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02/11/2004 Archived Entry: "'Hate Bush for the right reasons.'"
'Hate Bush for the right reasons.'
Ever since the AWOL story grew its big, hairy spidey tarantula legs, I've been cruisiing a number of blogs' comments sections, where I'm seeing an awful lot of posts like this:
'Why are we even bothering with this crap? There are so many other things to go after Bush with! Please, let's leave this AWOL thing alone and hate Bush for the right reasons!'
No shit, there are posts like that everywhere. Why do you think that is?
Replies: 11 people speak up
I've seen the same thing. I guess these posters think it won't play out and that it might hurt our chances or that it really doesn't matter what happend 30 years ago.
What they seem to miss is we have to make Bush prove it everytime he say "trust me it's true." He shall never again have the benefit of the doubt on any matter large or small.
The constant stench of bullshit has reduced most folks oralfactory ablities...
Posted by Scaramouche @ 02/11/2004 10:23 PM NY
Could be trolling but mostly I think its just people who don't know how to have a good time.
I'm havin' a ball with this.
Posted by baconslab @ 02/11/2004 10:31 PM NY
I put up a post to that effect, mainly because it's February and I think that playing the shit out of it will end up in backlash. Your previous post on the exchange between Powell and Sherrod Brown hints at how the thing can be turned out.
And let me be clear. I think he was a service-avoiding dillettante, and that he's trying desperately to avoid questions about it now. But American votes pocketbook. That outsourcing shit and the sub-50% approval of the overall war in Iraq is 1,000 times more important.
Posted by Norbizness @ 02/11/2004 10:41 PM NY
This is kinds OT, but i felt I should post it.
I just got done talking to a childhood friend of mine, who is Army Reserves. He just got back from Iraq, after having served over there for 1 year. He was called up out of Grad school for this, just FYI. He took some time to inform me as to what conditions were like for soldiers over there as they really are, which are much different than how they are being presented. There was a brief story a while back about how soliders were only getting 1 MRE and 1 litre of water per day. The story was immediately squash by the press and derided as false. From the lips of a soldier I grew up with, those stories are absolutely true. The "form letters" that were sent to family members telling how great things were going were sent in place of letter asking their families to send food. That is what our soldiers are asking for. They are not writing their families praising their achievements in Iraq. They are pleading with their loved ones to send food. This situation needs to be resolved. This is simply not right.
Additionally, my cousin, who got back from Iraq 4 weeks ago, is now off to Afghanistan. He is 2nd Marine Expeditionary. The only reason he is still in is due a stop loss order, so in effect he is an indentured servant being forced to put his life at risk.
I am well passed caring about who wins the election anymore, as long as it isn't Bush. Our loved ones deserve better than this.
Posted by djdissent @ 02/11/2004 10:51 PM NY
Scaramouch makes a good point. It is still entirely possible that "records" (real or fresh off the printer) will be produced to cover the missing dates and all the public will hear is "a-HA, here they are" and our credibility goes down the crapper.
This incident has had the salutary effect of reminding much of the media that it is their job to question, and doubt, and demand proof. They keep that up and GWB is in big trouble.
Remember the strategy--drip, drip, drip. We don't really WANT one big explosion to destroy the rock, we just want a continual stream to erode its appearance of strength and reveal it for the insignificant pebble it is.
Longwinded way of saying I agree with Norbizness. :)
Posted by Xan @ 02/11/2004 11:16 PM NY
It's called building a case.
1) It'll be cold if we hold off until October.
2) It finally - FINALLY opens the door to look into all those "other things to go after Bush with."
If the press continues growing their newfound balls, they'll be "finding" one thing after another - a lot of stuff we blog readers already know but the general public has been shielded from hearing.
I'm sorry his fraudulent behavior took so long to start coming to light.
Posted by Hoffmania! @ 02/12/2004 02:06 AM NY
i think we all hate bush for the right reasons. however, you have to take whatever weapons are at hand and use them. the awol story is the only one that anyone has listened to. its not as if we all havnt harped on every issue just as much as this one. whatever story will destroy his career is the one that we should be making a big deal about, plain and simple, this is a war, it is a class war, and it is a culture war. the only real question is do you want to live in a nice future, or something out of a Philip K. Dick novel?
Posted by justin @ 02/12/2004 10:31 AM NY
The AWOL story would be irrelevant if Bush HADN'T invaded Iraq. (The case for Afghanistan, although murky, could still be justified somewhat.)
But Bush as Commander-in-Chief oversaw a cynical military invasion on a hunt for imaginary WMDs against all evidence to the contrary, so his own military experience, real or imagined, is very much on the table. Among many others, it's one of the "right reasons" to question the legitimacy of his leadership.
Posted by skimble @ 02/12/2004 11:55 AM NY
I posted a comment elsewhere suggesting bloggers move on simply because the major media has finally picked up the story, so it's no longer incumbent upon the blogeteria to sustain the story.
Bloggers generally are following, not leading on this now, and -- I guess I'm impatient -- I want to see the next scandal teed up for the country club press.
Posted by Irfo @ 02/12/2004 04:27 PM NY
The AWOL story is very relevant to today's political situation.
First, the issue works brilliantly as an act of political judo. By keeping attention trained on the AWOL issue, one of Bush's inexplicable strengths (his role as a “War President”) is turned into a weakness. Consider that Kerry, for instance, doesn't even have to SAY anything to keep this issue to the fore — the cadre of fellow war veterans he produces at every stop serve as much as a reminder of what Bush didn't do, as to what Kerry did do. At the very least, the hashing out of this issue forever neutralizes the value of any future Dubya-in-uniform photo op.
Second, the AWOL issue reinforces what has always been a major Bush family weakness — namely, the perception that their patrician heritage has granted them unwarranted advantages throughout the years. The more the nation learns about Dubya's role in the National Guard, the more apparent and unwarranted these advantages are revealed to be in the public's eye.
Posted by The Lost City @ 02/12/2004 05:50 PM NY
If the whiff of personal scandal is the only thing that gets the media off its collective butt, I'll take it, and accept it as a surrogate issue for all the lies and other outrages that have gone unchallenged for the last three years. AWOL is Bush's blue dress. I think he's in big trouble.
Posted by Monkeypox @ 02/12/2004 06:02 PM NY
