Heil der FUBAR
Posted by
KTK
Are you fucking shitting me?!
Loyalty Day?!
In America?!
From the people who brought you “Homeland Security” (arrest without warrant, detention without trial), “Total Information Awareness” (universal, secret snooping), the “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorists Act” (voiding the Bill of Rights), and silly bullshit posturing in military uniforms, comes yet another foray into fascist-style rhetoric and subtly menacing conformism.
In the latest Republican exercise in self-consciously defensive denial of the meaning of May Day (Eisenhower proclaimed May 1 “Law Day” to show the Commies what’s what, thereby making the United States the only major nation that officially refuses to commemorate the Haymarket Riot - in the country in which it actually occurred), Bush has now declared May 1 to be “Loyalty Day”. (Apparently it’s both Law Day and Loyalty Day. Since the “law” now includes provisions whereby the regime can arrest you secretly without warrant, torture you, hold you incognito without trial or representation, and turn you over to foreign governments for torture or killing, while officially declaring itself untouchable for doing so, it would seem that you are now officially required to commemorate Law Day by being loyal to the concept of having no law.) Yes, the United States now has an officially proclaimed “obligation” to demonstrate “loyalty to the homeland” and its military forces. And apparently we’re now capitalizing the word “Nation” and letting state officials stipulate what emotions we’re having.
Jimmy Breslin once summed up Rudy Giuliani beautifully by calling him “a little man in search of a balcony”. That’s more true than I imagined was possible about Shrub.
Loyalty Day, 2007 A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America America was founded by patriots who risked their lives to bring freedom to our Nation. Today, our citizens are grateful for our Founding Fathers and confident in the principles that lead us forward. On Loyalty Day, we celebrate the blessings of freedom and remember our responsibility to continue our legacy of liberty.Our Nation has never been united simply by blood, birth, or soil, but instead has always been united by the ideals that move us beyond our background and teach us what it means to be Americans. We believe deeply in freedom and self-government, values embodied in our cherished documents and defended by our troops over the course of generations. Our citizens hold the truths of our founding close to their hearts and demonstrate their loyalty in countless ways. We are inspired by the patriotic service of the men and women who wear our Nation’s uniform with honor and decency. The military spouses and families who stand by their loved ones represent the best of the American spirit, and we are profoundly grateful for their sacrifice. Our country is strengthened by the millions of volunteers who show deep compassion toward their neighbors in need. All citizens can express their loyalty to the United States by flying the flag, participating in our democracy, and learning more about our country’s grand story of courage and simple dream of dignity.The Congress, by Public Law 85-529, as amended, has designated May 1 of each year as “Loyalty Day.” This Loyalty Day, and throughout the year, I ask all Americans to join me in reaffirming our allegiance to our Nation.NOW, THEREFORE, I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim May 1, 2007, as Loyalty Day. . . .
It would be hard to count the lies in that statement, or the noble sentiments in it made into lies by this regime. It would be hard to express the disgust and shame of seeing phrases like “blessings of freedom” used in our names by the man who brought torture and the Gulag to America, “neighbors in need” spoken as if in camaraderie by the man who calculatedly watched a city and its citizens die while his underlings funneled aid money to their corporate-mercenary toadies and proclaimed “New Orleans will never be as black again” and who deliberately did all he could to destroy Social Security and who funneled Medicare funds by the billions to corporate interests and who tried to give the entire Social Security trust fund to Wall Street, “volunteers” officially haled by the man who turned the government’s authority and more than a hundred million dollars in tax money over to “faith-based organizations” of one religion only who then engaged in massive open discrimination and religious huckstering and fraud against the citizens who had funded them against their will, “self-government” spoken without self-loathing by a man put into office illegally by his own father’s political appointees after losing a cynical and massively dishonest vote count run by his own paid campaign staff who then dismantled his own country’s constitution. It would be hard to enumerate or commemorate the degree to which America has been slimed and shamed, to which America has ceased to be America, to which America has become a nation of secret jails and stupid wars and mindless slogans all propounded by little men standing on their own self-built balconies, as the result of this one putrid failure strutting his delusional crackpottery in places of power and majesty.
And now he proclaims national emotions and demands national displays and declares obligations and dictates feelings and orders “loyalty”. To that end, I can only offer this
PROCLAMATION OF LOYALTY As a citizen of the United States of America that was, as a citizen of the United States of America that may one day be again, as a citizen of a once-decent nation now sadly lost in its way, and as a citizen loyal to the ideals embodied, imperfectly but with a sense of aspiration and through a history of continual evolution away from the shames and failures that have returned to haunt us under Republican rule, in the Constitution of the United States of America, I proclaim:An absolute repudiation of the embarrassing horror of George Bush and his regime;
That the Bush regime is composed of no true Americans, and does not speak in the name or within the tradition of true America;
That George Bush is a blot upon, and a danger to, America and its ideals, and has, through his bungling rule, contempt for law and the nation’s history, and deep-seated incapacity to embrace and exemplify the dedication to freedom, liberty, and tolerance that define America, materially harmed this nation, its citizens, and its relations with decent nations and people everywhere;
That the silly posturing, mindless sloganeering, fascist rhetoric, militaristic display, and anti-libertarian authoritarianism of the Bush regime are anathema to the true spirit of America, have no place in and no meaning for this country, and are to be regarded only with the contempt and derision they deserve;
That America is not a country of commanded loyalties, dictated emotions, or manipulative, manufactured demonstrations of fervor for empty propaganda paraded by self-appointed authorities as approved ideals and values;
That loyalty to America requires loyalty to its citizens and residents and their needs and interests, in all their diversity and difference, and in the right of each to autonomy, self-definition, and the assumption of chosen loyalties in turn;
That loyalty to America requires loyalty to the ideal of freedom as a practical concept defining the sphere of non-interference within which each person is sacrosanct - to the liberal concept of a public/private distinction that walls off personal life from official intrusion - and to the Enlightenment concept of a rationally-grounded personal moral sovereignty from which, only, the legal system derives its authority;
That loyalty to America requires the repudiation of any denial of personal autonomy as a moral foundation of law and society, and defiance of any attempt to remake the nation by authoritarian trespasses;
That loyalty to America requires sorrow at, shame in, and denunciation of the harms to this nation and its citizens following from the incompetent and ill-considered deeds, the repulsive and embarrassing words, and the anti-American values of its current ruling regime.
Now, wherefore, in celebration of Loyalty Day and the ideal America in which true Americans reposit their hopes and aspirations, be it known:
That official “Loyalty Days” are contrary to the spirit of a free nation;
That America is worthy of loyalty only to the degree and so long as it upholds and continues to aspire to the liberal ideals and history of progress, tolerance, and increasing personal liberty that have marked the best days of the nation’s history;
That loyalty to America today requires active opposition to the trespasses against its ideals that define and defame its current ruling regime;
That loyal Americans work to reverse the general course the country has taken since the regime of Ronald Reagan, and most especially of George Bush;
That America will have recaptured its ideals and deserved the loyalty of its citizens when the works of the people and parties who have brought shame upon the nation, undermined its ideals, and imposed, as the least of their trespasses, official proclamations worthy of the most contemptible dictatorships upon its people, have been thoroughly undone and forever repudiated;
That loyal Americans look and work toward that day, with contempt only for those who make that necessary and delay its coming.
“That the Bush regime is composed of no true Americans, and does not speak in the name or within the tradition of true America;”
Your delusion that you represent “true” Americans is laughable. America never has been on the side of people like you and has never represented your values. You are living in a dream world. God bless President Bush and his administration of true Americans.
Comment 5/2/2007
God bless President Bush and his administration of true Americans.
And the 26% (and dwindling) of Americans who are “true” enough to support the guy…
Comment 5/2/2007
“And the 26% (and dwindling) of Americans who are “true” enough to support the guy…”
Yes
Comment 5/2/2007
BTW, where did you come up with the 26% figure? Rasmussen has a 39% approval rating for Bush.
Comment 5/2/2007
You’re right, 26% is too low. I guess I was giving the American public too much credit. The latest poll (from CBS news) has his job approval rating at 32%. Which means that 68% of us are apparently not “true Americans.”
Comment 5/2/2007
Does that mean that my driver’s license is no longer valid?
Comment 5/2/2007
By the way, a while ago, I started referring to DHS as “Department of the Fatherland”. This calls for something similar.
Comment 5/2/2007
There are few people that write longer posts than I do.
Oh, never mind, most of it was quotes. My bad.
Tell me what you think. Mkay? That was quite an effort but where is the punchline?
File under “All linky, no thinky”.
Comment 5/2/2007
#9:
There are few people that write longer posts than I do.
Dude, Kevin Baker has sent birthday cards longer than your longest posts…
Comment 5/3/2007
Number9, it looks to me like the second “quote” is actually KTK’s own retort to the original proclamation. Even if it were someone else’s, it’s very clearly standing in the place of his own conclusion.
Fred… my ghods, Fred. When you’re in the minority, you’re no longer representative of the whole. That means you can argue for minority rights, but you’ve no damn right to foist your beliefs on the rest of the bloody nation. Got it?
Wait, no, you never get it. *le sigh*
Comment 5/3/2007
Rachel:
Yes - the long blockquote at the end, and most of the text above it, is my own words. The only quoted material is in the shorter block near the top. I wasn’t sure if Number9 was joking or not. (And I still don’t know what DanM means about his driver’s license.)
I second your sigh, though I can’t do the diacriticals, I’m afraid.
Comment 5/3/2007
KTK:
By Fred’s standard, you’re not a “true American” unless you support president Bush, so he was asking if that means he has to forfeit his driver’s license. The joke would have worked better if he’d said his passport.
Comment 5/3/2007
“Fred… my ghods, Fred. When you’re in the minority, you’re no longer representative of the whole. That means you can argue for minority rights, but you’ve no damn right to foist your beliefs on the rest of the bloody nation. Got it?”
Minority rights? This is funny. Since when have liberals shied away from foisting their beliefs on the rest of the country? Yes, I’ve got it.
When you are in the minority do you believe that the majority is “representative of the whole” and that everyone must abide by their decisions? What a dumb statement you made. You are going to lose your liberal credentials if you keep saying such things.
Comment 5/4/2007
“By Fred’s standard, you’re not a “true American” unless you support president Bush,”
And by KTKs standard, no one who supports President Bush is a true American. I’m not the one who started the “true Americans” test. You need to go back and read the original post and see who rejected some Americans as “true Americans.” You narrowminded intolerant liberals are the ones trying to exclude groups of people.
From original blog entry: “That the Bush regime is composed of no true Americans, and does not speak in the name or within the tradition of true America;”
Comment 5/4/2007
Fred:
Mea culpa.
Comment 5/4/2007
For the record, “Dan” is not me. We had this confusion once before, which is why I’m “Dan M.” here.
Comment 5/4/2007
Fred, Tgirsch,
Neither KTK nor Fred started the “true American” bit. Bush did. That was the whole point of this post. KTK just called him on it.
Comment 5/4/2007
“Bush did.”
He did no such thing. Don’t listen to anything KTK says. He is a profound liar who has no moral basis for his life. He is a creep who will say anything that pops into his mind.
Comment 5/7/2007
Fred,
You inability to understand things doesn’t make KTK a liar anymore than your inabality to understand pronouns makes me one. In fact, you might be surprised to learn that your idiocy never makes our claims lies.
Bush’s proclamation (linked by KTK. Go read it, Fred.) certainly amounts to a claim that supporting current military actions is essential to loyalty to America. It doesn’t say that explicitly, nor is the claim categorical, but the suggestion is clear to anyone capable of reading and cognizant of currect affairs. KTK rephrased this suggestion as a claim by Bush about what constitutes a “true American”.
Your inability to grasp this doesn’t to reflect on KTK’s veracity, though your repeatend slander of many of us as ‘liars’ certainly does reflect on yours. Perhaps you just don’t know what lying is. It requires deceitful intent. Did you even know that?
Comment 5/7/2007
In other words, your assumptions which are not based on reality are truths. LOL
“Perhaps you just don’t know what lying is. It requires deceitful intent. Did you even know that?”
I know it very well. It is the looney liberals who slander President Bush by saying he lied about WMDs who either don’t know it or don’t care.
Comment 5/7/2007
“In other words, your assumptions which are not based on reality are truths. LOL”
No, you stupid little shit. Even when we’re wrong, we’re not lying. Not only are you a fucking asshole, you’re a slanderous and petty bitch when you call us liars simply because you don’t agree with us.
If you think lying is so bad, why do you do it so often by slandering the rest of us?
Comment 5/7/2007
Your mother must be so proud of you.
Comment 5/8/2007
Okay, your turn to actually answer my question: Why do you call us all liars so much if you know that deceit is a necessary part of lying?
Comment 5/8/2007
“Why do you call us all liars so much if you know that deceit is a necessary part of lying?”
You’ve answered your own question. Liberals are a bunch of deceiving liars.
Comment 5/8/2007
Wait, wait, you actually think that every time you disagree with one of our claims, it’s because we’re trying to trick you into believing something that’s wrong? Is that actually what you think?
Comment 5/8/2007
“Is that actually what you think?”
Of course not. Are you as ignorant as you present yourself?
Comment 5/8/2007
Then why do you keep calling our disagreements lies? Actually answer my question, don’t just dodge the difference between us lying and us being wrong.
Comment 5/8/2007
“Then why do you keep calling our disagreements lies?”
I call lies lies, not just disagreements.
Comment 5/8/2007
So, let’s try this one more time.
Every time that you call us liars, you actually think that we’re trying to deceive you or others? And you do know that deceit is act of misrepresentation, with the intent of causing inaccurate beliefs? And you do know that claims that are false, but not intentionally so are not lies?
So, I’m trying to confirm that every time you call us liars, you really think that we’re trying to promote ideas we think to be false.
Comment 5/8/2007
So let me try this one more time.
If President Bush actually believed the intelligence that he received from the CIA and other sources about WMDs, did he lie about them because he was eager to get us into a war
Comment 5/8/2007
If he honestly believed it, no he didn’t lie.
Those who call him a liar don’t think he honestly believed it. I’m asking you if you really mean the same thing every time you call us liars.
Also, it’s cute how you don’t actually answer direct questions. Very good for supporting your position.
Comment 5/8/2007
“Those who call him a liar don’t think he honestly believed it. I’m asking you if you really mean the same thing every time you call us liars.”
Of course when I call someone a liar I believe they are intentionally telling a lie. I am well aware of the definition of “liar” and “lie,”
There must be some point you are trying to make. What is it?
I believe that President Bush believed that Saddam had WMDs, just as Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Hillary Clinton, the French, the Germans, John (I served in Vietnam) Kerry, and a host of others did. Were they all lying about it? In fact, I’m not convinced Saddam didn’t have them.
Comment 5/8/2007
My point is that if you’re astonishly wrong-headed. I was trying to figure out whether it was in that you were delusional about what a lie was or whether it was that you have no capacity to tell when others are lying. It appears to be the latter.
You’ve called me personally a liar when any apparent falsefood in my claims arose solely from your failure to understand me, and your actions have made it seem that the misunderstanding is willful. To then call me a liar is either itself a lie or completely moronic. The only other posibility was you not knowing what lying is, but you’ve precluded that option.
You’ve called others here liars for what appears very similar reasons, and you’ve repeatly used that slur when the points of contention were over different rational conclusions or source facts. I found it unbelievable that you really thought that each of these contradictions arose from an active intent to deceive. As you’ve now claimed that this was in fact what you meant by calling us liars, I rescind my claims that you’re slanderous.
You’re just an idiot. It’s nice to have that cleared up.
Now, let’s see just how badly you misinterpret this rather explicit discussion.
Comment 5/8/2007
Heh, explicit disciaussions… ^_^
It does appear from what’s been said that Fred here came in already knowing that All Liberals Are Liars and that he knows exactly what God’s Plan is, without room for evaluating individuals’ honesty or reconsidering his interpretations of Scripture/reality (since he seems to have the two confused anyway).
Really, there’s nothing we can do. He already knows that we’re liars, sinners, corrupt, hate-mongers and bigots… you name it. It’s that whole plank-in-your-own-eye bit.
And remember, Jesus hates fags, and knows that being Right is more important than caring about your fellow human beings.
Comment 5/8/2007
Correcting myself: caring about your fellow people. Don’t want to provide extra excuses for calling me inconsistent and a liar about who I care about, since some folks think cell clumps are as important as real people, when it comes to what is a “human being”.
Comment 5/8/2007