|
Up to the minute notes on the current state of free thinking and free living: Kentucky moonshine - original analysis and reporting from MoreThings, and all round pop culture museum of sight and sound - photo galleries, mp3 and video downloads.
Al Barger and MoreThings - getting people's goats since 1998.
Live free or die!
----
|
July 31, 2004
Dishonest hateful Democratic convention
In 1984, they roused the rabble by having a Two Minute Hate. The Democrats just finished up a Four Day Hate.
Thinking back over as much of this week's Democratic national convention as I could stand to watch, I'm struck by a lingering taste of empty hatefulness and dishonesty. Please don't take this as any kind of nod to Republicans, but the Democrats this week put on the most distasteful show I've ever seen for a major party national convention.
There was not even the start of any real idea of a program being put forward- good, bad or indifferent. They didn't present any plan. What, in particular, is President John Kerry going to do in Iraq? He's going to get our allies on board. How - with his stunning charisma and quick wit? And just what special magic is it he thinks Chirac is going to do to make things work?
Christopher Hitchens, Rand bless his pinko heart, does the most precise dissection of the weaselness of Kerry's speech, and perhaps THE most egregious part (built up in advance) in which Kerry talked about "opening firehouses in Baghdad and shutting them in the United States of America."
This particularly galls me coming from this righteous rich liberal. If some cracker from Franklin County, Indiana were talking like that, complaining about sending all our money to them there fureners overseas, they would be (to some extent rightly) condemned as ignorant racists. As if whatever 1/2 of 1% of our budget in the next couple of years goes to Iraqi rebuilding is the cause of our problems.
Begrudging the Iraqis a little money to start re-constructing their country after we tore it up twice in a dozen years seems particularly hypocritical and weak coming from many of the same people who complained for all those dozen years in between about how economic sanctions were killing Iraqis. Lining up firemen to pan the cameras to in support of this cheap demagoguery reflected pretty badly on them as well.
Kerry was also particularly egregiously dishonest when he carried on with the nonsense about how terrible it was that US families were doing bake sales to raise money for body armor after he and Edwards famously voted against the $87 billion dollars, way most of which was just exactly money for our troops.
Damn John Kerry most of all for putting me in the position of even halfway defending the Republicans. Nonetheless, Bush would not be trying to put across whoppers like this. Honest or not, he knows he'd never be allowed to get away with anything like the dishonest and deceitful talk from these Democrats.
The only thing cohesing the group at this convention was their pure, unadulterated hatred for President Bush. Again, I'm surely not the president of the President Bush Fan Club, but absolutely nobody gives a rat's ass for John Kerry. Depending on how you count them, probably fully half of the big applause lines were some kind of bitter personal attacks on the president or vice president. Pat Buchanan at his most hostile convention performances had nothing on these speakers - except that he was a better speech writer and speaker.
Perhaps the most maliciously dishonest example came from the real spiritual leader of the Democrats, Ted Kennedy, "The only thing we have to fear is four more years of George Bush."
The dishonest part mostly comes from their not very successful attempt at hiding this hate mob mentality. All week, one speaker after another was cut and trimmed severely by Kerry's people so as not to look like some fascist hate rally on tv. Howard Dean and Al Gore were particularly neutered.
Yet all that hate couldn't help coming through. Even Barack Obama, the new anointed rising rock star with the positive message of empty platitudes had to get in that nasty and dishonest dig about votes being counted "most of the time."
The hate came through, though; it was simply gray in the presentation. They carefully throttled it down. Dean turned off the famous ranting, at least in front of the television cameras on the convention floor.
Kerry himself made some of the worst slanders, except that he did it mostly in slimy backhanded ways. He insisted on talking about how he would never "mislead the country into war." This despite Bush being exonerated of these baseless charges of lying by the British inquiry and our 9/11 commission. The truth value of his statements obviously matters not to him.
It wouldn't have been quite so bad if they had just unzipped themselves and had an open hatefest. Watching the veins on Dean's neck bulge would have been honest and invigorating. Kerry directly pounding the lectern and calling Bush a liar would have been at least straightforward, open to being answered.
Instead, they kind of half-implied ugly stuff half under their breath. They tried to have their hate, but not look like they're foaming at the mouth. They were foaming at the mouth under their breath.
Yuck.
posted by Al at 7/31/2004 10:02:00 PM
Link Soup
morethings master
photo gallery index
MP3
new album
releases
lyrics
sammy davis
little richard photos
buddy holly pictures
fats domino images
chuck berry pictures 01/
02/
03/
04/
05/
06/
07/
08/
09/
10/
11/
12/
01/
02/
03/
04/
05/
06/
07/
08/
09/
10/
11/
12/
01/
02/
03/
04/
05/
06/
07/
08/
09/
10/
11/
12/
01/02/
03/
04/
05/
06/
07/
08/
09/
10/
11/
12
01/
02/
03/
04/
05/
06/
07/
08/
09/
10/
11/
12/01/
02/
03/
04/
05/
06/
07/
08/
09/
10/
11/
12/08/
09/
10/
11/
12/
la
24
lucille ball images
clint eastwood pictures lena
horne images team
america pictures
robert mitchum photos
bruce springsteen pictures
mariah carey pictures
ann coulter photos
george clooney images
loretta lynn pictures
beatles pictures
white stripes pictures
andy griffith pictures
kill bill pictures
beverly hillbillies pictures
robin williams
frank zappa pictures
jerry lee lewis pictures
richard pryor photos
june carter johnny cash pictures
vic mackey shield pictures u2 photos
four seasons images
james cagney images
elvis presley pictures
country music
blog
dolly parton pictures
olsen twins photos
tom petty photos
tori amos pictures
joaquin phoenix images David
Bowie photos
Quills movie images
reese witherspoon pictures rolling
stones photos
fiona apple images kim
novak images ray charles photos marx
brothers pictures
prince rogers nelson pictures blazing
saddles images
sinead o'connor images
eddie murphy photos aretha
franklin photos
south park pictures homer
simpson images
bob dylan pictures elizabeth
taylor photos madonna
images
saturday night live pictures jewel
kilcher photos willie
nelson images hee
haw pictures james
brown images pete
townshend photos
tina turner pictures
dixie chicks photos
elton john
images
emmylou harris images
guns
n roses pictures
paula abdul pictures
jodie foster photos
amy winehouse
eminem
frank sinatra photos
van
halen images
satan
blondie photos
merle haggard
images
rocky horror pictures
monty
python
|
|
