Saturday, June 17, 2006

Suffering from Rove Rage

You know, it's strange. I spent twenty-one years in the military. I've had three kids (two of them are twenty and technically adults; one is sixteen and technically a pain in the ass). It takes a lot to make me angry. I've been yelled at by experts. I've been lied to, in my face, by both experts and complete amateurs. I've hunkered down in fox holes, wondering if the next bomb would drop just a little bit too close. I've watched inexperienced, uncaring idiots try to destroy the country that gave me life.

And I'm pretty placid.

I know about the morons wandering through America. I can even rail against them. But, for the most part, I don't really get carried away with my feelings. It takes a lot to make me really angry. I see the morons, I wonder at their ability to ignore simple logic, but it's been years since I've felt the heat rising to my face, felt my blood pressure rising, and been unable to control my anger over the injustices being perpetrated by an uncaring government.

On the other hand, I left the Air Force because George Bush got reelected.

For entirely logical reasons, of course. I felt that it was time to get out of the military. I'd been to Iraq, and I hadn't had to kill anyone. And I didn't want to take the chance that I would end up going back and killing an Iraqi, who would be attacking people invading his country - in other words, doing for his country exactly what I'd be trying to do for mine if our situations were reversed.

(Yes, I understand that there are outside forces at work in Iraq. But there are also people born in Iraq, who see Americans as the evil bastards who attacked them, destroyed their country, and started torturing and killing innocent Iraqi people. And those are the people I wouldn't want to shoot.)

However, just like everybody else, I'm a prisoner of my upbringing. My father was a career Army officer: a West Point graduate, from a time when they were still able to instill ethics in their officers. And then I became a non-commissioned officer myself, with a certain inherited sense of history and ethics.

So you might (or might not) understand that I hate to be lied to. It’s a flaw in my character, but one that I can't really control that well. Liars and hypocrites bother me, and I find myself automatically disliking them.

When you couple that minor quirk in my personality with a barely-perceptible pride in my military background, and you end up with a convergence of attitudes that, to be honest, rarely intrudes on my life.

Until Karl Roves stands up and talks.

The man is bad enough when he stays behind the scenes. He's one of those lower life forms that do well in politics. He likes to play his little games, lying about people and setting up his little tricks. And he seems to be pretty good at it, until he starts to make speeches.

Karl Rove's entire career has been built around dirty politics. Any history of his career mentions him sneaking in to the headquarters of Illinois Democrat Alan Dixon, stealing some official letterhead, and sending out a thousand invitations to a party at the Democrat's headquarters, promising "free beer, free food, girls and a good time for nothing." (This was in 1970, before home computers and printers, when "letterhead stationary" meant a lot more than it does today.)

Or in 1986, Rove was working for Republican Bill Clements. Right before a debate between Clements and Democrat Mark White, Rove told reporters that the Democrats had bugged his office. Oddly enough, the battery in the bug was so small that it needed to be changed every few hours, and it had just been changed out before Rove showed it to the press. The police and FBI dropped the investigation. But White's reputation was shot, and he subsequently lost the election.

With just a little bit of research, you start to see that Karl Rove has a long history of dishonesty and double-dealing. But let's look at more recent news.

Rove gave a speech in New Hampshire a week ago, where he accused Democrats of being cowards.

(Nor is this the first time that he crawled out from under his rock and called Democrats cowards and traitors. Odd how that works: if you disagree with Bush's policies, there's no way that you could just have a difference of opinion. You must immediately be labeled a traitor. Or a Nazi. Strange, that...)

Let's consider the words of that brave leader of men, Karl Rove.
"When it gets tough, they fall back on that party's old platform of cutting and running," he said. "They may be with you for the first few bullets but they won't be there for the last tough battles."
But strangely enough, despite his strong words about patriotism and bravery, when Karl Rove had the opportunity to go to war himself, he ran away.

While my father, a man with a wife and three children, was spending two tours in Vietnam, Karl Rove was dodging the draft. He took student deferments when he wasn't a full-time student. He moved and didn't notify the draft board.

Of course, he isn't the only one. George Bush has never been able to document his time in the National Guard. Dick Cheney took five deferments to get out of Vietnam. Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz - even the Republican's unelected spokesman, Rush Limbaugh, avoided the draft because of a boil on his butt (OK, technically a pilonidal cyst, but I'm too busy resisting any "pain in the ass" jokes to make a medical diagnosis).

And that's where my problem with lying starts to kick in. If a pasty-faced coward like Karl Rove is going to stand up there and talk about bravery, maybe he should reach down and see if he has testicles of his own.

Karl Rove didn't have the courage to stand up for his country for "the first few bullets," much less "the last tough battles." It's time for him to shut the hell up.

20 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hear hear! Now THIS is what every chicken hawk needs to understand and understand FAST. Great post.

Anonymous said...

Great post! I too am suffering from 'rove-rage'. Although I have not served in the military, I have a brother who was in the army during the gulf war and my best friend had 2 of her sons in Iraq for two tours each. Your post should be mandatory reading for all the rightwingers who still dont get it. Thank you for your service and dedication to our country.

Anonymous said...

I am a Vietnam Vet and think the Rove should be muzzled

laura linger said...

Bill...I like you blog an awful lot. So much, in fact, that I featured it today over on my blog, The Bossa Nova Barbeque. I think that the knuckleheads who frequent my site will really enjoy your writing. I know that I certainly have.

Anonymous said...

I'm nobody special but I want to see you keep up the good work of keeping people informed. I understand that if you don't post a comment nobody knows you are there or with them so I'm going to start posting comments.

Anonymous said...

Remember that photo of Mussolini and his henchmen dangling from ropes at the close of WW2?
That vision brings a smile to my face when I envision bush, cheney rumsfeld rove and the rest of those treasonous pieces of shit.
The rest of the world awaits the real Americans to make that dream come true.

Anonymous said...

Bill, great rant! I can not agree with you more. Thank you for your service to our country and never stop standing up for what's right.
-TM
* PS- I have family in Albuquerque. Beautiful place.

Anonymous said...

Hey Bill, great little speech, and you
are now on my favorite list. I served 6
years in the Marines,vietnam, and 7 years in the Army. I too get sick and tired of the bushshit that rove and his playmate
like to play. I want them all out of the
whitehouse, andinto the bighouse real soon. Then I think, well they are having
that giant new embassy built in iraq, &
maybe that is where they will go hide,
once they are going to jail.There isnt
a big enough rock for all of them. But
any way, great read your site, and will
be back for more.Semper Fi brother.And
my name is Don.

Smafty said...

Rove and other Republicans will always be cowards.

Good post!

As for the Douche above me, they lost Florida. Get over it!

Anonymous said...

Until said douchebag gets his fat ass into a uniform and fights the war he so dearly believes in, his words mean nothing.

There. You got attention. Just call us your mommy and daddy, WTTR.

Anonymous said...

I am a relic of the "Korean Con-flict" who served eight years and three days as a demolitions man in the combat engineers; not a very "glorious" type job with no "heroics" involved.
During and after my time in the army, I observed many LIES and "misunderestimations", but NO TORTURE, NO MURDER, NO BREACH OF THE UNIFORM CODE OF MILITARY CONDUCT, AND NO OUTRIGHT TREASON BY THE PRESIDENT OF THE USA, OR ANY OF HIS MENIONS, all of which have been more that adiquitely documented, EVEN BY THE "BUSHISTA PRESS" including all major TV and Print Sources.
To say that I appreciqate your efforts is a vast understatement: to say what I think about Karl Rove and the mental defficent "wayto the right" who trolls here and elswhere would require that I go to depths of degridation into which I will NOT WILLINGLY GO, for that is the place of evil wherein ALL THE BENIGHTED BUSHISTAS DWELL AND I WILL DIE BEFORE I WILL HAVE EVEN SO SMALL A PART OF THEIR WORLD!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for your service, both in the military and now. Please keep writing -- we'll keep reading.

Anonymous said...

I came of age during the Eisenhower years, when it was still possible to have respect for Republicans, whether the person in question was a politician or simply a voter. But now such respect is impossible (not to mention unwise). Rove wouldn't know the truth if jumped up and bit him on his fat ass, nor would any of the rest of this lying crew of professional cowards, and the sad thing is, they have become emblematic of the entire Republican party--blind, narrow-minded idiots, every one, right down to the most impoverished registered Republican (for God's sake, why?) on the voter rolls.
I love your site (Hoffmania pointed me here) and what you have to say, and I'll be back daily-- it's always nice to find another driven-criminally-insane cat lover.

Lisa said...

Here from Hoffmania as well and love your words and style. Of course, I agree with your comments, and you have the experience to back them up.

Bookmarked as well and keep on writing!

Anonymous said...

Thanks for a fine post and for your service to our nation!

Yes, Rove makes my blood boil, too. I can't understand why there seems, at this point in our culture and law, to be NO WAY for Murtha (or Kerry, or anyone) to rightfully demand satisfaction for this incessant right-wing smear.

I mean, Rove deserves a beating from Murtha. It's that simple.

The Republicans have been getting away for years with saying things that would get them beat up in a bar, only because they say it on the campaign trail, they seem to be invulnerable to any backlash.

There ought to be a massive coordinated effort on the part of Democrats and members of the military to fight back against this constant right-wing drumbeat of "Democrats want to cut and run / Democrats are defeatists / Democrats hate our troops / Democrats won't stay the course".

But what can be done? How do you fight this coordinated right-wing smear machine, when they clearly do such a good job of marketing to and tailoring their message for their audience -- "red-state" Americans?

Anonymous said...

To know how to be a decent American, everyone should watch "Mr. Deeds Goes to Town", directed by Frank Capra and starring Gary Cooper (for God's sake, avoid the Adam Sandler remake).

Cooper gives some speeches about what the American dream and the American way are really all about that will put tears in your eyes.

Longfellow Deeds: From what I can see, no matter what system of government we have, there will always be leaders and always be followers. It's like the road out in front of my house. It's on a steep hill. Every day I watch the cars climbing up. Some go lickety-split up that hill on high, some have to shift into second, and some sputter and shake and slip back to the bottom again. Same cars, same gasoline, yet some make it and some don't. And I say the fellas who can make the hill on high should stop once in a while and help those who can't. That's all I'm trying to do with this money. Help the fellas who can't make the hill on high.

If we want a symbol around which we can unify, in contrast to the bombastic, arrogant Ann Coulter Republican, it's the humble decency of Longfellow Deeds.

Pixel said...

Hey, got here from a link at Crooks & Liars.

Al Franken calls Rove's tactics in 2004 "Fears, Smears and Queers"- Instilling fear of more terrorist attacks if the Dems take over, smearing Kerry and others in Swift Boat fashion, and getting gay marriage referenda on the ballot in a number of states. This is from the book The Truth, with Jokes

I'm a navy vet who is appalled at the situation we are in. Read this piece from yesterday's Washington Post Magazine: Fatal Inaction

The world's most powerful military failed to provide the armor that would have saved scores of American lives. One father wouldlike to know why

It will make your blood boil.

Brian Hart will be online at the washingtonpost.com discussion site at 12 noon today for a live chat.

-Pixel

Anonymous said...

Great post. Sometimes I pose this question to people who support this war. Let's say it's 1959 and the cold war is in full swing. The Russian government has decided our President is an evil man who must be deposed and that communism is what this country needs so they invade the US. Is there not a single American who would not grab a gun and start shooting Russians?
I agree this is not a perfect analogy but it *is* close enough to understand the feelings of some Iraqis.
NamelessCynic- could you email me? I would like permission to read your post on my podcast. nabugtraqer(*AT*)yahoo(*DOT*)com

Anonymous said...

Great post New mexico. I was south east asia 69/71 RA. That was a dirty War and we got blamed for going at least we're not blaming the troops for this mess. But we are getting side tracked when george stood on the air craft carrier and said " mission accomplished" It was true because he now controls the oil and no oil comes out of Iraq and you pay 3.00/gal for gas think about it!

Anonymous said...

Great article except for one fact.

Rumsfeld did not avoid the draft.

He served in the U.S. Navy from 1954 to 1957 as an aviator and flight instructor, training in North American SNJ basic trainers and later flying Grumman F6F Hellcat fighters. In 1957, he transferred to the Ready Reserve and continued his Naval service in flying and administrative assignments as a drilling reservist until 1975. He transferred to the Standby Reserve when he became Secretary of Defense in 1975 and to the Retired Reserve with the rank of Navy Captain in 1989.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donald_Rumsfeld