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@Carol Richards (September 4, 2008 10:35 PM)
Republicans Blast Republicans Better than the Dems!
Jeeez....
http://open.salon.com/content.php?cid=15442
Here are excerpts from the great blog essay Carol cites above, in case you didn't use the link to it (Thank you, Carol!):
"McCain Counts His Blessings"
"This week's Republican Convention has chiefly been about two things: introducing future President Sarah Palin, and John McCain's war record. Now, I'm on record as being highly suspicious of John McCain's Vietnam experience. Shot down? Taken prisoner? Tortured?
"First of all, I'm not so sure that beating a person, repeatedly and mercilessly, counts as 'Torture.' If I've learned anything from the past 7 years, it's that the definition of 'Torture' is highly fluid, and often hard to distinguish from simple hazing or misguided tomfoolery. McCain himself has voted AGAINST a U.S. Torture Ban, presumably because he understands that a little Torture isn't always such a bad thing. Similar to the hot button issues of Evolution and Global Warming, we're dealing with a lot of misinformation and conjecture. It's all very confusing.
" 'We Don't Torture' has been a mantra of the current administration, despite ample evidence that our government actually DOES engage in activities that might be construed (or defined by legal precedent) as 'torture.' It's very much an 'eye of the beholder' situation. You say po-tay-to, I say po-torture.
"In any case, the P.O.W. thing has been hugely beneficial to McCain in the current campaign, and he has not been shy about using it to his advantage at every opportunity. Lately, he has even taken to using it as an all-purpose answer to just about any question-- even questions which have nothing to do with his wartime experience. I think it's a brilliant piece of political jujitsu. I've actually started advising a few Republican Congressmen in tough re-election races to start emphasizing THEIR OWN five-and-a-half years spent in a Vietnamese prison camp. The way I figure it, in a tough year for the GOP, it couldn't hurt.
"McCain, of course, believes that, since his time in the Hanoi Hilton, he has been 'Blessed' with 'Opportunities', which explains his ownership of so many houses that he cannot even keep track of them all. It also explains his opposition to the recent G.I. Bill, which provides Expanded Education Benefits to soldiers who have served 3 years in our military since 9/11. McCain thought the benefits were too much, too soon-- that American men and women would enlist in the military just to whiz through those three easy years of service and reap the rewards of subsidized higher education.
"It really is an unbelievable scam-- ship off to Iraq or Afghanistan, and three years later-- presto! Free college.
"I don't pretend to speak for Senator McCain, but I'm guessing that he thought that the promise of 'expanded education benefits' would attract a bunch of greedy, freeloading opportunists looking to take advantage by ONLY giving up three years of their lives in service to our nation. You know the type. Frankly, the kind of person who only serves our nation for three years doesn't DESERVE 'expanded education benefits.' At least, that's the way I see it, and Senator McCain clearly agrees with me, or he would've voted for the bill (presumably.) Instead, he publicly opposed it for months, and when it came time for a vote, he didn't even bother to show up.
"McCain's viewpoint is easy to understand. Why do soldiers need 'benefits'? Why don't they just wait for their 'blessings' like he did? Surely every returning G.I. can find a beer heiress whose father was 'blessed' with all kinds of money. There must be hundreds of them out there, just waiting to share all those "blessings" with the next G.I. unable to afford college. If anything, McCain's plan sounds like a BETTER deal than the one he voted against. Expanded education benefits? Screw that. How about SEVEN houses and you never have to crack a text book?
"Sadly, Democratic Senator Jim Webb's GI Bill passed both houses and became law DESPITE McCain's opposition. Who knows how many Blessings and Opportunities our returning soldiers will miss out on while they pursue their degrees? How many beer heiresses will pass them by unawares whilst they are studying for their final exams? We may never know."
