When the left-wing minions descended upon me a few months ago, spewing hatred and insults, it hurt. It hurts to be called names and told you're stupid and worthless. At that time, I found comfort in asking myself What Would Dubya Do? This is a man who has entire movies made about how worthless he is, yet he still manages to sleep at night. In terms of dealing with criticism and being self-confident, President George W. Bush is my personal hero. Whenever I feel down about myself, I remind myself that he deals with far worse every day.
I've read a couple of places today about how John Kerry is trying to get the FEC to shut down the SwiftVets ad. In my book, that makes Kerry about as spineless and weak-hearted as I am. I'm not a politician, so I'm allowed the luxury of feeling hurt when someone speaks bad of me; Kerry better get used to it if he plans on running the most hated country in the world.
I agree with LGF commenter William (found via Greyhawk) that this speaks volumes about Kerry's character.
While this is amusing and pathetic on the surface, what started as questions about Kerry's Vietnam era activity, Kerry has now turned into nothing less than a battle for free speech.
After Michael Moore's propaganda film, Bush never suggested it should be silenced.
After the moveon.org attack ads, Bush never suggested they should be silenced.
It's called freedom of speech (though Moore has moved perilously close to treason with his film while our troops are engaged in countries abroad).
Now Kerry seeks to silence free speech, because it's critical of his past.
For the blogosphere community, this has now moved past mocking the media for their absurdly obvious bias, and has become serious.
Kerry has changed the game with this move to shut down free speech.
If the media remain complicit now, they're not being complicit in smearing the SwiftVets, they're complicit in shutting down free speech -- the foundation of our society.
The "progressives" throw around labels of "fascism" and demonize John Ashcroft and Bush, but this has now become a battle for the country.
I don't think I'm exaggerating here. This has now become quite serious.
It is indeed serious. I grappled with this issue on my janky little blog -- whether to block certain commenters or close the comments section -- because I believe that people have the right to say what they think, even if it hurts my feelings. Shouldn't a presidential candidate in the United States of America believe in that as well?
MORE TO GROK:
More whining here. And Bunker writes about the media's fear.
Posted by Sarah at August 22, 2004 09:31 AMI've been trying to give Kerry the benefit of the doubt, but this does it.
Sadly, one possible response to the WWDD question (nice alliteration) is that Dumbya don't cause he's too dumb. And/or insensitive.
Kerry, OTOH, is swift (SWIFT boat, get it?) to act on any threat, whether it be a terrorist or a homegrown critic. That's the kind of man I want in office. Decisive. So decisive he constantly makes contradictory decisions. But at least he uses his mind unlike the pretender for the throne, right? And he went to Vietnam nam nam nam ... (echoing)
Seriously, the issues you and Kerry face are not the same. You were being attacked on your own property. You have a right to defend it. So does Kerry - just like Chomsky. When Chomsky came under fire at his site, comments were taken down. Sad but not censorship. Censorship is the suppression of expression beyond one's own property. There are limits to what I will tolerate in my own domain, but with certain exceptions (e.g., libel) I will not impose the limits on those beyond it.
But here, Kerry is crossing the line and trying to impose his will beyond his domain. That is not someone I want messing with *my* domain.
Posted by: Amritas at August 22, 2004 10:53 AMMarc, you had me worried for a second. I thought you might have gone over to the dark side!
Posted by: Mike at August 22, 2004 07:09 PMMike,
Whoa, I didn't realize how convincing I was getting. Some afterthoughts:
When I wrote,
"Decisive. So decisive he constantly makes contradictory decisions."
I meant to say something about how the quantity of "decisions" counts more than their quality (i.e., their consistency).
The main point I was trying to get at, however poorly made, was that Sarah does have the right to delete comments or remove them entirely from *her* blog if she wishes, whereas Kerry does not have a right to silence others *not* using his property. In short, Sarah was and is not a censor, which is what Kerry is trying to be. A censor for president? Never.
But force-loving Leftists would say "yes," though they would object to the word "censor." They are the good guys and only bad guys "censor." Like Bush. So why didn't Bush censor his opponents? Because they were small- r right! Uh huh.
Posted by: Amritas at August 23, 2004 06:41 AMHa, Marc, it's like what we were saying about Sexual Harrassment Panda:
Gerald: You see, Kyle, we live in a liberal democratic society. And Democrats make sexual harrassment laws. These laws tell us what we can and can't say in the workplace and what we can and can't do in the workplace.
Kyle: Isn't that fascism?
Gerald: No! Because we don't call it fascism. Do you understand?
(Heh, it's not censorship if we don't call it censorship...)
Posted by: Sarah at August 23, 2004 06:55 AMThe Sleeping Giant Awakens!
I am an Air Force vet. Vietnam and the 2 Gulf Wars. I have never done anything truly heroic. I take the Senior NCO Creed to heart. I believe in "Fly, Fight and WIN!" I spent last year in the desert. I left my wife and children to serve. I went and joined my daughter. My daughter is there now again, for the fourth time.
The John Kerry situation has brought back a lot of issues that I have kept hidden. I have had the honor of serving and we were permitted to win. That has meant more to me than I can say. The history of the world created by our unceremonious political removal from Vietnam is documented, but not well portrayed.
We were portrayed by John Kerry, and it coated us with his slime. That he is even being considered as Commander In Chief just makes my skin crawl. The same people that spit on us when we came home are his core supporters. This time around, they feel the politically correct necessity to say they support our troops, but oppose the war. Lip service only. They lie. They hate anyone who loves this country enough to actually stand up to protect it.
My heart goes out to the people who have lost loved ones. I know it must be hard. But to betray what they stood for because of your hurt is wrong. Good people died in Vietnam, Iraq and in all wars. To be quick to surrender in their memory is to betray them, and betray your country.
Protest all you want before the war is waged. Once the war has begun, it is time to truly support our troops by permitting them to fight and win. To be permitted to only fight and die and have the country change course only leaves our military, and our homeland more vulnerable.
The consequences of pulling out of Vietnam were enormous, but would pale in comparison to pulling out of Iraq. Terrorists have struck on our home soil. They are betting that we will lose our nerve, thanks to Somalia and Vietnam. The greatest military in the history of mankind can be totally undermined by cowards back home. It doesn't take courage to spout anti military and anti American garbage to a frothing ignorant crowd. It can actually get you the easy babes of the "movement".
What would the world look like if we had been given the opportunity to win in Vietnam? Without Jane "Hanoi Jane" Fonda and John Kerry and the communist sympathizers undermining us? 2 1/2 million Cambodians would be alive. Untold South Vietnamese would not have been murdered. We would not have to approach every skirmish wondering whether the "Peace in our time" crowd would succeed in undermining us.
Does anyone think we gained respect because we abandoned Vietnam? We lost respect. We provided future enemies with an exploitable weakness. If we had never entered Vietnam, nobody would have cared. But to go and quit is the worst. We can never let it happen again.
The untold story of the first Gulf War was the influence of those hard-core Vietnam vets that remained. In their hearts was NO QUIT! WE WILL NOT let that happen again! They could finally feel the sun shine on them again. The darkness of Vietnam will always be with them, but they could finally find peace.
Not so for the vets that were not part of it. I served stateside for the first Gulf War. My older brother, also a Vietnam vet, went. I was denied the opportunity. My reserve unit was not called up. I was requested by the active duty, but was held by my unit. That is one reason why this one is personal. I did go. I thought maybe I was too old, but I was called this time. I made my experience count. I am proud to have had the opportunity.
If the John Kerry crowd wins, we bail and America loses. It will all be for naught once again.
Would I go again? In a heartbeat. It is that important. To "spare" us, and suffer a terrible attack on our home soil would be the ultimate injustice.
We are doing the right thing. We have good people willing to sacrifice everything. Everyone I talked to in Iraq would gladly extend indefinitely if it would assure victory. Vigilant was more than a word. We may be a little too PC, but it will only help us in history if we win. If we abandon our troops mission, and bring them home, it may save their lives, but only at the expense of many innocent victims. We are trained and equipped to fight. It is our job. We have begun; we MUST be permitted to finish.
Vietnam vets don't want to bash Kerry. We have all tried very hard to put it behind us. John Kerry burned and branded us. He caused us to fight and die without the valor of winning. He married nice rich women and had a nice comfy life in the Senate. So be it, was our feelings. It is over. But by making his self-serving service his prime reason for being qualified to be president, he has awakened us. Painfully awakened us. We were disgraced, but we were never weak.
We are old now, but we still have heart. Our battle cry is "NEVER AGAIN!" The greatly abused sleeping giant is awake again, and forced to make a stand. My sleepless nights have returned. What was deeply buried is now deeply felt. We stood up during Vietnam. Our service was not supported. They were wrong then. They are wrong now. History has been hijacked. What should have been was undermined. WE were undermined.
This time we are home, and we can make a difference. We do not have to be ashamed any longer. Our mission is now to make sure that what happened to our generation NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN! We must stand up and be counted one more time. This is our battle, and we must win.
The change during Vietnam happened while we were over there. We had no influence. This time, we are here. We have an obligation to support our troops. Not with cowardly lip service, but with action. We need to make ourselves heard, and we need to make a difference. Our country needs us once again. Most important...VOTE! Have our voices heard! Our country needs our experience, knowledge and ability one more time. We can no longer hide our loyalty to our great country. Stand up and be counted! Write, talk to friends and family. Let them know how you feel. Permit our troops to win this one. "I'm mad as hell, and I'm not going to take this any more!"
Your country needs your service one more time. After we win, you can finally truly sleep. You will have accomplished your mission and won your war! I am proud of all of us. Stand up. Be proud! WELCOME HOME!
Posted by: Dave at August 25, 2004 08:06 AM