SEP 1 - 15, 2004

VOL. 2 ISSUE 17

SEPTEMBER 1, 2004 – I had to check, was I watching C-Span or Comedy Central?

The last two days of August, 2004 took a cue from the Olympics and smashed records for incoherence flat out drool-on-the-floor insanity.

Before we begin, recall last week how the President didn't condemn the dishonest attacks on Kerry's service but distanced himself from them, claiming repeatedly he nothing to do with the dishonest claims or anyone involved.

Ok, so the President started his convention week by saying the War on Terror, which he has promised to be "victorious" in, was "unwinnable."

That, my friends, was not a fluke by the tone setting open gun for this convention apparently.

The next day President Bush - thinking he was making things better - went on the show of one of the main people who has been echoing the lies told by the Swift Boat ad people, Rush Limbaugh.  For those of you who have been wondering why we link these two so closely together, President Bush just wanted to make this clear.

In an interview given Tuesday on Rush's radio show (see transcript,) President Bush directly admitted this man, who on top of being thrown off ESPN earlier this year for being a racist (see our article,) on top of being a constant, confirmed liar and sexist (you can check out Spin Sanity's Limbaugh-lie archive,) who just earlier that very day had once again referred to the abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq as just a "fraternity prank," echoing previous remarks he had made calling it just people "having fun... blowing steam off" (see Media Matters report); who, on top of all of this, was one of the major people trumpeting the dishonest claims made by the Swift Boat liars;  on Tuesday, President Bush made sure no American had any doubt about his relationship with people launching the swift boat attacks.  Yes, Bush went on racist, sexist, swift boat lie trumpeting, Abu Ghraib torture excusing Limbaugh's show today, and called him his "good friend."

Any questions (other than how can the Kerry campaign not have jumped all over this yet?)

This man launching the attacks is Bush's "good friend."  This constantly lying, racist, sexist is Bush's "good friend," is a person Bush endorses and whose show he supports and participates in.

Ever wonder why we linked Bush and Limbaugh so closely together that we call Bush's supporters the Bush/Limbaughians?  President Bush just wanted to make sure you didn't confuse him with someone who cares about honesty and decency and doesn't like racism or sexism.  He just wanted to make sure you know Rush is not just someone he doesn't condemn, but is his "good friend."

But here's why the President went ahead and did it:  he thought he was safe hiding out in the AM radio secret cave - you know, the place that the media pretends doesn't exist, where people can lie all day every day and never get called on it.  Well, sorry George, we and others are pulling the sheets on your secret hideout.

Meanwhile, back at Madison Square Garden, simultaneously, the Bushies were trying to pretend they had nothing to do with the Limbaugh types - you know, that hate spewing, lying right.  No, they were trying to roll out a moderate face that would appeal to independents.  So they began with McCain.

And what did McCain do?  He stepped out on the stage and suddenly became Rush Limbaugh.

Yes, "maverick" McCain launched an entirely dishonest personal smear.  During his speech, he suddenly lashed out at Michael Moore's and his film Fahrenheit 911.

"Our choice wasn't between a benign status quo and the bloodshed of war. It was between war and a graver threat.  Don't let anyone tell you otherwise -- not our political opponents, and certainly not a disingenuous filmmaker who would have us believe ... that Saddam's Iraq was an oasis of peace..." (see CNN article)

Wonderful, huh?  Especially since the movie never made any such claim.  Even better when McCain admitted Tuesday on MSNBC that he had never even seen the film.

Did McCain apologize, admit he had become a dishonest, partisan hack?  Did he deride and chastise himself for launching a personal smear based on something he admits he didn't even know whether was true or not ala the Swift Boat ads he had berated the week before?

Nope.  McCain listened to the Bush Republican audience suddenly, for the first time, go into rousing applause, showing that what they really live for are dishonest personal smears (as opposed to that appealing moderate image they were supposed to be portraying.)  And then, as reported by CNN, "When the noise died down, McCain deadpanned, "That line was so good, I'll use it again."

And, true to Bush/Limbaughian form, he did.  As reported by the Washington Post's Howard Kurtz, "McCain later chided Moore again on MSNBC, while admitting he hasn't seen "Fahrenheit 9/11."

Guess he's just on a Bush/Limbaugh-brand roll and can't control himself at this point.  Gone is the McCain who stood up to a smearing Bush and demanded he respect decency and truth, and here, seemingly for good, is a new McCain that joins in the lying smear-fest. 

And yet the Republican Convention somehow only got more bizarre from there.

Senate Majority leader Bill Frist (R-TN) proclaimed Tuesday in his speech to the convention, "Fellow citizens, on November 2nd, there is only one choice for a... freer America -- George W. Bush." (see Wash Post transcript)

Somebody forgot to tell Frist that America is already entirely free.  See, Mr. person chosen to be the leader of all the Senate Republicans, you can't be freer than entirely free.

Guess he missed that memo, or maybe he got confused and that the Bush/Ashcroft era police-state type America is what America has traditionally been and decided suddenly democracy might be a good idea?

It gets better.

Right after this wonderful speech by Frist, NPR caught Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA) on the floor for a quick interview.  They started talking about his desire for a Constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.  Santorum said he supported the amendment because of what happened in Massachusetts, where the state Supreme Court decided that equal protection should apply, that marriage didn't have to be between a man and woman.  Santorum then fretted that unless there were an amendment, "every court" would  make the same horrible decision of letting all people have equal protection.

Now, Santorum was quick to point out this was nothing against anybody, such as gay people.  "This is not against anyone.  The court decided that anything could happen, that marriage was just between a man and woman.  This time it proved to be a homosexual couple, but it could be others."

It could be others.

Now let's do the math.  You have your male/female couples, which he is pulling for.  Then you have the "homosexual couple" that he referred to.

Well, exactly what "others" could it be, Rick?  Martians and donkeys?

The attempts to lie so massively, to someone sound like they were "not against anyone" while making points clearly against certain groups was driving everyone at the convention past the brink of insanity.  Bush was declaring his War on Terror "unwinnable" and swift boat lie spreaders "good friend"s loudly and publicly, McCain had become Rush Limbaugh (and was loving it,) Frist was believing America was some police state that needed to be freed, and Santorum was worried there was some other marriage mix possibility besides male/female or homosexual.

The hallucinations and incoherence were running hot and heavy at the convention, all building up to the key note of the night:  Arnold Schwarzenegger being brought on to talk about... the economy?

For those of you unfamiliar with Arnold's economic record so far in California, here are some comments on it made today by Jack Kyser, Chief Economist for the non-partisan Los Angeles Economic Development Corporation (recorded these first hand:)

1) "To be quite honest, you know the state is dealing
with a 7-10 billion dollar structural deficit."

Impressive, huh, especially since Arnold has done nothing but borrow and borrow the state into debt as his "solution" - yes, just like Bush, but not quite the example they wanted to highlight.

2) Arnold claims not to have raised taxes, but Keyser
said this is false.  "If you go to any city, they're
raising taxes, most people just don't recognize it,"
if you do it that way.

3)  With regard to "new jobs" created in Southern Cal,
of the supposed new jobs, Kyser said 60% are either
temp jobs or "low wage, no benefit" retail.  (40% are
temp, 20% "low wage, no benefit" retail - his exact
numbers given, "17,000 leisure and hospitality, 16,500
temp, 8,500 retail (which he dubbed "low wage, no
benefit")  He gave the number 13,500 manufacturing
jobs lost, which he dubbed "important" jobs.

4)  "Because of rising healthcare costs, companies are
buying equipment, not hiring."

This is who Bush chose to highlight the effects of his economic policies.  (As a note, Kyser went on to say, "These days, how the economy is depends on whether you are a red or blue person.  I am an orange person.  The economy is struggling.")

But Arnold made it even better.  Keeping with the open insanity and incoherence of the night, Arnold slipped into a Jeff Foxworthy-like routine, substituting, "You might be a redneck if," with, "You might be a Republican if..."  Highlighting the link between "redneck" and "Republican" was, actually, the opposite of what they hope Arnold would do.  But he went on and on, saying again and again, "If you...., then you are a Republican.  If you..."

Jeff Foxworthy - and rednecks everywhere - are considering suing.

And just to top it off, Arnold had to unleash the gay bashing commentary that got him nailed a few weeks back in California, calling the Democrats, "girlie men," for thinking deficits suck and people should be able to find jobs.

But no, Schwarzenegger was not done.

"The president did not go into Iraq because the polls told him it was popular. As a matter of fact, the polls said just the opposite."  (see Wash Post transcript)

Yes, Arnold was telling bald faced lies in the midst of his redneck ranting and gay bashing.  In actual America, the polls were with the President on Iraq.

"And to those critics who are so pessimistic about our economy, I say...Don't you remember the pessimism of 20 years ago, when the critics said Japan and Germany are overtaking the U.S.?  Ridiculous.  Now, they say that India and China are overtaking us. Don't you believe it.  We may hit a few bumps, but America always moves ahead."

Funny, Arnold remembers 20 years ago but not 4 years ago, when then-candidate Bush went around talking about how bad the economy was, until the point people had to warn him if he didn't stop talking like that he would make the economy bad. (see our article)  Or how about a couple years later when Bush started to blame China for our nation's economic woes?  (see our article)

Ah, gay bashing, lying, using redneck rhetoric, and hypocrisy, all delivered by a man whose economic record exemplifies fiscal ineptitude, recklessly, and dishonesty.

Wow, quite a brilliant choice to finish top of the night.

All of this has been delivered in the most amazing of contexts:  a choice to focus on Bush's worst moment and biggest failure, allowing 3,000 Americans to be killed on his watch.

Every chance they get the Republicans are reminding people of this day.  They are getting people to think again and again about how President Bush spent over 40 percent of his pre-9/11 time on vacation rather than working to stop 9/11.  Maybe their message is, "Clinton was an idiot because he actively acted to thwart a big terrorist attack at the turn of the millennium - our was cooler, let it happen, and then got really, really mad at his screw up - vote for us?"

Maybe that's not their point but it's hard to imagine what is?  To choose to focus again and again on this horrible, entirely preventable day. (see our article)  That's how they're choosing to make the case for themselves.

And how are they trying to turn people against the Democratic challenger?  Yes, by more displays of delusion and incoherence.

You have McCain dishonestly attacking films he's never seen, and then Senator Frist pops off with, "(George Bush) has won some huge victories to make health care cost less."

Um, no, it actually costs a heck of a lot more.  This wasn't lost on First who then, in sticking with the Republicans 'we're utterly insane and incoherent' theme of the night, said, "...small businesses, they're burdened, often crushed, by health care costs."

I suppose that was the result of the "victories" that made "health care cost less?"

But wait, he wasn't just about to talk about the President's opponent:

"John Kerry's trillion dollar government-run plan will place your health care in the hands of others far away."

Yes, we know John Kerry has no such plan, that he has repeatedly corrected this lie of the drooling Bush crowd, pointing out that, a little contrary to such statements, there is, well, nothing accurate about the statement.  He has no plan for the government to run healthcare  And no, he is not outsourcing your doctor to India, or wherever "far away" is supposed to mean.

But the only thing the Bushies could think to do in attacking Kerry was make up positions he doesn't actually have and attack those.  Government run health care.  Giving in to terrorists.

Or how about this one:  we should hate Kerry because, as Frist warned, he will "use your taxpayer dollars to destroy human life."  Funny, it seemed like President Bush had spent 200 billion of our taxpayer dollars to destroy human life, but... well, my friends, that was the fun of the evening.  Flat out insanity and utter incoherence on parade.

But don't worry, when Michael Moore simple plays the video tape of tonight, I'm sure McCain will be there to say he is "disingenuous" to portray the Republican Convention as if it were some "oasis of therapeutic refuge for the mentally ill."  No, McCain will clarify, not having watched the actual convention footage or listened to any of the speeches at all, that the convention was, "in fact... a place of indescribable cruelty, torture chambers, mass graves, and prisons that destroyed the lives of the small children held inside their walls."

Well, or you can watch FOX News and they will tell you this was truly a convention of moderates moderately expressing their moderate views with moderation, in a way that, not coincidentally, should appeal to moderates.