GET A LIFE DEPARTMENT: The Moderate Voice (shameless plug for a certain blog) is a tired voice after doing shows and driving from Ukiah, CA to Chico, CA where he is sending out this message and doing some limited posting. And he hates to yell but must say this: LIGHTEN UP!!
---The controversy over George Bush's satirical comments about weapons of mass destruction doesn't even deserve the Moderate Voice pushing his fingers (even his Simon Cowel finger) on this keyboard. So imagine his shock when he saw the Drudge Report item that the Kerry campaign is blasting Bush for his comments.
---I read this statement and realized that whoever wrote it is in the wrong business: he/she/it should be out posing in photos as the symbol of the Democratic Party, rather than issuing statements for a Democratic candidate.
---This sentence from the Kerry camp press release posted by Drudge sounds like a line from a bad Saturday Night Live sketch: "If George Bush thinks his deceptive rationale for going to war is a laughing matter, then he's even more out of touch than we thought. Unfortunately for the President, this is not a joke."
---Let's clarify the issue here: when any politician (Democrat or Republican) puts down their pompous persona long enough to take a poke at themselves, do a satirical comment echoing a serious criticism from the opposite side, they score some points with many voters.. Someone needs to take the Kerry camp (and Florida's Senator Bob Graham) and tell them: you ain't gonna win over swing voters or Republican voters by appearing petty. Examples:
--Republicans looked downright silly over the stink they raised some months ago over a joke about India told by Hillary Clinton. Suddenly Republicans, who (rightfully) decry political correctness were dumping on The World's Smartest Woman over a joke because it was politically incorrect. The individuals and websites that seriously ranted on about the joke are honorary members of The Moderate Voice's Get A Life Club.
--Al Gore's huffing and puffing while debating George Bush clearly turned off many voters who instinctively sensed that this guy not only took himself way too seriously but looked upon himself even more seriously than he TOOK himself.. and looked down on others. For blowing the election partly by turning off voters with a personality oozing self-importance, Gore has a SPECIAL CHAIR named for him in the Get a Life Club.
--The recent World Class Stink over John Kerry (GASP!) swearing while skiing (as if the folks shocked at that had not read history books that detail how politicos speak or President Bush's famous statement to advisors upon launching the Iraq war) led to many reporters, websites and blogs being named nominees in the Get A Life Club. With a tiny bit of work, they can get in, too!
---So, Senator Kerry: have the staffer who wrote the petty statement on Bush's satirical comments transferred to something more befitting his/her/its intelligence — like inserting politically correct words into all your speeches. Someone like me who is a swing voter thinks your "position" on this meaningless "issue" displays a sickening pettiness in attitude and a triviality in thinking that...makes you PERFECT to serve in Congress.
---OH: I'm not a Republican. I am increasingly reviled by Republicans (who think I'm a Democrat) and by Democrats (who think I am a Republican). I care about the people who died in the war. I'm indeed troubled about the economy. But I love satire (aimed at ALL sides) and think political correctness is to humor what terrorism is to democracy. On that I will never, EVER yield.
--JOE GANDELPERSON
"A sinister cabal of superior writers."
Article comments
1 - RJ Elliott
Well said. I have a bumper sticker (not on my car, yet) that reads: Political Correctness means always having to say you're sorry.
Humor is by nature politically incorrect. The PC police aren't exactly the most light-hearted bunch, as you may have noticed...
2 - Shark
Yeah, I can just imagine the parent or spouse of a dead GI yuckin' it up over Bush's joke.
Hardy har har. He's lookin' under the desk for those pesky, non-existent WMDs. ~ahahah!
We're at war, and Bush is a WINDOW LICKIN' MOTARD if he thinks that's funny.
3 - RJ Elliott
Phil Hendrie, to use one example, often indirectly makes fun of certain groups (the rich, the mentally retarded, stoners, etc.) to get laughs. And it is hilarious, at least to those groups not directly being mocked.
No, I doubt the families of the few hundred dead military personnel found much humor in it. They probably are not in a laughing mood right now. But the other 280 million people in the US probably did mind it amusing (if they saw it).
4 - Ms. Tek
I don't think it was funny at all. I think more than the families the few hundred dead military personnel didn't find much humor in it either.
It is one thing to make fun of yourself if it involves only yourself. In this case, due to a serious miscalculation, people have died.
Or to put it this way, if people started to make jokes about 9/11, I'm sure that would be considered pretty awful.
People died. That's not funny.
5 - bhw
It wouldn't be funny during any war for any reason! It's just not funny to joke that you went to war for no fucking reason, whether you believed you were right in the first place or not.
Joking about either a) an administration's knowingly false case for war or b) an administration's unknowingly false case for war [aka, our intelligence community doesn't know wtf it's doing -- feel safe yet?] is not funny to the 280 million Americans footing the god damned bill or to the families of the dead US soliders.
Christ on a cracker.
And I would say the same thing if someone comes back and said Clinton joked about, say, Mogadishu. He'd have been just as wrong and stupid.
6 - RJ Elliott
The WMD issue was not the sole issue in deciding to wage war against Saddam. It was the main issue when we sought foreign support, and it was a major issue when seeking domestic support.
But the point is, even without the WMD issue, I believe we would have invaded Iraq. There were numerous other issues involved.
For example, Saddam's history of using WMDs, his support for terrorists, his repeated attempts to shoot down US aircraft, his defiance of the UN, his slaughtering of his own people, his breaking the armistace he signed in 1991, his repeated invasions of neighboring countries, etc.
Iraq was an optional war. We did not have to invade. But the WMD issue was not the only reason to execute the official US policy (since 1998!) of regime change there.
Remember, Korea was an optional war too. And the first Gulf War. And Vietnam, and WWI, and...
7 - bhw
Sorry, but the only real reason given for the war was the deadly cache of WMDs that we just *knew* he had. That other stuff was irrelevant because even if you added it all up, nobody would have supported the war. Start jabbering about the "imminent threat" of WMDs and imply a 9/11 link, and some people go along with it. COngress would not have approved the war without it.
The WMDs were the sole pretense for the war. It is NOT funny that we found ZERO.
8 - RJ Elliott
As for the idea that "Bush lied" about WMD, that is clearly bogus. Pretty much everyone in the international community felt Saddam had WMD, not just Bush.
And if Bush was lying about it, if he knew that there was nothing there, then he would have also known that none would be found in the aftermath, and that this would be a huge political liability.
So why would he do it anyway? For oil, conquest, and Haliburton contracts? Simply to kill some Arabs? Why?
9 - RJ Elliott
"Sorry, but the only real reason given for the war was the deadly cache of WMDs that we just *knew* he had."
Not true.
"That other stuff was irrelevant because even if you added it all up, nobody would have supported the war."
Nobody? Or just a smaller percentage of the public?
"Start jabbering about the "imminent threat" of WMDs"
When did Bush do this?
"and imply a 9/11 link,"
I do not recall Bush saying Saddam was responsible for 9-11...
"and some people go along with it."
Er, actually, the vast majority went along with it...
"COngress would not have approved the war without it."
Maybe, maybe not. In 2002, Democrats were doing everything they could not to appear soft of terrorism. Some of them probably would have supported the invasion anyway. And the GOP would have overwhelmingly supported it anyway. So, we still have Congressional authorization to enact the official US policy of regime change in Iraq.
In other words, WMD was not the sole issue here. Not by a long shot.
"The WMDs were the sole pretense for the war."
Sigh...
"It is NOT funny that we found ZERO."
It's not funny that we found none, no. But the idea of the President looking under his bed for VX gas is sort of funny, if you aren't too uptight...
10 - bhw
Let's not repeat THIS dead horse.
The issue is whether or not the jokes about the non-existent [as opposed to missing, which implies that they're just lost] WMDs were funny. It doesn't matter if GWB knew beforehand or not: the jokes aren't funny. It is NOT funny that American soldiers are dying in this war based on the threat of WMDs or that the American taxpayers are shelling out $87 billion and counting.
11 - Ms. Tek
"Pretty much everyone in the international community felt Saddam had WMD, not just Bush."
Excuse me? Have you lived on the same planet as I have for the past three years?
You only have to go back an look at the UN discussions before the invasion of Iraq to know that this statement is false. What is worse is now it seems that the Bush and the Blair administrations knew this was false as well.
Maybe Israel thought he has WMDs... But Israel and Britain do not the majority of the international community make.
12 - bhw
But the idea of the President looking under his bed for VX gas is sort of funny, if you aren't too uptight...
Yes, that's right, I'm uptight because I don't find jokes about a non-existent pretense for war funny.
Reminder: DEAD AMERICAN SOLDIERS. NOT FUNNY. NOT FUNNY. NOT FUNNY.
Hey, I have an idea. Let's all go to the White House and joke with Laura Bush about non-existent brakes on cars that kill high-school friends.
Come on, if you're not too uptight, that's hilarious! *Missing* brakes, get it?
13 - RJ Elliott
Actually, I find that sort of funny. Though I doubt Laura does...
14 - bhw
It's not funny.
15 - Shark
Re: RJ's comment #9
Shark refutes everything RJ thinks he knows
STOP.
NOW.
DELUSIONAL.
BOY.
16 - Shannon
I don't think I ant my family/ friends fighting in Iraq if they arn't going to be taken seriously. PEOPLE SHOULD THINK..but Bush isn't used to that now is he?
17 - Shannon
I don't think I want my family/ friends fighting in Iraq if they aren't going to be taken seriously. PEOPLE SHOULD THINK..but Bush isn't used to that now is he?