Ah, the sleazeballs

The folks at "Freedom Watch" ('scuze me while I puke) have launched a bunch of ads targeting districts where there might be waffling on Bush's war cause. I don't know whether I should scream or weep. I watched one with an amputee vet and I just wanted to cry for him and all like him but his invoking 9/11 in relation to the invasion and occupation of Iraq sent my mind reeling. I wanted to cry for him and say, "Son, Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11. Al Qaeda was not in Iraq until we invaded and now we've created a situation that recruits folks for AQ. You've been fed a load of bullshit and I feel so sorry for you thinking that withdrawing from Iraq now would make your sacrifice meaningless."

Life is complex. Messy. Untidy. And frequently damned uncomfortable. The reality is that any troop who sacrifices in service to our country must be honored for that commitment, that patriotism, that price paid. They will always be heroes in my eyes and what they do will always be meaningful. At the same time, every drop of blood spilled in George Bush's illegal, immoral, ill-advised, and disastrous war in Iraq is a drop that need not have been spilled and was thus a meaningless waste from the beginning. Both of these are true at the same time.

So I say we must uphold our troops and our vets with highest honor, gratitude, and--dammit--support (like seeing their benefits don't get cut and VA funding doesn't shrink and army hospitals like Walter Reed and VA facilities aren't falling apart; and how about getting up-armored vehicles to the troops in the field without the delay of cost-cutting that won't rush them by airlift--sweet suffering Savior, how callous and irresponsible can our government be?). At the same time we must not link some hypothetical and unobtainable "victory" in a hopeless situation and ongoing slaughter and sacrifice of American and Iraqi lives somehow with making American troops' sacrifice meaningful. It won't. It cannot. Nothing can redeem the horror that idiot in the Oval Office has unleashed. Nothing. It cannot be redeemed. It can only be stopped.

[Yeah, yeah, Jesus redeems, but our government isn't Jesus and Bush isn't God's anointed--what a blasphemy--so get over it and deal on a human level. God is not going to bless our sorry asses for what we are doing in Iraq. Jesus said blessed are the peacemakers, remember? Not the warmongers, the peacemakers. ]

Well, back to me almost weeping for this vet being used shamelessly by Bushco and their allies. I have since seen one of the ads while waiting in a tire shop yesterday.

NM-01, the district centered on Albuquerque where Heather Wilson (R--she of the weeping over Janet Jackson's breast fame) almost lost last November, is one of the targeted districts for this campaign. In fact, the one with the highest amount of advertising dollars when I looked the other day. I have not heard any news that she is likely to waffle on her long-standing support of Bush but I do hope she's been getting an earful from her constituents. (I get the most fatuous form letters from her people when I e-mail my opinions to her office.)

These ads, designed to drum up support for Georgie's war, call on folks to tell Congress how you feel. Only when you dial the number provided you get Freedom Watch, where they screen your opinion and only forward messages they like. Lower than pond scum, in my opinion.

Here is a little exposé for y'all, courtesy of the nice folks at Americans United:



--the cranky BB

Time for a giggle with a tiny little wiggle

An Australian safety ad on the topic of speeding. Enjoy.

(h/t to Dennis at Of Course I Could Be On Vacation... where you can read an entire article on the campaign)
--the BB