Political Humor | Editorial: Bush Accused of Exploiting September 11

Okay, so it’s not funny in the traditional sense, but I think it’s riotously funny how the Lefties are responding to President Bush’s speech last night. They’re falling all over themselves in a hilarious self-parody of mind numbed vacuousness.

I checked out the blog on Democrats.Org and they are just losing their minds, as demonstrated by the new talking point of the left “Exploiting September 11th.”

Now that the poll numbers are down, they pull out their greatest hits. Make no mistake: they’re exploiting the deaths of over 3000 people to distract from their colossal failures in Iraq, even though they’ve failed to find Osama bin Laden - the most wanted murderer in U.S. history - nearly four years after the attacks.

As Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi points out, they’re trying to “exploit the sacred ground of 9/11, knowing that there is no connection between 9/11 and the war in Iraq.”

Clearly this is their new strategy. As an example, I point to Bush Criticized for Linking 9/11 and Iraq By Nedra Pickler, Associated Press Writer,

Democrats in particular criticized Bush for again raising the Sept. 11 attacks as a justification for the protracted fight in Iraq after the president proclaimed anew that he plans to keep U.S. forces there as long as necessary to ensure peace.

Bush ‘exploited 9/11′ in Iraq plea Doubts cast on success of speech in halting slide against conflict by Julian Borger in Washington and Richard Norton-Taylor, The Guardian.

In his speech, Mr Bush did not repeat his administration’s prewar claims of a direct Iraqi role in the September 11 attacks. Instead, he suggested that the insurgents shared a common “totalitarian ideology” with al-Qaida, and that if they were not defeated in Iraq they could use the country as a base from which to launch terrorist attacks on the US homeland.

Wait, I haven’t even touched the best part yet. The best part is the comments section of the blog posting. Here are some highlights, all quoted verbatim, misspellings, bad grammar, and all:

Kerry was great as usual on the Today show and other places. I still can’t believe this guy who is so classy and well spoken, lost to a incoherent, babbeling “Butt Clown” like George Bush.

Although after finding out that Ronald Reagan is “The greatest American” (as opposed to REAL leaders like Washington, Lincoln, FDR and JFK)well maybe I am not surprised that Bush won….apparently thier are mass stupid people voting in America.
Posted by CollegeDNC on June 29, 2005 at 12:56 PM

Apparently, no one ever taught you to spell, but sure… “Butt clown” Bush is the incoherent one.

well it looks like those crooked republicans have done it again, they have no integrity, first for thetruth has infotrated the last place that the acctual truth is still spoken, secondly we need to be calling for President Bush’s resignation and since it is going to be election year soon for members of the legislature we need to start writing to our state represenitives and senetors to start demanding not only that Bush appolagize to the country but that they open an investigation in to the Bush administration for criminal activity, this is the time when we can show our true strength because this is the time when republicans can be hurt the most,with the downing street memo now in the media we can call for the truth or prove that the republicans have something to hid. Bush’s speech proves that the memo is hurting them by his blatent attemp to try to once again fasely link iraq to the 9/11.we must show resolve and push hard for an investigation and that there days are numbered. each time they refuse to let the truth be known the we show they have somthing to hide. One thing is for sure, this intrustion by the republicans should not go unpunished, they invaded us trying to push their lies onto us I say lets fight back and invade them at www.gopteamleader.com and expose the real truth to them, Bush has once again shown he has no morals, the Republicans have shown they have no morals, and now those who follow them have shown that not only do they have no moral but that they have no respect. Now is the time to fight back, elections time is when they are volnerable and the polls show they are slipping in the public eye, everytime they try to get away with there lies we nee to show the public that they are hidding the truth and keep asking the question, why refuse to investigate the validity of the downing street memo. we must do more than write letters to news papers and write on the blog but need to draw more media attention and make the public aware of the extent of corruption of the Republican party, if we speak up enough they can’t keep ignoring us. I call all democrats wheather in office or regular citizens to do everything possible to force the media to hear us out.
Posted by hunter411 on June 29, 2005 at 08:04 PM

This is the funniest one of all. hunter411 thinks they aren’t getting their message out. Look, bungle brain, it’s not that the message isn’t getting out, it’s that it is getting out. People are finally seeing you for the mindless dolts that you are. It’s not a hard thing to understand that people don’t want the war fought HERE, on OUR soil. Perhaps YOU would prefer that, but most people wouldn’t. BTW thetruth was a pro-Bush comment poster, who pointed out

The President (unlike previous administrations) decided that action had to be taken to prevent this from happening again by attacking terrorist and those who support them. Saddam Hussein and Iraq supported terrorist with financial assistance and allowing them a place to train. President Bush never stated that Saddam had anything to do with 9/11. Why is it so impossible for you people to see that? The only people that keep mentioning the two of them in the same sentence are Democrats.

Right you are my friend. Alas, this is my favorite:

There’s a lot of interesting politicking going on in this move, and frankly I’m not surprised that they used the 9/11 frame again. If anybody has read George Lakoff’s book “don’t think of an elephant!”, it will help you understand this (although personally I didn’t think the book was very well written, it does have some good points).

Basically, Bush has a frame for the war on terrorism, and it’s based on 9/11 and fighting for liberty. We were attacked at home, so we must seek out and destroy terrorism abroad. Since terrorism breeds in places that are totalitarian regimes, we need to tackle totalitarian regimes and bring freedom to them. For Bush, the two go hand in hand.

What’s interesting is that nobody has really called him on this until now. The idea that freedom is “on the march” implies that freedom is something that is instilled by toppling regimes. If freedom marching implies liberation, then there wouldn’t be an insurgency.

The fact is, Bush provoked war in Iraq by tying the war years ago to 9/11 and the war on terror. I read an interesting article that I’m not sure has been published yet or not, but it has carefully studied Bush’s use of the words “Iraq” and “terorism” and “September 11″ in sentences. And, unsurprisingly, Bush has dictated when they appear together. In other words, it’s not based on a situation that occurred, it’s based on when Bush decided they should go together in a sentence. And in every major policy discussion, Bush made sure to put them in the same sentence so that people would be fooled into thinking the two go together. That’s why there was so much overwhelming support for the war at first.

When the 9/11 commission discovered that there was no association, this frame was lost. They couldn’t keep saying the two were related when it was definitively proven that they weren’t. So they had to try something else; they went on to this idea of “spreading freedom”. Iraq became a war to end the totalitarian regime of Saddam Hussein. Now, it’s turned into a terrorist breeding ground, and so they use that justification as well. So they overthrow a government because they don’t think it’s democratic enough, and thus pave the way for terrorists; then they say they need to stay there to kill all the terrorists.

But now that polls are sinking, it’s clear that this frame isn’t working. They need to try the proven frame: 9/11. It got the war, it got Bush reelected, and he now thinks it can save his Presidency.

Over 3000 people died at the hands of Osama Bin Laden so that extremists could try to bring their religious ideology into the forefront of politics. Over 3000 innocent people were killed in a tragedy; NOT TO PUSH BUSH’S AGENDA. It is a disgrace to all those who died to use their memory for petty political gain. To think that Clinton was impeached for a personal affair; it is horrifying to think that Bush can get away with such nonsense. The accountability must start now, and I’m glad to see that Democrats are growing the spine necessary to call for it.
Posted by RussellK on June 29, 2005 at 09:34 PM

First off, the guy recommends a book that even he acknowledges is not well written. Only one paragraph even makes sense, he has it dead right as to the premise of the War on Terror… Seek and Destroy. What’s the deal with using terrorism and 9/11 in the same sentence, I didn’t really understand his point (based on an unpublished article? What the heck is that?) What I do understand is that 9/11 was an act of terrorism. Is that so hard to understand, you witless wonder?

I just think it’s hysterical how they all just can’t get over themselves. They think we’re all stupid. They think the message isn’t getting out. They never stop to consider that we actually use our brains, and conclude that they are the raving lunatics, but hey, good luck getting the message out.