I, Vermin From Under Rock

The Village Voice | 03-30-04 | George Smith

[WL-law]

P.S. - Here are some of the e-mails that George Smith has received:

You idiot, you fop, you scumbag who never served a day in the U.S. military . . .

* "You're an idiot. . . . Your drivel will fade into obscurity and you'll grow to be an old angry man. Richard Clarke has done more for the victims of 9/11 than Bush ever will. Iraq was a lie and everyone knows it but you."

"An important indicator of a psychopath is that they keep lying, even though their lies have been exposed. Happy neocon dreams to you. . . . "

". . . nice one smith . . . people like you are part of the problem with america—not part of the solution."

"It sounds like you are a republican. . . . Most all of the people that was in on the change over from Clinton said that they told 'W' all about the terror attacks. Was you there?"

"It didn't take long for the white house attack dogs. . . . This is how this president and his men kill the opposition. Freedom of speech . . . only if you dont want to be savaged by Bushes Pitbulls Congratulations . . . your milk bone and muzzle are on the way."

" . . . Hadley looked like a liar and more than a little creepy."

"For you to write this just means you are a blind Bush lover. As a Canadian (just like our PM) I hate the lier. . . . I don't understand how half your population is so stupid."

"Think of all the computer viruses out there and look at them as terrorist threats because that's what they are. . . . These crimes outpace physical terrorists. . . . "

"Around 2010, the combination of military expenditures and social entitlements will bankrupt this country, another French mistake called the French Revolution. A third French mistake? VIETNAM."

"I have been compelled to write you about this article, because there is something you missed and it is very important. You mentioned . . . [a] cruise missle strike on Al Qaeda in Afghanistan in 1998. . . . You did not mention . . . that those cruise missles, (the ones that missed) that were left intact, were subsequently sold by bin Laden to China. . . . China has reverse engineered those cruise missles, and produced comparable weapons [which] have now been sold to Iran, and North Korea. I cannot prove this information, but I do know that this is a widely held belief/fact within the intelligence community."

". . . you chickenshits . . ."

" . . . I am 24 years old and a former Force Recon Marine, with service in Kosovo and Sierra Leone. I know a fair amount about counter terrorisim. . . . [Clarke] of course is EXTREMELY worrisome to fat pussy Republicans such as yourself who have your heads stuck so far up Bush's ass, you can taste his lunch. America now knows that George Bush is a faggot . . . and is a moron. . . . You are a scumbag and a shit eater, and obviously have never served a day in the US Military."

"How I hope [your column] is more widely declared than the '60 Minutes' piece. Oh, how the lust for power corrupts!!!"

"I couldn't bring myself to watch Democrat attack dog Leslie [Stahl]. I'm sure she asked leading questions to Mr. Clarke . . . "

" . . . Beware the viciousness of a smug elitist masking as a democrat. . . . Thanks again for setting the record straight. . . . The mainstream media never exposes the motives of their own kind. . . . "

" . . . [Thank] you for doing the nation an important service. . . . "

[OpusatFR]

Look at it this way.

There are 280,000,000 people in the US. If 10% are absolute nimrods, that's 28,000,000.

More than enough to supply a constant stream of idiocy in this campaign.

[TradicalRC]

This article and the articles associated with it should be academic text for how reactionary the whole spectrum of politics has gotten.

A little research and a little nuance would do us all some good.

Too little knowledge is a dangerous thing.

[ijcr]

Poor guy...a Republican for a day and pow! He is innundated with love notes from the tolerant left.

Can you imagine the love notes Cal Thomas,Charles Krauthammer et al get...There has to be a book here.

[Congressman Billybob]

You are, regretably, way low in your estimate of "nimrods" in the US. A classic book that I reread from time to time is The American Voter by Campbell, Stokes and Miller. The very thorough research in that book concluded that 20% of the people who actually voted for President in 1952 and 1956 were in Category D.

What is Category D, I hear you cry? That is people who had no ideological content in their vote, no selfish personal interest, no articulated reason why they bothered to vote. Sample interviews are in the book, and one of these people said, "Well, as long as somebody won..." without caring who won.

So, half a century ago the percentage of nimrods was 20. Given the dumbing down of American education since then, the nimrod proportion HAS to have increased.

Congressman Billybob

Click here, then click the blue CFR button, to join the anti-CFR effort (or visit the "Hugh & Series, Critical & Pulled by JimRob" thread). Please do it now.

[syriacus]

So, is Smith saying his old column was filled with lies?

[JusPasenThru]

Nuance. In Qerry's context, that must be a synonym for "confused". Example: I drove downtown but I never could find the store because I got nuanced.

[big gray tabby]

I'll give him this: He's a fine writer.

[camas]

a cruse missile....sold by bin laden to china....

i don't know about this but in June of 1998 clinton was summoned to china. i say summoned because i can't remember a president going overseas and visiting just one country. in august he order the C M attack of which at least one soft landed in Pakistan (this was shown on TV). as Pakistan is china's buddy you can guess where they went. and one year later china started testing there home grown cruse missile.

who knows

[TradicalRC]

Okay, well now I Am confused.

[OpusatFR]

You owe me some Prozac...

[JusPasenThru]

No, not confused. Just nuanced.

[thoughtomator]

Yeah I remember that chain of events... we basically handed the highest bidder an intact cruise missile to reverse engineer at leisure.

One wonders why he didn't simply hand them the tech through corporations, like he did with other techs. I seem to remember a US satellite that China failed to launch... did we ever get the pieces of that satellite back?

[TradicalRC]

Okay, I give up what's your point or did you simply not understand my point?

[an amused spectator]

Media Schadenfreude ping - A Member Of The Sinister Media Catches Some Friendly Fire

Angst strikes the Village.

On, Off, or grab it for a Media Shenanigans/Schadenfreude ping:
http://www.freerepublic.com/~anamusedspectator/

[JusPasenThru]

Man, I'm thoroughly nuanced at this point.

[cyncooper]

"Just saw the plug by Rush . . . Congrats!" wrote a professional acquaintance with dry humor. "It is a shame, though, that your piece should be placed in the service of evil."

So to these types evil isn't evil, fact lovers are evil.

Says it all.

[TradicalRC]

You know, two of my uncles recently got married and guess what? I have two nuance.

[weegee]

To hear the media tell it, only rabid right wing conservatives send such violent hate filled emails. Those examples cited look like Democratic Underground talking points.

[Zack Nguyen]

That's an interesting point, Congressman, but I might argue that the number of people who "flip a coin" and vote has decreased. I was told the other day by a Republican campaign official that the true number of "swing" voters has dropped to 7% of the electorate.

Though very few consider the issues like you and I, I think the common voter is more ideologically motivated than at any time since the post-Civil War period. They may not be able to explain their preference in bullet-point fashion, but they have a clear idea of which candidate reflects their moral worldview.