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Saturday, July 31, 2004
What's that smell?
A John Kerry supporting friend of mine sent me This article (use borelando/snorelando thanks BugMeNot!) as a jab at my support for President Bush.

Do I smell a fisking?

The email seems to have just the "choice bits" cut out... all the more is the pity...
I have included the entire text that was sent to me in this post.


Subject: Charley Reese, conservative columnist

[Charley Reese is a conservative columnist who has just left his job as a regular contributor at the Orlando Sentinel. He's quite aware of his conservative reputation, as evidenced by this quote from his good-bye column in yesterday's paper


I never heard of this guy, but the arguments he uses are classic Kerry campaign...


["I thought I might answer a few questions. People often have asked how a columnist as conservative as I am could be published. I have you to thank for that. My readership numbers have always been very high. And that's the answer to your question."

[Now for the interesting part. Here's what Reese had to say on May 21, 2004. --A]
*****
Vote For A Man, Not A Puppet
by Charley Reese
May 21, 2004
http://reese.king-online.com/Reese_20040521/index.php

Americans should realize that if they vote for President Bush's re-election, they are really voting for the architects of war - Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and the rest of that cabal of neoconservative ideologues and their corporate backers.

I have sadly come to the conclusion that President Bush is merely a frontman, an empty suit, who is manipulated by the people in his administration. Bush has the most dangerously simplistic view of the world of any president in my memory.

Bush is an idiot and the evil overlord (Dick Cheney) is really running the country. If only that we really true, fiscal and social conservatives would be supporting the ticket without "holding their nose".

If you vote for Bush you are stupid.


It's no wonder the president avoids press conferences like the plague. Take away his cue cards and he can barely talk. Americans should be embarrassed that an Arab king (Abdullah of Jordan) spoke more fluently and articulately in English than our own president at their joint press conference recently.

John Kerry is at least an educated man, well-read, who knows how to think and who knows that the world is a great deal more complex than Bush's comic-book world of American heroes and foreign evildoers. It's unfortunate that in our poorly educated country, Kerry's very intelligence and refusal to adopt simplistic slogans might doom his presidential election efforts.

But Thomas Jefferson said it well, as he did so often, when he observed that people who expect to be ignorant and free expect what never was and never will be.

Bush is stupid and talks funny. Kerry is very smart. BTW: He served in Veitnam.

The world is much to complex and has too much nuance for Bush to understand. Americans are so dumb that they will vote for Bush because Kerry is to smart for their liking.


People who think of themselves as conservatives will really display their stupidity, as I did in the last election, by voting for Bush. Bush is as far from being a conservative as you can get. Well, he fooled me once, but he won't fool me twice.

It is not at all conservative to balloon government spending, to vastly increase the power of government, to show contempt for the Constitution and the rule of law, or to tell people that foreign outsourcing of American jobs is good for them, that giant fiscal and trade deficits don't matter,

If you are a conservative, firstly you are stupid, secondly you should vote for Kerry because Bush is not acting "conservative enough". This is like saying "I want a guy from New Hampshire, so I am voting for the guy from Texas because Boston isn't close enough".

and that people should not know what their government is doing. Bush is the most prone-to-classify, the most secretive president in the 20th century. His administration leans dangerously toward the authoritarian.


See! Even a "Conservative Columnist" says Bush = Hitler!


It's no wonder that the Justice Department has convicted a few Arab-Americans of supporting terrorism. What would you do if you found yourself arrested and a federal prosecutor whispers in your ear that either you can plea-bargain this or the president will designate you an enemy combatant and you'll be held incommunicado for the duration?


Has this ever happened? Really? Come on now... Really?

I would like, just once, for someone accusing this administration of Arab baiting or how awful the Patriot Act is to show one example. It is the height of racism to make these kinds of accusations without proof of any kind.


This election really is important, not only for domestic reasons, but because Bush's foreign policy has been a dangerous disaster. He's almost restarted the Cold War with Russia and the nuclear arms race. America is not only hated in the Middle East, but it has few friends anywhere in the world thanks to the arrogance and ineptness of the Bush administration. Don't forget, a scientific poll of Europeans found us, Israel, North Korea and Iran as the greatest threats to world peace.

Restarted the cold war? the arms race? huh? What is this guy smoking? The cold war is over; we won (thank to Ronny). You have to be able to compete in order to have a race; the Russians are a 3rd rate power. They might rise to the status of Saudi Arabia once they get their oil industry running, until then they are 3rd world.

Let's see...

1967: America is hated in the Middle East
1976: America is hated in the Middle East
1980: America is hated in the Middle East
1992: America is hated in the Middle East
2000: America is hated in the Middle East
2004: America is hated in the Middle East, except for in most of Iraq

Looks like progress to me.

Here is a question for the Anti-War/ANSWER crowd:

You like to say that North Korea/Iran are bigger threats than Iraq and that is the reason we should have gone to war in Iraq. Honestly, I mean really think about it, would you have supported a war in Iran or North Korea? I suspect you would be saying the same things now if the target would have been different. It is disingenuous to make that statement. Now for the meat... Is it possible that we could "influence" Iran by taking out a neighbor in a ridiculously short time? Hmmmmm....


I will swallow a lot of petty policy differences with Kerry to get a man in the White House with brains enough not to blow up the world and us with it. Go to Kerry's Web site (www.johnkerry.com) and read some of the magazine profiles on him. You'll find that there is a great deal more to Kerry than the GOP attack dogs would have you believe.

Petty policy differences? If this guy really is a conservative he has a whole lot of policy differences.



Besides, it would be fun to have a president who plays hockey, windsurfs, ride motorcycles, plays the guitar, writes poetry and speaks French. It would be good to have a man in the White House who has killed people face to face. Killing people has a sobering effect on a man and dispels all illusions about war.


Wouldn't it be more fun for a guy like this to have a President that falls off bikes, jogging paths and Segways. BTW: John Kerry served in Vietnam, killed people and got 3 purple hearts. Did you know that? Have a look here to see what the men who were led by Senator Kerry think of him.

"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure."
-Clarence Darrow



*****

© 2004 by King Features Syndicate, Inc.

They can have him...


So, to sum up...

Bush is dumb, Kerry is smart.
Bush tramples on your civil rights.
Kerry served in Vietnam.
Bush = Hitler.
By going to war in Iraq, Bush ruined our wonderful reputation in the Middle East.
Kerry is a war hero.
Bush is stupid.
Bush almost restarted the cold war.
Kerry does cool stuff and speaks French.

I don't know about you, but I am convinced!


UPDATE: In case you don't belive the line "Except in most of Iraq", see this post from Iraq Blogger Mohammed at Iraq:The Model
(Hat Tip:Dean)


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