What struck me about my fellow Texan, Karl Rove, is that he knew how to win elections as if they were divine interventions. You may think God summoned Billy Graham to Florida on the eve of the 2000 election to endorse George W. Bush just in the nick of time, but if it did happen that way, the good lord was speaking in a Texas accent.
Karl Rove figured out a long time ago that the way to take an intellectually incurious draft-averse naughty playboy in a flight jacket with chewing tobacco in his back pocket and make him governor of Texas, was to sell him as God’s anointed in a state where preachers and televangelists outnumber even oil derricks and jack rabbits. Using church pews as precincts Rove turned religion into a weapon of political combat — a battering ram, aimed at the devil’s minions, especially at gay people.
It’s so easy, as Karl knew, to scapegoat people you outnumber, and if God is love, as rumor has it, Rove knew that, in politics, you better bet on fear and loathing. Never mind that in stroking the basest bigotry of true believers you coarsen both politics and religion.
At the same time he was recruiting an army of the lord for the born-again Bush, Rove was also shaking down corporations for campaign cash. Crony capitalism became a biblical injunction. Greed and God won four elections in a row - twice in the lone star state and twice again in the nation at large. But the result has been to leave Texas under the thumb of big money with huge holes ripped in its social contract, and the U.S. government in shambles - paralyzed, polarized, and mired in war, debt and corruption.
Rove himself is deeply enmeshed in some of the scandals being investigated as we speak, including those missing emails that could tell us who turned the attorney general of the United States into a partisan sockpuppet. Rove is riding out of Dodge city as the posse rides in. At his press conference this week he asked God to bless the president and the country, even as reports were circulating that he himself had confessed to friends his own agnosticism; he wished he could believe, but he cannot. That kind of intellectual honesty is to be admired, but you have to wonder how all those folks on the Christian right must feel discovering they were used for partisan reasons by a skeptic, a secular manipulator. On his last play of the game all Karl Rove had to offer them was a hail mary pass, while telling himself there’s no one there to catch it.
Bill Moyers is the host of the weekly public affairs program Bill Moyers Journal, which airs Friday night on PBS. You can post a comment on The Moyers Blog
I wish people writing articles would quit claiming the Bush won in 2000 and 2004. It is already well known that he cheated both times, first in Florida and second in Ohio.
Makes you wonder about his wins in Texas too.
Lobo Gris
The problem with organized religion is that it is a polictal crowd-control mechanism.. It’s such a wonderfully devisive tool for demonizing anyone who may be different or have different ideas.
As Mrs. Smith said, “If you want to gain control over a whole bunch of people all at once, start a religion.”
Looks like it still works in an age when we seem to kid ourselves that we have advanced somehow.
Religions all suck. Religious people need real help. See American Atheists.
Tyranny thy name is Karl.
Can we recover from this administration or is this the end of the beginning?
Greed is a tough master. The withdrawls would make heroin shiver and sleep in a bed drenched in cold sweat.
Dark days behind, darker days ahead.
May the revolution be as swift as it is peaceful.
“you have to wonder how all those folks on the Christian right must feel discovering they were used for partisan reasons by a skeptic”
They feel just fine, because obviously that’s a lie of the “liberal media”.
You cannot reasonably debate with those nutjobs.
Christianity’s problems began in earnest in the 4th century AD with Constantine and Flavius Theodosius I. What was once a subversive movement of ascetics, gnostics and spiritualists became the religion of Empire. It has never recovered since.
Rove used it as another tool, as many/all Western strategists have in the past 1,600 years. I’ve found that their tools are typically the inverse of the so-called Platonic/Socratic virtues (Wisdom, Temperance, Courage, Justice).
Rove, et. al. have instead fostered denial/ignorance, greed, fear, and cronyism/autocracy. In doing so, they must play toward/nurture to the most base elements in our nation’s social fabric.
A typical Moyers piece: articulate, succint, compassionate and wise.
Moyers best point (with the ghost of H.S. Thompson in the air): In politics, always bet on fear and loathing!
moonraven,
Indeed.
Mr. Bramsher:
“Mr.Rove, et. al. have instead fostered denial/ignorance, greed, fear, and cronyism/autocracy. In doing so, they must play toward/nurture to the most base elements in our nation’s social fabric.”
And so they manage to keep us under control.
When is somebody going to out Karl Rove? Look at the top of this article. Moyer’s description of Bush as a “naughty boy” with a flight jacket and chewing tobacco in his back pocket comes right from Rove. Rove said almost exactly the same thing in an interview in Vanity Fair a few years ago. Rove gushed like a panting schoolgirl about Bush non-chalantly walking into some meeting or other wearing jeans, a leather jacket, etc. Rove goes on about “there was just something about the guy!”
Really Karl? What was it “about the guy”? How many people remember what a friend or associate was wearing at their first meeting 30 years ago? How many people would work their ass off for years for a guy who openly calls them “turdblossom”? Rove got fired ignominously by the Bush’s dad for dirty tricks and a shitty attitude, but Rove then relentlessly weadled his way back onto the team later. Why? Rove probably thought up the cartoonish, hyper-macho jet-landing on the USS Abraham Lincoln, complete with the bulging “mouse knuckle” caused by strategic failure to loosen the parachute straps on the flight suit?
Rove has suffered a desperate, unrequitted love for W for years. No question about it. You can see it in his frightening beady little eyes and moist pouty lips, whenever they pose together. Come on! Somebody must have the dirt out there! There must have been a few anonymous, sordid men’s room encounters in Rove’s past. Or did Rove have them all silenced? It’s a bit late to do it now, but still worth it.
Repressed Repbulican gays have caused this world irreparable damage for years. Look at Roy Cohn, Whittaker Chambers, Terry Dolan (started NCPAC, died of AIDs 10 years later), and the recent head of the RNC (name escapes me at the moment - but gay as Christmas!) These people are a menace. Outing seems to diminish the threat. Step up, whoever you are! Out the rat! Nobody deserves it more.
If Rove is not in jail soon he’ll be in the back rooms helping the next set of scoundrels to cheat the People all over again.
The man has no conscience, and that took him far. But we could determine the end-point of his journey.
Thanks, Lobo, for once again pointing out the obvious. Bush did not win in 2000 or 2004. It is, of course, nearly impossible to root out the facts at this point. The vast majority of vote records have been “lost” in Ohio - I believe in something like 56 counties out of 80 something. Wow! And this is not being reported anywhere but “radical” left wing blogs and other “liberal” media outlets.
Karl Rove is gay. And I don’t mean that in a bad way.
jareilly, I agree with you 100% on your musings.
I am as certain as can be that Rove has the goods on just about everybody. Blackmail is so fine…in the wrong hands. So is wire-tapping.
Make no mistake: “gay” is as acceptable to me as “straight”. But when it comes to repressed republicans like Rove (and I’m sure the percentage of repressed repubs goes way above the average in the general population), they are evil. Outing them is the best salvation for the rest of us.
Tom Delay is still thanking Jesus in public for helping him launder all that money through that child’s charity fund. Trent Lott still thanks God for his racism. It’s like we allowed this tiny gang of escaped mental patients to turn America into their own private corporation, which they’ve run exactly as they’ve run every other private venture (including the “church,”) they ever got within a 100 yards of - into the ground, even with all the lying and scheming and stealing.
And let’s all remember this: KR sucked at his job. A good con man leaves no fingerprints; a bad one lets his ego get in the way, needs to take credit for his misdeeds. The pathetic part is that everyone knew what that POS was doing every step of the way, and they did nothing to stop it.
Frosty bunny has it right. The zealots won’t discover anything. If they had that capacity, Bush’s approval ratings would be zero by now.
Come on frank, how can you say Rove sucked at his job? He got it done, stole at least three elections, if not more, and rode out of town rich and comfortable, not on a rail, tarred and feathered. Not too shabby. And he’s probably safe from this inept Congress that can’t dance.
Why is the first sentence of this article written in the past tense? It should read:Rove knows, not Rove “knew”!!!
Wait until you see the mincemeat Rove makes out of the 2008 Democratic candidate. The only thing that will be past tense at that point will be the Democratic Party!
Amen to all of the above except this…..
Wait until you see the mincemeat Rove makes out of the 2008 Democratic candidate. The only thing that will be past tense at that point will be the Democratic Party!
Republicans can’t win anything, only we can lose it. Rove’s formula no longer works. I refer you his play on illegal immigration. No sale!
You know them by who their friends are. There ya go.
BILL PLEASE RUN FOR PRESIDENT WE NEED YOUR HONESTY TO REGAIN OUR FOOTINGS BOTH DOMESTICALLY
AS WELL AS WITH OUR FELLOW HUMAN BEINGS
WORLD WIDE
“I wish people writing articles would quit claiming the Bush won in 2000 and 2004. It is already well known that he cheated both times, first in Florida and second in Ohio.”
It remains forbidden to mention the truth in the Murderstream Media. Talk about the real results in Florida & the vote suppression in Florida & Ohio & elsewhere still gets “oh you conspiracy nuts” from all the prostipundits. Now that Ms. Bowen has publically ruled that touchscreen voting machines are absolutely worthless, will it become possible to say that votes were flipped all across the country on November 2, 2004? Even the Fox commentators were looking horrified and numb that night, until the hackers went into action . . .
“d the recent head of the RNC (name escapes me at the moment - but gay as Christmas!) ”
Ed Gillespie.
This is one of the incredible echoes of the current regime to that of Sinclair Lewis’ fictional President Windrip in “It Can’t Happen Here”, whose chief advisor loves orgies with soldiers, like Matt Sanchez and Jeff Guckert-Gannon.
Rove is probably leaving now to set the stage
for the Republican win in 2008.
Dems in 2000, 2004 did not lose, Mr. Moyers. Both elections were stolen in the swing states via electronic voting machines easily hacked to flip the vote to the Repugs, and through suppression of the minority vote by caging and other illegal techniques.
The HAVA act which mandated these machines for all states was a Trojan horse piece of legislation which has subverted our electoral process. Rove has set democracy back in this country and should be indicted for all his crimes and sent to jail, not to a soft life in TX.
Mr. Moyers, how about a story on election fraud for your new TV hour? Thanks for all you do.
Karl Rove’s departure will now allow him to conduct his destructive abominations behind the scenes, but with less scrutiny & vulnerability. The extent of his unconscionable deeds are unprecedented. They include election fraud, character assassination (even against triple amputee Vietnam vets), and the list goes on. His dreadful antics have enabled the most inept and deceptive administration to wrought more destruction to this nation, and the world, than any previous American administration.
Americans have been grossly negligent for tolerating these dreadful outrages. If we fail to force our legislators into pursuing charges against this ruthles character and his boss, now, we will have rewarded him and this administration for their destructive perversions–this can only lead to more of the same
I may be simple but I do understand that W did win the presidency twice and I gain no solace from the fact that he cheated.
The media loves dirty tricks these days. They get to loaf while repeating the dirt. Later they get to dump on their dirty leaker when the dirty leaker accidentally gets caught.
This way they get stories with no work and can feel superior when people based on their poor work are surprised to learn how evil a bastard a guy like Rove is.
Dover, you might recall J Edgar Hoover and blackmail. And,what is that ‘club’ the male elite in Washington belong to where they dress in drag and dance around a fire in the woods … I cringe at seeing the ‘tag’ gay applied to Rove and other evil people but it is a fact that when someone’s true nature (ex. gay) is denied for whatever reason illness erupts. The Golden Rule Hoover and Rove pray(ed) to: Do unto others what you fear they will do unto you before they can do it unto you.
I would like to think that progressives are open minded thoughtful people. However, from some of the comments posted on this article and any other article in which religion plays a part, it would appear that some progressives are narrow minded and ignorant.
First of all not all religions are the same nor do all of them encourage conformity. One of the principles of my religion is independent investigation of truth. Others have similiar ideas. Not all religious people are right wing, in fact many are very progressive and have put their lives on the line for social justice issues. Martin Luther King, Malcom X, Ghandi, the Quakers, the Berrigans etc. come to mind.
Instead of blanket condemation of religion, we should welcome all people who support progressive ideals whether they are religious or atheists.
Of course, it could be that the people who make these sorts of ignorant false generalizations are actually bloggers from the Weekly Standard who are hoping to create divisiveness among progressives and weaken our ranks.
We have only one enemy, the Corpratocracy and they will use any tool to control the masses inlcuding bribery, sex, fear mongering, starvation, war and religion. It is up to us, to make sure that our religion or for that matter any group we are a part of is used for progessive and not self-seving ends.
Let me join several of my esteemed fellow posters and repeat THE TRUTH: bush* DID NOT WIN 2000 NOR 2004. They cheated, they lied and they stole two elections. A genius, criminal or otherwise, would have covered their tracks much better. And let’s drill down to base level: a genius would have never been involved with the Bush* Family Evil Empire. They would have known better.
“We have only one enemy, the Corpratocracy and they will use any tool to control the masses inlcuding bribery, sex, fear mongering, starvation, war and religion. It is up to us, to make sure that our religion or for that matter any group we are a part of is used for progessive and not self-seving ends.”
Wonderful, truthul and powerful, obmaj. Thank you!
Once again I am reminded that we need Bill Moyers for President and not the milk toast lightweights actually running for the office.
On the subject of the elections, I recommend everyone read Armed Madhouse by Greg Palast. He details the election fraud, there were many more States than just Florida and Ohio involved. Almost all of it was directed at minority voters.
One the things we all should consider doing is volunteering in some compacity on election day to monitor the numerous types of frauding that are bound to crop up. It will not just be voting machines.
Mr.Moyers, please have Mr. Palast on and if have had him on before, have him on again.
Thanks for all you do to get some real news out there.
jareilly August 17th, 2007 2:51 pm
I suppose you’ve heard of Rove’s buttboy, a certain Mr. Gannon. I don’t think any more need be said.
It used to be that the preachers stayed out of politics for the most part. But after Nixon’s southern strategy and Lee Atwater’s revelations, all was fair game. You had an organized group of Christian right wingers, all you had to do is convince them that your supposed born again candidate shared their values and you could count on one big block to vote like robots. Karl just built on that, no genius required.
Perhaps Rove is going to be assisnated soon because he DID tell Cheney that he’d “sing” if anything happened to him. “So let’s get rid of him so that he won’t be a danger to the grand plan already in play”, might be Cheney’s rationale since shooting people in the face is sport for him…
OR
If W was unhappy that his play-pal is suddenly voted off the island, I would imagine that he is either going to rise to new heights of hypocrisy and treason with impunity or he’s marked with targets on his temples and Georgy-boy knows it…
OR
Maybe they were caught doing naughty things and uncle Dick decided they better be separated…
OR…
Wouldn’t it be nice to see Rove and Dick doing the prep-walk at the head of the whole crowd of DC thugs? All the way to The Hague?
Rove’s motivation is reported developed in opposition to the Vietnam peace movement. I wonder why boy wonder still thinks the Vietnam war was such a great idea.
He knows you can win elections by appealing to the wort of human nature–for fun and profit. As do the rest of the republicans.
I have to wonder, though, if a nation guided by the worst of human nature; has sufficient adaptability to survive the next hundred years.
Maybe someone could find another Rove who could convince the bible belt to leave the Union. It could become the “christian” Iran west.
Dichterfreund: Call me crazy, but I do believe that Ms. Bowen has bowed to Diebold and allowed them some time to “fix things” by a “date certain” for the California voters. Google the latest and you’ll see.
For those who haven’t seen it yet, please do YouTube: “Diebold Princeton University” if you want to know how bad things REALLY are. I say go the Oregon route nationally: All absentee ballots by mail only. Xerox all the ballots for safety, then demand to COUNT ALL THE BALLOTS IN THE PRECINCTS WITH OTHER VOTERS WHO WOULD LIKE TO PARTICIPATE. I believe we have a Constitutional Right to demand to enter all Registrars where votes are being counted at the end of polling time. Remember what Stalin said, “It is those who COUNT the ballots who decide the elections.”
I actually emailed a question related to the problem we face with the computerized voting machines to ABC for the Democratic Debate Sunday morning at 9 am EST. Of course I’m not holding my breath that it will actually be asked….
Nutnut: It’s called “The Bohemian Club” and they meet in August at “The Bohemian Grove” on the Russian River near Guerneville, California for a week every summer.
All the elite men of the WORLD are members and they do every manner of crazy shit there! I believe there is a big lake, and the first night of the encampment (there are lodges where all the guys “camp” together among the redwoods), they have a procession with a casket. “Care” is in the casket. They go around the lake with hoods on and burn the casket in a big bonfire. It’s called “The Cremation of Care”.
Then they all eat, drink and make VERY merry as they “piss on the redwoods”. I believe they put on quite a cross-dressing musical at the end of the encampment! It’s a real blast to Google “The Bohemian Grove”!
To Obmaj: I was raised as an Evangelical United Brethren and still have pictures of J.C. in my house and can quote scripture that is meaningful to me. The Bush right-wing wacko Christians and their hate for anyone who isn’t a heterosexual WASP has caused my “faith” to, shall we say, waiver a tad?
Check out this article on these Christian zealots and how they are calling for Bush to declare himself DICTATOR FOR LIFE. (I really wish I was joking about all this, but I’m not. Google “Family Security Matters” website. Then check out the article entitled, “Conquering the Drawbacks of Democracy” by Philip Atkinson.
When I saw “Zeitgeist the Movie” on Google it really made me think. I would advise everyone to watch it. (BTW…there are places the movie will get “stuck”…simply move the curser ahead a little and keep watching).
As to Mr. Moyers, I think we should DRAFT HIM TO RUN FOR PRESIDENT!!
We should all email him at his blog which is listed above. If you have a problem reaching him via email, try his snail mail addy:
Bill Moyers for P.O.T.U.S.
P.O. Box 309
Bernardsville, New Jersey 07924
He’s perfect to run as an Independent. Not sure how he feels about the Democratic Party, but I have a feeling he realizes they are simply “Going Along to Get Alongers” and need to be deposed.
As always, Master Moyers, your words of wisdom and insight bring forth many thoughtful responses. I agree in my heart that we should “draft” you as our presidential candidate, but know in my rational self that to do so would probably destroy you in one way or another.
I, personally , would much prefer to have you around for as long as possible to remind us of the higher Truth, than to see you harmed by dragging you into the destructive muck and mire that has become our “political” arena, peopled with semi-humans who have nothing in mind but power and control over others.
Please stay with us and in touch with us as long as you are capable. Your words strike deep into hearts and minds in the most positive way. Thank you for being here now when we need it most.
jareilly,
Someone does indeed have the goods on Rove. The Secret Service released records several years ago about Jeff Gannon-Guckert spending DOZENS of nights in the White House. Everyone coming (so to speak) and going signs in and it’s time stamped. YOU tell ME what a fake journalist/ male prostitute is doing overnight in the WH. I’ve also heard that the SS has surveillance tapes of the goings-on. Betcha they’re worth a ton of money.
And as much as I adore and respect Bill Moyers and would love to have him for President, if he doesn’t realize the 2000 and 2004 elections were stolen, he’s more than a bit naive.
As far as religion goes, even though everyone’s entitled to their opinion and ‘beliefs’, religion is just a societally sanctioned form of mental illness. Ask yourself why you believe in THIS God instead of THAT God…? What, no Apollo? No Zeus? No Baal? Well of course, that would be SILLY! Santa Claus is just a westernized version of the christian god - father figure with a beard, kindly, knows when you’ve been good or bad… supernatural powers of flight, December 25th, the ‘burning bush aka lit up christmas tree’; it’s religion without the icky crucified bleeding diety.
We won’t have true rational sanity as humans until the whole planet gives up on the idea of explaining creation (really, WE’RE NOT SMART ENOUGH!!) and just simply tries to preserve and honor it.
“Santa Claus is just a westernized version of the christian god - father figure with a beard, kindly, knows when you’ve been good or bad…”
+++++++++++++++++++
I’ve never heard anything bad about Santa; most everybody loves him. Kids *really* love him.
Guess which group gets top honors for being anti-Santa? Yep: those funky, fundy Christians.
In my book, Santa is closer to being God than is God. Even atheists respect Santa.
And on the seamy subject of Gannon:
It’s my belief that more than one man in the White House was being serviced by that piece of crap. The logs show he’d check in, and sometimes not check out. Rove was in control of these goings on; that’s part of his “legacy”.
This isn’t conspiracy nonsense: A whore is a whore is a whore, and he had no place in the Peoples’ White House. Corporate media buried that story so fast, it should have made our heads spin.
The images of Gannon in all his x-rated glory are still on the Web…and now he, too, has “found” religion. And corporate media passed this bowl of bullsh*t to us for our consumption.
It’s all so patently offensive.
Repressed republicans…sickos, all of them.
Where would all the loonies go with out the church? And hey, Bill cant say by what degree they where stolen elections because the electoral college won supposedly. Its not the numbers, it where you place the numbers. So he cant say that and you and I cant either, no mater how we feel. I’ll still bet he did too no matter what anyone says, but Mr.
Bill is a news man. One who should run for pres. if he has the life in him to make that fight his. That is one job for a good guy, you would be a superhero if you could do it right.
The argument about religion here, is a reflection of the larger problem, which is: the human race doesn’t seem to be able to accept that religion or lack thereof is a very personal matter and not anybody else’s business. If I make it my business to tell someone that they are stupid/wrong unless they believe what I believe, I am part of the problem. I don’t care if if a person is an atheist or a Muslim or a Christian or a Jew. I care about the way they live their life. Do they spread fear and hate… or are they kind and loving, giving of their time and resources for the betterment of others? Intolerance is ugly. It seems especially onerous coming from “Progressives”.
An excellent piece by Moyers–oasis of sanity, intelligence and moral clarity in a polluted media-sea.
I wonder folks, is there any hope for this country when such lying, immoral, corrupt, greedy scoundrels can so easily scare, lie and cheat their way into power? And once there–look at the damage.
If Americans are this gullible and easily frightened into doing the WRONG THING when we’re at relative peace and prosperity, think of how they’ll react after another attack, or a real economic crisis like peak oil, or the worsening environmental crisis?
Aside from the troops, I’m NOT impressed with average Americans at all.
We’re intellectually lazy, incurious and easily frightened into giving up our rights.
Lazy and incurious? No wonder we elected George Bush. And even if he stole the election, the fact that he
could get so close still bodes poorly for us.
We need to shape up and I don’t know how.
Maybe another crisis like the great depression to awake populist anger.
Though with Fox around, we could just as easily elect a Hitler as an FDR.
“Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.”
— Napoleon Bonaparte
Moyers is the true voice and conscience of America, and yes, please contribute to PBS in his honor. I do. His soothing reason is a good balance to the equally enjoyable acerbic wit from Bill Maher and the late great Molly (yes, I still miss her, god bless her soul). However, as pointed out in earlier post, Rove is very much the latest version of J Edgar Hoover; which is just another example of how shameless, crass and hypocritical this GWB admin has been along with the heartless, if not ruthless policies of the GOP/neocons. Yet as Katrina approaches year two, still the DEMs give W a pass on that disaster, and yet a pass if not defacto approval on other policy dangers and disasters. Kucinich for president. Just do what we do, and keep reminding the public of all the “success stories” that reeked from the White House and GOP: such examples include Jessica Lynch, Pat Tillman, tax cuts for super wealthy, New Orleans and Iraq construction, Blackwater and KBR, it’s up to us to enlighten at least a small portion of the masses.
Thank God — whichever one you subscribe to — for Bill Moyers.
As for Rove, my favorite comment was made by a poster over at TPM (the website where Bill Moyers starts his day BTW): While one village in Texas is still missing its idiot, another is getting its asshole back!
“Intolerance is ugly. It seems especially onerous coming from “Progressives”.”
Religious intolerance is no longer off-limits. Religion has become a club with spikes that the right is swinging; they’re beating us senseless with it.
This was especially blatant when Rove said he was going to pray to “the Almighty” for The Shrub. More than one source has reported that Rove is a non-believer.
There should be zero tolerance for religion in our lives anymore. Keep it out of our faces, out of the government, out of the military (especially the Air Force), and out of our lives altogether. I don’t care if people pray to a rock: just keep it out of my face.
The image of Rove, in all of his piousness, talking about “the Almighty” is absolutely repugnant.
The foolish American voter bought their crap lock stock and barrel… Rove and bush got away with it for one reason… We let them, we were fools, now watch us elect the next pretty face in 08.Save America, wake up and vote for the good of America, not corporations.
I love Bill Moyers. He always knows how to get straight to the point. Not only does he manage in just a few paragraphs to illustrate sinister nature of Rove, but also his hypocrisy.
I’m a bit bothered by jareilly’s suggestion that in order to be evil Rove needs to be a closeted gay man. Sure, there have been some closeted gay Republicans who have done a lot of damage (dems too), but does he need to be gay in order to be evil? Sometimes the left is just as guilty of what we accuse the right of doing. Homophobia can come in many forms my friend. Check yourself.
“Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich.”
— Napoleon Bonaparte
And the prison of these false religions is surely dying away.
God smiles reading Bill Moyers.
The wise Mr. Rove knew that if there was a “good” Lord
there must be a “bad” Lord too,
and he sought out that bad lord,
the lord of fear, and revenge and anger,
and he encouraged believers to accept the word of the bad lord
who was dressed,
as usual,
in the clothing of the good lord,
who Mr. Rove never believed in anyway.
And the bad lord taught him from book of twisted phrases and distortion, so that oxymorons could blossom from turds upon the earth and the chief most of these was “compassionate conservatism.”
“No wonder we elected George Bush. And even if he stole the election, the fact that he
could get so close still bodes poorly for us.”
Somewhere else on this blog or another, somebody begged for people to stop saying Bush was elected.
He absolutely was not elected: votes were flipped in key states…theft *did* happen.
And in a 2-man race, being “close” doesn’t matter because it’s winner take all. Bush was not the winner, but he took all.
The true facts were not permitted to surface until years later, so it’s not fair to blame the electorate for what’s happened in the interim…namely, 9/11.
I suspect that if another ‘con steals the office in ‘08, average Americans will send the message that they’ve had enough. And this time, we might not take “f**k you” for an answer from our government.
I have to agree with Signalfire — Rove cheated to get Bush in the White House in both 2000 and 2004, and I’m surprised Moyers mentioned nothing about it.
Al Gore received the majority of the popular vote in 2000 and, if we had a sane election system and not this Electoral College left-over from the days of slavery, and if the Supreme Court had just followed the Constitution and allowed a full recount of the Florida vote, Gore would have been president.
In 2004, the Rove-directed voter suppression antics of GOP Ohio Sec. of State Ken Blackwell [1] have been well documented and recently, in a ‘dog ate my homework’ moment that rivals Gonzales’ incredibly faulty memory of key events, 60 of 88 counties in Ohio, contrary to a judge’s orders, have reported their ballots from the 2004 election destroyed or missing. That’s right, two-thirds of the Ohio 2004 ballots were ‘accidentally’ destroyed or lost.
[1] http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/SOL411A.html
As the article “In Violation of Federal Law, Ohio’s 2004 Presidential Election Records Are Destroyed or Missing”[2] says:
[2] http://www.alternet.org/story/58328/
“The lost records violate Ohio law, which states federal election records must be kept for 22 months after Election Day, and a U.S. District Court order issued last September that the 2004 ballots be preserved while the court hears a civil rights lawsuit alleging voter suppression of African-American voters in Columbus.”
Let’s see if anyone is called to account for the missing and destroyed Ohio ballots. One thing’s for sure: That many missing and destroyed ballots demonstrates something was wrong with the 2004 Ohio count. From the same article:
“The extent of the destruction of records is consistent with the covering up of the fraud that we believe occurred in the presidential election,” said Cliff Arnebeck, a Columbus attorney representing the King Lincoln Bronzeville Neighborhood Association, which filed voter suppression suit. “We’re in the process of addressing where to go from here with the Ohio Attorney General’s office.”
“On the one hand, people will now say you can’t prove the fraud,” he said, “but the rule of law says that when evidence is destroyed it creates a presumption that the people who destroyed evidence did so because it would have proved the contention of the other side.”
So, as in Florida 2000, and the illegal and unprecedented Supreme Court decision that installed Bush as president, Rove cheated in Ohio in 2004 as well to seize power for Junior. He’s not a genius, just a petty, puffed-up swindler.
If we had a real opposition party in this country, he’d be in jail by now.
Bill is a true Leader, but he is not a politician by choice. We need leadership on many fronts. Keep in mind that there IS one politician running for office in ‘08 who has been getting it right and saying it out loud for a long time, sometimes at great cost to his career, many times in spite of the dismissal of the MSM. Why do you think so many Americans don’t even know who Dennis Kucinich is?
Okay, maybe the point is that we need a national leader in the presidency who is NOT a politician at this moment. Maybe Bill is draftable - I wouldn’t hazard a guess. I’d vote for him in a heartbeat, but if he wouldn’t run, I know I have a candidate to support who is morally and intellectually incorruptible in Kucinich.
I hope Bill will give more airtime to Greg Palast who had the Florida 2000 corruption peeled back before Gore ever conceded.
Dover, I hear you. Indeed, that Rove, who is a closet atheist, has gotten away with his declarations of “faith” is outrageous. I don’t want religion thrown in my face, and it has no place in the government. Religious fundamentalism of any stripe is an anathema to the global society. But, let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water. Religion does have a place of value in the lives of many people. It is a source of comfort and strength. As long as they don’t try to make me believe their superstitions, I support their right to believe as they chose. If we lash out at what these people consider sacred, there will be no meeting ground… no conversation. Tolerance allows all to come to the table.
To Bill Moyers:
Thank you for being who you are, for retaining your humanity in the face of harsh realities and cruel opposition by a weakened American ideology. There are not many people that inspire in me to be a better person and have the courage to do the right thing even in the face of strong opposition but you are one of them. (you are in good company) Thank you for helping us find our voice and remembering that things are not always as they appear, sometimes you have to look more closely to see the truth.
Thank you :o)
all you’re opinions are trite, everyone of you brought about the politics of what “is”.fundamentally you couldn’t tell the difference between reality and illusion
The Fauxtians are the strong arm of the Reptilian Party.
Everyone gets a
Pie in the Sky!
While they eat cake.
If God is speaking to President Bush, why do you suppose he’s giving the president such bad advice?
There should be zero tolerance for religion in our lives anymore. Keep it out of our faces, out of the government, out of the military (especially the Air Force), and out of our lives altogether. I don’t care if people pray to a rock: just keep it out of my face.
Rock on Dover!
I know what you mean dude. I’m trying to petition the State of California to Eliminate “San” from all of it’s cities with that prefix. It’s all the devils workshop…
I just want to point out a couple things. One is, shame on you for calling Mr. Rove’s sexuality into question. Are you no better than the rightwing homophobes? He is clearly a damaged individual, but that doesn’t make him gay and doesn’t give you the right to make that assumption.
Second, although Gore won the popular vote in 2000, Bush is what we got and we have to get over it. 2004 was Kerry’s to win and he lost it anyway — no one stole it from him. I live Ohio and I know all about the story of what happened here.
Third, people who are religious are not necessarily stupid people. They were manipulated, same as any other group could be.
Thanks vinlander I needed a good laugh!!!
When we slam religion as our enemy aren’t we doing the same as the right-wing religious? We need to figure out how to come together and win the upcoming election for ALL the people because the well being of all will ultimatly improve the well being of each of us.Those who condone or condem a person for his sexuality also must come to reolize that all people should have rights.I do not care what sexual orientation a person is if he or she can do a good job and make America a good place for all of us to live.
I think people are missing the point regarding Karl Rove’s sexuality. It’s not that he’s gay, it’s that he is disgustingly dishonest about his sexual orientation. His public contempt for all things associated with gay rights is especially repugnant given that something was obviously going on between him and male prostitute Gannon. People are not saying Rove is gay to malign him, since there is nothing inherently wrong with being called gay. And to say one gay man is evil is not an attack on all gay people. The issue here is not sexuality but rather hypocrisy.
I keep hearing people say how smart Rove is and how he can converse on virtually any topic inteligently. Then I wonder how smart you have to be to give that impression in the White House when the man running the place seems like he would have trouble putting his pants on without help. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out that the easiest way to manipulate the public is through fear, especially those who are already motivated by the “fear of God” that has worked so effectively all these past generations. If only those pesky laws and that darn constitution weren’t always getting in the way! Again, you don’t have to be a genius to ignore the law and the constitution, just the president and his staff.
damon13
August 19th, 2007 11:12 pm
all you’re opinions are trite, everyone of you brought about the politics of what “is”.fundamentally you couldn’t tell the difference between reality and illusion
Thank you Damon.
You summed it up perfectly.