Forget the $87 billion--THIS is the money sentence:

[Plaid Adder]

"We are fighting that enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan today so that we do not meet him again on our own streets, in our own cities."

I couldn't watch, so I read the transcript WillyT thoughtfully posted. That's the sentence that scares me the most.

I know it's not a new sentiment. But it's the only part of that speech that I think is at all likely to be persuasive to people--the idea that by staying in Iraq we are somehow keeping all the terrorists occupied so they won't have time to come over here and blow us up. Anyone who accepts that logic will not care how long the quagmire sucks us in. In fact, they'll want this war (sorry--the war is over--mission accomplished--I keep forgetting) to last FOREVER. Why? Because as soon as we stop fighting the terrorists over THERE, they're gonna come get us over HERE!

It's a reformulation of what he promised us in the 2001 State of the Union address: World war without end, amen.

Jesus Christ, people! What would you rather be: safe, or human? Because you can't have both. The only way to be *really* safe is to make sure you have enough power--money power, firepower, whatever--to crush, maim, destroy and conquer anyone who might possibly try to harm you. And you have to be willing to use that power at the drop of a hat--because if you hesitate at the wrong moment, you know, you might get hurt. So, you know, better safe than sorry--if you see anyone coming toward you, just blow their heads off. If you stop to find out who they are, it might be TOO LATE!

My fellow Americans! You have been hunkered down in your undisclosed secure locations for long enough! Get out of the fucking castle! Get some @#$! fresh air! Leave the suit of armor behind and take a fucking walk for a change!

People! Listen up! LIFE IS RISK. We are not immortal. We are not invulnerable. We just were not made that way. You can't change that. You will die, sooner or later. You will be hurt, sooner or later. No amount of 'security' will change that. So instead of saluting President State-Of-Siege when he tells you that he has to spend $87 billion crushing an uprising in Iraq to save you from a gruesome terrorist-inflicted death, why don't you think about what this asshole has done to your actual *life?*

Take off the duct tape! Tear down the plastic sheeting! Get out of the storm cellar! It's been two years since 9/11 and the only attacks on America since then have been the ones mounted by *our own fucking government!* Yes, it's unlikely that Ashcroft, Bush, and Halliburton will actually kill you. BUt they sure are doing a great job of making life in this country less worth living.

Freedom fries. Do you people want freedom, or do you want security? MAKE UP YOUR MINDS!

:why is there no icon for someone throwing a bucket of cold water over me to calm me down?:

OK, I feel better now.

To conclude: Roosevelt was right. Fear is what we have to beat.

Grasp the nettle,

The Plaid Adder

[GiovanniC]

1. Amen

n/t

[E_Zapata]

2. At this point, we should elect a People's Congress

Get about 100 Americans together - elected from every corner of this country (2 from each state) and call it the People's Congress for the Peace, and go find the jihadist and meet with them and find out what the hell the exact problem is and iron out a deal for what "we the people" will be willing to do to make them stop hating us!

Hey, they don't call me Emiliano for nada!

There would be no threat of terrorism IF it weren't for the USA imperialist and intervention tactics throughout the Middle East.

The PEOPLE must confront the reason terrorism is in existence and force our government to

And the People's Congress could very easily show the US Senate what 100 "just people" can do. We can actually vote on every single bill that the Senate votes on and see if the results are the same.

I never thought about this, but the peace movement should have elected reps from each state -- serving as spokespersons for the people.

[cosmicdot]

8. I hear ya

Capitol Hill other than a few voices needs a total overhaul

[Zhade]

12. This is a commendable idea.

A shadow government, almost. Excellent thinking.

It is supposed to be WE THE PEOPLE, after all, isn't it?

[are_we_united_yet]

3. On the money! n/t

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

4. Terrorism=the New Communism.

New package. Same 'Nam redux.

[Paragon]

5. Why do you think your local news always starts with street crime?

Stay in.
Consume.
Hop in your SUV.
Go buy more to consume.
Bring it home, consume it.
Stay in.
Fear.
Terror.
Anthrax.
Fear.

[Donna Zen]

7. You mean "LSD"

Live

Shop

Die

[GiovanniC]

9. You Forgot Part

Stay in.
Bush is the Best President Ever.
Consume.
Hop in your SUV.
Bush gets his inspiration from God.
Go buy more to consume.
Bring it home, consume it.
Stay in.
Bush is heroic and decisive.
Fear.
Terror.
Liberals and democrats are traitors.
Anthrax.
Fear.

In other news today, the heroic and decisive President Bush, also known as the Best President Ever, saved eleven orphans, two nuns, and a soft, warm puppy from a fire at an orphanage that had probably been set ablaze by traitor liberal scum...

*click*

[cosmicdot]

6. and if the $$ doesn't keep flowing - they'll MIHOP ... again ...

that's what I'm afraid of ... these people are EVIL

[Plaid Adder]

11. Evil, yes...omnipotent, no

See, the reason I don't go for MIHOP and LIHOP is that I simply do not give them that much credit. They are good at manipulating public perception and that is just about it. If they were capable of masterminding something like the WTC attacks, you'd think they could do a better job of planting WMDs.

It's worse than you think: not only did they not make it happen, they have no way of stopping it from happening again...

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

[ProudGerman]

13. What's so hard about LIHOP?

They find out something is gonna happen, even get hints about how its gonna take place. How hard is it to say "hmmm, this could help us. Let's NOT stop it"

Sounds like the easiest thing in the world to me.

[Plaid Adder]

14. More possible, but

I think this administration is more on the bullshit end of the lies-bullshit spectrum than I had initially thought.

OK, the difference between a lie and bullshit:

* A lie is a falsehood you tell other people in order to manipulate them into doing what you want them to do.

* Bullshit is a lie you tell yourself in order to justify doing something you want to do.

Before the Iraq war started I thought this administration was 100% lies. Now, I think it's 10% lies and 90% bullshit. Why? Because everything about how they've done this war suggests to me that they actually bought a lot of the crap they were trying to sell us. The Liberation Fallacy being the big one, but also all this bullshit about the newer, lighter, faster, more agile army, and so on.

Bullshit will take you pretty far into the realm of pure evil. Because even as you bullshit yourself, a little piece of you knows, deep down inside, that it's bullshit. But most of you doesn't, so on you go. Bullshit would allow, say, Condoleeza Rice to say to herself, "oh, terrorism schmerrorism, what's really important is helping the President find reasons to invade Iraq." But bullshit wouldn't allow her to say, "Hey, I found out about this plan to pull off a major terrorist attack on the U.S.--and you know what, having thousands of our civilians die horribly could actually really work to our advantage! Let's do it!"

For LIHOP (or MIHOP) you would need people who are not only evil, but are conscious of that and grooving on it. You'd need people who like to wring their hands and say "moohoohahaha" a lot. People who are fully aware that they are a cabal of amoral cynical powerhungry bastards who do not value God, country, human life, or anything but their own greed, and are OK with that. To be that conscious of your own evil requires a certain amount of moral courage. I don't think this crowd has it.

Your mileage may vary, of course. But for me, 9/11 is simply a disaster--possibly preventable, but possibly not--which was incompetently handled and ruthlessly exploited by Bush and his cronies from the moment they knew it had happened.

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

[kentuck]

10. I agree Plaid Adder...

Life is a gamble....It's time we got on with our lives. We have had enough fear.

[kodi]

15. "If we don't fight the Vietcong in the jungles of Indochina, we will have

"If we don't fight the Vietcong in the jungles of Indochina, we will have to fight them on the beaches of California."

memory is a terrible thing for those who spin lies.

[scarlet_owl]

16. Right On!

Paranoia makes the world a scary place. I don't worry about terrorist attacks, stubbed toes, burglars, etc. Yes, these things suck, but that's life. Life is a risk every day.

[neuvocat]

17. If we don't throw bodies into the meat grinder over there

the meat grinder will come here after us!

Yeah, I could see the logic there.

</sarcasm>

[ComerPerro]

18. It comes back to the idea

that somehow the military action in Iraq is protecting our freedoms.

Do you think the administration just sits and laughs their asses off about how they are campaigning on our freedoms, meanwhile they are doing everything they can to take those very freedoms away?

[Ellen Forradalom]

19. The money sentence doesn't make any damned sense

"We are fighting that enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan today so that we do not meet him again on our own streets, in our own cities."

Fighting 'them' in Iraq and in our streets are not mutually exclusive. That 'enemy' is all over the world, and the more we fight there, the more of 'them' we manufacture.

[Plaid Adder]

20. You know that, and *I* know that...

but evidently nobody in Washington knows that.

A more accurate version of that sentence would read, "We must fight them in Iraq so that there will always be a fresh supply of new terrorist attacks at home that will scare people so bad they will never realize I've been robbing them blind for 3 years!"

:argh:

The Plaid Adder