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Utah GOP is Embarassed by Self


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Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson is organizing a protest of President Bush's visit to Utah. The state GOP party is airing ads on radio stations and leaving voice mail messages urging Republicans to call city hall and complain. So far, the campaign has only resulted in a paltry 300 phone calls. Anderson has said that "Given the nastiness of some of these people, it actually just bolsters my resolve."
You have to hand it to Republicans, they are doing everything humanly possible to screw up this year. I saw a post on DailyKos the other day saying that the GOP was pulling funding out of very competitive House races and dumping it on what they consider one of their safest seats to ensure it doesn't become competitive itself, handicapping their own guys when they need that funding the most.

Now we have the GOP spending money on ads in Utah of all places in an impudent attempt to get back at somebody they don't like when they should be joining forces with Anderson and protesting the presence of the guy that is single handily costing them control of Congress.

A lot of Republicans running for reelection this year are running away from the President, we all know that. Many of them have gone so far as to remove any instance of the word 'Republican' from their websites.

Natalie Maines statement during a concert that she was embarrassed that Bush was from Texas resulted in death threats for her and the Dixie Chicks. Anyone remember that? People told her they were going to kill her. Free speech? Only if you're Republican. Free speech? Only if you're Christian. Free speech? Only if you love Bush.

So what is the next step, I wonder. Do Republican citizens threaten to kill Anderson too? Is that what loving America means? They accuse us of hating America because we don't support the overly invasive USA Patriot Act (that many Republicans later also fought against when it came up for renewal, by the way). They accuse us of being terrorist sympathizers because we want the unjust and illegal occupation of Iraq to come to an end.

And then they threaten to murder a band for saying they are embarrassed of the guy that has divided the country like no other human being ever has since the civil war.

"He's using the people of Utah and using his position as mayor to draw national attention to himself. It's clear he wants to be a national figure. It's clear he's using his office to get there", says Utah Republican Party Executive Director Jeff Hartley. And this is different from Mitt Romney using his Governorship in Mass. as a launching pad for a run at the White House how?

It's not of course, but he's a Republican, and they don't have to play by the same rules that the rest of us do. Why do you think they are on the precipice of demotion to the minority in this country? Americans are sick of them acting like teenagers. "Do what I say, not do what I do" is the national motto of the Republican party. If you don't agree with us, then you're the devil. Only today it's 'terrorist', and 'America hater' instead of 'devil'. Different times, same old story.

Hartley wants to make a statement to the state of Utah that the state of Utah "disagree with his behavior." Way to usurp the citizens right to speak out on their own, Jeff. Funny how nobody ever calls Republicans on crap like that. In one swoop Hartley has declared that the entire state disagrees with Anderson, and he wants the entire state that supposedly already disagrees with him to know that it disagrees with him.

A bit confused? Me too. That's conservative spin at its finest for you, because people won't read it that deep. All they hear is "Utah disagrees and we want everyone to know it." That's not true, and the fact that the best the state GOP could do is muster 300 calls in a state with over 2.2 million people living in it says much about how little anyone cares about the protest, and how little anyone cares about what Bush is doing to screw up our country next.

Here I am wondering just what was in the content of these radio ads that the GOP is running. My first guess would have been something along the lines of attacking the guy for wasting tax dollars organizing protests instead of doing...things mayors do. But that's not what happened. Attacking problems head-on is not the Republican way of doing things. Fallacies abound in this one I'm afraid.
The GOP radio ad intones that the threat to the United States by terrorists is real, "and the choice is clear. Do we do whatever it takes to win the war on terror? Or do we embolden the terrorists with a cut-and-run strategy? Mayor Rocky Anderson has made his decision. He's invited professional protester Cindy Sheehan to Utah to convince you that America should retreat."
Ain't that something? So many fallacies, so little time.

Who are the terrorists? Al-Qaeda, or Republicans? Think about it. Terrorism is not about blowing up trains or crashing planes into buildings or even killing people. It is about instilling constant fear in the lives of people. The killing is just a means to an end.

Terrorists want you to be afraid of riding airplanes. So do Republicans.
Terrorists want you to be afraid to ride trains. So do Republicans.
Terrorists want you to be afraid of your neighbors. So do Republicans.

Don't believe it? Look at the radio ad again:
The GOP radio ad intones that the threat to the United States by terrorists is real, "and the choice is clear. Do we do whatever it takes to win the war on terror? Or do we embolden the terrorists with a cut-and-run strategy? Mayor Rocky Anderson has made his decision. He's invited professional protester Cindy Sheehan to Utah to convince you that America should retreat."
"The threat to the United States by terrorists is real." Who said it isn't? Nobody, it's a straw man fallacy. They imply that we don't think it's a real problem, forcing us to defend it, even though we didn't even say it. Fear. They want us to be afraid of terrorists. A good President and good national leadership would want its citizens to feel confident that the government can protect them; would want them not to live in fear.

"Do we do whatever it takes to win the war on terror? Or do we embolden the terrorists with a cut-and-run strategy?"

Again, terror. Fear. Do we do whatever we have to win the war on drugs terror? Do we give up those things that make us who we are in order to win at all costs, the greatest mistake ever to be made? Another fallacy: if we do anything other than what the Republicans say we should do, it emboldens the bad guys. The Republican way is the only way. If you disagree, you help them, you are them.

And cut-and-run? Dozens of Republicans are saying that a pullout is the only thing left to do now. Are Republicans for the cut-and-run strategy? Are people within the GOP emboldening terrorists right now? Why haven't we arrested them? Why aren't they having their phones tapped? Isn't George Bush in favor of a cut-and-run strategy? He has said recently that a downsizing of our forces in Iraq may be called for. George Bush and the Republican party stand for fear, incompetence, and hypocrisy.

Only not really, since that's a stupid and childish way to frame a very complex and horrific situation. The truth is that the reason nobody can seem to come up with a solid plan to deal with the situation in Iraq is because there isn't one to be had. Neither Republicans nor Democrats can magically come up with a solution, because it's essentially a no-win scenario for us. Iraq can solve its own problems from within, we can't do it for them, even though we created the problem in the first place. Democrats knew this a long time ago. We knew that if we went into that country and occupied it, this is what would happen. Our alternative solution to fix Iraq that Republicans keep saying we don't have was never go in there in the first place. We knew better. We said it all along. We were ignored, and now we're basically screwed no matter what we do. Thanks George!

"Mayor Rocky Anderson has made his decision. He's invited professional protester Cindy Sheehan to Utah to convince you that America should retreat."

Republicans in Congress argue that we should retreat. Generals in the military argue that we should retreat. Every Democrat in the country, over 150,000,000 people, argue that we should retreat. What the **** are you waiting for?

As for Sheehan, I had a great deal of respect for the woman when she initially began protesting Bush while he was on one of his many vacations. (As a side note, we should probably stop complaining that George Bush has spent more time on vacation than any other President ever, because he can't continue to rape and destroy our country while he's on vacation, at least.) I think she's gone a bit far in attacking people who are stuck in the middle. There is a very real problem with just pulling out of Iraq.

With no solid military and police force of its own, if we pull out, Iraq is going to degenerate into a third-world country overrun not by terrorists, but warlords, like Somalia. No recognized government at all, just famine and a constant state of real civil war. That's the real danger here, terrorists have nothing to do with Iraq, they never did. The real downside to pulling out is finishing the job we started of turning Iraq into a desolate piece of crap where everyone is starving to death. But that's not as sexy as Osama, is it? So we don't hear about that. We don't hear the truth.

Sheehan attacks anyone that isn't for instant pullout, and that's wrong. She's wrong. But the woman is entitled to her opinion, and god damn Republicans for attacking her for speaking out and labeling her. George Bush hasn't lost his daughters, his brother or his wife in Iraq, neither has Hartley. Cindy Sheehan has lost her son in an illegal war. The kid is dead and he ain't coming back. How dare they attack her for speaking out. It doesn't matter if you disagree with her, every citizen has a right to speak -- not just legally -- the right to speak without being shouted down by the lesser among us.

Utah is essentially a lost cause. "..a poll commissioned by The Salt Lake Tribune that shows 45 percent of Utahns believe anti-war demonstrators such as Anderson and Sheehan "aid the enemies of the U.S." It's pretty hard to argue against that level of ignorance. These people are arguing that the First Amendment aids our enemies. These people argue that the free debate of ideas should not be tolerated, that this should no longer be a free society.

I have news for you crazy people: these First Amendment protected protests are just about the only difference between us and them. They have crime, we have crime. They have religious leaders that are intolerant of non-believers, we have religious leaders that are intolerant of non-believers. They act in the name of God, our leaders act in the name of God.

If you try to wipe it away, you'll be doing their job for them. Lock down our freedom, toss it out the window. "They hate our freedom" says Bush. Oh really? Then why is it you find conservative Republicans in this country constantly trying to toss the Constitution out the window, the very provider of those freedoms? Who really holds them in disdain, the terrorists who blow up planes and want us to be afraid, or the Republicans who violate our rights, freedoms, civil liberties AND want us to be afraid.

I choose neither. I choose sanity. I'm a citizen of the United States and a proud member of the Democratic party, and this fall, it's going to be our turn. Beat that with a stick.

Source and quotations.
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Aug 29, 2006, 7:14:00 PM
Im pretty sure we aint getting shit. Check out the govenor race for Texas!

About the same there...


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