Hypocrisy Redefined
I’ve seen a lot of interesting things transpire over the past month since I’ve posted. I thought I’d take a moment to point out what I find to be the latest in the string of Republican hypocrisies.
1) On the one hand, the Republicans preach that they are about family values and being the only ones who apparently know right from wrong. They are quick to criticize, as are the Democrats, but the Conservatives do it with a seeming moral imperative - "You are sinners, unless you are us." And yet, when a man named "Dick", who also happens to be the sitting Vice President, says "Go fuck yourself" on the floor of Congress, do we hear the right wing shuddering from their ivory tower? Do we hear condemnation for such an inappropriate, albeit witty and thoughtful, use of language in the sacred halls of Congress? No. Instead we hear, "it’s about time" and "it was long overdue." I don't mean to call them hypocrites, but if they are going to be the moral sounding board of America then they should hold themselves to their own standard. After all, we've heard them say time and again during the Clinton years, "words mean things".
2) During a Democratic rally, Whoopi Goldberg and a few other speakers apparently made some "off-color" comments about George Bush. The Administrations crack team of rabid offense-takers leapt into the fray, shouting "how dare you," and "that's completely inappropriate!" It seems that they feel as if making racy comments about a sitting President is off-limits and completely un-American. Thank goodness that nothing like that happened during that sticky little situation with Bill Clinton a few years back. I mean, if a few remarks during a single campaign event could spark such outrage, I shudder to think what might have happened if anyone had taken advantage of our former Presidents transgressions by making similar comments. Luckily, the Conservatives were above such things, which is why the Lewinsky ordeal was handled with so much professionalism and decorum.
3) When Kerry picked Edwards as his running mate, there was some discussion about what Edwards would bring to the ticket. Would he be able to bring North Carolina with him? Would his youth and good looks bring in the female vote? Could Kerry and Edwards hug and shake hands often enough to break the Guiness World Record for heterosexual male embracing (as an aside, this is currently held by Mike Tyson during one of his prison stints)? But what I found to be most interesting was the comments from El Fatbo (some call him Rush) and Sean "you are un-american" Hannity. Both of these intellectual giants repeated time and again, "Where is the balance on the Democratic ticket!?!" I point out that they did it "repeatedly" because in fairness, even I have said some things that later on I thought, "whoops, glad no one caught that pile of stupidity." Yet they continued to rail on this for days. Apparently, these brilliant men have ascertained that a Presidential ticket is somehow lacking if the Prez and Veep are too similar in philosophy. It would seem that their theory indicates that if you have people in these powerful positions that are too far on the same side of the political spectrum, that untold horrors and doom could be the only conceivable outcome. We NEED checks and balances between these two positions, otherwise the very Earth could rip asunder, dogs and cats could co-habitate (provided of course that they are of different genders, as proscribed by law), and who knows, maybe an unnecessary and costly war could spring up!! My only question for "God-I-need-a-Rush" and Stiff-hair is this...Have either of you ever listened to Dick Cheney? This is a man who said four years ago (regarding homosexual marriages), "I think different states are likely to come to different conclusions, and that's appropriate" but now thinks that a Constitutional amendment is necessary and that the States shouldn't have any say in the matter. This, of course, coming from a man whose own daughter is a lesbian! Cheney is so far up Bush's backside that you can see Dick whenever Bush opens his mouth. ***Aside: Yes, I did sent that last sentence to Whoopi for her next speech...it may have been juvenile of me, but I still find it funny***
4) Finally, in possibly the biggest hypocrisy of all, Bush entered the war in Iraq making dozens of statements regarding the welfare and support of the troops. He went on an on about how they would have whatever they needed, every tool available in our arsenal, if they need it they will have it, whatever the commanders on the field say they need, etc. etc. What follows below are some of the findings in the latest Government Accountability Office report, re: Pentagon Bloat Hurting Readiness...
- Of the 481 mobilized Army National Guard soldiers in six GAO case studies, 450 had at least one pay problem associated with their mobilization. "DOD's inability to provide timely and accurate payments to these soldiers, many of whom risked their lives in recent Irag or Afghanistan missions, distracted from their missions, imposed financial hardships on the soldiers and their families and has had a negative impact on retention."
- There were "substantial logistical support problems," resulting in shortages in field supplies, backlogs of materials delivered to the wrong place in the theater, cannibalization of vehicles due to a lack of new parts and armor, unnecessary duplicate supply orders, and a missing $1.2 billion in supplies that were shipped but never received.
- Of 50,000 maintenance work orders opened for six Navy battle groups, 58 percent of them could not be completed due to the repair parts not being available.
- The DOD was found to be selling chem/bio suits, purchased by the Government for $200, over the internet for $3. The study also found that the DOD sold thousands of defective bio-suits to law enforcement agencies across the country.
- The Pentagon squandered over $153 million due to purchasing (but not using) airline tickets, buying upgrades to business and first class, and to making double payments for airline tickets (reimbursing personnel for tickets that they never paid for in the first place).
- To make matters worse, the DOD has been pouring money into "fixing" this issue, but this is what the report had to say about that, "{the DOD has made} encouraging progress in addressing specific challenges, after about three years of effort and over $203 billion in reported obligations, we have not seen significant change in the content of DOD’s architecture or in its approach to investing billions of dollars annually in existing and new systems."
"Our troops will have everything they need, when they need it." George Bush.
Hypocrisy redefined.
Jay Corvid
1) On the one hand, the Republicans preach that they are about family values and being the only ones who apparently know right from wrong. They are quick to criticize, as are the Democrats, but the Conservatives do it with a seeming moral imperative - "You are sinners, unless you are us." And yet, when a man named "Dick", who also happens to be the sitting Vice President, says "Go fuck yourself" on the floor of Congress, do we hear the right wing shuddering from their ivory tower? Do we hear condemnation for such an inappropriate, albeit witty and thoughtful, use of language in the sacred halls of Congress? No. Instead we hear, "it’s about time" and "it was long overdue." I don't mean to call them hypocrites, but if they are going to be the moral sounding board of America then they should hold themselves to their own standard. After all, we've heard them say time and again during the Clinton years, "words mean things".
2) During a Democratic rally, Whoopi Goldberg and a few other speakers apparently made some "off-color" comments about George Bush. The Administrations crack team of rabid offense-takers leapt into the fray, shouting "how dare you," and "that's completely inappropriate!" It seems that they feel as if making racy comments about a sitting President is off-limits and completely un-American. Thank goodness that nothing like that happened during that sticky little situation with Bill Clinton a few years back. I mean, if a few remarks during a single campaign event could spark such outrage, I shudder to think what might have happened if anyone had taken advantage of our former Presidents transgressions by making similar comments. Luckily, the Conservatives were above such things, which is why the Lewinsky ordeal was handled with so much professionalism and decorum.
3) When Kerry picked Edwards as his running mate, there was some discussion about what Edwards would bring to the ticket. Would he be able to bring North Carolina with him? Would his youth and good looks bring in the female vote? Could Kerry and Edwards hug and shake hands often enough to break the Guiness World Record for heterosexual male embracing (as an aside, this is currently held by Mike Tyson during one of his prison stints)? But what I found to be most interesting was the comments from El Fatbo (some call him Rush) and Sean "you are un-american" Hannity. Both of these intellectual giants repeated time and again, "Where is the balance on the Democratic ticket!?!" I point out that they did it "repeatedly" because in fairness, even I have said some things that later on I thought, "whoops, glad no one caught that pile of stupidity." Yet they continued to rail on this for days. Apparently, these brilliant men have ascertained that a Presidential ticket is somehow lacking if the Prez and Veep are too similar in philosophy. It would seem that their theory indicates that if you have people in these powerful positions that are too far on the same side of the political spectrum, that untold horrors and doom could be the only conceivable outcome. We NEED checks and balances between these two positions, otherwise the very Earth could rip asunder, dogs and cats could co-habitate (provided of course that they are of different genders, as proscribed by law), and who knows, maybe an unnecessary and costly war could spring up!! My only question for "God-I-need-a-Rush" and Stiff-hair is this...Have either of you ever listened to Dick Cheney? This is a man who said four years ago (regarding homosexual marriages), "I think different states are likely to come to different conclusions, and that's appropriate" but now thinks that a Constitutional amendment is necessary and that the States shouldn't have any say in the matter. This, of course, coming from a man whose own daughter is a lesbian! Cheney is so far up Bush's backside that you can see Dick whenever Bush opens his mouth. ***Aside: Yes, I did sent that last sentence to Whoopi for her next speech...it may have been juvenile of me, but I still find it funny***
4) Finally, in possibly the biggest hypocrisy of all, Bush entered the war in Iraq making dozens of statements regarding the welfare and support of the troops. He went on an on about how they would have whatever they needed, every tool available in our arsenal, if they need it they will have it, whatever the commanders on the field say they need, etc. etc. What follows below are some of the findings in the latest Government Accountability Office report, re: Pentagon Bloat Hurting Readiness...
- Of the 481 mobilized Army National Guard soldiers in six GAO case studies, 450 had at least one pay problem associated with their mobilization. "DOD's inability to provide timely and accurate payments to these soldiers, many of whom risked their lives in recent Irag or Afghanistan missions, distracted from their missions, imposed financial hardships on the soldiers and their families and has had a negative impact on retention."
- There were "substantial logistical support problems," resulting in shortages in field supplies, backlogs of materials delivered to the wrong place in the theater, cannibalization of vehicles due to a lack of new parts and armor, unnecessary duplicate supply orders, and a missing $1.2 billion in supplies that were shipped but never received.
- Of 50,000 maintenance work orders opened for six Navy battle groups, 58 percent of them could not be completed due to the repair parts not being available.
- The DOD was found to be selling chem/bio suits, purchased by the Government for $200, over the internet for $3. The study also found that the DOD sold thousands of defective bio-suits to law enforcement agencies across the country.
- The Pentagon squandered over $153 million due to purchasing (but not using) airline tickets, buying upgrades to business and first class, and to making double payments for airline tickets (reimbursing personnel for tickets that they never paid for in the first place).
- To make matters worse, the DOD has been pouring money into "fixing" this issue, but this is what the report had to say about that, "{the DOD has made} encouraging progress in addressing specific challenges, after about three years of effort and over $203 billion in reported obligations, we have not seen significant change in the content of DOD’s architecture or in its approach to investing billions of dollars annually in existing and new systems."
"Our troops will have everything they need, when they need it." George Bush.
Hypocrisy redefined.
Jay Corvid