Liberal Repercussion

My Republican friend sent me a talking points memo. His memo in italics, my friend helped me with the response, interspersed.

Sometimes I feel like beating a Republican to death with a college history book. God help me.

Just the Facts

Franklin D. Roosevelt (Democrat) led us into World War II Germany never attacked us: Japan did. From 1941-1945, 450,000 lives were lost, an average of 112,500 per year.

Hitler declared war against us Dec. 11 1941. we did not formally attack them before this date. Germany was allied with Japan; when we declared war on Japan, we declared war on Germany and Italy as well.

But what I find curious, is that the author of this claptrap blastfax disagrees with the US going to War with Nazi Germany EVEN THOUGH they declared war on the U.S., conquered almost all of continental Europe, began mass exterminations of the Jews, attacked Russia and began an aerial bombardment of England with the intention of invading and conquering England as well?

Just checking.

After all, Hitler didn't have ANY plans to dominate the whole world; after the dust settled, we'd get along with him and his murderous Aryan horde just fine. After all, he behaved so... Republican.


Truman (Democrat) finished that war and started one in Korea. North Korea never attacked us. From 1950-1953, 55,000 lives were lost, an average of 18,333 per year.

Korea was an ally, through what became SEATO. Lousy stupid war, but what the hell. We got M*A*S*H* out of it, at least.

I believe that the Republican party overcame their well-known aversion to all things military and were 100% behind this war. I'm sure that Joe McCarthy and all those Soft-on-Communism Repugs really wanted to see South Korea become Communist.

(extreme sarcasm alert) After all, Republicans REALLY HATE Sun Myung Moon and everything he does, and they certainly don't want to see American manufacturing jobs exported to third-world dictatorships masquerading as democratic countries.


John F. Kennedy (Democrat) started the Vietnam conflict in 1962. Vietnam never attacked us.

ACTUALLY, EISENHOWER STARTED IT. by voiding the 1957 elections, using the US to set up a partition, THEN SENDING IN CIA AND SPECIAL OPS FORCES. WE HAD OUR PEOPLE IN NAM FROM BEFORE DIENBIENPHU.

The Republican position at that time was not "let's not attack Vietnam." The Republican position was "let's use atomic bombs."



Johnson (Democrat) turned Vietnam into a quagmire. From 1965-1975, 58,000 lives were lost, an average of 5,800 per year.

Kennedy sent advisors to 'Nam. It was Johnson (basically a good man, but could not see straight where the issue of "manliness" came into question) that turned Viet Nam into a bloodbath. He was, however, man enough to admit his error. He declined the Democratic Party nomination in 1968 and stepped down.

Do you remember 1968? I do. Seems President Richard Nixon (R) stated that "Any president who could not get out of Viet Nam in four years didn't deserve a second chance". Funny - that didn't seem to keep him from running again in 1972...

Quiz: Who was President from 1968 to 1975?

Extra Credit 1: a) Who invaded Cambodia and Laos? b) Did they attack us?

Extra Credit 2: What National Security advisor attempted to scuttle peace talks with the North Vietnamese in order to help his boss become President?



Clinton (Democrat) went to war in Bosnia without UN or French consent Bosnia never attacked us.

Correct. It was a NATO action. We did not need FRENCH or UN approval. We are members of NATO and as a member, joined in the ending of ethnic slaughter and cleansing.

Repeat: Kosovo was a NATO action that stopped a holocaust in progress. I keep forgetting how much Republicans like Genocide.

Ethnic cleansing was halted.
1.5 million ethnic Albanians returned to their homes.
An al-Qaida take over of Bosnia was prevented.
Not a single US soldier was killed in combat.
It was a proud moment in our history. We haven't had any of those since January 2001.

Note to the author of this witless hunk of Republican propaganda: HOLOCAUSTS ARE BAD.

He was offered Osama bin Laden's head on a platter three times by Sudan and did nothing.

Bullshit. As explained in Clarke's book, and independently verifiable if you do NEWS, the Sudanese were allied with Bin Laden and had no intention of giving him up.

Clinton tried for years to get Osama, but did not want to kill vast numbers of innocent bystanders.

Speaking of doing nothing, I got two words for Bushies: ANTHRAX TERRORIST. (But since that "terrorist" only mailed to Dems, he must not be a priority.)

Osama has attacked us on multiple occasions. In the two years since terrorists attacked us, President Bush has liberated two countries,

Bush has yet to liberate any nation. I'd hate to call the network of crime-lords running Afganistan and Iraq "governments of the people." YOU DEFINE ANARCHY IN IRAQ AS LIBERATION? HAHAHAHA.

crushed the Taliban, crippled al-Qaida,

We have military control of Kabul. Afganistan is not under control other than Kabul and could be hardly be deemed a total success.

al-Qaida is stronger than ever and has morphed into multiple independent organizations which can operate without central control. In western Pakistan, the most popular name for a newborn boy is "Osama."

al-Qaida seems to be quite healthy; ask the Spaniards if there is any doubt. Hundreds have been killed by al-Qaida since Afganistan.

Is the Taliban truly gone? Why doesn't Bush do a few more photo ops there. Has ANYONE complained about kicking the Taliban's butt? Anyone? Bueller? (I guess it was embarassing for the Bush administration, having given the Taliban a huge cash grant immediately before the attacks.)


...put nuclear inspectors in Libya, Iran and North Korea without firing a shot,

Pakistan has spread nuclear technology to Iran and North Korea and possibly to al-Qaida.

North Korea played a game of high-stakes poker while we were engaged elsewhere, and seems to be winning

Libya saw what kind of a windfall could be had and decided to swap their black hat for a white one.



and captured a terrorist who slaughtered 300,000 of his own people.

That "terrorist" must be Saddam - I am certainly not going to defend THAT piece of shit, but let's point out that Republican businessmen and Republican administrations not only sold him the technology of death, but conveniently turned their heads while he gassed his own people.

Bush II used Osama as an excuse to invade Iraq - where Osama WASN'T - and has KILLED over 10,000 CIVILIANS -- including women, children and elderly. He LIED us into a war that has created a thousand thousand bin Ladens, for no legitimate reason, apart from lust for oil and regional power.

There was no current rational reason to invade Iraq. They were contained by no fly zones and sanctions. Inspections were underway, leaving little, apparently NO opportunity for any weapons development.



We lost 600 soldiers, an average of 300 a year. Bush did all this abroad while not allowing another terrorist attack at home.


How many did American lives did Clinton lose? How many did Carter lose?

Republicans SCREAMED BLOODY MURDER when a handful of Special Forces troops were killed in the "Blackhawk Down" incident. But killing HUNDREDS of troops is somehow better?? Was another attack attempted on Clinton's watch? I don't think so...


Worst president in history? Come on!

You got it. Bush is the worst President in America's short history, bar none! Bush has done more to restrict liberty, assault the environment, and alienate the rest of the world than any president since, um, well, I'm sure there was one ALMOST as bad. Hoover was arguably worse.

There was some guy named Pierce, too, and Grant was passed out cold for his entire four years. It is possible Bush might do less harm if he WERE passed out cold, but I digress.

Bush certainly has the worst record of any Presiden since Hoover. Remember? The REPUBLICAN guy who steered us into the Great Depression, (which a Democrat got us out of.)

The short-sighed, ineffectual and greedy economic policies of the Bush Administration have lost MILLIONS OF JOBS HERE in the United States. And we haven't even talked in depth about his looting of the treasury yet.

On the plus side, things are great at Haliburton (*coff larcenous overbilling) and the Carlyle Group (particularly Poppy's secret Arabia Division.) Congratulations, that is truly a victory for the average American.

The entire world hates us. Our allies don't trust us. By conquering Iraq as Bin Laden predicted, we have played right into Al Queda's hands. In many countries, 90% of the population has a very unfavorable opinion of the US. AHEM, AND DID I MENTION JOBS?

Oh, and does it still sting when you think about the balance sheets of your 401K from the Clinton years? I thought so. Republicans got burned worse than us povs when Bush and Cheney talked down the market for their own cheap devices. I would think that once your wallets start weighing in, you guys would finally wise up and avoid the Kool-Aid.

posted by Rei Toei @ 10:30 p.m.