“…talking to our troops as well as some of the officers who have returned, they indicate to me that 80 to 85% … of the country (Iraq) is reasonably under control at least as well as Detroit…"
Despite having his foot caught in his mouth and his head firmly planted inside his rectum, Walberg continued:
"in many places it’s as safe and cared for as Detroit or Harvey, IL or some other places that have trouble with armed violence that takes place on occasion.”
Instead of apologizing for being a callous jackass and a drooling idiot, Walberg dug deeper. Speaking at the Jackson County Republican Party Lincoln Day dinner (note the occasion for its irony), he further insisted:
"No apology is necessary… I have no reason to…There was nothing racist about it… I meant it as a compliment to people in Detroit and Chicago."
Now, if Congressman Walberg truly meant no harm by his assinine oral diarrhea then why not simply back down? Hell, why not say that he meant if you ignore Baghdad and other major cities and take into account only the Green Zone where the US military has its largest presence and the Kurdish areas as well as the areas where no one lives then... oh, I can't even try to pretend he has a point here because it's such a silly and idiotic argument. The simple and obvious answer is that he's a racist jackass. The longer answer is that the modern Republican Party is no longer the party of Lincoln but instead the party of Buchanan (as in Pat) and the party of Duke (as in David) and has won many an election by playing to racism in white voters.
According to what I have found, the death rate in Iraq just for US forces is roughly 40% more than the murder rate in Detroit. Over 3,000 American troops have died in combat since the war began. Best estimates peg the Iraqi death total at something close to 60,000 with estimates varying wildly including some in excess of 100,000 but none significantly lower than the estimate I've chosen to use. In 2003 there were 366 murders reported in Detroit. The population of Iraq is roughly 27 times that of Detroit. Even then, the Detroit murder rate doesn't even come close to the number of people killed in this pathetic war Congressman Walberg is trying to cheerlead. Sorry, Congressman, but your math sucks, so does your position on the war and so does your less than subtle race-baiting.
Even Fox News had to report this when former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld tried to spin the chaos and bloodshed in Iraq as something akin to an American city with a large population of blacks (wow, it's practically like a Republican talking point!):
a New York Times op-ed by two Brookings Institution researchers, Adriana Lins de Albuquerque and Michael O’Hanlon, claims that Baghdad’s murder rate is among the highest in the world. Supposedly Baghdad’s annualized murder rate from April to October this year ranged from an incredible 100 to 185 per 100,000 people -- a number, they pointed out, that averaged several times greater than the rate in Washington, D.C.
And while studies many report lower figures, chances are those were created by statistical sleight of hand and separating deaths into different types and thus reducing the real number of murders in Iraq. So, once you weed out the propaganda from the US military, it's obvious to anyone with half a brain that Congressman Walberg is full of it and should just apologize or at least spare us any more excuses of what he meant by his idiotic comparison of a Michigan city to a war zone.
The war in Iraq is a disastrous nightmare and most Iraqis live in daily fear of car bombings, kidnappings, and the everyday terror that Tim Walberg would be scared shitless to truly see up close. Tim Walberg's term can't come to an end soon enough. Hopefully this time the moderate voices in the Republican Party will step up and do the right thing and send this idiot back to Tipton or, failing that, the Democrats draft a worthy and capable candidate to defeat a man who compares American cities to countries in the midst of a Neo Con-created Civil War.
Simply put, Tim Walberg is a stupid, lying sack of crap... Hey, I meant that as a compliment!
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13 comments:
I'm not holding my breath for moderates to do anything but wring their hands.
In fact, I hold them accountable.
Walberg, is their bastard child, and it is high time they do what they can to muzzle him.
Conservative arguement no.1:
"Oh sure, you can throw stones, but you have no better alternative."
Something I am sure Custer may have uttered at Little Big Horn.
Really, If I were concerned about a plan I would have brought that up before we invaded a country on false pretences.
Oh wait, I did.
If I were a centrist Republican I would be a little more concerned with what my party was saying than what a bunch of rock throwing liberals were complaining about.
You want a plan?
How about the people that got us into this mess clean it up?
I check in here from time to time for a good laugh and each time thank God that I didn’t kill off enough functioning brain cells in my younger days to become a liberal. This web site confirms every stereotype. Eternally pessimist and bitter, arrogant, ignorant, class envious and socialistic. Pointing out faults and problems without offering any real solutions. While I have met many liberal people who are not ignorant I have met very few ignorant people who were not liberal.
Where do you get your war information? Are you somehow privy to classified information on Iraq? Have you been in Sandy Berger’s pants? Why is the propaganda of al-CNN somehow more trustworthy than the propaganda of the US Military? Perhaps Congressman Walberg knows stuff that you don’t and his description is more accurate. Which war have you been watching? Most of the causalities are concentrated in a few areas. The “surge” is showing signs of success. The Brits are leaving because their section of the country is relatively secure, not because they’ve lost. The vast majority of the troops say that we are making progress. The Dems criticize “staying the course” yet when Bush changes tactics and sends in the troop surge he is criticized for it also. The problem with the most people in the US is that they have grown up living with instant gratification and expect the war to wrap up like a half hour sitcom. FDR must be rolling over in his grave. If we had today’s media reporting WW II we’d all be speaking German now. The Dems have no desire to see any kind of success in Iraq as they are politically invested in our defeat. I can’t fathom how anyone can support a treasonous organization like that. You can argue all you want as to the reasons we got into Iraq and whether they were right or not. The fact remains that we are there now and there are two ways to leave: stick around until things are relatively stable (ie. Germany & Japan WW II) or the Democrat plan to play politics with the war so that we eventually surrender (ie. Vietnam). Which one of those situations worked out best for the US and the countries involved in the war? What kind of illusion are you under that the war will just end if we leave? They declared war on us long before we even got there. If the Democrats are so sure about last November’s elections giving them a mandate to end the war why don’t they grow a pair and cut off the funds tomorrow? Why do they have to load up the the current “timeline” legislation with pork just to bribe their own party members to vote for it?
As for Republicans being racist, what a joke. Every dysfunctional cesspool in this country (Detroit, New Orleans etc.) is dominated by liberal Democrat leadership which dangles carrots in front of people but really works to keep people hopeless and dependent on the government so they can stay in power. Trust me, as someone who has several family members who work in government, you are a fool if you want to depend on the Feds to make your life better. I think the real racists are the ones who do all of the discriminating by instituting such things as quotas and affirmative action. These should be viewed for what they are, a huge insult to minorities by liberals who think they are too stupid to do anything for themselves. I know people who are convinced their bosses only job qualification is their sex or race. Look at how few minorities are in real positions of power in the Dem party and how they vilify any non liberal minority who has made a success for themselves. Heck, some of them are even trying to take down Barack Obama. Liberals love racism. How would Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton the rest of the bunch make any money to give to the Democrats if they didn’t keep promoting racism?
Speaking of lying sack of crap, what about our current Congress? They made all these big promises that they had no intention of keeping. Remember the big “First 100 Hours”. Instead they waste their time and taxpayer money on showy, phony “scandals” like Scooter Libby and the current snipe hunt of Alberto Gonzales to set themselves up for the 2008 elections and continue with their agenda to grow government.
I’m under no illusion that the Republicans are perfect. I see many conservatives criticize their own party to try to make it better yet I see very few liberals criticize the Democrats when they have just as many obvious flaws. As for your list of “fallen” conservatives. I’ll see your Rush Limbaugh and raise you the cranial rectitus bunch of Rosie O’Donnell, Sean Penn, Alec Baldwin, Michael Moore, Al Franken, Bill Maher, Al Gore etc.
Thanks for letting me have my say and I’m looking forward to the certain verbal barrage that I’ll be happy to endure so you libs can feel better about yourselves.
hey pol, why not tell us how you really feel about Walberg? And Mark, thanks for the additional fodder to fertilize the mind...
Mark, you throw out so much BS it's hard to know where to begin. You act as if "liberals" don't care about national security but yet you minimize the leak of an undercover CIA officer working on nuclear proliferation. Instead of throwing jibes about Sandy Berger (and if it was such an egregious offense why hasn't "Fredo" Gonzalez' Justice Dept. pressed charges?), I'd like you or any other Bush-supporter ONE SIMPLE QUESTION: When CAN we leave? Really, I'd like an honest answer because we're building permanent bases and signing long-term contracts to take the Iraqis' oil and I don't see any real interest in leaving. McCain says things are hunky dory, so does that mean we can call it "mission accomplished" again and get 'em home? Republicans support these tyrants (Saddam, Noriega, etc.)but then Democrats get called weak when they don't want to start wars to take them out? Funny logic there, Mark.
The war was a mistake to begin with based on LIES, LIES AND MORE LIES- not simple "mistakes." The Downing Street Memo and many other facts are KNOWN yet not reported on Fox News (surely it's a coincidence that Roger Ailes is a veteran Republican strategist AND head of Fox- fair and balanced it's not). But, yeah, just keep blaming it all on short attention spans.
Your comment regarding Vietnam shows what a simple-minded devotion to the Republican Party you have- there was NO hope of winning Vietnam. You can keep blaming the Democrats for facing reality or you can grow up and realize that even a superpower can't defeat an entrenched insurgency with popular support which is pretty much what we have now. We COULD win this war- if we'd never started it in the first place or if we had a president who knew what the heck he was doing instead of appointing political cronies who he thinks are doing a "heckuva job" while the rest of the country can see they don't know what they're doing.
We were attacked on 9/11 by Al Qaeda agents from Saudi Arabia and Egypt- NOT IRAQ- and until you get this through your thick skull no amount of other facts will matter. The fact you can't distinguish one "Arab" from the next proves what a racist you really are. Just because brown people attacked us doesn't mean that we were justified in attacking any country with brown people. This was is about OIL OIL OIL, not to mention fat contracts for companies like Halliburton (soon to be headquartered in the UAE) and more govt. funded weapons systems to be made by Boeing, etc. And, if Bush had put the war in the budget he wouldn't have to beg the Democrats for the supplemental which he's now going to veto- does this mean he doesn't support the troops?
"The vast majority of the troops say that we are making progress." You mean the ones who aren't allowed to question their leadership, lest they be courtmartialed? Not a good way to bolster one's argument but then most of your arguments are pretty thin. Like comparing WW2 to Iraq- we took less time to beat the Third Reich, The Italian Fascists and the Japanese than we've taken on Bush's ignorant folly in Iraq and yet you still keep thinking we've "turned the corner" and they're in their "last throes." How many times do you get proven wrong before you wake up?
So who is going to run against Walberg? Schwarz comeback? On the dems side, will Schauer step up to the plate and build on his Battle Creek base support. Jackson citizens should be ready to lynch Walberg by now. The Michigan bible belt on the other hand (Tipton, Hillsdale and points west) are loving him.
Pol, you reminded me of Vice President Cheney and Rumsfeld assuring us that the phony war in Iraq would only cost $2 billion and that would be covered by the vast oil reserves in that country.
It is hard for Bush and his brain deal zealot neo-con friends to swallow that they have made colossal blunder. All that Bush wants to do now is find a way to prolong the war until a Democrat is elected in 2008 and then acuse him'her of "loosing Iraq".
I would remind Mark that during his re-written Limbaugh-Hanity rant he forgot the part about NIXON
withdrawing Amercian forces in VietNam and Ford presiding over the mass evacuation via the Embassy roof in Siagon.
Oh, and Mark, over 78% of the people who are citizens of Iraq have told more than one polling organization the WE should GO HOME and let them sort out their civil war.
I don´t think the Iraqis are considered "brown" people. That slur is usually reserved for Hispanics.
Those who still read have been following the amazing progress being made by the truly "brown" people in our hemisphere in spite of attempts by our government to maintain control over their assets.
Only Pruth? would would let something as twistable as a "poll" dictate thier lives.
I should ask though, Pruth?, did you get that fact from Dan Rather?
Hey CD, even the Wall Street Urinal carried the story. Yep 78% of the people we are 'saving' say if we just go home they will work it out.
They may have even writted today's story of the de-classified Pentagon Report, pre-war, that calls the entire story fed to the American Public BULL#$*%.
Another 12,000 National Guard members on their way. Yep, all is well.
CD, 70% of the American people have figured out that The President lied, Cheney lied and Colin Powel lied and knew it when he made his claims to the UN.
CD, you are one of the handful of folks whose ignorance of the Middle East and Arab culture (As opposed to Islamic culture)would keep us in this pointless war forever. Tell us CD, should we still be in Vietnam?
Oh, and as to Dan Rather, everything that was said about W's draft dodging remains true. CBS was taken in by documents, that, although true, were not authentic.
We don't even know if the documents really were fakes since no one bothered to press charges or investigate someone supposedly counterfeiting federal documents in order to sink a candidate's presidential campaign.
You'd think that's something someone would go to jail for... unless perhaps Karl Rove or some other Republican working on Bush's campaign made fake documents which were based on real ones that might come to light in order to distract from the truth- that Bush evaded his National Guard responsibilities and skipped out on a drug test likely to show him to be using cocaine or other substances. Then you plant a Republican operative (who just so happened to have been the guy who freaking drafted the articles of disbarment for Bill Clinton in Arkansas- WHAT A COINCIDENCE) to spot them as fakes by watching a television show (ask yourself how somone could spot the supposed clues to it's inauthenticity while watching a TV show) and responding to a right wing blog within minutes. In our sound byte culture once it comes out the docs are fakes no one's going to care about where they came from since it MUST have been some sneaky Democrat who would fake documents everyone acknowledges ACTUALLY EXISTED.
I wish you would really actually THINK about this stuff instead of taking Brit Hume or Rush Limbaugh's word for it. If you're going to try to slime everybody who disagrees with you with this allegation then first ask yourself why is no one doing time for this? Given all the coverage of the issue on Fox News why is it they've never answered the question of WHO made those "fakes"?
For anyone who cares:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rathergate
Prut?, your anger is once again getting the better of you. I find your tendency to latch on to a sliver (or a fraction of a story) and run with it as gospel very amusing at least so keep on crying.
I did look through my back log of WSJ's and did not find the article you mention. Several did use stat's but none matched any others. That’s the problem with statistics, they are not truly accurate. If you had any education in stat's you would realize this and not carry them so religiously. Stats can be twisted (as you have shown) to support most anything.
Pol, I do agree that something should have been done to who ever forged those documents but there might have been, I do not know. If nothing else, a civil suit should have been undertaken for damages at least. My beef with Rather is not limited to just that. Mr (whats the frequency Kenneth) Rather has a history of riding the edge of the truth on more than one occasion just to make news.
And I have never listen to "Brit Hume (don't know who he is) and have not listened to Rush in many moon. I got tired of his constant self promotion (even though it is obviously done tongue in cheek). you seem quick to level your own accusations when you don't hear what you want.
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