Rall: Why We Hate Bush* (It's the Stolen Election, Stupid)

[kskiska]

"Have the Democrats totally flipped their lids?" asks David Brooks in The Weekly Standard, quasi-official organ of the Bush Administration. "Because every day some Democrat seems to make a manic or totally over-the-top statement about George Bush, the Republican party, and the state of the nation today."

True, Democrats loathe Dubya with greater intensity than any Republican standard-bearer in modern political history. Even the diabolical Richard Nixon--who, after all, created the EPA, went to China and imposed price controls to stop corporate gouging--rates higher in liberal eyes. "It's mystifying," writes Brooks.

Let me explain.

First but not foremost, Bush's detractors despise him viscerally, as a man. Where working-class populists see him as a smug, effeminate frat boy who wouldn't recognize a hard day's work if it kicked him in his self-satisfied ass, intellectuals see a simian-faced idiot unqualified to mow his own lawn, much less lead the free world. Another group, which includes me, is more patronizing than spiteful. I feel sorry for the dude; he looks so pathetic, so out of his depth, out there under the klieg lights, squinting, searching for nouns and verbs, looking like he's been snatched from his bed and beamed in, and is still half asleep, not sure where he is. Each speech looks as if Bush had been beamed from his bed fast asleep. And he's willfully ignorant. On Fox News, Bush admits that he doesn't even read the newspaper: "I glance at the headlines just to kind of a flavor for what's moving. I rarely read the stories, and get briefed by people who are probably read the news themselves." All these takes on Bush boil down to the same thing: The guy who holds the launch codes isn't smart enough to know that's he's stupid. And that's scary.

Fear breeds hatred, and Bush's policies create a lot of both. U.S. citizens like Jose Padilla and Yasser Hamdi disappear into the night, never to be heard from again. A concentration camp rises at Guantánamo. Stasi-like spies tap our phones and read our mail; thanks to the ironically-named Patriot Act, these thugs don't even need a warrant. As individual rights are trampled, corporate profits are sacrosanct. An aggressive, expansionist military invades other nations "preemptively" to eliminate the threat of non-existent weapons, and American troops die to enrich a company that buys off the Vice President.

more…
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=127&ncid=742&e=7&u=/030925/7/5dmdb.html

[nini]

1. Excellent article...

thanks for posting

[wtmusic]

2. Great to see that in Yahoo!

That's about as hardcore as they get. Rate it a 5 before it gets freeped.

[Bill1235]

3. Check this out

He doesn't totally believe he will win 04.

Bush jokes on visit to India

New York: Though an invitation to visit India has been pending for the last three years, George W Bush is not sure whether he would be able to make it as US President or as a private citizen.

Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, during his meeting with him, asked him when he plans to come to India.

Bush responded that the Indian American community, which has made a substantial contribution in various fields in the US, always asked him, "When are you going to India."

Bush said that he tells them that he would visit India if he received an invitation. Vajpayee promptly pointed out that the invitation had been pending for last three years.

Apparently referring to next year's Presidential elections in the US, Bush said: "I would certainly like to visit India as President or as a private person, hopefully the former."

link : http://headlines.sify.com/2601news2.html?headline=Bush~jokes~on~visit~to~India~

[kskiska]

5. Wow! That's great news!

Hopefully, he's dreaming of going "home" to Texas. Maybe he'll pull a Lyndon Johnson late in the game once the absolute reality sets in.

[newyawker99]

13. Hi Bill1235!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[bloom]

4. The New York Times has a similar editorial today

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/25/opinion/25THU1.html?th

"The Presidential Bubble"


"At Mr. Bush's public appearances, his critics are routinely shunted into "protest zones" as much as a half-mile away. At the Columbia, S.C., airport last year, a protester with a "No War for Oil" sign was ordered to move a half-mile from the area where Mr. Bush's supporters were allowed to stand. When the protester refused, he was arrested.

<snip>

As for newspapers, Mr. Bush said, "I glance at the headlines" but "rarely read the stories." The people who brief him on current events encounter many of the newsmakers personally, he said, and in any case "probably read the news themselves."


________________

It's nice to see these stories out there.

[gratuitous]

6. The willful blindness is contemptible

"Why, oh why do you liberals all hate Bush so much? You're just over the top; you've flipped your lids."

No, we're quite sane and quite aware of what's going on. It's pretty apparent to anyone struggling to make a living in this train wreck of an economy. When garbage collectors in Alabama think the most important issue in the country is the estate tax, it's pretty clear that the Wall Street Journal, along with the rest of the Fourth Estate, has abandoned its mission of informing the populace.

We don't hate Bush because he's an illegitimate squatter in the White House, though that's part of it. No, he squeaked into power on the strength of the worst Supreme Court decision ever, the willful disenfranchisement of thousands and thousands of voters, and the carefully coordinated efforts of a bunch of overprivileged frat boys who never grew up. Since then, he's governed over the worst economic slump since the Great Depression, involved the U.S. in costly and wholly unnecessary wars-without-end for the personal enrichment of his buddies and campaign benefactors, and generally run the country into the ground for the sole benefit of those benefactors.

He has seized power as if he controlled a huge majority of the electorate, when in reality he doesn't even have the support of a plurality. His entire administration is all flash and no substance, and people are dying by the thousands because of it. He doesn't have the mass graves that Saddam had because his advisers are at least smart enough not to bury all of his victims together.

In sum, the "hatred" of Bush is really contempt and loathing for an illegitimate crook, based on what he is actually doing and has done during his administration, not trumped up tales or fantasies concocted by embittered political losers. If you need further explanation on that point, Mr. Brooks, then I'm surprised that you're able to put together a sentence, much less draw breath. My comfort comes from knowing that it will be you and your quisling ilk who will be in the second wave of reprisals when the wheel turns again.

[ixion]

7. my favorite paragraph..

"Bush isn't president, but he plays one on TV. His presence in the White House is an affront to everything that this country stands for. His fake presidency is treasonous; our passive tolerance for it sad testimony to post-9/11 cowardice. As I wrote in December 2000, "George W. Bush is not the President of the United States of America." And millions of Americans agree. "


Yep, count me in those millions. I would love to see the stolen election become an issue again. :bounce:

[The Backlash Cometh]

8. Perfect. except...

Ignorance breeds suspicion; suspicion breeds fear; fear breeds distrust; and distrust breeds hatred.

[boxster]

9. I hated him before he stole the election.

And, I think that while fear may breed hatred, I think it's more likely that the hatred of this administration is because they run the government solely based on generating and maintaining fear and contempt.

[sam sarrha]

10. the Texas governmen only meets every 2 years....the Tax cuts he initiated

before leaving are destroying the infrastructure here. the new medical school here in elpaso is nixed. so now the local hospitals will have to continue to give free medical care to Mexico. paid for by local taxes. the mean income here is said to be $14,000, but if you count the illegals its more like $10,000. I was an electronics specialist at Boeing working on the F22 development and after 3 years only made $17,000 yr before taxes. and i had a good job for el Paso. we had Boeing's only non union shop. we made 1/3 to 1/4 the industry scale. his big education program for Texas was a total failure, it was just reveled that the numbers were faked to make it look good, a total fraud.

[Blue Adept]

11. Rall

Continues to be my hero. Puts into words everything that I feel.

[Manix]

12. ...great read!!

...sums it all up well

[Red_Storm]

14. Met Ted Rall

Last Sunday at the NYC book festival....talked to him for a little while about Afghanistan.... really smart and funny guy....his book about his experiences there is really worth reading.......

[wabeewoman]

15. I loathe bush for all the reasons

listed but also because of his smirking hypocracy and his pride in his lack of intellect(and passing that off as a common man thing like we should all be striving to be ignorant). Clinton used to make me proud to be an American just listening to him speak. bush makes me mortified and embarrassed. I have no doubt bush will go down in history as the WORST presidental pretender we've ever had.

[realFedUp]

16. Let's Rall....

Good one.

[cmd]

17. I could have lived with the selection without such anger

If Bush really tried to be a uniter. It was always my way or the highway.

If Bush was compassionate. He has never cared about the common man, woman or child

If Bush was a conservative. A true conservative would pay the bills.

If Bush had worked with the UN. Instead he has tried to emasculate it with his bullying.

I am angry and bitter and often mean-spirited. Bush has done this to me and I can never forgive him.