The Public Opinion Soapbox

cookieclaygirl · Joined: 03 Dec 2007 Posts: 1801 Location: shippensburg

cut and run? i don't think it's a matter of that...i think it's a matter of we've been in this war for 5 years and the wheels are still spinning in the mud. fix it or get out.

speaking of war, my mom and i were talking about how the media has played a role in the last few wars. 'way back when' the media wasn't in-your-face with it and you'd get newsreels in the movies or a photo/story in the paper and a letter or two from abroad....more scarce and made it more 'real'....whereas now, we are bombarded visually with pictures, videos, etc etc that i think the masses are either immune to it or visually maxed-out that it doesn't have the same impact.....and after FIVE years of it, who can blame them....

it's gone on long enough....and no solution has been found. other than the typical bickering of us and them..... *YAWN!!*

.45chel · Joined: 26 Oct 2007 Posts: 2751 Location: Chambersburg

cookieclaygirl · Joined: 03 Dec 2007 Posts: 1801 Location: shippensburg

munchkin · Joined: 20 Dec 2007 Posts: 235

munchkin · Joined: 20 Dec 2007 Posts: 235

cookieclaygirl · Joined: 03 Dec 2007 Posts: 1801 Location: shippensburg

do you really want me to quote the dumb things republicans have said. god, this is getting boring.

munchkin · Joined: 20 Dec 2007 Posts: 235

AnonyMouse · Joined: 22 Oct 2007 Posts: 405

I've never been a big Twisted Sister fan...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AgkrX-NSt6Q&eurl=http://www.blah3.com/

...but I like that much better than the McCain fan's music video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaP9eiWuX3s

But it's all a matter of taste, I guess. Maybe his is a bigger hit among the senior set.

munchkin · Joined: 20 Dec 2007 Posts: 235

Here is a video of peace loving anti war protesters burning a UP troop in effigy while chanting "Die, die,die"

What a bunch of lovable warm and fuzzy lefties

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-G9SMnVNBUM

cookieclaygirl · Joined: 03 Dec 2007 Posts: 1801 Location: shippensburg

As expected, the Big Story was all over the remarks that John Kerry made yesterday, misquoting, misinterpreting, and gleefully twisting into an anti-troop attitude shared by all Democrats. Gibson wonders if this is the October surprise?

For the record, the quote is

"You know, education, if you make the most of it, you study hard, you do your homework and you make an effort to be smart, you can do well. And if you don't, you get stuck in Iraq."

Kerry says it was a misdelivered joke, intended to skewer Bush and his less-than-stellar academic record and subsequent misadventures in Iraq. A Kerry aide said (according to CNN) that the comments should have been

"I can't overstress the importance of a great education. Do you know where you end up if you don't study, if you aren't smart, if you're intellectually lazy? You end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq."

FOX News has beenmisrepresenting the comments all day, adhering to their proven formula that if you repeat a lie often enough people will believe it as truth. Media Matters has some examples of earlier incidents: here's what John Gibson had to say:

"MA Senator John Kerry sparked a firestorm of criticism from the White House and his fellow lawmakers after telling a crowd of California students yesterday, quote, 'study hard or you'll end up in Iraq.'"

When a journalist precedes words attributed to another with the word "quote" he is expected to make a direct quote, which you can see he did not.

While waiting for live video of Bush making yet another campaign speech slamming Democrats, Gibson had White House correspondent Greg Kelly on to report (echo) that Republicans last night slammed John Kerry for insulting the troops. Video was played with sound of Kerry's remark, above, though the sound was removed as Kelly spoke over the Senator, and then Tony Snow was shown reiterating (echoing) the misinterpretation and demanding an apology for the alleged insult. Purporting to show video of Kerry's rebuttal to the White House and the right-wing media, viewers were shown only Kerry saying "they" owe us an apology for using the WH to make this an issue again - shame on them." His actual rebuttal, including

"I'm sick and tired of these despicable Republican attacks that always seem to come from those who never can be found to serve in war, but love to attack those who did," Kerry said. "I'm not going to be lectured by a stuffed suit White House mouthpiece standing behind a podium, or doughy Rush Limbaugh, who no doubt today will take a break from belittling Michael J. Fox's Parkinson's disease to start lying about me just as they have lied about Iraq. It disgusts me."

was not shown.

Kelly said Republicans ar delighted to have Kerry front and center again, even though he is not running for election, and he expected Bush to comment on Kerry's comments as both "insulting" and "shameful." So before we even have the live video of Bush speaking those words they are reported (echoed). (Pre-echoed?)

John Boehner, Republican House Majority leader,was also called on to comment and guess what? He found the comments "insulting" and "disrespectful" too! For a party that continually accuses the opposition of drinking the kool-aid and blindly following they sure have an improbable lack of vocabulary diversity. To no one's surprise, Boehner also called for Kerry to apologize to the troops.

Gibson read the sentence from Kerry (above, about Limbaugh and Snow) and asked Boehner what got under Kerry's skin. Boehner replied:

"He's a liberal, a leftist, and this is the typical attitude they have toward our military."
Boehner said that Kerry tried to explain it away by blaming what he said on Bush, (?) when all he had to do was apologize.
"And this goes to show you what liberal Democrats would do is they were to take control of the House and Senate. What they want to do is give up and pull our troops out. Republicans want to win the battle in Iraq to help protect America, because if we don't defeat the terrorists there we'll be fighting them on the streets of America."

Yeah, after they breeze through our unsecured borders. I think you missed a talking point.

The talking points continued to spill out of Boehner's mouth as we watched a larger box to the right, awaiting the same points to echo from a casual, tie-less. sleeves rolled up Bush. Apparently he's using Al Gore's wardrobe consultant.

As they killed airtime waiting, Gibson asked if Kerry was taken at his word, that he was making a dig at Bush, ("George Bush is stupid, George Bush is uneducated, George Bush didn't study...") didn't that mean he was insulting Bush? Boehner insisted that he didn't say Bush so he didn't mean Bush, and "he told these kids that if you work hard, and study hard, and get your college degree, or you're going to end up in Iraq. That's what he said."

Gibson summarized "because only stupid people go to Iraq."

Yeah."

Lather, repeat.

Apparently Gibson had a script of Bush's remarks, which were on low volume in the large box to the right as he and Boehner traded Republican platitudes. He cut the chatter and went to full-screen, full volume of Bush as he promoted his administration's handling of the "war on terror", and bashed Democrats, oversimplifying their position and drawing boos from the crowd.

Bush read Kerry's remark (more boos) and interpreted this way: "The Senator's suggestion that the men and women of our military are somehow uneducated is insulting and it is shameful. (applause) The men and women of our military are plenty smart and plenty brave, and the Senator from MA owes them an apology."

THEN he said that whatever party you're in, our troops deserve the full support of our government. Can someone please find a link or two where this administration has cut funding to our troops, at war, and returning home?

Now that the mission was accomplished, getting one more reinforcement of the lie from the top of the heap, Big Story went back to the studio where Boehner declared it "perfect."

(source: http://www.newshounds.us/2006/10/31/big_story_attack_dogs_on_kerry_lapdogs_for_bush.php)

munchkin · Joined: 20 Dec 2007 Posts: 235

Ah the classic excuse - he was misquoted or taken out of context

That was not the first time Kerry smeared the US military. He did it back in the 70's and he continues doing it today

Here are the facts again

John Kerry Calls US Troops Stupid
Then claims it was a “botched joke”

A generation ago, John Kerry *** all over the honor of his fellow brothers-in-arms in Vietnam by saying that they were rapists and murderers. And now Kerry is at it again, insulting a whole nother generation of brave Soldiers, Marines, Airmen, and Sailors.

At a political rally for California’s Democratic challenger to Arnold Schwarzenegger for governor, Phil Angelides, Kerry told the Pasadena City College crowd to study hard and get an education — or wind up like the losers in the military:

“You know, education, if you make the most of it, if you study hard and you do your homework, and you make an effort to be smart, uh, you, you can do well. If you don’t, you get stuck in Iraq.”

Baically, Johnny just said that our all-volunteer US Armed Forces active in Iraq are made up of individuals who were not bright enough or sufficiently educated to evade military service to our country.

The National Commander of The American Legion called on Sen. John Kerry to apologize for suggesting that American troops in Iraq are uneducated.

“As a constituent of Senator Kerry’s I am disappointed. As leader of The American Legion, I am outraged,” said National Commander Paul A. Morin. “A generation ago, Sen. Kerry slandered his comrades in Vietnam by saying that they were rapists and murderers. It wasn’t true then and his warped view of today’s heroes isn’t true now.”

http://urbangrounds.com/2006/10/31/kerry-calls-troops-stupid/

cookieclaygirl · Joined: 03 Dec 2007 Posts: 1801 Location: shippensburg

munchkin · Joined: 20 Dec 2007 Posts: 235

cookieclaygirl · Joined: 03 Dec 2007 Posts: 1801 Location: shippensburg

i mean any sort of bipartisanship is dead, in case you are illiterate.

i think republicanism/democratism is obsolete. it served it's purpose and now needs revamped, much as most of our country needs some revamping as well.

i never made any opinions about what i think about the war in the po forums, if i recall, other than it's been five years and little is being done. you, my friend, are putting words in my mouth, which is what "republicans" do best, since that's how you like to think. what i have talked about is indie parties and bipartisanshipdeadness.

i did read your posting and i knew it was better than what was being shown on tv. that's obvious. i believe i referred to it as propaganda (or else this was on another forum i write on, not sure offhand..this is a topic on alot of forums out there....).

so, get back to work, mr. munchkin. i'm sure there's a crazy lib you can pester there.