The GOP Greenspan Problem

Republicans and their big Greenspan gap
By ROBYN BLUMNER
Published September 30, 2007

Talk about a kick in the teeth. It's one thing to have former Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill or even former CIA chief George Tenet turn on you once they are out of office; it's quite another to have the Delphic oracle on all things economic, Alan Greenspan, do so. Our president likes to point to the American economy as one of his successes. Despite turning a $5.6-trillion 10-year projected surplus into a $2.4-trillion 10-year projected loss, President Bush boasts that his aggressive tax cutting has led to economic growth and a lower deficit than anticipated. In other words, he's putting less on America's credit card than expected. Goodie. (read the entire article)

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September 30 News Feed Update

My News feed, your virtual afternoon newspaper (easy URL: www.HansMeyer.net/News), has been updated for today.

Today there's Whither Rush Goest, So Goes FOX News; FOX Now Insults War Generals.

Giuliani As John Kerry (Ouch!)

And when it comes to war there's “War Made Easy”: How Presidents and Pundits Keep Spinning Us to Death and Iranian Sock Puppets Feed Into Right-Wing War Mongering.

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F**K Bush on OpEdNews.com

September 30, 2007

F**K Bush
by Brian Wolf
http://www.opednews.com/

Irritating isn’t it? In a land of free speech we have to censor ourselves. In a country where the Vice President feels it’s perfectly alright to go into the US Senate and tell a ranking US Senator to fuck himself. So the bar has been set hasn’t it? Keeping that in mind.

Fuck Bush

You heard me, fuck Bush.

Isn't free speech great? In some Countries talking about the leadership that way would get you executed. That is why I'm throwing my support behind the editor of Colorado State Universities Student Newspaper whose job is on the line for allowing those exact sentiments to be printed.

(read the entire article)

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Can You Find The Phony Soldiers?

Click here for original post and more images on Corrente (Boldly shrill...)

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On Shakedown Street Today

Your host Brian Wolf covers and News and Commentary and the return of By Their Fruits Ye Shall Know Them on today's broadcast of Shakedown Street.

That's at 4:00pm Pacific Time (-08:00 GMT) on Blog Talk Radio.

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Ancient Technical Support

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Petraeus: A Political General of the Worst Kind

Sycophant Savior
General Petraeus wins a battle in Washington—if not in Baghdad.
by Andrew J. Bacevich

In common parlance, the phrase “political general” is an epithet, the inverse of the warrior or frontline soldier. In any serious war, with big issues at stake, to assign command to a political general is to court disaster—so at least most Americans believe. But in fact, at the highest levels, successful command requires a sophisticated grasp of politics. At the summit, war and politics merge and become inextricably intertwined. A general in chief not fully attuned to the latter will not master the former. George Washington, U.S. Grant, and Dwight D. Eisenhower were all “political generals” in the very best sense of the term. Their claims to immortality rest not on their battlefield exploits—Washington actually won few battles, and Grant achieved his victories through brute force rather than finesse, while Ike hardly qualifies as a field commander at all—but on the skill they demonstrated in translating military power into political advantage. Each of these three genuinely great soldiers possessed a sophisticated appreciation for war’s political dimension. David Petraeus is a political general. Yet in presenting his recent assessment of the Iraq War and in describing the “way forward,” Petraeus demonstrated that he is a political general of the worst kind—one who indulges in the politics of accommodation that is Washington’s bread and butter but has thereby deferred a far more urgent political imperative, namely, bringing our military policies into harmony with our political purposes. (read the entire article)

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September 29 News Feed Update

My News feed, your virtual afternoon newspaper (easy URL: www.HansMeyer.net/News), has been updated for today.

On the tail of today's Situation Awareness there's Hardball: Mario Cuomo Describes Congress As Abdicating Their Constitutional Duties and Leaders Lead (a very good and moving video clip).

Bill O'Reilly, In Payback Frenzy, Goes After Boulder High School Again (time for the straightjackets).

Happy National Coffee Day!

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Saturday on the Free World Radio Network

Today on Situation Awareness my guest will be Dr. John R. Moffett, Internet radio broadcasting pioneer and editor of Factinista.org. Juoh is also a regular contributor to OpEdNews.com. Our topic today will be Are We Really In This Together? That's today at 10:00am Eastern Time (-05:00 GMT).

Then be sure to tune in to The Free World Pub, when we open our doors at 11:00am Eastern Time (-05:00 GMT).

That's coming up today on the Free World Radio Network.

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“The phony soldiers,” says Rush Limbaugh

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Have you ever felt like this? from Joe-ks.com

Click picture for larger image
Click here for original post on Joe-ks.com

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September 28 News Feed Update

My News feed, your virtual afternoon newspaper (easy URL: www.HansMeyer.net/News), has been updated for today.

The General weighs in with Leave Rush Limbaugh alone and Under Attack.

And speaking of the liar, there's Limbaugh Outrage Amplified! Limbaugh’s response is to name Jack Murtha!

There's also If a blowhard smears the troops in a forest…

Be sure to catch So, are the Republicans running for President of the United States, or President of the white race? and The great American hypocrisy tour / Larry Craig's bathroom stall! Haggard's meth hotel! See all the sites of GOP shame. Fun for kids!

As for No Service, well, it is so good I'll be posting it separately here.

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Butterfly Ballots and William Jennings Bryan

Op-Ed Columnist
The Democratic Dark Side
By Gail Collins
Published: September 27, 2007

All the major Democratic candidates for president have signed a pledge promising they will only go to Florida or Michigan when they want to raise money. Among the really bad ideas in the history of the Democratic Party, this ranks somewhere between butterfly ballots and William Jennings Bryan. (read the entire article - requires registration. If unavailable, use the Adobe Acrobat copy, below.)

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The Conservative Value of Hating Our Troops

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Tonight: The Dark Side of Dysgenics

With Rev. Darko still out recruiting rodeo clowns for a possible invasion of Tuscaloosa, I'll be manning the switchboard for tonight's broadcast of The Dark Side.

I'll be asking "Is We Getting Dummer?" Well, is we?

That's tonight at 7:00pm Central Time (-06:00 GMT) on The Dark Side.

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September 27 News Feed Update

My News feed, your virtual afternoon newspaper (easy URL: www.HansMeyer.net/News), has been updated for today.

First up, Limbaugh: pro-withdrawal troops are ‘phony soldiers.’

Next there's Senate Republicans get to do whatever the fuck they want because House Democrats don't understand the concept of payback which I covered in an earlier post.

Finally there's The Situation Room: Bill Clinton Slams Republicans for MoveOn Distraction

Happy National Corned Beef Hash Day!

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Who’s responsible?

Senate Republicans get to do whatever the fuck they want because House Democrats don't understand the concept of payback

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September 26 News Feed Update

My News feed, your virtual afternoon newspaper (easy URL: www.HansMeyer.net/News), has been updated for today.

From the hypocrisy file there's Why Do Conservatives Hate Insuring Kids? and the General's Another Front in the Great Patriotic War Against Children.

Bill O’Reilly: CNN has joined Media Matters “on the Dark Side” (does Rev. Darko have anything to do with this???)

Gallup: Dems More Trusted on Security (poor GOPhers!)

And, from St. Lisa's backyard there's Austin City Limits Festival Food Rocks!

Happy National Pancake Day!

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O'Reilly admits he has no credibilty

O’Reilly Rips Columbia’s Invitation To Ahmadinejad As ‘Revolting,’ But Admits He Invited Him Too
With thanks to OldCADUser from The Drudge Retort for his original post there.

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Feline Technical Support

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September 25 News Feed Update

My News feed, your virtual afternoon newspaper (easy URL: www.HansMeyer.net/News), has been updated for today.

From the "as if there was really any competition" category there's
Countdown’s Worst Person In The World: Big Fat Fraud Rush Limbaugh.

Definitely catch ‘The Revolt of the Generals’ ("Rudy Giuliani recently argued that U.S. military generals, by virtue of their service, necessarily have more credibility than practically anyone else. With that in mind, I wonder what Giuliani and others who share his approach to foreign policy have to say in response to the 20 generals who have defied tradition and rejected the Bush policy in Iraq.")

And speaking of Giuliani there's Giuliani Takes "President Of 9/11" Too Far.

Finally, there's Priorities, which I covered in a previous post.

Happy National Crab Meat Newburg Day!

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Priorities on Jesus' General

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Plundering of Hope

Specific suggestion:
General strike

by: Garret Keizer

published: October, 2007

Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust.
—Isaiah 26:19

Of all the various depredations of the Bush regime, none has been so thorough as its plundering of hope. Iraq will recover sooner. What was supposed to have been the crux of our foreign policy—a shock-and-awe tutorial on the utter futility of any opposition to the whims of American power—has achieved its greatest and perhaps its only lasting success in the American soul. You will want to cite the exceptions, the lunch-hour protests against the war, the dinner-party ejaculations of dissent, though you might also want to ask what substantive difference they bear to grousing about the weather or even to raging against the dying of the light—that is, to any ritualized complaint against forces universally acknowledged as unalterable. Bush is no longer the name of a president so much as the abbreviation of a proverb, something between Murphy’s Law and tomorrow’s fatal inducement to drink and be merry today. If someone were to suggest, for example, that we begin a general strike on Election Day, November 6, 2007, for the sole purpose of removing this regime from power, how readily and with what well-practiced assurance would you find yourself producing the words “It won’t do any good”? Plausible and even courageous in the mouth of a patient who knows he’s going to die, the sentiment fits equally well in the heart of a citizen-ry that believes it is already dead. (read the entire article)

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Tonight on Cry Freedom

Join host Lisa Litchfield as she tackles Adventures in Muckraking! on Cry Freedom.

That's tonight at 7:00pm Central Time (-06:00 GMT) on Blog Talk Radio.

Cry Freedom is a production of the Free World Radio Network.

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September 24 News Feed Update

My News feed, your virtual afternoon newspaper (easy URL: www.HansMeyer.net/News), has been updated for today.

From the "what do you expect" category there's Bush: We Can’t Spend $22 Billion On America Because We Need $200 Billion For Iraq War.

More than 20 retired generals speak out against Iraq war (so much for Betrayus).

Another one from the "what do you expect" category there's Republican Senator At Center Of D.C. Madam Scandal Earmarks $100K For Christian Anti-Darwin Group.

And since it is Monday we have a new installment of The Top 10 Conservative Idiots, No. 307

Happy National Cherries Jubilee Day!

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Dear Progressives: Organize or Squabble, Which Is It? on OpEdNews.com

July 26, 2007

Dear Progressives: Organize or Squabble, Which Is It?
by John R Moffett
http://www.opednews.com/

There is an enormous chasm forming among liberals, progressives, and leftists, and the reason why is obvious.

(read the entire article)

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September 23 News Feed Update

My News feed, your virtual afternoon newspaper (easy URL: www.HansMeyer.net/News), has been updated for today.

So much for the lies of this Administration in David and Go-lieth.

The Chris Matthews Show: Bloggers’ Influence on Politics, with Andrew Sullivan delivering the killer line: "I wish he (Bush) just had as much focus on winning the war in Iraq that he has on winning the war against the Democrats. I can’t believe that in a moment of this war–which is in a pivotal point–that he’s playing Rove’s partisan politics…"

And what Betrayus' boss says in Fallon: ‘Constant drumbeat’ of Iran war talk ‘not helpful.’

Happy Birthday Popi.

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The Great American Walkout on OpEdNews.com

September 23, 2007
(originally submitted to OpEdNews.com on Thursday, September 20, 2007)

The Great American Walkout
by Hans Meyer
http://www.opednews.com/

Tomorrow, September 21st, I will be joining my fellow Free World Radio Network hosts in supporting the Great American Walkout. The concept is simple: through a grassroots effort Americans can show the world that we can become energy independent. For one day don’t drive to work, ride a bicycle. Don’t own a bicycle? Walk. Too far to walk? Carpool. No one to carpool with? Stay at home! I will be choosing the “stay at home” option, and will broadcast Situation Awareness that day instead of on Saturday.

(read the entire article)

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On Shakedown Street: Juan Cole!

Host Brian Wolf interviews Dr. Juan Cole, Professor of Modern Middle East and South Asian History at the University of Michigan, President and Treasurer of the Global Americana Institute, and author of the Web site Informed Comment.

Among the books he has written are Napoleon's Egypt: Invading the Middle East, Sacred Space And Holy War: The Politics, Culture and History of Shi'ite Islam, and Modernity and the Millennium.

Readers of this blog know that I have previously posted Fisking the War on Terror, written by Professor Cole.

Be sure to tune into Shakedown Street today at 4:00pm Pacific Time (-08:00 GMT) on Blog Talk Radio, a broadcast of the Free World Radio Network.

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September 22 News Feed Update

My News feed, your virtual afternoon newspaper (easy URL: www.HansMeyer.net/News), has been updated for today.

From the Bill O'Liely file there's Email from a Bill O’Reilly fan (you just knew it was true) and Bill O'Reilly Is Shocked That Not All Blacks Are Animals.

And, stating the obvious there's The Clueless Fred Thompson.

And, from the "compassionate conservative" file there's Bush Vows to Veto Kid's Insurance Bill.

Be sure to read Wolcott's Shits and Savagery.

Celebrate National Meatloaf Appreciation Day (with Serious Eats), and Happy National Ice Cream Cone Day!

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They Stumble Headlong on Whisky Fire

September 21, 2007
They Stumble Headlong

Senator Lindsey Graham on why he and 47 other senators voted against the Levin bill to bing US toops home from Iraq in 9 months: "It would be a very overt rejection of Gen. Petraeus' leadership," said Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC). The military commanders "have earned the ability to carry on their mission," he said at another point. Bite me. In a "very overt" kind of way. First off, withdrawing the troops would be a rejection of Bush's leadership, and the GOP's leadership, and neither has "earned" anything except the disgust and hatred of the vast majority of the American people. Second, "we must not ever hut the General's feelings!" as a rationale for anything is puerile and idiotic and a load of shit. General Petreaus is not our leader, and this is not his war. Nobody voted for him. And nobody's going to vote for anyone who wants to cower behind his uniform, either. Americans apparently know basic civics a doucheload better than Senator Graham, and his party is going to learn this in 2008. And I hope to Christ certain Democrats learn this in certain key primaries, also. (read the original article with comments)

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The Free World Pub...

...opens its doors at 11:00am Eastern Time (-05:00 GMT).

And since this show is part of the Great American Walkout, we'll be walking up to the bar.

That's today on The Free World Pub.

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Every day should be...

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The Annual Republican Witch-Hunting Season is Underway

Tom Tomorrow: Olbermann

So the President, behaving a little bit more than usual, like we’d all interrupted him while he was watching his favorite cartoons on the DVR, stepped before the press conference microphone and after side-stepping most of the substantive issues like the Israeli raid on Syria in condescending and infuriating fashion, produced a big-wow political finish that indicates, certainly, that if it wasn’t already — the annual Republican witch-hunting season is underway. (read the entire article)

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The Face of the Party of Traditional Family Values - Part II

A perfect follow-up to my original post on this subject.

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September 21 News Feed Update

My News feed, your virtual afternoon newspaper (easy URL: www.HansMeyer.net/News), has been updated for today.

At the top of the deck there's "General Petreaus is not our leader, and this is not his war." which I will cover in a separate post.

Worth 10,000 Words, which I posted earlier ("His Kid...Your Kid").

And, the latest in the Friedman unit in Next time he’ll really mean it.

Finally, Today is the UN International Day of Peace.

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His Kid...Your Kid

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THE GREAT AMERICAN WALKOUT

Today is The Great American Walkout! I will be joining my fellow Free World Radio Network hosts in supporting this grassroots effort to show that Americans can become energy independent.

As part of this effort I will be broadcasting Situation Awareness today at 10:00am Eastern Time (-05:00 GMT), instead of my normal day and time on Saturday. The topic? The Great American Walkout!

Tonight's broadcast of The Dark Side, with your host Rev. Damien Darko, will also cover this important topic. So be sure to tune in tonight at 7:00pm Central Time (-06:00 GMT).

All programming brought to you by the Free World Radio Network, broadcast on Blog Talk Radio.

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September 20 News Feed Update

My News feed, your virtual afternoon newspaper (easy URL: www.HansMeyer.net/News), has been updated for today.

From the "I am not surprised category" there's Gold Star Father Who Lost Son In Iraq Allegedly Beaten By Members Of Pro-War Group.

Also, check out A Conservative's Garden of False Narratives: Who are you calling a moonbat, anyway?

I've always thought that this would be a real money maker, and here it is in Coke testing self-chilling bottles.

Happy National Potato Month!

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Tomgram: American Exceptionalism Meets Team Jesus

American Exceptionalism Meets Team Jesus On Body Counts, Dead Zones, and an Empire of Stupidity By Tom Engelhardt He's a man who knows something about the dangers of mixing religious fervor, war, and the crusading spirit, a subject he dealt with eloquently in his book Constantine's Sword: The Church and the Jews. A former Catholic priest turned antiwar activist in the Vietnam era, James Carroll also wrote a moving memoir about his relationship to his father, the founding director of the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency. Carroll essentially grew up in that five-sided monument to American imperial power. For him, as a boy, the Pentagon was "the largest playhouse in the world" and he can still remember sliding down its ramps in his stocking feet, as he's written in the introduction to his recent, magisterial history of that building and the institution it holds, House of War. As a weekly columnist for the Boston Globe, he was perhaps the first media figure to notice -- and warn against -- a presidential "slip of the tongue" just after the assaults of 9/11, when George W. Bush referred briefly to his new Global War on Terror as a "crusade." He was possibly the first mainstream columnist in the country to warn against the consequences of launching a war against Afghanistan in response to those attacks -- now just another of the President's missions unaccomplished; and, in September 2003, he was possibly the first to pronounce the Iraq War "lost" in print. ("The war in Iraq is lost. What will it take to face that truth this time?") His stirring columns on the early years of our President's attempt to bring "freedom" to the world at the point of a cruise missile were collected in Crusade: Chronicles of an Unjust War. In those years, Carroll was a powerful, moral voice from -- to use a very American phrase -- the (media) wilderness until much of our American world finally caught up with him.") (read the entire article)

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Iran So Far Away on OpEdNews.com

September 19, 2007

Iran So Far Away
by Rev. Damien Darko
http://www.opednews.com/

Can you hear it? The drum-beats signaling our intention of attacking Iran have begun beating louder and louder. It seems to me that the more people who say that this impending attack is a phenomenally bad idea, the louder the drums get.

I don’t think there is anyone out there who says that Iran is a cute, cuddly nation. Far from it. The government of Iran is largely impotent against the Ayatollahs and the official line from both the government and the Ayatollahs is that we (meaning those of us who don’t acknowledge their omnipotence) are agents of Satan.

(read the entire article)

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Can't Demonize the Flying Nun

James Wolcott is a Vanity Fair contributing editor

Pickle Pusses

From the article:

Ken Levine must have a cast-iron stomach for a brain--what else could explain his bionic ability to not only watch the Emmys but blog about them not just once, but twice? I missed this year's bleepfest but I've following the predictable rollout of scrunchy indignation coming from the Fox News corral and the rest of the rightwing pipsqueakery over the controversial remarks of Sally Field, Kathy Griffin, et al. Controversial to the Fox Newsers, that is; just as the Patreaus love-in was a strictly pundit affair, the "media storm" over the Emmy comments doesn't extend beyond a few newsrooms, radio booths, and blog shacks. Despite Michelle Malkin's grandstanding huffing and puffing, Sally Field isn't someone who can be demonized; she's one of America's most endearing and adorable chipmunk-cheeked moms--going after her is like trying to tear down Florence Henderson...give it up, it's futile. Similarly, trying to whip up a big to-do over Barry Manilow's refusal to share airspace with Elizabeth Hasselbeck on The View is a nonstarter because Manilow is just too fluffy a target for ire. So this singing sheepdog doesn't want to chat with that conservative shrill pill--who can blame him? And do all those Fox News panelists really think that America is in a flecked froth over the Jesus wisecracks that comedian Kathy Griffin made that weren't even aired? To Griffin's stalwart credit, she's refused to apologize or smooth down any ruffled feelings, recognizing what a game this all is. The truth is that outrage isn't what it used to be. The Fox hosts and guests haven't even been able to get a rise out of people after broadcasting the addled, bizarro response of James Brolin on a radio talkshow where, upon being reminded what anniversary day it was, cheerily wished everyone, "Happy 9/11!" Brolin's words and tone were so blithely tasteless and cluelessly dumb ("Celebrate the day, right?" he added) that it was like something out of Terry Southern, a bit of macabre humor that had washed ashore. An apology is being demanded of Brolin too, though I'm not sure how you wring an apology out of a dense cloud and if I were Jonah Goldberg I'd be a little careful about whom I was calling "a jackass of bowel-stewing proportions," j'know? (read the entire article)

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Rudy Guilianni's Worst Nightmare on OpEdNews.com

September 19, 2007

Rudy Guilianni's Worst Nightmare
by Rev. Damien Darko
http://www.opednews.com/

Why Rudy should fear liberals, and not the other way around.

For those of you who haven't heard, Rudy Giuliani has come out and made the claim that he is the "Liberal's worst nightmare". When I read this, I couldn't help but laugh; not because I think the comment, itself is amusing to me (though it is), but because I couldn't help but picture Rudy wearing a bright red afro-wig and a red rubber nose when reading the words. Sorry, that's just how my mind works. The fact is, however, Rudy isn't the worst nightmare for any liberal, unless that particular liberal has a recurring nightmare of a corrupt Republican wearing a cocktail dress chasing them through a New York subway.

No, I can say, as a proud liberal, that I have absolutely no fear of Rudy. In fact, I'm going to go on the record right now as stating that I am Rudy Giuliani’s worst nightmare.

(read the entire article)

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