True Genius
I'm sorry, but upon reading this, I had to post it. It's from Cuddly Taikun, one of the members of the ANRE forum.
Conservatives used to have values. They used to believe in something. Mom, apple pie, and yes, accountability. If you screw up, you're held responsible, no matter whether you're white, black, rich, poor... that's accountability, remember? But they (real conservatives) disappeared sometime around 2000 or 2001. Now the country is full of people who are not real conservatives-- what would you call them, neo-con, pseudo-con, paleo-con, or just pathetic ostriches with their heads in the sand. Their only value is: Bush is never wrong.
Now we see their true values: when these people talk about "accountability", what they really mean is that poor black people should be held accountable for being poor, and black. But if you're rich, powerful and white (or if you're Condi Rice), you're never held accountable for anything. Consider the following examples of CRIME and PUNISHMENT in the neo-conservative regime:
1. The CRIME: The CIA ineptly failed to devote resources to anticipating terrorist attacks in our country before 9/11. All the non-cons, or paleo-cons on this forum dispute this point, claiming that it was impossible for the CIA to do any better. Here on the front page of the New York Times:
NYT wrote:
"An internal investigation by the Central Intelligence Agency has concluded that officials who served at the highest levels of the agency should be held accountable for failing to allocate adequate resources to combating terrorism before the Sept. 11 attacks...Among those most sharply criticized in the report, the officials said, are George J. Tenet...The findings, which are still classified, pose a quandary for the C.I.A. and the administration, particularly since President Bush awarded a Medal of Freedom to Mr. Tenet last month...The report says that Mr. Pavitt, among others, failed to meet an acceptable standard of performance...The criticism of Mr. Tenet is cast in equally strong terms...The basic conclusion that the C.I.A. paid too little heed to the threat posed by terrorism echoes those reached in the last two years by the joint Congressional panel on the Sept. 11 attacks and by the independent commission that investigated those attacks."
Oops, paleo-conservatives will say what they always do, "liberal bias in the Times!!!", their ostrich-like method for denying inconvenient facts, so they can keep living in a fantasy land of wishful thinking. But the bipartisan joint Congressional panel, and the independent 9/11 commission, AND the CIA investigation itself are agreed here. So are these all liberal-biased?
THE PUNISHMENT: When Tenet resigned, Bush said he had done a "superb job." Just last month George Bush awarded the Medal of Freedom, our country's very highest honor, to George Tenet.
2. THE CRIME: Paul Bremer decided to disband the Iraqi army after the U.S. invasion--a decision that left Iraq's border unguarded, and allowed countless terrorists to slip across the border, resulting in hundreds of deaths of American soldiers, and Iraqi civilians. Even Bill O'Reilly calls that a screwup--but I bet some people won't!
THE PUNISHMENT: Bush also awarded the Medal of Freedom to Paul Bremer.
3. THE CRIME: Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, who planned the U.S. invasion, set troop levels at about ONE THIRD of what experts said would be needed to maintain stability after the overthrow of the Iraqi gov't. He did this, not because he had any computations to back up those troop numbers-- many experts like Gen. Shinseki told him he'd need three times as many-- but Rumsfeld repeatedly stated that the Iraqi people would greet us with roses. Plus, it was politically convenient.
So: not enough U.S. Troops to secure the well-known weapons depots, not to mention the places where WMD's were supposedly stockpiled. All those advanced weapons, like plastic explosives, wound up in the hands of terrorists. Plus, terrorists cross the unguarded border into Iraq and start killing our soldiers right and left, at a rate of about 1-2 U.S. deaths per day, a total casualty toll that rivals 9/11.
THE PUNISHMENT: Bush says Rumsfeld has done a "fine job." He's in for the next four years. And what about Gen. Shinseki, who knew better? He got the can, of course.
4. THE CRIME: After the invasion of Aghanistan, Alberto Gonzalez, acting as White House legal counsel, writes memos asserting that the Geneval Convention is "quaint" and "obsolete", and that the U.S. President, in the name of national security, should have the right to order prisoners to be tortured so as to obtain information. A few months later, CIA and FBI agents at Abu Ghraib in Iraq are encouraging rank-and-file soldiers to torture and humiliate their prisoners, resulting in a global scandal.
THE PUNISHMENT: Bush recommends Gonzalez as our country's next Attorney General.
5. THE CRIME: Richard Clarke, the "anti-terrorism czar" at the start of the Bush Admistration, repeatedly warned before 9/11 that al Qaeda wanted to strike the U.S. Many of his warnings were not passed on by Condoleeza Rice to Pres. Bush; Clarke was ordered to stop obsessing on the issue, was removed from Cabinet-level meetings. After a meeting where Bush and his cabinet discussed the memo entitled, "Al Qaeda determined to strike in the U.S.", Bush left for a one-month vacation in Texas, as he has done repeatedly before and after 9/11 and the Iraq invasion.
THE PUNISHMENT: Condoleeza Rice is promoted to Secretary of State. George Bush says he doesn't read the newspapers because they're biased-- he gets all his news through Condi Rice, that reliable source.
6. THE CRIME: Bush's Education Dept. pays a black journalist $240,000 of taxpayer money under the table in exchange for his promoting the Bush Administration's policy initiatives on the journalist's radio program. Of course, his listeners are not informed of the deal.
THE PUNISHMENT: None yet, but I bet somebody at the Education Dept. is gonna get promoted!!!
If Bush gets caught with his hand in the cookie jar, the "paleo" response is: well, there was no cookie jar, or it had no cookies, or what's your definition of "jar", or technically his HAND was not in the cookie jar, just his FINGERS, and Teddy Kennedy PROBABLY ate cookies back in the 60's, and Dan Rather PROBABLY had his hand in the cookie jar, and anyway, Clinton put those cookies IN the jar so it's Clinton's fault! Those who call themselves "conservatives" have turned into legalist sophist pharisees, with no values besides endless hair-splitting masturbatory denial, so they can live in a fantasy land of wishful thinking. Like Candide, they believe the current administration "is the best of all possible administrations", and everything they've done is just and good; or if imperfect, well, it was as just, and as good, as anything humans will ever be capable of.
He's right. What happened to conservatives like Det. Elliot Stabler on Law and Order: SVU? I fucking love that guy. He has values. I think the Republicans should run his character for president.
Conservatives used to have values. They used to believe in something. Mom, apple pie, and yes, accountability. If you screw up, you're held responsible, no matter whether you're white, black, rich, poor... that's accountability, remember? But they (real conservatives) disappeared sometime around 2000 or 2001. Now the country is full of people who are not real conservatives-- what would you call them, neo-con, pseudo-con, paleo-con, or just pathetic ostriches with their heads in the sand. Their only value is: Bush is never wrong.
Now we see their true values: when these people talk about "accountability", what they really mean is that poor black people should be held accountable for being poor, and black. But if you're rich, powerful and white (or if you're Condi Rice), you're never held accountable for anything. Consider the following examples of CRIME and PUNISHMENT in the neo-conservative regime:
1. The CRIME: The CIA ineptly failed to devote resources to anticipating terrorist attacks in our country before 9/11. All the non-cons, or paleo-cons on this forum dispute this point, claiming that it was impossible for the CIA to do any better. Here on the front page of the New York Times:
NYT wrote:
"An internal investigation by the Central Intelligence Agency has concluded that officials who served at the highest levels of the agency should be held accountable for failing to allocate adequate resources to combating terrorism before the Sept. 11 attacks...Among those most sharply criticized in the report, the officials said, are George J. Tenet...The findings, which are still classified, pose a quandary for the C.I.A. and the administration, particularly since President Bush awarded a Medal of Freedom to Mr. Tenet last month...The report says that Mr. Pavitt, among others, failed to meet an acceptable standard of performance...The criticism of Mr. Tenet is cast in equally strong terms...The basic conclusion that the C.I.A. paid too little heed to the threat posed by terrorism echoes those reached in the last two years by the joint Congressional panel on the Sept. 11 attacks and by the independent commission that investigated those attacks."
Oops, paleo-conservatives will say what they always do, "liberal bias in the Times!!!", their ostrich-like method for denying inconvenient facts, so they can keep living in a fantasy land of wishful thinking. But the bipartisan joint Congressional panel, and the independent 9/11 commission, AND the CIA investigation itself are agreed here. So are these all liberal-biased?
THE PUNISHMENT: When Tenet resigned, Bush said he had done a "superb job." Just last month George Bush awarded the Medal of Freedom, our country's very highest honor, to George Tenet.
2. THE CRIME: Paul Bremer decided to disband the Iraqi army after the U.S. invasion--a decision that left Iraq's border unguarded, and allowed countless terrorists to slip across the border, resulting in hundreds of deaths of American soldiers, and Iraqi civilians. Even Bill O'Reilly calls that a screwup--but I bet some people won't!
THE PUNISHMENT: Bush also awarded the Medal of Freedom to Paul Bremer.
3. THE CRIME: Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, who planned the U.S. invasion, set troop levels at about ONE THIRD of what experts said would be needed to maintain stability after the overthrow of the Iraqi gov't. He did this, not because he had any computations to back up those troop numbers-- many experts like Gen. Shinseki told him he'd need three times as many-- but Rumsfeld repeatedly stated that the Iraqi people would greet us with roses. Plus, it was politically convenient.
So: not enough U.S. Troops to secure the well-known weapons depots, not to mention the places where WMD's were supposedly stockpiled. All those advanced weapons, like plastic explosives, wound up in the hands of terrorists. Plus, terrorists cross the unguarded border into Iraq and start killing our soldiers right and left, at a rate of about 1-2 U.S. deaths per day, a total casualty toll that rivals 9/11.
THE PUNISHMENT: Bush says Rumsfeld has done a "fine job." He's in for the next four years. And what about Gen. Shinseki, who knew better? He got the can, of course.
4. THE CRIME: After the invasion of Aghanistan, Alberto Gonzalez, acting as White House legal counsel, writes memos asserting that the Geneval Convention is "quaint" and "obsolete", and that the U.S. President, in the name of national security, should have the right to order prisoners to be tortured so as to obtain information. A few months later, CIA and FBI agents at Abu Ghraib in Iraq are encouraging rank-and-file soldiers to torture and humiliate their prisoners, resulting in a global scandal.
THE PUNISHMENT: Bush recommends Gonzalez as our country's next Attorney General.
5. THE CRIME: Richard Clarke, the "anti-terrorism czar" at the start of the Bush Admistration, repeatedly warned before 9/11 that al Qaeda wanted to strike the U.S. Many of his warnings were not passed on by Condoleeza Rice to Pres. Bush; Clarke was ordered to stop obsessing on the issue, was removed from Cabinet-level meetings. After a meeting where Bush and his cabinet discussed the memo entitled, "Al Qaeda determined to strike in the U.S.", Bush left for a one-month vacation in Texas, as he has done repeatedly before and after 9/11 and the Iraq invasion.
THE PUNISHMENT: Condoleeza Rice is promoted to Secretary of State. George Bush says he doesn't read the newspapers because they're biased-- he gets all his news through Condi Rice, that reliable source.
6. THE CRIME: Bush's Education Dept. pays a black journalist $240,000 of taxpayer money under the table in exchange for his promoting the Bush Administration's policy initiatives on the journalist's radio program. Of course, his listeners are not informed of the deal.
THE PUNISHMENT: None yet, but I bet somebody at the Education Dept. is gonna get promoted!!!
If Bush gets caught with his hand in the cookie jar, the "paleo" response is: well, there was no cookie jar, or it had no cookies, or what's your definition of "jar", or technically his HAND was not in the cookie jar, just his FINGERS, and Teddy Kennedy PROBABLY ate cookies back in the 60's, and Dan Rather PROBABLY had his hand in the cookie jar, and anyway, Clinton put those cookies IN the jar so it's Clinton's fault! Those who call themselves "conservatives" have turned into legalist sophist pharisees, with no values besides endless hair-splitting masturbatory denial, so they can live in a fantasy land of wishful thinking. Like Candide, they believe the current administration "is the best of all possible administrations", and everything they've done is just and good; or if imperfect, well, it was as just, and as good, as anything humans will ever be capable of.
He's right. What happened to conservatives like Det. Elliot Stabler on Law and Order: SVU? I fucking love that guy. He has values. I think the Republicans should run his character for president.
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