Accidental Blogger

In a Veterans Day address today in Pennsylvania, President Bush lashed out at those (which is now a majority of Americans) who are questioning the origins of the Iraq war. Among other things, he said, "It is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began.These baseless attacks send the wrong signal to our troops and to an enemy that is questioning America’s will."  With his poll numbers and his credibility in the dumps, Bush has gone back into a bellicose campaign mode. He insisted that the Democrats who supported the war, saw the same intelligence reports and came to the same conclusion about Iraq as he. (Did the Dems see raw intelligence data or what the administration showed them? Let’s ask this question before 2008). He even brought up Senator Kerry’s vote on the war. Somebody forgot to tell the President that this is not 2004 and he already won that election. The entire tone of the speech had a familiar ring – that of questioning the patriotism of his critics. We should remind Mr. Bush in the same folksy language that he favors, "Mr. President, this dog won’t hunt any more."  I don’t know about his audience in Pennsylvania but I found this outburst unseemly.  Veterans Day is for honoring those who fight our wars (just and unjust), not for reckless armchair warriors to beat their own discordant drums.

It is very peculiar that the right wing repeatedly assures us that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are not just fights against terrorism but also a magnanimous effort by America to free up "freedom loving" people who wish to shape their own destinies. Yet at home, President Bush refuses to engage in an honest debate about the war with his own skeptical fellow citizens. Pat Robertson wants to bring about prayer driven destruction upon the citizens of Dover, PA, who don’t want religious fundamentalists meddling with science education. And now we learn that Bill "Blowhard" O’Reilly threatened the city of San Francisco on his radio show if they supported a ballot measure opposing the presence of military recruiters in city schools. Here is what O’Reilly had to say:

"Listen, citizens of San Francisco, if you vote against military recruiting, you’re not going to get another nickel in federal funds. Fine. You want to be your own country? Go right ahead," O’Reilly said, according to a transcript and audio posted by liberal media watchdog group Media Matters for America, and by the San Francisco Chronicle.

"And if al-Qaida comes in here and blows you up, we’re not going to do anything about it. We’re going to say, look, every other place in America is off limits to you, except San Francisco. You want to blow up the Coit Tower? Go ahead,"

How free and how democratic !