What I learned in the past 30 days.

[Beelzebud]

1. It's ok to be a warmonger as long as Israel is doing the killing. Israel can NEVER make a bad decision, and to call them out on one, is to be an anti-semite, david duke-like, or neo-nazi-like.

2. Even though our government has used terror alerts for political points, you are a "tin foil hatter" if you question the timing, facts, and motives of current terror alerts. It doesn't matter that former administration officials (Tom Ridge, Ari Fleicher) have even admitted to the Bushies using terror for political purposes. If our government says something: It must be true.

3. Conservatives can say ANYTHING. From Dick Cheney saying CT state democrats were enabling "al-qaeda types", to Joe Lieberman echoing that bullshit claim. Conservatives can say ANYTHING and not have to worry about it.

What an Orwellian nightmare we find ourselves living in...

[waiting for hope]

1. I am really starting to get pissed

over this bully attitude of "Either you agree with us or you're Un American"...As Dana Millbank has been saying, the message is wearing a bit thin and people are not paying too much attention to the rhetoric. Hopefully this is true.

[peacetalksforall]

5. Check out how Tom Freidman (of all people) worded it in the a column

today targeting Cheney and delivering the same message with some very pointed criticisms.

[MysteryToMyself]

8. Do you have a link to Friedman's column?

We may all be surprised at the Republicans who are tired of all of this, too. It is good to see some Democratic and Republican opinion makers speaking out.

[SoCalDem]

13. Some perspective

MOST people do NOT watch cable news (like we do :)..)

MOST people do not even read a newspaper these days..

Lots of the shit that drives us INSANE, is not even on the radar screen for most people..

I would bet that if you got a clipboard (gotta look official)..and stopped 20 people ar random..at a mall or theatre or school and asked them the followiing questions, you would be SHOCKED at the ignorance..

1. Who is your congressperson?
2. Who is Samuel Alito?
3. What is Abu Ghraib?
4. Who is speaker of the house?
5. Who is Cindy Sheehan?
6. Who is your governor?
7. Who is president of Pakistan?
8. How many congresspeople are in the house of representatives?
9. What does the FCC do?
10. Who is Chris Matthews?

My guess is that most people have NO idea what's going on.. They are in a state of perpetual ignorance..and every few years they get poked with astick and told they "need to vote"...they then start carmming and probably end up voting for someone their parents/kids/coworkers tell them is the best.. or they pick the "cute one"..

[peacetalksforall]

2. If I may add to your list? What I learned about destruction-construction

Our PNAC regime and the regime holding office in Israel have little regard for the infrastructures of other countries.

We've learned that, in some instances, using our kids and tax money to destroy an infrastructure can be profitable to friends of the regime. And we've learned that those we fund to run our government continue to allow no-bid contracts that - guess what - go to friends. And we've learned that our money just disappeared when it got to Iraq, but our leaders continue to authorize more of our money with no oversight.

And we've learned that those in the two regimes, have plenty of excuses and reasons for destroying the infrastructures of the countries destroyed.

[MysteryToMyself]

6. War is profitable

Those are million dollar+ bombs we are dropping on Iraq. Not all of them, but even the smaller ones are in the six figures and add up.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I have read that even most of the food our soldiers eat is privatized unless they are fighting and some of it is then.

Did we give military weapons to Israel or sell them to them?

[madokie]

9. I'm under the impression we give them the money to buy them

:shrug:

[pooja]

3. Calling someone unAmerican, when clearly they live in America

and love America and want the opportunity to succeed in America, is unAmerican. People are getting pissed. Losing jobs, downsizing, outsourcing. America has been left with customer service jobs (and American's aren't that good at being nice). Its time to create national health care... thereby opening up America to small business opportunities.

[madame defarge]

7. Blind allegiance to a failed leadership is not patriotism...

I find myself quoting that quite often these days...

[treestar]

4. IA and especially with number 3

Conservatives are total hypocrites. They call "looney conspiracy theory" every time someone questions something, but Cheney's comment falls right into that bin, yet they don't call him on it.

[corkhead]

10. Add to it that the "taliban wing" of the Democratic party eats their own

but when a Christofascist homophobe beats a moderate Republican, that was simply "democracy at work"

[MysteryToMyself]

11. He who knows and knows he knows is wise, follow him.

If civilization is to survive, we must cultivate the science of human relationships - the ability of all peoples, of all kinds, to live together, in the same world at peace.
Franklin D. Roosevelt


Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels - men and women who dare to dissent from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

Both of these men were fair to everyone. When they spoke it was the truth.

You can't control what others say or do, but you can control your reaction to them.

[Minnesota Libra]

12. What I learned in the past 30 days is................

.....neocons/fundies are totally irrational where Israel is concerned and many Democrats/Liberals are totally irrational where Muslims/Arabs are concerned.

With many neocons/fundies it's "UN AMERICAN" and "with the enemy" to suggest that Israel may need to rethink its approach to (insert desired country/region/Arab ethnic term here) relations.

To Democrats/Liberals its "Zionist enabling", "irrational Jew supporting" (those were the nicer ones) to suggest that Israel might just have a right to protect its own borders/people up to and including at the expense of others.

Then comes a viewpoint like mine. Democrats/Liberals and Neocons/Fundies approach the issues involved from opposite ends of the problem and yet both sides are just as radical as the other side they continuously condemn. I see the issue from both sides and I see where BOTH SIDES are poetically right and BOTH SIDES are poetically wrong. Thank goodness the Admin stepped in and put a tenative lid on the outbursts but, unfortunately, that didn't happen until some long term damage was done at DU.

[zbdent]

14. 3.1 Conservatives can also DO anything

shoot a guy in the head while out drinking and not get hauled into jail for questioning ...

[MysteryToMyself]

15. Imagine what a big deal Fox would have made of it

if a Democrat did that. Can you impeach a News corporation?

[zbdent]

16. Just think ... that rabbit that bit Carter

would have his own talking head show on Faux ...