Posted on 06/02/2005 8:11:41 PM PDT by kcvl
Hurting Your Country
By: Bill O'Reilly for BillOReilly.com Thursday, Jun 02, 2005
So how did the USA go from being a beacon of freedom to a champion of the gulag? How exactly did that happen? Well, pull up a chair, here's what happened.
After President Bush won re-election last November, there was much consternation among some powerful anti-Bush Americans. They were stunned that John Kerry lost and feared that if Bush succeeds in his second term, the Democrats would lose again in 2008.
Then came the successful election in Iraq, and the fear on the left multiplied. If Iraq turned out to be a success, Mr. Bush would become a hero. So the need to undermine the Bush administration became more intense than ever. But how to do it? Social Security wasn't emotional enough, particularly for young voters. What could be done to hurt Bush?
Then came the revelation--let's torture the President.
The New York Times had already primed the pump, running more than 50 front-page stories on the abuses at Abu Ghraib. Then came reports from the International Red Cross that more abuse was happening at Guantanamo. The American Civil Liberties Union was already challenging detentions there and so a strategy was sealed: the Bush administration was full of torturers and human rights violators. It was ruining America's reputation throughout the world. Bush was a villain.
It was easy to get that thesis out. The left-wing websites fed anti-Bush columnists like Bob Herbert and Richard Cohen information and the drumbeat intensified. There was torture and abuse and murder all sanctioned by the evil Bush administration. Article after article appeared and soon some TV people followed along. It didn't take long before the torture seed was fully sown.
The Newsweek debacle slowed things down a little, but the anti-Bush press quickly banded together and pronounced that Newsweek's mistake would never have happened if Bush wasn't torturing everybody. I'm sure you read those opinion pieces, as they appeared in liberal newspapers all over the country. The theme and wording was so similar that one person could have written all of those articles. And that was no accident.
All the while this was happening, the President and his crew were doing what they usually do when the press pounds them: nothing. They did not engage the abuse propaganda until it was obvious Newsweek had screwed up. But even that effort was derided by many in The White House press corps, who chided the administration for scolding Newsweek.
Now the torture theme has new momentum. A liberal federal judge in New York City has ruled the Defense Department must release more photos and videos of Abu Ghraib to the ACLU. Of course, that will incite even more hatred against the USA and put our soldiers in more danger but, hey, politics comes before protecting the troops. The anti-Bush people want those pictures almost as badly as Al Jazeera wants them. Another nail in the President's coffin is more important than bodies in real coffins.
If you think I am exaggerating, I assure you I am not. This torture campaign is being run brilliantly, and if Mr. Bush doesn't wise up soon, he will be bloodied just as Lyndon Johnson was in the Vietnam debacle.
The truth is that abuse has occurred, but on a relatively small scale. According to General Richard Myers, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the U.S. has detained about 68,000 people since 9/11 (most have been released), and there have been 325 investigations into alleged abuse. At this writing, about 100 cases of wrongdoing have been substantiated.
That's not a big number, but it doesn't matter to the anti-Bush cabal, which understands that perception is reality in a nation where "reality programming" is the rage of the day. If you can sell the nation that America is now a war criminal, President Hillary Clinton is a real possibility.
So there you have it. For the anti-Bush folks, it is simple: no pain, no gain. Torture is selling and the media is buying. For those of you who are appalled by this analysis, I can only say one thing: sometimes the truth, like torture, hurts.
I think that there are more people out there that would vote for her out of shear ignorance than we'd like to admit. She has Madonna like transformational powers. I just hope we have a good candidate next time out.
Do you mean like the millions that were rushed through when Clinton was running for reelection? The program that was run by Algore? If anyone thinks Hillary Clinton cares about our borders, I have some Whitewater to sell them.
That is my point! Bush wasn't willing to run a dirty campaign like the Clintons. And the OLD MEDIA knew it and did everything they could to help elect "their swinger" candidate, the draft dodger. It worked with everyone thinking they were being told the truth. Little did people know they were about to live through eight years of hell and lies and being told daily what a great job the Clintons were doing. SPIT!
"Do you mean like the millions that were rushed through when Clinton..."
I'm not familiar with these millions. I was trying to say that most Americans probably don't care very much what happens to prisoners. They care more about what's happening in their backyards. Now maybe those millions you're talking about have been here since '96 but they didn't have their own soccer league back then (at least not here in Red Springs, NC).
I understand completely. I too am sick of the ILLEGALS no matter which party is ignoring the problem.
I have seen Jim come to Hannity's defense, and it wasn't all that long ago. Had to do with Hannity saying something negative about FR... about some of the posts being too right wing and yearning for the days of long ago banned posters. Howlin will recall this.
So .. I was right from the beginning .. the "impeach Bush" has been the Hillary agenda from the beginning. Just keep yelling prison abuse and impeachment in the same sentences long enough and the MoveOn group will be on board.
What's funny is Teddy is the one who's pushing the prison photo stuff and I'm surprised he would do anything which might help Hillary.
Amen to that... Unfortunately, both parties are ignoring the problem. Errr... scratch that... they're ingnoring the voter's concerns. Instead they're making sure ballots are available in Spanish or that there's Spanish speaking aid workers at the poles!
O'Reilly is right on. That's their strategy.
He certainly did!
bookmark
September 14, 2004
Toledo, OH – John Kerry issued the following statement in response to the release of Amnesty International USA's report - "Threat and Humiliation: Racial Profiling, Domestic Security and Human Rights in the U.S.":
http://tinyurl.com/crrac
Yeah, Poppa Bush was way too kind and only got "dirty" (or dusty) too late.
Atwater was dead and G W must have been on a binge.
Frankly, people didn't care what they were going to live through and most still think it was nirvana or the utopia of their dreams to this day because we all know Clinton was only "taken down" by the VRWC of lies against his ever brilliant governance of us lowly masses ever grateful to have such a benevolent king...and queen.
Fear not. Those days are over. And while it is disheartening that the left can still muster 58 million idiots to vote in the big cities, that can't last. By '08 they will keep losing a lot of their base in the black community, middle class whites, blacks and hispanics, the seniors and the young. All demographics for them are dwindling.
But then again, we are talking the GOP and we know their tendency to lose when the advantage is theirs.
Great back and forth tonight. I thank you for the stimulation. I'm off for another day. Many regards.
bump
I missed that, if someone finds it a link would be appreciated. That must be around the time a flood of anti-Hannity threads appeared. As a result, Hannity did some FR bashing of his own on his radio show. I didn't hear that either, I'm going by what I read and heard elswhere.
yes, we do. Joe Scarboruough had a segment with video on it this week. A florida woman tasered because she would not unbelt herself (they tasered her twice, a second time after she was in agony on the ground), another for not dropping her cell phone, a pregnant woman tasered in Seattle for not signing a traffic ticket. and on and on. Its happening EVERY DAY to americans at traffic stops, and not to violent felons either - just over disputes regarding the summonses.
Start here: http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/user-posts?id=1
Just keep going to "older posts" --- I would do the searching for you, but we've had a FReepathon in between, and I just don't have the time to spare searching right now.
these are not people who are attacking the police officer. the 8 month pregnant seattle woman simply did not want to sign the ticket.
the comparison I am making, for purposes of this thread, is between tasering an american for not signing a ticket, and taking a photo of a terror suspect in some kind of human pyramid. one is "torture" as defined by the MSM, while what was done to the woman in seattle is "OK".
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