enialle
2005-12-10 15:55:31 UTC
Friday, December 09
Questions for those still approving of Bush
By Bob Geiger, Yellow Dog Blog
I wrote a wise-guy column a couple of months ago in which I made fun
of people who still give President Bush a positive approval rating.
Judging from the reaction I got, it made a lot of liberals laugh and
many conservatives very angry -- so it was a success.
The latest New York Times/CBS News Poll, taken December 2-6, shows
Bush's approval rating languishing at 40 percent.
And, with so many people in my own Nebraska-based family among those
still blindly supporting the president, I've come up with more
questions.
But this time, my inquiries are serious and meant to truly gauge
whether Bush backers understand reality and knowledgably support him
or whether the president has just been phenomenally successful at
superimposing his face over the American flag.
Here we go:
1. Do you understand that no tangible, truthful reason has ever been
given for the invasion of Iraq and that the 9/11 Commission Report --
which is the de facto, official findings of our government -- says
there was no reason whatsoever for this war?
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/911/
2. Have you ever heard of the Downing Street Memos? Would it interest
you to know that these official notes, from the British Prime
Minister's meeting on July 23, 2002, show that the Bush administration
was dead-set on war with Iraq and twisting intelligence to fit that
goal?
"There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now
seen as inevitable," reported the secret memo, later published in the
Sunday Times of London. "Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through
military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD.
But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The
NSC [National Security Council] had no patience with the UN route, and
no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record.
There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after
military action."
You can go here to learn more. http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/
3. When you look at the picture of even one military man or woman
killed in Iraq and imagine the pain their family must feel, can you
multiply that by 2,134 and believe that was a worthwhile down payment
on removing Saddam Hussein from power? Before you answer, are you
aware that Iraq had nothing to do with any attacks on our country and
that it has been proven that Saddam Hussein had no capability at all
to harm our people?
See the 9/11 Commission Report for more information.
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/911/
4. Do you approve of how ineffective the Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) has been rendered since 2000 and the deadly results in
our inability to protect our own people in disasters -- even those for
which we have plenty of warning? Were you surprised to find out that
the campaign contributor President Bush appointed to be the
recently-disgraced head of FEMA had no experience at all in disaster
management?
5. Do you have health insurance? Are you aware that almost 46 million
Americans have no medical insurance and that the Bush administration
thinks this works just fine?
http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/income_wealth/005647.html
Most of us parents have seen our young children suffer with a common
ear infection. Imagine watching your child in that pain and how you
would feel being powerless to get antibiotics to ease your child's
suffering. Are you comfortable with children in America living in
situations like that -- and worse?
6. Is your family better off and more stable socially, medically and
economically now than when Bill Clinton was president? Even assuming
you are not an economist, how do you compare the 22.7 million jobs
created by President Clinton's administration
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jobs_created_during_U.S._presidential_terms
with a net loss of jobs -- a 4.6 percent decrease in total employment
-- since Bush took office? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush
7. Did the photos of prisoner abuse released from Abu Ghraib -- the
worst are in litigation and still to come -- make you proud of our
country? http://www.antiwar.com/news/?articleid=2444
8. Do you ever lie awake at night and question how the world went from
a mentality of "we are all Americans today" on September 12, 2001 to
almost universally despising our country now? To what do you attribute
this?
9. Do you understand that scientists have almost universally agreed
that a Category 1 hurricane doesn't become a Category 5 overnight
without the impact of significant global warming?
http://www.pewclimate.org/hurricanes.cfm#8 Did you know that Team Bush
doesn't believe in the concept?
10. Do you believe it is good for your family and the future of your
children that President Bush took the biggest federal budget surplus
in U.S. history -- amassed during the Clinton years -- and turned it
into the largest deficit ever in just his first term? What is your
view of public policy that continues to give massive tax cuts to the
richest Americans while doing nothing about our health-care crisis
and, at the same time, cutting safety-net programs for children, the
elderly, disabled Americans and Veterans?
11. Do you have a "support the troops" sticker on your car? How does
this mesh with the fact that the Bush administration has cut Veterans
benefits repeatedly and that the Republican Congress has on many
occasions voted down Democrat-sponsored measures that would have
provided physical and mental-health care funds for returning Iraq-war
Vets? http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0328-11.htm
12. Have you heard the name Valerie Plame in the news and just not
understood why? Did you know that she's the covert CIA officer outed
by the Bush administration as retaliation against her husband,
Ambassador Joe Wilson, who exposed a major lie used by the
administration take us to war in Iraq?
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0706-02.htm
13. Did you know that the 44 Democrats in the U.S. Senate represent
well over 50 percent of the country's population and yet Republicans
have voted down almost 90 percent of legislation sponsored by
Democrats in 2005?
14. The federal minimum wage has stayed below the poverty level --
$5.15 per hour for almost a decade, creating a situation where a
hard-working American, working 50-60 hours a week, still lives at or
below the poverty line. Does that sound right to you? Are you aware
that Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy brought minimum wage increases to
the Senate floor twice in 2005 and they were shot down each time by
the Republican majority?
15. Are you okay with the culture of corruption in the GOP that has
the vice president's chief of staff indicted for perjury, Tom DeLay up
on money-laundering charges and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist
being investigated for insider trading and that this may only be the
tip of the iceberg?
If you are fully aware of everything I have cited here and can still
say that you approve of George W. Bush, then we just flat-out have
very different views of what America is suppose to be.
But I have to ask: What happened to your love of country?
If this has given you food for thought, please do your own homework on
these issues and use the information to make you more carefully
consider who gets your vote in 2006 and 2008.
For the 60-65 percent of you who already think that the president is
doing a lousy job, use these as talking points whenever anyone dares
to talk about what a great leader we have in the White House.
__________________________________________________________
Questions for those still approving of Bush
By Bob Geiger, Yellow Dog Blog
I wrote a wise-guy column a couple of months ago in which I made fun
of people who still give President Bush a positive approval rating.
Judging from the reaction I got, it made a lot of liberals laugh and
many conservatives very angry -- so it was a success.
The latest New York Times/CBS News Poll, taken December 2-6, shows
Bush's approval rating languishing at 40 percent.
And, with so many people in my own Nebraska-based family among those
still blindly supporting the president, I've come up with more
questions.
But this time, my inquiries are serious and meant to truly gauge
whether Bush backers understand reality and knowledgably support him
or whether the president has just been phenomenally successful at
superimposing his face over the American flag.
Here we go:
1. Do you understand that no tangible, truthful reason has ever been
given for the invasion of Iraq and that the 9/11 Commission Report --
which is the de facto, official findings of our government -- says
there was no reason whatsoever for this war?
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/911/
2. Have you ever heard of the Downing Street Memos? Would it interest
you to know that these official notes, from the British Prime
Minister's meeting on July 23, 2002, show that the Bush administration
was dead-set on war with Iraq and twisting intelligence to fit that
goal?
"There was a perceptible shift in attitude. Military action was now
seen as inevitable," reported the secret memo, later published in the
Sunday Times of London. "Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through
military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD.
But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy. The
NSC [National Security Council] had no patience with the UN route, and
no enthusiasm for publishing material on the Iraqi regime's record.
There was little discussion in Washington of the aftermath after
military action."
You can go here to learn more. http://www.downingstreetmemo.com/
3. When you look at the picture of even one military man or woman
killed in Iraq and imagine the pain their family must feel, can you
multiply that by 2,134 and believe that was a worthwhile down payment
on removing Saddam Hussein from power? Before you answer, are you
aware that Iraq had nothing to do with any attacks on our country and
that it has been proven that Saddam Hussein had no capability at all
to harm our people?
See the 9/11 Commission Report for more information.
http://www.gpoaccess.gov/911/
4. Do you approve of how ineffective the Federal Emergency Management
Agency (FEMA) has been rendered since 2000 and the deadly results in
our inability to protect our own people in disasters -- even those for
which we have plenty of warning? Were you surprised to find out that
the campaign contributor President Bush appointed to be the
recently-disgraced head of FEMA had no experience at all in disaster
management?
5. Do you have health insurance? Are you aware that almost 46 million
Americans have no medical insurance and that the Bush administration
thinks this works just fine?
http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/releases/archives/income_wealth/005647.html
Most of us parents have seen our young children suffer with a common
ear infection. Imagine watching your child in that pain and how you
would feel being powerless to get antibiotics to ease your child's
suffering. Are you comfortable with children in America living in
situations like that -- and worse?
6. Is your family better off and more stable socially, medically and
economically now than when Bill Clinton was president? Even assuming
you are not an economist, how do you compare the 22.7 million jobs
created by President Clinton's administration
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jobs_created_during_U.S._presidential_terms
with a net loss of jobs -- a 4.6 percent decrease in total employment
-- since Bush took office? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_W._Bush
7. Did the photos of prisoner abuse released from Abu Ghraib -- the
worst are in litigation and still to come -- make you proud of our
country? http://www.antiwar.com/news/?articleid=2444
8. Do you ever lie awake at night and question how the world went from
a mentality of "we are all Americans today" on September 12, 2001 to
almost universally despising our country now? To what do you attribute
this?
9. Do you understand that scientists have almost universally agreed
that a Category 1 hurricane doesn't become a Category 5 overnight
without the impact of significant global warming?
http://www.pewclimate.org/hurricanes.cfm#8 Did you know that Team Bush
doesn't believe in the concept?
10. Do you believe it is good for your family and the future of your
children that President Bush took the biggest federal budget surplus
in U.S. history -- amassed during the Clinton years -- and turned it
into the largest deficit ever in just his first term? What is your
view of public policy that continues to give massive tax cuts to the
richest Americans while doing nothing about our health-care crisis
and, at the same time, cutting safety-net programs for children, the
elderly, disabled Americans and Veterans?
11. Do you have a "support the troops" sticker on your car? How does
this mesh with the fact that the Bush administration has cut Veterans
benefits repeatedly and that the Republican Congress has on many
occasions voted down Democrat-sponsored measures that would have
provided physical and mental-health care funds for returning Iraq-war
Vets? http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0328-11.htm
12. Have you heard the name Valerie Plame in the news and just not
understood why? Did you know that she's the covert CIA officer outed
by the Bush administration as retaliation against her husband,
Ambassador Joe Wilson, who exposed a major lie used by the
administration take us to war in Iraq?
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0706-02.htm
13. Did you know that the 44 Democrats in the U.S. Senate represent
well over 50 percent of the country's population and yet Republicans
have voted down almost 90 percent of legislation sponsored by
Democrats in 2005?
14. The federal minimum wage has stayed below the poverty level --
$5.15 per hour for almost a decade, creating a situation where a
hard-working American, working 50-60 hours a week, still lives at or
below the poverty line. Does that sound right to you? Are you aware
that Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy brought minimum wage increases to
the Senate floor twice in 2005 and they were shot down each time by
the Republican majority?
15. Are you okay with the culture of corruption in the GOP that has
the vice president's chief of staff indicted for perjury, Tom DeLay up
on money-laundering charges and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist
being investigated for insider trading and that this may only be the
tip of the iceberg?
If you are fully aware of everything I have cited here and can still
say that you approve of George W. Bush, then we just flat-out have
very different views of what America is suppose to be.
But I have to ask: What happened to your love of country?
If this has given you food for thought, please do your own homework on
these issues and use the information to make you more carefully
consider who gets your vote in 2006 and 2008.
For the 60-65 percent of you who already think that the president is
doing a lousy job, use these as talking points whenever anyone dares
to talk about what a great leader we have in the White House.
__________________________________________________________