On Friday a woman at work was eager to tell me that John Edwards had been caught in a lie. From what I could tell he'd obviously told the truth about his lie and had therefore become fodder for the holier than thou attack machine that masquerades as the major news media in this country. Didn't this happen recently with another prominent liberal.. Elliot Spitzer? Do I detect a pattern here other than the obvious one of the tendency of male humans to enjoy the intimate company of attractive female humans? It happens regularly. But I worry about that woman who was so excited to inform me about a sexual misadventure of a leading liberal political figure but who will not listen to anything that might spoil her mindless enthusiasm for the regime currently in power. So having thought about this for a day or two I'm writing my rebuttal here for my own benefit:
Tyrants tend to be congenital, brazen liars. Bush lied about Iraq’s threat to America just as Hitler lied when he claimed Poland attacked Germany first in 1939.
Tyrants engage in outright suppression or manipulation of the news. Cynics may wonder about any item of interest in the news and how it serves the continuation of tyranny.
Tyrants will use a “crisis” to grab total power. In 1933, Hitler declared a "state of emergency” after the Reichstag fire, which likely was set by the Nazis.
Tyrants torture. Pol Pot ordered the torture and murder of millions of his own countrymen. Idi Amin was known as the Butcher of Uganda.
Tyrants tend to make serial wars. Stalin attacked Finland, Poland, and Hungary. Imperial Japan struck Korea, Manchuria, China, America, and the UK. One war is never enough for a tyrant. Napoleon invaded nations to liberate them from kings, only to put his relatives on their thrones.
Tyrants will not suffer criticism. Ghenghis Khan sportingly offered enemies a choice: surrender or die. All who disagreed died. I wonder if Paul Wellstone ever spurned an attempted seduction?
Tyrants don’t respect the sovereignty of other nations. Bush rationalized his attack on Iraq as “preventive war” -- a euphemism for the supreme war crime, “a war of aggression.”
So please, lady at work, excuse my complete lack of interest in the scandal that so titillated your Friday afternoon but I'm in the market for a leader who won't be a tyrant once we get the current one out of office. Yes, tyrants lie and it's part of their nature to trick their way into public office by manipulating the fundamental prejudices of fools like yourself.
A vote for Jood/Nunley is a vote for white lies so someone you love doesn't suffer for your mistake. It will be a vote totally AGAINST TYRANNY.
(Candidates, please notify author if this is not a Fifth Party position.)
(artwork by Michael Sowa)
isn't this the same argument that the left bloggers have presented for so long? You want to impeach a President for sexual infidelity ('cause you know, there could've been state secrets involved)but not impeach a President who lied about going to war, subsequently causing many people, soldiers and civilians alike, to die? It's sad to say but this agitator's attitude seems to be especially Republican... not to say Democrats can't be agitators, but this Independent will save that for a rainy day [g]
ReplyDeleteIngrid
Tyranny? Someone should have told Bush that he was President, not King.
ReplyDeleteI know, hackneyed, but it seems like this is the closest we've been to having a monarch.
ingrid - Edwards was no longer running for office but I get the strong feeling this was a purely partisan attempt (read Republican) to divert attention from McCain's less than exemplary marital history.
ReplyDeletedcup - He's made a very petulant quasi-king, no? The real power has always been that shifty-eyed, smirking character in the background.. and goodness knows who else.
Honestly, the sex life of a politician, male or female, doesn't affect my vote for him or her one way or the other unless it's something criminal - I'm gazing in your general direction, Mark Foley - or hypocritical - every single Republican.
ReplyDeleteSure, what Edwards did violated the trust of his marriage. In other news, donuts are tasty. For all we know, Dubya hasn't cheated on Pickles, though I harbor personal doubt. So, who'd be the better leader, a better president, the cheater or the faithful?
Maybe the talking hairpieces can get to actual issues affecting all Americans this week.
Ha ha.
The idiocy of the press has reached levels that amaze even my very blonde brain. I mean it, I don't give a flying monkey's ass who is sleeping with whom - I care about who is going to BOMB whom, or invade where. McCain cheated on his first wife. So bloody what? That doesn't matter. What matters is that he wants to stay in Iraq for 100 years.
ReplyDeleteUnfuckingbelieveable.
Nice rebuttal. Yeah, the French (even the nice Canadians) understand. Their intimate lives may or may not be interesting to the masses (they often are quite saucy), but they aren't what make them good leaders, politicians etc.
ReplyDeleteGive me a philanderer over a war criminal any day. Jeez, give me a lover over a fighter. Give me Edwards over any member of the Bush clan 5 layers out.
Oh well. Time to watch Entertainment Tonight :)
I have nothing tonight. Broke my laptop last week. My ankle still hurts....the Packers kick off for the first time in 16 years without Farve in moments.....'
ReplyDeleteI just had to stop by, though, and say.... this is one neato keen blog... and say HI
Ain't lying, neither.
randal - Hypocrites, all. It probably wasn't a worthy subject for a post but I was rankled by that creepy woman who always manages to represent the worst of modern Republican supporters.
ReplyDeletedivajood - The whole thing was so far beneath my radar, I just couldn't believe an issue of major importance had been declared.
gary - I've really come to believe that what goes on in this country is teevee addled participatory fascism. Hope you enjoyed the show :-)
okjimm - I'm sorry about the laptop and your ankle. I hope the game went okay without him but football never caught my interest like baseball did for years.
Thanks for the visit. I do appreciate it and I'm not lyin' either.
i've heard you not only sleep with a person, but also with all the people he (or she) ever slept with.
ReplyDeletewe're all related somehow.
six degrees of separation.
it's incestuous.
why is it mr. president can screw america, and mr. edwards can't?
i'm indignified.
Ah, like minds indeed.
ReplyDeleteAnd well said in your previous post on Bruce Ivins. That's a story where I have trouble grasping the enormity, it's so obviously wrong.
I don't think humans were to be monogamous in the first place, seems to me that that was an invention of the church to keep the sheep in bay.
ReplyDeleteAfter all, we are more colorful than the white virgin swans!
In France, Edward's behavior would be seen as a batch of honor, well, maybe not quite that much, but you know what I mean.
When I moved to the US some 20 years ago, I was shocked to see this inbred puritanical behavior, even within my "liberal" relatives here.
It all burns down to this idiosyncrasy:
If you can't see, smell or hear it, it must not exist!
Hell, I haven't met a middle aged man yet (a few exceptions permitted)who isn't horny and wouldn't jump on every opportunity he gets to satisfy that notion.
Even the Puritans know that!
susan, bah, anything and everything is worthy of a post. The Iron Law of Google says so. I just wish okjimm would stop talking about this mysterious 'Farve' guy. What's a football? Those are nukyular, I think.
ReplyDeletesera - Does that mean that somewhere down the line somebody I care about slept with Dick Cheney? EeeYuckk! I have to go wash my hands or something.
ReplyDeleteben - It's always seemed very weird to me that the WH was never all that excited about the anthrax scare. Now why would that be?
zee - I think you're right but a whole lot of it has to do with women as the property of men which also arrived with agrarianism and later, organized religion. There are stories - legends perhaps, because men have mostly written the history of humanity in modern times - about matriarchal societies where all personal property was passed down through the female line. Only with DNA testing, developed in the past few decades, has it been possible to know who the 'father' is. The only way previously was to make sure women were kept locked up one way or another and infidelity became a very big deal. Since we still live in a patriarchal society what a number of supposedly liberated women have done is to join in the institutional lockup. This isn't freedom. Of course, it isn't going to change in the short term either but we can still call it hypocrisy.
I know a number of middle aged women who feel the same way :-) ..although it's true too that women tend to lose the fever later in life which is rare in men.
randal - I guess a good 'Farve' is hard to find. We must leave the man his sacred quest.
It's so beyond ridiculous that this get SO much media attention and issues that really need to be up front can't cut it. But you know, sadly I don't expect anything else any more.
ReplyDeletemary - Nice to see you've been to visit. I don't expect anything better either but I know damn well we all deserve better. The Titanic has struck the iceberg and the band plays on.
ReplyDeleteHi Susan
ReplyDeleteYou may be interested to learn that all of the documents gathered in relation to 1970’s royal commission into the operation of ASIO in Australia recently became available for public scrutiny.
ASIO is our national intelligence gathering organization and is the equivalent of the CIA in the USA.
What the documents revealed was the enormous files and activities the organiation kept.
Many prominent citizens at the time who had voiced criticism about the Incumbent Government discovered large dossiers were kept on them.
As a consequence of the Royal Commission the organization was completely restructured and made much more accountable, reviewed periodically by a parliamentary committee and subject to audit.
These types of security organizations need to be made accountable to parliament and their veil of secrecy lifted as otherwise they become laws unto themselves and accountable to no one.
Best wishes
"...what a number of supposedly liberated women have done is to join in the institutional lockup. This isn't freedom." -
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately I have to agree with you again Susan.
This is particularly true in the "white-collar" world, where woman extended their efforts to be successfully more macho then their gender counterparts. (disgusting!)
I watched a SiFi flick the other day, Joss Whedon's "Firefly." It was interesting to observe the female members characterization of the crew's spaceship.
One was a most cuddly and sweet spoken person, with naive but soulful eyes. She was the ship's mechanic and brilliant at it!
The next one was a "companion" - a stunning looking and most perfectly beautiful (whore). Besides her physical assets, she was so well spoken and educated that she could turn around any argument there is.
The third one was a very young and disturbed psychic. Her grace... ah no, let's not go there, I'm in love with her! Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, that in the near future, with or without spaceships, the full potential of the female gender will shine.
lol. i'll pass you the antibacterial wet wipes.
ReplyDeleteSusan - Wow! Way to go sister. You've certainly turned out those self-righteousness blowhards who were upset by John Edwards' marital infidelity. They are so caught up in the subterfuge that is this story that they don't realize they are but frogs sitting a kettle of water slowly being brought to a boil. I know you addressed this note to your co-worker, but I have no doubt she wouldn't care to listen, even if you printed out this post and nailed it to her forehead.
ReplyDeletelindsay - The FBI and CIA have never been known as benevolent organizations any more than the KGB but what's happened during the course of the current administration's tenure is a total evisceration of agencies that were previously non-partisan. The pre-2000 FBI was bad enough - the current one still carries the name of the shop but isn't motivated in the public interest. A complete reorganization of a number of government agencies following congressional investigation might help matters.
ReplyDeletesera - That feels a little better :-)
spartacus - You're right the co-worker wouldn't listen. I just don't get what benefit regular working people expect to receive by supporting people who loathe them.
At least John Edwards isn't a WAR CRIMINAL!
ReplyDeleteAh, Randal, but has Pickles cheated on the Shrub?
ReplyDeletescarlet - My point exactly.. and It appears everybody else feels the same.
ReplyDeleteSusan, you rock. Sorry it's taken me so long to get here.
ReplyDeleteborder-ex - Thanks, so do you. I'll try to come by now and then. It's hard finding the time to check on all the cool blogs we're attached to, eh?
ReplyDelete