Cheney Draws Tiny Crowd in Davenport
by Connie Corcoran Wilson
The
King of the Evil-doers couldn’t GIVE away tickets – does anybody STILL
think that Bush will take Iowa? Connie Wilson does a smashing job
of pulling Cheney’s statements to pieces. Click
on “more >>” to see all the fine photos and to read about how
Connie's book is being removed from bookshelves in the QC because of
her political slant!
October 30, 2004
It was
appropriate that Dick Cheney showed up in Davenport at Halloween. He’s
certainly scary enough, even without the benefit of a costume.
Cheney and company came from Columbus, Ohio; Nazareth, Pennsylvania;
and Zanesville, Ohio…battleground states all.
Introduced
by his wife of 40 years, Lynne, the Cheneys brought their three small
grandchildren with them, and Mrs. Cheney shamelessly played the “fear
card” that the Republican Party has been using to woo the female vote
they need to win the election. Her words: “When I think of this
election, I think of my kids and grandkids and their safety and
security.” (And this is the same woman who complained, saying that John
Kerry was “not a good man” because he mentioned the Cheney’s
out-of-the-closet gay daughter, Mary, in a very tactful answer to a
debate question.)
A group of Deaniacs joined Billionaires for Bush to protest the
Cheney visit. One of their signs reads, “Health care is already
affordable.” Another reads, “Education is NOT for everyone.”
I love the “Thurston and Lovey” look of the couple in the front.
Connie captured this photo at Peabody's, down the street from
the Cheney event in Davenport.
After an
outside camera projected the approaching motorcade of SUVs (at least
15, all dark colored gas guzzlers) on a large screen inside the
Mississippi Room of the River Center, the pseudo-VP entered to the
musical question: “Are you ready to rumble?”
Actually,
no, Mr. Cheney. I am not “ready to rumble.” I think that “rumbling” is
now and remains a very bad idea. The next song was “Eye of the Tiger”
by Survivor….another very old song to pump up the crowd.
In the spirit of Halloween, some of the scarier things I heard at the Cheney rally were these:
1)
The prayer (by Pastor Carl Roberts of the Bettendorf Christian
Church): “We’re thankful that we have servants like pResident Bush and
Vice pResident Cheney. We believe that they are the best men for
the job at this time.” (Speak for yourself, Pastor.)
2)
“I’m sick of Democrats mocking our pResident, aren’t you?”
Actually, it is more the entire world that is “mocking” our
“pResident.” The reason? Aside from being voted the “scariest villain
in a movie this year” by Europeans, (a nod to Bush’s appearance in
Michael Moore’s “Fahrenheit 9/11”), he is quite possibly the worst
pResident we have ever had. Most of the civilized world regards him as
a loose cannon and the greatest threat to world peace (an actual poll
result, in Europe, “greatest threat to world peace: 70% said “George W.
Bush”). If you tried to script a president who appeared more foolish,
uninformed and unintelligent (despite his legacy Yale degree), a movie
audience wouldn’t believe that someone this ignorant, uninformed,
arrogant and out-of-touch could be elected. (And, actually, class…does
anyone really believe that he was elected in 2000?)
Two more Cheney protesters outside the tiny Cheney event
in Davenport Saturday. The one sign reads, “We are
creating enemies faster than we can kill them.” Chilling.
3) “We’ve made America better, stronger and safer.” Yikes! Do these guys really believe this?
4)
“The price of freedom is not cheap.” No, it certainly is NOT
cheap, when you set off a jihad with all Arab nations and spend us in
to oblivion. Now we have the FBI investigation into the no-bid
Halliburton contracts. The fiscal irresponsibility of this
Administration has never been equaled. No other president in
history has taken a surplus so large and squandered that AND taken us
deeper down the rabbit-hole into so much additional debt that our
children and grandchildren will have difficulty digging out from under
it in their lifetimes.
But the
biggest crime of the “incumbent” has to be the unprovoked war with
Iraq, which has cost the lives of over 1100 Americans and one hundred
times that number of Iraqis. Innocent civilian contractors are being
seized and killed. Innocent wives, like the recent CARE worker (who had
lived and worked in Iraq peacefully for thirty years or more), are
suffering now because George W. Bush and the boys obviously do not have
a clue.
5)
“The best defense is an offense against terror.” So far, all
Bush’s misguided “war on terror” had done is serve as an Al Qaeda
recruiting film, spend us into debt, and kill thousands. The best
defense would have been to think the war through a bit more carefully,
rather than simply using the WTC bombing as an excuse to do what had
been planned from the first two Cabinet meetings, according to former
Secretary of the Treasury Paul O’Neill, who was present.
I hate to post a picture of the evil-doer on the blog –
brings down the vibes – but Connie's the one who
was forced to sit there and listen to his long list of
lies. The lying liar. Anyhoo, here, Lynne Cheney
uses her three grandkids to play the scare card.
You know, as hubby said, vote Bush or you'll be
struck down by terrorists. Boo!
6)
“Two million new jobs are being created, the way it should be
when a president is ahead of the curve, instead of behind the curve.”
Before I debunk the number quoted, should I mention that, when Dick
Clarke, the Terror Czar, tried to get this Administration to recognize
the threat that Osama Bin Laden posed, they did nothing until the day
before the WTC attack? Is this what Dick Cheney means by “being ahead
of the curve” or is this, perhaps, a bit like being hit by a curve
ball, thrown by an opponent that experts in the Administration had been
giving unheeded warnings about for months?
As for
the number of new jobs being created, the economy only created 65,000
private-sector jobs per month in the third quarter. Overall job growth
fell well short of the level needed to keep up. In total, the economy
has lost 1.6 million private-sector jobs under George W. Bush,
according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The economy lost 9,000
manufacturing jobs in the third quarter, which brings the total of
manufacturing jobs lost under “W” to 2.7 million (also a Bureau of
Labor statistic).
And how
far “ahead of the curve” was our pResident when he was warned about an
impending flu vaccine shortage, some say as long as three years
beforehand.
7)
Cheney, talking about the WTC bombing (which is the only issue
the Republicans want to talk about, as they continue to dwell on the
past and avoid talking about the problems of our future that “W” has
created): “He (‘W’) didn’t wait and see. He knew this kind of war would
not be won by indecision.”
You know
what, Dick: I wish he HAD “waited and seen.” I wish he had been patient
and taken into account all factors, rather than not even reading his
briefings. He would have seen that taking us to war with Iraq,
when most of the hi-jacking terrorists were Saudis, made about as much
sense as if FDR had invaded Mexico after the Japanese bombed Pearl
Harbor (as Senator Kerry pointed out during the debates). A little more
alliance-building might have been a good thing, too, as we are now out
there on that limb almost all by ourselves, and the terrorists are
busily sawing it off.
But, as
the song lyric went (sung to the tune of “If You’re Happy and You Know
It”), “If you cannot find Osama, bomb Iraq. If the markets are a drama,
bomb Iraq. If the terrorists are frisky, Pakistan is looking shifty,
North Korea’s much too risky: bomb Iraq!”
(*For all verses, buy my book
at www.ConnieCorcoranWilson.com, or from the shelves at Border’s
bookstore in Davenport. But hurry! The manager of Borders has taken it
OUT of their system and only put it back IN the system for a 30-day
trial period. I would certainly appreciate the opportunity for many,
many more people to be exposed to these oh-so-true verses, written by a
Professor far wittier than moi, but performed at various anti-war
rallies by Yours Truly. So, go buy the book, or it disappears. This has
been a public service announcement. Thank you.)
8)
“The pResident is committed to seeing that freedom prevails in
the war on terror.” As I recall, another stubborn Texas President was
“committed to seeing us win” long after it had become apparent to
everyone else in the world that our troops were in an untenable
position in Vietnam. Iraq is the Vietnam of this generation.
9)
“This is a conflict we did not choose, but it is one we will
win.” A debatable statement, Mr. Cheney. You and “W” chose it during
your first two Cabinet meetings, for your own selfish reasons. It was
not…repeat NOT…a response to the WTC bombings, as they were not caused
by Iraqis. I’m thinkin’ you may be 0 for 2 on this statement.
10)
“John Kerry is a man who will say and do anything to get
elected.” Funny. That was my impression of your boss. And it gets
dirtier as Cheney uses a “down home” analogy to mock Kerry’s recent
goose hunting excursion (not everyone goes hunting with the Supreme
Court justices, Dick): “My friends, we have a saying in Wyoming:
you can put lipstick on a pig, but at the end of the day, it’s still a
pig.” If I were Dick Cheney, I would not be putting “pig” images in to
the minds of the voters, because, of the four candidates running, only
one fits this porky image, and it isn’t John Kerry.
11)
“He’s led us very well.” This is a reference to Bush, I assume,
although we all know that you are the puppet-master, Mr. Cheney. And I
disagree that he “has led us very well.” He’s hardly led us at all,
except down wrong tracks. Most of the time, he was vacationing or
letting you do all the heavy lifting.
12)
“Our job is not to take national opinion polls. Our job is to
defend America.” First of all, I would submit that Karl Rove and the
troops are polling like crazed weasels. And second, as John Edwards
recently said in Iowa City, “Who’s minding the store?” All of the
Republican leaders are out campaigning, so that pretty much lets us
know that you are not doing “your job.”
13)
“pResident Bush understands the war on terror and has a
plan. Senator Kerry does not.” Even George Herbert Bush warned
against taking the US into Baghdad (in his book) because it would be an
untenable occupation and there would be no exit strategy. Did his son
listen? Obviously not. And now his “VP” says he “has a plan.” I’ll just
bet he does. And I’ll bet it involves invading some other country that
is sitting there minding its own business and stretching our troops so
thin that the next comment Cheney makes won’t remain true.
14)
“We have the finest military the world has ever known.” No one is
faulting our brave men and women in uniform for the good job they did
initially in invading a country that wasn’t responsible for the World
Trade Center bombing. However, even “the finest military the world has
ever known” can, eventually, be stretched to the breaking point. Can
you say, “The Rise and Fall of the Roman Empire?”
15)
“Our goal is to defeat terror, and, with George Bush’s
leadership, that is what we will do.” Cheney then compounds this
mis-statement by saying that “W” is “clear and consistent.” George W.
Bush has never stated anything clearly, and his consistency merely
represents being consistently wrong.
16)
“We will use the great power of the presidency to serve great
purposes.” Oh oh! I feel some Constitutional rights slipping away.
Perhaps the best retort to this statement comes from a great President
(unlike the bumbler we have now), Thomas Jefferson, who, in 1801,
during his first inaugural address, said, “All, too, will bear in mind
this sacred principle. That though the will of the majority in all
cases to prevail, that will to be rightful must be reasonable; that the
minority possesses their equal rights, which equal law must protect,
and to violate would be oppression. Let us, then, fellow
citizens, unite with one heart and one mind. Let us restore to
social intercourse that harmony and affection without which liberty and
even life itself are but dreary things. And let us reflect that,
having banished from our land that religious intolerance under which
mankind so long bled and suffered, we have yet gained little if we
countenance a political intolerance as despotic, as wicked, and
capable of as bitter and bloody persecutions…But every difference of
opinion is not a difference in principle. We are all Republicans; we
are all Federalists.”
17)
Cheney didn’t say much about the environment during his
“WTC/Terror” filled speech. How could he? This nation, under George W.
Bush’s leadership, abandoned the Kyoto Protocol. It fell to Russia (!)
to actually “save” it. Dick Cheney has also helped sell out both his
home state of Wyoming and his own daughter.
According
to the October issue of “Mother Jones” magazine, on May 18, 2001, a day
after unveiling an energy plan hatched secretly with the energy
industry, Bush signed Executive Order 13212, which has allowed
fast-track gas-drilling permits across the Rocky Mountain West, most
particularly in Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, Montana and Utah. For
example, the 7-million acre Upper Green River Valley in western Wyoming
was fair game, under Cheney and “W.” As a result, a number of wildlife
species are becoming endangered, when 850,000 of 928,000 acres
(in the BLM Pinedale office) are being set aside for the energy
industry and barred from public use. Wyoming governor Dave Freudenthal
became the third Western governor in under a year to protest the Bush
administration’s policy of unregulated gas extraction (p. 72, “Mother
Jones” October issue). He stated, “Auctioning off these leases before
environmental review will only serve to further jeopardize sage grouse
habitat, big game migration corridors, crucial habitat and other
important resources.”
Visit the Monster Slash website
to see a great video on the Bush/Cheney destruction of the
environment. Once you watch the video, sign the petition and
you'll get to see another video.
Theodore
Roosevelt, during his 7th annual message to Congress (1907) had a
response for this kind of behavior: “To waste, to destroy, our
natural resources, to skin and exhaust the land instead of using it so
as to increase its usefulness will result in undermining in the days of
our children the very prosperity which we ought, by right, to hand down
to them amplified and developed.”
And we
all know how incensed Lynne Cheney became at John Kerry’s sensitive
(and sensible) response, during the debates, to the gay union(s)
question. Dick Cheney, whose daughter Mary is openly gay, supports his
boss’s desire to float a Constitutional amendment further restricting
her rights as a person pursuing an alternative lifestyle. He was also
one of only four congressmen to vote against Head Start,
Meals-on-Wheels and an extension on assault weapons.
Now let
me list the few statements that Dick Cheney made during his October
30th appearance at the River Center in Davenport that I could actually
agree with:
1) “In this time of national crisis, America needs a president we can count on to get it right.”
2) “We have a clear choice. The stakes are very high, both for America and for the rest of the world.”
And let
me close with this Presidential quote, from Theodore Roosevelt (1918):
”To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that
we are to stand by the president, right or wrong, is not only
unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American
public.”
Blog For Iowa 