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FROM
IRAQNAM TO IRANMIRE
August
28, 2007
The
Chickenhawks Come Home to Roost: Iran War Propaganda Blitz
in the Pipeline
Barnett
Rubin relays a
message from a well-connected friend in Washington
on the Cheney Administration's plans to roll out a military
confrontation with Iran in September.
"My friend had spoken to someone in one of the leading neo-conservative
institutions. He summarized what he was told this way: They
[the source's institution] have "instructions" (yes,
that was the word used) from the Office of the Vice-President
to roll out a campaign for war with Iran in the week after
Labor Day; it will be coordinated with the American Enterprise
Institute, the Wall Street Journal, the Weekly Standard, Commentary,
Fox, and the usual suspects. It will be heavy sustained assault
on the airwaves, designed to knock public sentiment into a
position from which a war can be maintained. Evidently they
don't think they'll ever get majority support for this--they
want something like 35-40 percent support, which in their book
is "plenty."
So no white or sanity after Labor Day... Watch this (or any
other space) for Bushco's last hurrah. (Link
to this)
THAT'S
GOTTA STING
August
28, 2007
Today's
classic headline: "Church Deacon Tears Scrotum
Of UT Fan In Bar Fight"
Aggravated
assault charges have been filed against a church deacon and
University of Oklahoma Sooners fan after officials say he
grabbed a University of Texas fan between the legs during
a scuffle in an Oklahoma bar... The police report described
injuries that included a torn scrotal sack with partially
exposed testicles. (Link to this)
THAT
FABULOUS GAY OLD PARTY!
August
27, 2007
Idaho
Senator Revealed as Off-the-clock Bathroom Bandito
Larry
Craig voted for a constitutional ban on same-sex marriage
in 2006, voted against adding sexual orientation as a hate
crime definition in 2002, voted against expanding hate crimes
to include sexual orientation in 2000, voted to prohibit
same-sex marriage and voted no on prohibiting job discrimination
by sexual orientation in 1996. There is no prize for guessing
the next part...
According to an arrest report obtained by Roll
Call on Monday, Craig was arrested at a Minnesota airport
by a plainclothes
police officer investigating lewd conduct complaints in a men's
restroom. After pleading guilty to a charge of disorderly
conduct,
he got one year's probation and paid more than $500
in costs and fines.
As if trawling for anonymous sex in an airport
restroom was not quite sordid enough, Craig also deployed
the old "don't you know who I am?" technique in an attempt
to get sprung. At one point during the interview, Craig handed
the plainclothes sergeant who arrested him a business card
that
identified him
as a U.S. Senator and said, "What do you think about
that?" the arrest report states. Classy guy...
Back in October 2006, Craig’s office publicly denied
allegations of gayness on blogactive.com. Craig’s office
told the Spokane Spokesman-Review that the charge was "completely
ridiculous," saying that the allegations had "no
basis in fact."
They lecture about America's declining family values
(from toilet stalls and pay-by-the-hour motel rooms all over
the
country) and how everything's going to hell in a man purse
thanks to the gays... but isn't it painful to think how much
real damage sad little pricks like Craig are
doing? Give me a million
mustachioed
gays
strolling down the aisle in assless chaps handing out pro-abortion
flyers over hypocrites of Craig's ilk any day. (Link
to this)
AND
THE ANN COULTER WINGNUT OF THE WEEK AWARD GOES TO...
August
26, 2007
You
thought Hannity was only one tinfoil hat away from lunacy?
Meet Vin Suprynowicz.
Left:
Vin wears verbal diarrhea-resistant, polypropylene sweater
($9.99 from Sears,
Hell).
Just
when you think you've kicked over all the rocks and seen
all the cuntservative bugs scuttle out into the light, along
comes a particularly weird and creepy specimen. His name's
too long and his pronouncements too insane... he is my Wingnut
of the Week.
On his blow-harder-than-Katrina
column at The Review Journal,
Vin says "Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney
is currently leading the field among Republican presidential
contenders
here in Nevada. So this is what the party of Robert A. Taft
and Barry Goldwater has come to." It may be
possible to agree so far, but sanity fast disappears over
the horizon
at the start of
paragraph
two. According to Vin, Romney is a "a gun-grabbing
socialist" who
took a giant, steaming dump on the constitution by depriving
audience members of their right to carry guns at the
2002 Salt
Lake Olympics.
Occurring less than a year after 9-11 (© Rudolph
Giuliani 2008), the games were designated a National Special
Security Event by the Office of Homeland Security. As such,
it was not exactly a dumb idea to make sure those attending
- from homegrown loons to those hailing from any of the 77
participating nations - were not packing.
But,
for Vin, common sense makes no sense. "And here
I thought the idea of America was to demonstrate the advantages
of
freedom
through example. If they didn't want to be surrounded by
armed and free people, why didn't the Europeans stage their
little ski meet in Sverdlovsk?" he rants. Presumably,
competitors such as Argentina, Australia, Brazil, China, etc.,
etc. are to be regarded as honorary Europeans
for the sake of argument, and the God-given right for anyone
to carry a gun in any crowded place just months after the
most devastating terrorist attack on American soil is a demonstration
of the advantages of freedom through example. God damn you,
Romney. (Link
to this)
CRANKING
UP THE CHUTZPAH
August
22, 2007
How
I'd dream of attending this town hall meeting...
When
you're a Republican trying to finagle your way into the Oval
Office, you need a signature issue to hammer relentlessly.
McCain owns Iraq; Giuliani has monopolized 9-11 to such
an extent
that
many are
surprised
he
hasn't had it trademarked... and Mitt "The Fonz" Romney
is now seeking to make immigration his shtick after an earlier
ill-advised foray into Guns & Ammo territory backfired.
So what if
victimizing the poor
and powerless on the fringes of society
is probably the lowest trick in the "Getting Elected
For Dummies" handbook?
The Fonz is now banking on the xenophobes propelling him
into office on good old-fashioned white power.
Mitt's
new spot opens with "Immigration laws don't work
if they're ignored." Seems fair. Just ask the Boston Globe
who busted him last year for employing illegal immigrant landscapers.
The employees
told the newspaper that The Fonz "never asked them to
show documents on their immigration status, which is required
by federal law."
The ad then goes
on to slam "sanctuary
cities" like Newark, San Francisco and New York City. "Sanctuary
cities become magnets that encourage illegal immigration and
undermine secure borders. As Governor, Mitt Romney didn't wait
on Washington. He acted to make our immigration laws work." Err...
not exactly.
"As governor, Romney never directly addressed the issue
of sanctuary cities." Says The Globe. The Fonz’s
initiative to deal with sanctuary cities in Massachusetts "emerged
three weeks before leaving office and was never implemented."
So why do these fraudulent bozos keep setting themselves
up for a beating like lie piñatas? Is it egomania
or plain witlessness that makes them think they can get away
with
it when everyone else fails? McCain's lies about Iraq
finished him. Giuliani's 9-11 lies are like a stuck handbrake
on his
campaign...
and now
Romney on immigration.
Cue petard. (Link to this) (Related:
ROMNEY:
LDS DRAFT TRUMPS VIETNAM DRAFT | FAKE
GUN NUT)
SURGE
SUCKS ASS... IT'S OFFICIAL
August
21, 2007
A
bipartisan panel of foreign policy experts was surveyed
by Foreign Policy magazine and the Center for American Progress
asking
whether
or not they thought
Bushco's Iraq surge was working. They included two former
secretaries of state, a former national security adviser,
and former
military and intelligence officials.
Fifty-three
percent said the US troop buildup was having a somewhat or
very negative impact on protecting Americans from
terrorism or advancing US national security objectives. In
short, a majority said Bushco's much-vaunted surge is a pointless,
bloody failure.
If you aren't surprised, try this one: "More conservatives
(25 percent) than liberals (21 percent) supported an immediate
pull out." So much for those troop-hating liberal peaceniks
that inhabit every wingnut's consciousness like trolls. (Link
to this)
(UN)HAPPY
DAYS FOR GIULIANI
August
21, 2007
Flogging
a dumb Happy Days analogy to death because I feel like it...
Two
thumbs up to Miles Mogulescu for his meticulously
detailed anti-hagiography of Rudolph "Chachie" Giuliani.
Here are some highlights:
"Giuliani claims that, unlike Democrats, the first World Trade Center
Bombing in 1993 woke him up to the dangers of Islamic Terrorism...
In fact, Giuliani didn't create the NYC Office of Emergency
Management until 27 months into his term and he didn't open
the OEM's emergency command center until six years later...
Against the advice of Giuliani's handpicked head of OEM,
who recommended that the OEM Command Center be located in
Brooklyn in a neighborhood less likely to be attacked, Giuliani
insisted it had to be walking distance from City Hall and
put it a #7 World Trade Center.
Giuliani had his private office in the $61 million Command
Center equipped with a humidor of cigars, monogrammed towels
in the bathroom, and a private elevator so he could come and
go without being noticed. He visited his office there often,
even on weekends, bringing girlfriend Judi Nathan there long
before he announced their relationship in a press conference
before telling his own wife.
The only reason that Giuliani was captured on video tape marching
uptown covered in dust -- the tape that catapulted Giuliani
into a national hero, a multi-millionaire, and a presidential
frontrunner -- is that the Command Center had to be evacuated
and Giuliani had nowhere to go."
In
the most recent Republican Happy Days episodes, John McCain
looks like an older, less-cool Tom Bosley while Giuliani
has dropped from
Chachie
status,
straight
past
Richie
Cunningham
level, to look more like Potsie with a herpes flare-up.
His gay-friendly,
pro-choice attitudes make him unelectable
to the conservative base. And his pathological
lying, mob
links, rampant greed, cynical exploitation of tragedy
and history of sluttishness make him unelectable for everyone
else.
So
where's the Fonz? Cue
Mitt Romney. Damn, he
even looks like a mini-series Reagan/Arthur Fonzerelli with
all the cuntservative cool that entails. Add to that his
solid
chickenhawk
credentials,
his religious lunacy and his business-like determination
to avoid talking about anything that actually matters and...
I think we may have found a contender.
(Link
to this)
PROPS
TO JOE BIDEN - HE'S ALMOST LIKABLE
August
18, 2007
Giving
it those Republican nancy boys old school...
I
have a lot of time for Joe Biden. Even though the crazy
galoot should never be allowed to run for president in a
million years, there's something eminently likeable about
his mid-1970s, suburban car dealer persona.
Joe's old-school debating skills in action make a
GOP candidate forum look like a bunch of chimps
squabbling
over who gets next swing in the tire. As a smooth arguer, he
has no equal and I could imagine him holding forth in some
great smoke-swathed barroom
debates...
In my
mind,
he'd
be
wearing
a sheepskin
coat, stroking a fat Cuban (this isn't a Chris
Matthews fantasy so I do mean cigar) with his out-sized gold
cufflinks glinting in the dim light as he gesticulates slowly
and firmly to remind
us that the whole world is slightly retarded and only he knows
what's what.
And you can't fault Biden for his scruples. He's been married
30 years and is itching for a fight with one of those many-married
Republican greaseballs. "I can hardly wait for one of
these guys on the other side to tell me about family values." Said
Joe to The Washington Post recently. And he's got a son
due to ship out to Iraq next year - unlike the vast majority
of the chickenhawk flock who think their war's only for other
people's kith and kin - and he's campaigned loudly for better
treatment of returning vets in the face of Bushco's stinginess.
But, still, I'd hate to see him run for president. If he did
run, he'd have to get a bastard crash course and shed all the
traits that make him likable. With androids like McCain and
Clinton, the transition is not too traumatic, but for Joe it
would be a tragedy. Please, Joe, don't go changing to try to
please me... I almost like you just the way you are. (Link
to this)
AMERICA'S
LIAR THREATENED BY PANTS WILDFIRE
August
18, 2007
Thrice-wed
Giuliani finding it difficult to run on family values;
Busted again
as a 9-11 fake...
Who'd
be dumb enough to spit out an easily bustable lie in public,
thus running the risk of looking like a complete über
dick, when they're supposed to be running for president?
Answer: Rudolph Giuliani.
After crowing that he'd been at Ground Zero "as often,
if not more" than many clean-up workers, some gosh-darned
spoilsport at USA Today took a glance at the Mayoral record
covering the period in question. Now America's Liar is left
looking like one of those drunks who try to convince
barflies
they're war heroes in spite of never having left their mom's
basement longer than it takes to shuffle to the nearest AMPM
in their Operation Desert Storm PJs. The
record shows:
"He
was there for a total of 29 hours in those three months,
often for short periods or to visit locations adjacent to
the rubble. In that same period, many rescue and recovery
workers put in daily 12-hour shifts."
And where
the hell does this opportunist prick get off boasting about
simply doing his job anyway?
Big deal. Are we supposed to be impressed that
the
mayor of the city subjected to the worst attack ever on American
soil showed up to take a look at the damage instead of crouching
under his desk in a fetal position? If
that really is the
bar then, yup, even I'd grant Rudy the 9-11 hero status
he so desperately
seeks.
America's Liar is also in trouble after dangerous cracks have
started appearing in the tired old "Republican Family
Man"
fuselage he's been flying for the cuntservative base. "A
lingering question has been whether his recent bitter divorce
and the
fact that
he's on his third marriage will drag him down among social
conservatives." Says
the Washington Post.
And at yesterday's town hall rally, a questioner had the temerity
to ask him how
he could expect voters to support him when even his own
family don't. "The best thing I can say
is kind of, 'Leave my family alone,'" responded Giuliani, "just
like I'll leave your family alone." Fair call, Rudy (even
if that dialog sounds vaguely sinister coming from an Italian
American). After all, who's ever heard of a Republican pol,
such as yourself, criticizing someone else's family values
or wagging fat, sanctimonius fingers at their
private
lives? (Link
to this)
(Related:
SOUL FOR SALE, CREDIBILITY ON
CLEARANCE: THE LIFE AND TIMES OF AMERICA'S MAYOR | LAME
ONE-TRICK PONY STILL DODGING POLITICAL GLUE FACTORY)
NEW
MILESTONE ON NEOCON INTERSTATE TO INSANITY
August
17, 2007
4,000
Coalition Deaths in Iraq
"Despite a buildup of U.S. troops
that began five months ago... U.S. casualties [have] reached
the highest sustained levels since the United States invaded
Iraq nearly four and a half years ago."
Leila
Fadel, McClatchy-Tribune (August 14)
"On August 13, the number of American deaths in Iraq averaged
100 per month, totaling 3661 deaths since the war. Nothing
has changed on that front."
Ken Mufuka, AllAfrica.com (August 16)
"Don't be fooled. Nothing much has changed in Iraq -- especially
politically."
William M. Arkin, Washington Post (August 16)
All those armchair warriors suffering through these dark days of wartime sacrifice
(like driving round with magnetic ribbons on their SUVs and enduring the
ennui of hearing about Iraq all the time) would be swift
to denounce me as a "troop hater." But those "troop lovers" seem
to be the only people around who are actively ignoring the reality of the
war, belittling the dangers faced by our troops and downplaying their sacrifices.
"The
surge is working!" they chorus retardedly like Bill Kristol's backing
singers as Bushco™ eats our young and burps out more foul-smelling
lies. "Bad
news for those who've wanted to see the U.S. defeated in Iraq: It's not
happening." trumpets
that bastion of responsible journalism, the
Assyrian International News Agency.
Is the surge working? Does 100 American deaths a month really equal success?
Strangely, the answer seems to be yes for those flag-wrapped uber-troop-supporters.
Only us antiwar, anti-American, terrorist-sympathizing fags who can't decide
whether we'd rather blow Castro or bin Laden spot the irony.
But perhaps the
concept of American lives being wasted at the behest of an incompetent
president enabled by a toxic minority of fat-assed loons in Jeezuzland
might one day be viewed as damaging to the good of the country
(i.e., anti American). At least we can hope. (Link
to this)
SIEGFRIED & ROY
ANNOUNCE THEY'RE STRAIGHT
August
17, 2007
What
next? Richard Simmons wins UFC? Liberace was a sheet metal
worker from Brooklyn? Stunning revelations from the world
of show business...
Blame the National Enquirer for the big bombshell of the century, the Vegas
big cat act of Siegfried
and Roy have finally announced they are straight.
According to The National Enquirer, the two are writing a tell-all book
about their lives together, and in it they finally admit they have never
been lovers... no... wait... (Link to this)
SOUL
FOR SALE, CREDIBILITY ON CLEARANCE: THE LIFE AND TIMES
OF AMERICA'S MAYOR
August
16, 2007
Is
there nothing Giuliani will not say to get elected? Seems
not...
"I was at ground zero as often, if not more, than most
of the workers. I was there working with them. I was
exposed to exactly
the same things they were exposed to. So in that sense, I'm
one of them."
Rudy Giuliani.
How, in the name of a just universe, did this obsequious little prick ever
get traction? Giuliani is a
terror charlatan whose lies are manifold and whose moral compass is
more erratic than a gyroscope in a magnet factory. Sure, the deluded sheeple
of Jeezuzland may be suckered by his flag-flavored tough talk, but anyone
with half a brain
could sniff
out
this fake
in a
barrel of
pig shit. Is it a surprise that even his
own daughter publicly backs Obama?
Now middle-of-the-road Wingnutia's favorite scrotum-headed tranny, perhaps
becoming aware that he's flogged his 9-11 fantasies to death,
is branching
out
into the kind of pro-Zionist
posturing
that should guarantee some fat contributions from AIPAC. During
a recent
bout of verbal diarrhea, America's Mayor declared:
"It is not in the interest of the United States, at a time when it
is being threatened by Islamist terrorists, to assist the creation of another
state that will support terrorism."
Gee
willikers, Mrs Giuliani, how tough you sound... but maybe
you should temper your drag king act with a little common
sense (if that's not too much an impediment to getting elected
these
days). For example, why is it a good idea for us to sell
$20
billion worth of state-of-the-art weaponry to that corrupt
medieval time capsule
that
was
home
to 15
of the 19 9-11 hijackers? Saudi Arabia has more ties to terrorism
than Giuliani has pages of speeches about 9-11,
so why are the Palestinians, not the Saudis, a threat?
Back
in 2001, Giuliani was still in possession of a spine and some
rudimentary scruples when he refused
a $10 million pay-off check from Saudi Prince Alwaleed.
But he remains silent about the recent Saudi arms
deal. According
to the New York Sun:
"So far, only two
presidential candidates have declared their opposition to the
sale: a former senator from North Carolina, John Edwards, and
Rep. Dennis Kucinich of Ohio. Both are Democrats. The leading
Democratic hopeful, Senator Clinton, and the leading Republican
contender, Mayor Giuliani, have not expressed a view."
Logically,
how screwed does your 'threat meter' have to be when selling
weapons to the Saudis sets of no alarm bells, but a bunch
of broke, stateless Palestinians pushes the gauge into the
red zone? So how many Palestinians were involved in 9-11
anyway..? Being as
Rudy is such a freakin'
expert on the subject, he'll know the answer is precisely
zero. (Link to this)
"NIGGER-RIGGING"
THE PRESIDENCY
August
15, 2007
In
every other walk of life, being an incompetent asshole makes
you subject to the laws of natural selection. But regular
laws do not apply in the bizarro world of bad government
where
2+2=5 and preemptive wars make sense. Bush might seem like
the stupidest, unluckiest president ever... but maybe that's
just what he wants you to think.
There's an unfortunately named phenomena (that I apologize
in advance for citing) popular with unscrupulous contractors,
mechanics, repairers, etc., called "nigger
rigging." It's
the practice of appearing to fix an existing problem while
simultaneously planting new problems through deliberate sabotage
thus guaranteeing job security. Could "nigger rigging" be
a method of government? Hmm...
If
you are a good leader in charge of an effective administration,
logic demands that the simple act of doing your job makes you obsolete. Once you've fixed the problems you were
elected
to solve,
the country would have no further need of you. Alternatively,
if you are a crappy leader presiding over a "nigger
rigging" administration
busily seeding new problems wherever you go, you're pretty
much guaranteed reelection. Ring any bells?
But is it far-fetched liberal insanity to suggest that those
in power have been deliberately creating new disasters in
order to cling to power? Maybe, but how else could you
rationalize the sheer quantity of Bushco's miserable
failures
in his self-justifying war on terror? And how else could you
explain the motivation behind those apparently retarded decisions
that have wrenched failure from the jaws of success time after
time?
For example,
what might
have happened if the army hadn't been ordered to back
off in
Tora
Bora to
let al Qaeda run and fight another
day? What if sufficient troop levels had been maintained in
Afghanistan (remember the world was actually with us on that
one) to prevent the Taliban from regrouping? What if Bushco™ had
not invaded Iraq and dissembled the fourth largest army in
the world, thus setting the stage for a bloody civil
war and a massive upsurge in terrorism? On the
surface, these look like stupid/unlucky decisions. But every
one of
them breathed
new momentum into the Bush regime and consolidated his power.
Remember "We
can't dump Bush because there's
a war on..."
"We must all pull together and support our troops and
our commander in chief in the war on terror..." "We
can't trust the Democrats with our economy." (Sure, it
was Bushco's ideologically driven tax cuts and
harebrained
neocolonialism that crippled
our economy to begin
with, but let's not mention that.)
For Bushco, failure has always been success and success has
always been failure. So who thinks the neocon puppeteers behind
our idiot
president's
8-year
career weren't smart enough to make it all happen on purpose?
(Link
to this)
KARL
ROVE'S WINGNUT WEEPFEST
August
14, 2007
Too
lazy to write anything... instead, let me just scoop up
this
piece of sludge from Newsbusters.org for
your pity:
"For
those that watched Monday's announcement by President Bush
concerning the departure of White House advisor Karl Rove,
as the two were walking away from the microphones, someone
yelled out a rather disgraceful question ... the question
was:
"If he's so smart, how come you lost Congress?"
With that in mind, I change my vote for finest example of Rove Derangement Syndrome."
Was
tempted to enter GOP smurf Noel
Sheppard into my
abandoned Media
Pinheads page... but, really, this loyal
little chihuahua just makes me feel like curling up in front
of
The Oxygen Channel for a gentle weep. What happened to all
those balls-out Alpha-male Republicans we became so used
to? Are premenstrual pansies
like Sheppard and his junior high girl
gang at Newsbusters
now the face of the GOP?
Let's hope so. It might at least make
those limp-dicked Dems sound a little less like Angela Lansbury
hosting a sensitivity seminar at their next candidate's debate.
(Link
to this)
AXE
RAGE IRONY
August
4, 2007
Unless
you're a sick bastard, there's very little to laugh at in
this story about this guy in Tasmania who "flew
into a rage and murdered his elderly parents with an axe
after
his mother laughed about the death of his cat." So
what's funny? How about the fact that the mad axe
man is a trained
expert in family conflict resolution?
As a by-the-by, has anyone else ever noticed how the island
of Tasmania is shaped very similarly to a pubic wig (or 'merkin')
complete with handy attachment tabs? (Link to this)
THAT
OLD 9-11 MONEYSPINNER
August
2, 2007
Some call it a tragedy, others a career...
Juval
Aviv, a former Mossad spook and professional terrormonger,
is author of several terror-related potboilers and a Fox
News terrorism 'expert.' Today
he's on the Fox Fan Web site being
interviewed about how we're all due for another 9-11. "I
predict... it could happen in the next few months. Ninety
days at the most." Said Aviv when asked when the next
terror/horror/apocalypse thingy is due. "Since mass
transportation is the next attack [as opposed to your car?],
when you travel to work have with you, a bottle of water,
a small
towel and
a flashlight." He
added helpfully.
If you are an idiot looking for some helpful liar to lull you
into a comfortable state of terror, look no further than here.
But if this sounds like eerily familiar alarmist garbage to
you, that's because it is. Although Fox's Web site is posting
the interview without a date (thus
implying currency) it
is actually two years old.
Now we're on 90 days + 640, are we allowed to call Aviv
a blowhard bullshitter who enjoys making an easy living out
of scaring morons? (Link to this)
WHO
WANTS TO LIVE FOREVER ANYWAY?
August
2, 2007
Another
bullshit artist in defense of American Health Exceptionalism.
But this one really should know better...
In
the latest National
Review Online, there's a particularly outstanding
piece of intellectual dishonesty by one preposterously-named
Theodore Dalrymple:
"According
to Sicko, Michael Moore’s film about health
care in America, the British and French sunbathe in the
cloudless uplands of universal state-funded health care,
while Americans
struggle horribly in a muddy swamp to pay exorbitant costs
for themselves. In particular, Moore’s portrayal
of Britain’s
National Health Service irritated me profoundly. Only someone
intent on telling a lie could have presented the situation
as he presented it."
Of
course, any one of our non-traveled wingnut apologists for
America's predatory "Health" "Care" "System" could
be excused for slamming Britain's system because they
don't know anything about it. But, as a Brit, what's this
prick's
excuse? (And, more to the point, how much
are the insurance company lobbyists paying him?)
As someone familiar with both the British
and American healthcare systems, Dalrymple should know
well that the NHS, for all its shortcomings,
is light years ahead of the crappy healthcare shell
game
foisted on Americans. For American working/middle
classes, it's a truism that, unless you're
rich or destitute, you'd better
not get sick. We
pay
hundreds
of dollars a month only to get shafted with expensive
co-pays and prescriptions and are often dumped by insurers
for actually
using their insurance (insurance companies
want your money, but they don't want to pay shit).
And there
are nearly
50 million Americans with no insurance at all
- a number that has risen by 7 million under the caring
stewardship of the Bush misadministration. By contrast,
Britain's universal healthcare system means that no-one
is without coverage and Brits live
longer than Americans. According
to the UK government:
"By 2002,
women who were aged 65 could expect to live to the age
of 84, while men could expect to live to the age of 81."
In
contrast, USA
Today trumpets:
"Declines
in death rates from most major causes — including heart
disease and cancer — have pushed Americans' life expectancy
to a record 77.6 years."
Of
course, the boneheaded apologists for the corporate hucksters
will argue around that disparity. Just as they
claim some kind of weird badge of pride in being the
only industrialized
nation in the world without universal healthcare, they'll
find some angle on living longer being unAmerican.
Although
Dalrymple writes "only
someone intent on telling a lie could have presented the
situation as he presented it" as an ad hominem attack
on Moore, he couldn't have used truer words to describe himself.
(Link
to this)
FUN
WITH SYNTAX
August
2,
2007
Could
anything sound more ironic than
this syntactically-challenged headline from NWCN.com?
(Link to this)
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