Tuesday, August 31, 2004
Deconstructing Rudy
Since nobody in the media has enough balls to do it, I will gladly point out the lies, the deceptions, and the bullshit in Rudy Giuliani's speech from last night's Republican Convention. All day long the media has praised him for his inspirational speech, but those of us who know the facts disagree. Let's take a look.
Giuliani didn't waste any time, so neither will we.
He's not even a full minute into his speech and he's already deceiving the listener. When George Bush said "They will here from us," he was talking about the people who attacked us. Saddam Hussein did not attack us! The President has even acknowledged this. However the Republicans continue to speak as if he did. It's no wonder a good portion of people in the country think Iraq had something to do with 9/11.
Moving along:
WTF? Now I wasn't there, so I guess I'll have to take his word for it; but what pisses me off about this statement is the implication that nobody else would have reacted the way George W. Bush did. The implication is that everything he has done since that point has been exactly right and anyone else (pronounced Al Gore) would have completely f@*ked it up. Now I know that the Republican Party is one of arrogance, but this is unbelievable. This is an attack on every single person that is not a conservative. This one statement says that anyone who is a liberal is a pussy.
Anyone with half a brain could have done what Bush did atop the rubble on September 14, 2001. As the leader of the country it is your job to go to the site and say comforting things to the families of the victims and vow to exact justice on those responsible. He was simply doing his job. It didn't take a genius to figure out what he had to do. What's sad is that it took him three days to get the balls to do it.
Next on the list:
Except for that time he said that he didn't think the war on terror was winnable. Ooops!
Next:
This is not true. If you look back on John Kerry's record in the Senate, you see that he has voted consistently on a number of key issues. For instance, he has always been for gun control, abortion rights, law enforcement, and education. He has always been against unnecessary military spending, fiscal irresponsibility, and tax incentives that favor the wealthy. The Bush administration likes to point out that Kerry has voted for tax increases anywhere from 98 to 350 times. This is simply not true. Many of these votes were actually votes against a tax cut weighted towards the wealthy. They say that he voted against the $87 billion necessary to support the troops. Once again, not true. As Kerry himself has said, he did vote for it before he voted against it. He voted for a plan that would allow us to fund the entire $87 billion by rolling back the tax cuts for the wealthiest people in America. What he voted against was borrowing money to pay for equipment our troops should have been supplied with before they were sent into battle.
By the way, if you want to know about John Kerry's "clear, precise, and consistent vision," all you have to do is go to his website and read it.
Finally:
This is a fallacy. The fact that we are currently fighting in Iraq, which the Republicans claim is part of the war on terror, has actually made us less safe. As I said in yesterday's post, we are spending billions of dollars over seas while ignoring problems at home. 95% of the cargo entering our ports goes uninspected. Our nuclear facilities and our water facilities remain unprotected and vulnerable to an attack. Our borders are as porous as they have ever been. The fact that we have diverted our money, our forces, and our attention away from our actual homeland security indicates to me that we are not safer her despite what the 9/11 Commission has told us.
Although the pundits and the bobbleheads keep saying how powerful his speech was, it was full of lies and deceptions. Oh, and disrespectful references to September 11. I know, Rudy was there, but that doesn't give him any more right to revel in the blood of the victims than it does me. During the speech he made no less than twenty references to September 11, the President's visit on September 14, terrorists, the World Trade Center, and hi-jacked plans; including one extremely shameful reference to watching a burning man leap to his death from atop the towers. He does this because even Rudy knows that the only thing our President has to run on is his few shining moments atop the rubble three days after we were attacked.
It was a shameful speech. It was embarrassing and insulting. It was 100% George W. Bush.
Giuliani didn't waste any time, so neither will we.
- ...it was here in 2001, in the same lower Manhattan, that President George W. Bush stood amid the fallen towers of the World Trade Center, and he said to the barbaric terrorists who attacked us, "They will hear from us."
Well, they heard from us.
They heard from us in Afghanistan and we removed the Taliban.
They heard from us in Iraq, and we ended Saddam Hussein's reign of terror.
And we put him where he belongs, in jail.
He's not even a full minute into his speech and he's already deceiving the listener. When George Bush said "They will here from us," he was talking about the people who attacked us. Saddam Hussein did not attack us! The President has even acknowledged this. However the Republicans continue to speak as if he did. It's no wonder a good portion of people in the country think Iraq had something to do with 9/11.
Moving along:
- Without really thinking, based on just emotion, spontaneous, I grabbed the arm of then-Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik, and I said to him, "Bernie, thank God George Bush is our president."
WTF? Now I wasn't there, so I guess I'll have to take his word for it; but what pisses me off about this statement is the implication that nobody else would have reacted the way George W. Bush did. The implication is that everything he has done since that point has been exactly right and anyone else (pronounced Al Gore) would have completely f@*ked it up. Now I know that the Republican Party is one of arrogance, but this is unbelievable. This is an attack on every single person that is not a conservative. This one statement says that anyone who is a liberal is a pussy.
Anyone with half a brain could have done what Bush did atop the rubble on September 14, 2001. As the leader of the country it is your job to go to the site and say comforting things to the families of the victims and vow to exact justice on those responsible. He was simply doing his job. It didn't take a genius to figure out what he had to do. What's sad is that it took him three days to get the balls to do it.
Next on the list:
- On September 20, 2001, President Bush stood before a joint session of Congress, a still grieving and shocked nation and a confused world, and he changed the direction of our ship of state.
He dedicated America, under his leadership, to destroying global terrorism.
The president announced the Bush Doctrine, when he said, "Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated. Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists."
And since September 11, President Bush has remained rock solid.
Except for that time he said that he didn't think the war on terror was winnable. Ooops!
Next:
- President Bush sees world terrorism for the evil that it is.
John Kerry has no such clear, precise and consistent vision. This is not a personal criticism of John Kerry. I respect him for his service to our nation.
But it is important and critical to see the contrast in approach between the two men: President Bush, a leader who is willing to stick with difficult decisions even as public opinion shifts and goes back and forth; and John Kerry, whose record in elected office suggests a man who changes his position often, even on important issues.
This is not true. If you look back on John Kerry's record in the Senate, you see that he has voted consistently on a number of key issues. For instance, he has always been for gun control, abortion rights, law enforcement, and education. He has always been against unnecessary military spending, fiscal irresponsibility, and tax incentives that favor the wealthy. The Bush administration likes to point out that Kerry has voted for tax increases anywhere from 98 to 350 times. This is simply not true. Many of these votes were actually votes against a tax cut weighted towards the wealthy. They say that he voted against the $87 billion necessary to support the troops. Once again, not true. As Kerry himself has said, he did vote for it before he voted against it. He voted for a plan that would allow us to fund the entire $87 billion by rolling back the tax cuts for the wealthiest people in America. What he voted against was borrowing money to pay for equipment our troops should have been supplied with before they were sent into battle.
By the way, if you want to know about John Kerry's "clear, precise, and consistent vision," all you have to do is go to his website and read it.
Finally:
- President Bush will make certain that we are combating terrorism at the source, beyond our shores, so we don't have to confront it, or we reduce of confronting it here in New York City, or in Chicago or in Los Angeles or in Miami or in the rural areas of America.
This is a fallacy. The fact that we are currently fighting in Iraq, which the Republicans claim is part of the war on terror, has actually made us less safe. As I said in yesterday's post, we are spending billions of dollars over seas while ignoring problems at home. 95% of the cargo entering our ports goes uninspected. Our nuclear facilities and our water facilities remain unprotected and vulnerable to an attack. Our borders are as porous as they have ever been. The fact that we have diverted our money, our forces, and our attention away from our actual homeland security indicates to me that we are not safer her despite what the 9/11 Commission has told us.
Although the pundits and the bobbleheads keep saying how powerful his speech was, it was full of lies and deceptions. Oh, and disrespectful references to September 11. I know, Rudy was there, but that doesn't give him any more right to revel in the blood of the victims than it does me. During the speech he made no less than twenty references to September 11, the President's visit on September 14, terrorists, the World Trade Center, and hi-jacked plans; including one extremely shameful reference to watching a burning man leap to his death from atop the towers. He does this because even Rudy knows that the only thing our President has to run on is his few shining moments atop the rubble three days after we were attacked.
It was a shameful speech. It was embarrassing and insulting. It was 100% George W. Bush.
