael Scherer: Born-Again Zionists, Mother Jones Sept/Oct 2002) In supporting the creation of a so-called Biblical or Eretz Israel, from the Mediterranean to the Jordan (that is, incorporating the occupied territories), the Christian Zionists claim they are answering God’s call in the Old Testament.
"They work to support Israeli, ironically, because they believe it will lead to the ultimate triumph of Christianity. For them, the on-going crisis in the Mideast has been prophesised in the Bible". (Silverstein & Scherer) "There will be no peace", says the reverend Hutchins, "until the Messiah comes". According to the fundamentalists’ mystical narrative, there will be a series of afflictions and wars, followed by the reconstruction of the Temple on the Temple Mount (Haram al-Sharif). The coming of the Antichrist, Christ’s antagonist, will be followed by the second coming of the Messiah and the final battle in Jerusalem between good and evil – Armageddon. Many Jews will be converted to Christianity, non-believers – including Jews and Moslems – will be damned and perish. The Messiah will lead the righteous to heaven (‘the rapture’). From that perspective, the expansionist policies of Begin, Netanyahu and Sharon can only speed up the fulfilment of Biblical prophecies. Any recognition of the right of the Palestinians to their land would delay it.
However, "the Christian right’s view of Israel", writes Gershom Gorenberg, "derives largely from a double-edged theological position. Following the classic anti-Jewish stance it regards the Jewish people as spiritually blind for rejecting Jesus". (‘Look who’s in bed with the Christian right’, International Herald Tribune, 14 October 2002) The reverend Falwell, who believes the Messiah will return within ten years, claims the Antichrist has already arrived and he is ‘Jewish and male’. The evangelist Chuck Missler has asserted that Auschwitz was ‘just a prelude’ to what will happen in the approaching Armageddon. The Jewish right tends to downplay the anti-Jewish element in the Christian Zionists’ theology. The financial and political support outweighs any worries about the ‘Last Days’. Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organisation of America, says he is willing to make a deal: if they continue to support the Israeli state, "then if Jesus comes back in the future I will join the parade. Hey, if I was wrong, no problem". I found those previous 3 paragraphs at nuclear free New Zealand. I do not agree with everything that guy writes elsewhere in his page, but these quotes are quotes about the relationship of neocon ideology, non-dogmatic anabaptist religion, and Israel. Counterpunch has some interesting stuff too.
What a lot of people don't want to talk about is religion and politics. Well, that's me. MY problem is with the weird combination of liberal theology and conservative politics. Little known fact: the theology of these nutcases is a liberal theology! In fact, conservative theology in my view lends itself more readily to a liberal political stance. How do I say this? Liberal theologians do not believe sola scriptura, sola gratia, sola fide. Instead they believe that we must accept Jesus in order to be saved. Imagine you're in a house fire. You are picked up by a brave and selfless firefighter and carried out. The anabaptists believe that you can, indeed will, choose, whether or not to be carried to safety. They also believe that this choice is actually a choice between freedom and something other than freedom. As though the choice between horrible death or a valiant but failed struggle to extract yourself from the fire is evidence of freedom, instead of just a sad incident where you die in the depths of a fire or choking ten feet from the door. No, given such a choice, people have proven time and again that they if they were in a position to choose, they say the equivalent of "save yourself, I can make it" and call this noble. The critical task for Lutherans, therefore, is to get through the anti-God bias of the liberal theologians and show that instead of a house fire, we are surrounded by an unimaginably giant forest fire, and cannot free ourselves.
(Remember, when I say liberal theologians, I'm not talking about liberation theologians, or feminist theologians, or American Catholics, or any of that. I'm talking about anabaptists and their descendants: baptists, many methodists, four-squares, assemblers of God, pentecostals, and their kith & kin. Liberal theologians, conservative politicians.)
Next time you have diarrhea, you have my permission to call me from the toilet and we can discuss free will. Any time, day or night.
Not Kerry. WE. US. Americans.
And the American America they love (sorry, just started Franken's book last nite).
Bush: "The enemy understands a free Iraq will be a major defeat in their ideology of hatred. That's why they're fighting so vociferously."
"We did. The world is safer without Saddam Hussein."
"And that's why it's essential that we have strong alliances, and we do."
"And when Iraq is free, America will be more secure."
"But the best way to protect this homeland is to stay on the offense. You know, we have to be right 100 percent of the time. And the enemy only has to be right once to hurt us. There's a lot of good people working hard."
"Of course we're doing everything we can to protect America. I wake up every day thinking about how best to protect America. That's my job.
I work with Director Mueller of the FBI; comes in my office when I'm in Washington every morning, talking about how to protect us. There's a lot of really good people working hard to do so.
It's hard work. But, again, I want to tell the American people, we're doing everything we can at home, but you better have a president who chases these terrorists down and bring them to justice before they hurt us again."
"And a free Iraq is going to make this world a more peaceful place."
Kerry: "But that doesn't mean it wasn't a mistake of judgment to go there and take the focus off of Osama bin Laden. It was.
Now, we can succeed. But I don't believe this president can."
"I think we need a president who has the credibility to bring the allies back to the table and to do what's necessary to make it so America isn't doing this alone."
"And the test is not whether you're spending more money. The test is, are you doing everything possible to make America safe? We didn't need that tax cut. America needed to be safe."
The enemy our President is so fond of describing is radical Islamist terrorists.
Iraq was a secular state led by a man whom radical Islamist terrorists considered insufficiently Muslim to make alliances with.
The Iraq we had was not a threat to the security of America, it was a threat to the security of the Iraqi people and incidentally, the security of Israel.
The Iraq we had was a considerably lower threat, on the basis of actual attacks launched on American soil, compared to the Afghanistan and possibly Saudi Arabia we had and do have.
The Iraq we have now is not free.
The Iraq we have now makes America less secure.
The Iraq we are destroying is making America and Americans increasingly unsafe, both on the ground there, and here at home.
The Iraq we are destroying bears little resemblance to the free states with which we have alliances.
In fact, Iraq is starting to look a lot like Israel, with terror attacks everyday and hatred between a vicious homicidal minority group and a large and powerfully equipped army, which spawns an atmosphere of suspicion and contempt between the civilian non-participants in the violence.
The Iraq we are getting is not increasingly free, it is a Texas-sized hotbed of chaos where radical Islamists now have a great opportunity to seize power.
The enemies now have a free state whose collapse is the most effective terrorist recruitment tool the world has ever seen.
Thanks to Bush's stated support for the USA/Patriot and Patriot II Acts, we have an America which is both less free and less secure.
Thanks to Bush's lies, people believe that all he does is think about how to protect us, whilst all his actions show he is clearly not thinking.
Thanks to Bush's policy of perpetual offense, we have launched on a string of conflicts which amount to a state of perpetual war. This is the hallmark of a leader who has no skill, a leader who has no desire to lead, but instead must demand ever greater shows of loyalty from the populace, who needs the marshal drumbeats to set the pace of his heart, who achieves his apotheosis in the perpetual realization of his nation's military might. Maximum Leader. Hail Caesar.
How about this notion? A free America makes the world more secure.
Our struggle is at home. Our struggle is about America. This President has made America less free and less secure. This President has made America less free and less secure. This President has made America less free and less secure.
But the facts and the evidence are on John Kerry's side. It's time the people were on his side too.
We must recruit non-voters and undecided voters. We must each devote some time to asking people to vote and to please vote for John Kerry. I'm taking some time off to participate in voter drives. I know for sure I'm taking November 2 off to help get people to the polls. I don't know what else I'm doing yet, but by God, I'm going to do something.
"It is hard work. It is hard work to go from a tyranny to a democracy." President Bush said that on September 30, 20041. He was talking about the hard work of making a free Iraq. He was right, of course. It's hard work. So let's get to work, dammit, and move America from tyranny to democracy. The one sure way that this false President and his administration of lies cannot confound, cannot comprehend: peacefully and with votes.
Yay! Hope is on the way and all that pretty stuff! Victory is coming!
1 "It is hard work. It is hard work to go from a tyranny to a democracy. It's hard work to go from a place where people get their hands cut off, or executed, to a place where people are free. But it's necessary work. And a free Iraq is going to make this world a more peaceful place.2
2This was repeated often. Repetition does not make it so. Repetition makes it believed, because that is how the Big Lie works.3
3 See that? Yep. I just compared the Bush method to the Nazis'. This debate has officially entered the gutter. I don't care much anymore. We have facts and truth on our side, and their behavior is like the behavior of fascists and national socialists. They are not Nazis, their behavior is like that of the Nazis. Curious for such "strong supporters" of Israel.4
4 Tired of these footnotes yet? Well, here's some info on how Neocons don't really care about Israel
Particularly odious to me, as a Christian, is the rise of Biblical fundamentalism (which in the hands of current fundamentalists is, in fact, just the opposite of being fundamentally in line with Bible truths) and its vision of Israel.
“THE CHRISTIAN RIGHT also supports Israel for theological reasons, based on a literal interpretation of the Bible. A key text is the Book of Revelation, which predicts Armageddon – the final struggle between the forces of good and the forces of evil – and the Day of Judgement. This apocalyptic approach is particularly associated with the growing numbers of Christian Zionists, who are particularly strong in the Southern states. (Ken Silverstein & Michael Scherer: Born-Again Zionists, Mother Jones Sept/Oct 2002) In supporting the creation of a so-called Biblical or Eretz Israel, from the Mediterranean to the Jordan (that is, incorporating the occupied territories), the Christian Zionists claim they are answering God’s call in the Old Testament.
"They work to support Israeli, ironically, because they believe it will lead to the ultimate triumph of Christianity. For them, the on-going crisis in the Mideast has been prophesised in the Bible". (Silverstein & Scherer) "There will be no peace", says the reverend Hutchins, "until the Messiah comes". According to the fundamentalists’ mystical narrative, there will be a series of afflictions and wars, followed by the reconstruction of the Temple on the Temple Mount (Haram al-Sharif). The coming of the Antichrist, Christ’s antagonist, will be followed by the second coming of the Messiah and the final battle in Jerusalem between good and evil – Armageddon. Many Jews will be converted to Christianity, non-believers – including Jews and Moslems – will be damned and perish. The Messiah will lead the righteous to heaven (‘the rapture’). From that perspective, the expansionist policies of Begin, Netanyahu and Sharon can only speed up the fulfilment of Biblical prophecies. Any recognition of the right of the Palestinians to their land would delay it.
However, "the Christian right’s view of Israel", writes Gershom Gorenberg, "derives largely from a double-edged theological position. Following the classic anti-Jewish stance it regards the Jewish people as spiritually blind for rejecting Jesus". (‘Look who’s in bed with the Christian right’, International Herald Tribune, 14 October 2002) The reverend Falwell, who believes the Messiah will return within ten years, claims the Antichrist has already arrived and he is ‘Jewish and male’. The evangelist Chuck Missler has asserted that Auschwitz was ‘just a prelude’ to what will happen in the approaching Armageddon. The Jewish right tends to downplay the anti-Jewish element in the Christian Zionists’ theology. The financial and political support outweighs any worries about the ‘Last Days’. Morton Klein, president of the Zionist Organisation of America, says he is willing to make a deal: if they continue to support the Israeli state, "then if Jesus comes back in the future I will join the parade. Hey, if I was wrong, no problem". I found those previous 3 paragraphs at nuclear free New Zealand. I do not agree with everything that guy writes elsewhere in his page, but these quotes are quotes about the relationship of neocon ideology, non-dogmatic anabaptist religion, and Israel. Counterpunch has some interesting stuff too.
What a lot of people don't want to talk about is religion and politics. Well, that's me. MY problem is with the weird combination of liberal theology and conservative politics. Little known fact: the theology of these nutcases is a liberal theology! In fact, conservative theology in my view lends itself more readily to a liberal political stance. How do I say this? Liberal theologians do not believe sola scriptura, sola gratia, sola fide. Instead they believe that we must accept Jesus in order to be saved. Imagine you're in a house fire. You are picked up by a brave and selfless firefighter and carried out. The anabaptists believe that you can, indeed will, choose, whether or not to be carried to safety. They also believe that this choice is actually a choice between freedom and something other than freedom. As though the choice between horrible death or a valiant but failed struggle to extract yourself from the fire is evidence of freedom, instead of just a sad incident where you die in the depths of a fire or choking ten feet from the door. No, given such a choice, people have proven time and again that they if they were in a position to choose, they say the equivalent of "save yourself, I can make it" and call this noble. The critical task for Lutherans, therefore, is to get through the anti-God bias of the liberal theologians and show that instead of a house fire, we are surrounded by an unimaginably giant forest fire, and cannot free ourselves.
(Remember, when I say liberal theologians, I'm not talking about liberation theologians, or feminist theologians, or American Catholics, or any of that. I'm talking about anabaptists and their descendants: baptists, many methodists, four-squares, assemblers of God, pentecostals, and their kith & kin. Liberal theologians, conservative politicians.)
Next time you have diarrhea, you have my permission to call me from the toilet and we can discuss free will. Any time, day or night.