Fear and Loathing from the Left, Part II…

Michael Moore made the “L” gesture at McCain, people. That means he was calling United States Senator John McCain–a former prisoner of war during Vietnam for nearly five years–a loser.

A loser.

The press was all over the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth for “besmirching” the name of John Kerry. Where are they now that one of their own calls McCain a loser?

So, here’s a little item you may have missed last week. I display it here for your perusal, along with two separate links of where it can be found on the Internet.
NYC to GOP: Drop Dead
by Ted Rall
Tourists are pleasantly surprised when New Yorkers act as friendly and polite as the people back home in Mayberry. However, delegates to this month’s Republican National Convention shouldn’t expect to be treated to our standard out-of-towner treatment. The Republican delegates here to coronate George W. Bush are unwelcome members of a hostile invading army. Like the hapless saps whose blood they sent to be spilled into Middle Eastern sands, they will be given intentionally incorrect directions to nonexistent places. Objects will be thrown in their direction. Children will call them obscene names. They will not be greeted as liberators.
Well aware that it is barren soil for their party’s anti-urban, anti-immigrant, anti-feminist, overtly racist ideology, Republican leaders have wisely avoided New York City as a convention site for the past 150 years. Even as the rest of America turns red, we New Yorkers remain as liberal as the people’s republic of San Francisco: fewer than 18 percent of the citizens of New York’s five boroughs (which include relatively conservative places like Staten Island) cast ballots for Bush/Cheney in 2000. But White House strategist Karl Rove sees the continued exploitation of 9/11 for partisan political gain as Bush’s key to victory in November. That means bringing the big bash three miles north of the hole where the Twin Towers used to stand, where most of the victims of 9/11 were burned, suffocated, impaled and pulverized.
Making hay of the dead is also the point of this confab’s timing. The 2004 Necropublican National Convention is being held a full month later than normal, from August 30 to September 2. The original plan was to have Bush shuttle between Madison Square Garden and Ground Zero for photo ops to coincide with the third anniversary of the September 11th attacks. Bush’s visits to the Trade Center site were quietly canceled a few months back after 9/11 survivors expressed revulsion at the idea. But it was too late to change the date.
Anti-Republican sentiment is rising to a fever pitch here as the dog days tick down to the dreaded affair. A poll cited by the local ABC affiliate shows 83 percent of New Yorkers don’t want their city to host the RNC. And many of them are planning to do something about it.
Rejecting ex-mayor Ed Koch’s call to “make nice” with the party that used the deaths of 2,801 New Yorkers–most of them Democrats–for everything from tax cuts for the rich to building concentration camps at Guantánamo and Abu Ghraib to invading Iraq to enrich Dick Cheney and his fellow Halliburton execs, some groups are encouraging liberal-minded New Yorkers to volunteer for the city’s squad of official greeters. Creatively altered maps of streets and subways will be handed out to button-clad stupid white men. Other saboteurs wearing fake RNC T-shirts will direct them to parts of town where Bush’s policies have hit hardest. Rumor has it that prostitutes suffering from sexually transmitted diseases will discourage the use of condoms with Republican customers.
Anywhere between 250,000 and 1,000,000 anti-Bush demonstrators are expected to hit the streets of Manhattan, but the city and protest organizers can’t agree on where to put them. Activists say they’ll direct marchers to Central Park, their preferred site; city officials are threatening mass arrests if they do. Adding to the already combustible Chicago ’68 vibe is a possible wildcat strike by city cops and firefighters. And now, as if everyone concerned wasn’t already tweaky, FBI agents are traveling around the United States, to harass members of leftist groups planning to protest the New York RNC.
Strikebreaking policemen and private security personnel may be able to keep the protesters away from the convention hall. But Republicans who venture outside the Garden deserve the abuse ordinary New Yorkers will likely inflict upon them.
True, the Administration eventually coughed up the $20 billion aid package Bush promised the city after 9/11. But that sum–equal to the cost of occupying Iraq for four months–barely made up for such disaster-related expenses as police overtime, debris removal and rebuilding damaged subway stations and tunnels. New York’s economy hasn’t even begun to recover. As the nation’s official unemployment rate hovers at six percent, the city’s runs around eight. Mayor Michael Bloomberg, a Republican, opposes virtually every Bush Administration decision concerning New York City.
Even viler than Bush’s urban neglect is his failure to avenge the World Trade Center victims as he pledged to do on 9/14, dusty firefighter helpfully posing under his arm on The Pile. After 9/11, Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden were in Pakistan. They and the Taliban received funding from Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. The 19 hijackers, organized by Egyptian Islamic Jihad, were Egyptian and Saudi. But Bush didn’t attack Pakistan, Saudi Arabia or Egypt. He went after Afghanistan and Iraq instead, nations that had nothing to do with 9/11 but offered business opportunities for GOP-connected oil concerns. Incredibly, he siphoned more money and arms to the Egyptians, Saudis and Pakistanis.
Not only did Bush let the terrorists get away, he raised their allowance.
If today’s GOP retained a shred of the dignity and patriotism that it once possessed as the Party of Lincoln, it would have dumped Bush in favor of a candidate more interested in defending America than his wealthy contributors. Republicans are neofascists now, and that’s why New Yorkers good and true will be yelling at them to go back home.
COPYRIGHT 2004 TED RALL
http://www.uexpress.com/tedrall/?uc_full_date=20040817
http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0818-11.htm
That’s some pretty strong language from Mr. Rall, wouldn’t you agree? It’s bad enough I had to reprint it here because it almost literally makes me sick. You can pretty much guess where his rant is going when he refers to our soldiers as “hapless saps.” Mr. Rall, who is proud of his unabashed Liberalism, all but endorses the abuse of convention goers. Mr. Rall also asserts that most of the 2081 people who died in the September 11th attacks were Democrats and that President Bush let the terrorists get away.
This spiteful diatribe was all over many liberal sites and blog sites in the past week. The one place you didn’t see it, was mentioned in the mainstream media.
Well, OK. Drudge linked to it. Hannity talked about it with his callers. I didn’t hear Rush but I’m almost willing to bet that he covered it, as I’m sure Laura would have. You didn’t hear ABC, CBS, NBC, or even CNN talking about this or reporting on the outrage.
In short, the establishment media–which is overwhelmingly Liberal–looked the other way for Ted Rall because he’s one of their own. In addition to being an Op-Ed and opinion writer, Mr. Rall is also a cartoonist for Universal Press Syndicate and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1996.
We shouldn’t be surprised by something like this–even when the commentary in question is something as inflammatory or as vitriolic as this–but we typically are.
We see the press take a topic like the Swift Boats Veterans for Truth’s criticism of John Kerry’s service in Vietnam and beat us over the head with it for three full weeks. They look for every chink in the armor of the Swift Vets accusations and dissect their claims, while not challenging Kerry on how he has represented his record.
For instance, when George W. Bush’s service in the Texas Air National Guard came into question on whether or not he actually reported for duty, the Fourth Estate was all over it trying to dig up whatever they could. Now that there are more eyewitnesses claiming that Kerry is lying about his Vietnam service than there are those defending him, the press isn’t going after anything to try to corroborate either side. Kerry himself has had nearly a month to release all of his records, but he’s sat on them and yet no one’s asked why.
Bias. Plain and simple. That’s why. I prefer to call it “Liberal Bigotry,” but whatever you choose to call it it’s nothing but bias, and that has no place in journalism.
The Democrats run for office by inciting fear in the voting public and speaking hatred, and the press is their willing accomplice. Michael Moore can make propaganda films and can make a disparaging gesture toward John McCain on national television–calling him a loser–and no one criticizes him for it.
The bicycle protestors, Ted Rall, Michael Moore, the mainstream media–they all use the same tools to try to advance their agenda: fear, half-truths and paranoia. Their prey is anyone who will listen. In fact, they not only employ those tools daily, but then they accuse the Republicans of spreading hatred and fear. They accuse us of the very things they themselves are guilty of, and their partners in crime help them.
Some of you will disagree with that statement and that’s fine. Ask yourself this: Why does John Kerry do nothing but talk about his service in Vietnam or attack President Bush? Why doesn’t he run on what he’s done and his record? He can’t. He doesn’t run on his record because it won’t get him elected President. He has to build up enough fear to keep people from voting for his opponent.
Just ask someone voting for Kerry what specific stance on an issue or piece of legislation he’s been involved with that’s causing them to vote for him. The vast majority of them won’t be able to do it. They’ll try and then they’ll usually say, “well, I’m voting for Kerry because he’s not George Bush.”
It’s all part of the playbook of the “Anybody But Bush” crowd. They only have one play in their playbook, and it’s to scare the populous into voting for their guy.
There’s a disingenuousness that streams from the Left. They say they want to talk about issues, but they do no such thing. They claim that they want a debate about issues, but they present only one side. They claim to be the party of diversity, yet they lack true diversity which must include diversity of ideals and thought. They say they represent America, but they are more concerned about the rest of the world.
It’s unfortunate that ugly commentary like Ted Rall’s has become all too common in today’s society. It distracts and takes away from the real issues that face Americans on a daily basis and the voters are the ones who ultimately lose.
It’s about time the Libs left the fear and loathing behind and stuck to issues. Let’s have more campaigning and less WWE-style theatrics.
William Smith
ConservativeBlogger.com