Posted on 01/03/2006 7:22:45 AM PST by Valin
In a stunning new statement, the enormously influential left-wing blogger Markos Moulitsas attacks the very basis for the war on terror, attributing American efforts to prevent future terrorist attacks not to national security concerns but to...conservative cowardice. In a piece entitled "Why are conservatives so afraid?", Moulitsas argues that conservatives simply aren't man enough to stand up to another terrorist attack, and therefore infringe on American civil liberties to save their own skins. "These blowhard pretend to be macho," Moulitsas writes, "even as they piddle on themselves in abject terror from every 'boo' that comes out of Osama bin Laden's mouth."
This is not the statement of some fringe blogger. Moulitsas is closely connected to the Democratic party leadership; according to a recent article in the Washington Monthly, Moulitsas speaks regularly with the staffs of Rep. Rahm Emmanuel, head of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (and occasionally with Reid himself). Moulitsas also, shortly after the 2004 election, addressed the Senate Democratic caucus on the issue of making blogging part of the Democratic political strategy. He is not speaking as an outsider when he writes:
When our nation was founded, we had men of real character and courage fighting for their nascent America, one in which liberty and freedom trumped the authorative tendencies of the monarchy. Patrick Henry gave words to those efforts: "Give me liberty or give me death!"
My, how far we have fallen, with an administration that parlays the incessant fear of its supporters into increased authoritativeness [sic] to the point where he now resembles the very despot we fought in our war of independence.
And his supporters bellow, as they cower under their beds:
"Here's our liberties, just spare us from death!"
These blowhards pretend they are macho even as they piddle on themselves in abject terror from every "boo!" that comes out of Osama Bin Laden's mouth. They like to speak about how tough they are, even though they send others to fight their battles and couldn't last a day in places like Iraq, or Sudan, or the El Salvador of my youth, or any other war-torn nation....
The breathtaking cowardice of the 101st Fighting Keyboardists knows no bounds. They hide behind the American flag and our genuinely brave men and women in uniform. It's bad enough that they wouldn't deign to join the boots in the ground in Iraq. But now they make a mockery of our Constitution, for the very values that motivated our Founding Fathers to put their lives on the line to combat the unchecked powers of the British monarchy.
Moulitsas's statement drew a positive response from his readers, some of whom see a useful political strategy in it. "Oooo, I LIKE this meme!" one wrote:
It has a Wesley Clark flavor to it. If you guys are so tough, why are you prancing around looking for a place to hide from the big-bad terrorists? Ooooo, SCARY! Poor little Americans, pissing themselves because some guys took out a couple of buildings. We all have to get our survival plans ready in case they attack again. Let's give all our hard earned Freedom to Big Daddy George so he can tell us when we can use the john. Geez, Louise, you'd think Katrina would have snapped them out of it but the fraidy cats are still scared of those brown people with box cutters. You're more likely to get swept away by a hurricane and where will Big Daddy George be then? Clearing brush on his ranch.
Captains Quarter
http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/006066.php
The New Democratic Meme: Self-Immolation
Markos Moulitsas has lost it -- and the candidates who pay him for his services might have some explaining to do about their views on national security in the future. Kos wrote today that Republicans want to protect the United States out of a sense of cowardice (h/t: The Corner):
When our nation was founded, we had men of real character and courage fighting for their nascent America, one in which liberty and freedom trumped the authorative tendencies of the monarchy. Patrick Henry gave words to those efforts:
"Give me liberty or give me death!" ...
These blowhards pretend they are macho even as they piddle on themselves in abject terror from every "boo!" that comes out of Osama Bin Laden's mouth. They like to speak about how tough they are, even though they send others to fight their battles and couldn't last a day in places like Iraq, or Sudan, or the El Salvador of my youth, or any other war-torn nation....
The breathtaking cowardice of the 101st Fighting Keyboardists knows no bounds. They hide behind the American flag and our genuinely brave men and women in uniform. It's bad enough that they wouldn't deign to join the boots in the ground in Iraq. But now they make a mockery of our Constitution, for the very values that motivated our Founding Fathers to put their lives on the line to combat the unchecked powers of the British monarchy.
Patrick Henry, however, did not utter those words to urge Americans to withdraw from the world or to "redeploy" to a horizon position. He gave us that grand mission by urging Americans to rise up and fight the British to shake off the bonds of the monarchy that held us without representation in Parliament and without recourse to the very liberties Moulitsas accuses us of giving up. Nor did Henry say, "Let any man who agrees with me but does not fire a weapon be called a chickenhawk." Henry believed in civilian control of the government, not a military dictatorship where only soldiers and those who had served could enter the world of self-government.
In other words, the allegory is drizzly Kos bulls**t.
Kos loves freedom of speech when that speech agrees with him. He loves civilian control of the military when those civilians belong to MoveOn, but not when they belong to the Republican Party. In fact, Kos doesn't like American values at all -- he only uses them when convenient to his argument, but in fact would rather have a Starship Troopers (the movie) government made up of military bureaucrats making all of our decisions for us. He has no respect for those who did go to Iraq to help with security -- recalling his infamous "Screw 'em" to the civilians who did believe in the mission enough to go over and help out, smearing them as "mercenaries" -- and then calls those who stay home and support the mission 'cowards'.
I will pray every night that Howard Dean and the rest of the Democrats take Kos' advice and adopt this as their meme, because I'm sure people feel like they would rather not see New York nuked than to take action within the law to defend this nation. Even most of the Democrats in this country would have a problem with candidates adopting the "Let DC Burn As Long As International Calls Don't Get Checked" platform. I, for one, would rather have the NSA checking on valid leads on al-Qaeda terrorists here in the US than to have my granddaughter vaporized by Islamofascists at the Mall of America. And if Markos doesn't like the fact that I use my freedom of speech to make that clear, then Markos can kiss my entire ass. Screw him and anyone who supports him.
UPDATE: Clarified my reference to Starship Troopers, and removed reference to Heinlein -- not quite the same thing.
I suggest as a test for fear we put at liberals in cages with lions tigers and bears. (And by bears I don't mean those who are not bullish on the economy).
Lessee...
Republicans have the Senate.
Republicans have the House.
Republicans have the White House.
Yea, I think that the liberals are onto something here....
Not unlike Clinton, who had fought bravely along side our men in Somalia and Bosnia through thick and thin.
My sarcasm meter is twiching
"Why are conservatives so afraid?"
Because (to quote the 60's, 70's hippie "peaceniks"), "one Islamofacist nuclear bomb will ruin my whole day".
That's why "Richard(nickname)-head"
When Bill Clinton was in the White House, and Tom Dasshole was running the Senate, everything was all hunky-dory in the green-shaded world of Kos.
Good idea, Kos. Run with this one.
Lots of people that this nitwit describes as 'cowards' and 'blowhards' are in fact, veterans. But then, one oughn't expect anything like thoughtful reflection and common sense out of the Left.
Where the hell was this idiot on 9/11/2001?
Yep, the Dummies are gonna go far with this one.
He's got quite a rant there, and he makes some good points.
This looks like the fight we've been looking for, bring it on big boy. The cowards in Congress might cower, but you wont find that in Texas!
This "fear" meme has been tried before, although not exactly this way. This is coming from the "Bush is Hitler!" party, the and the "Global Warming Sky is Falling" crowd. Both sides use fear, no doubt, but I think the things conservatives, well, most normal Americans as well, fear at this moment, are things that are demonstrably true, in like, it REALLY HAPPENED already. Sheesh..
Hillary's phony moves to the center is only making her look like a facist to the moonbat activists who dominate the primaries.
Barf and Liar alert!!!!!!!!
The author should be advised that big cities are the main terrorist targets ... and are overwhelmingly Blue Nation. If a bomb wiped out a few million citygoers, it would only help Republicans in future elections... nevertheless
Republicans want to prevent another attack. Why oh why could that possibly be?
He is quite right. We Conservatives have been very unwilling to do what needs to be done. I suppose we are just too wimpy to confront the Final Solution to the Liberal Problem...
While at a deer camp, I got into a heated argument with a vocal liberal, who had been drinking heavily. When discussing national security, his point was that a terrorists attack would never defeat the US. He believed that even a nuclear attack on a large US city would just be a blip. The US would keep rolling on. In thinking about such an attack, I believe that he might be right.
Civil rights comment. I am not worried with Bush in office. I would be scared to death with a Clinton type in office. A corrupt individual with unlimited power could possibly bring the US to her knees.
I'm not afraid, Gus, I'm angry!
Please, please Democrats run on this as a platform.
If only they would run on this, 2006 could be a great year.
Dear Kos,
Read your article.
You may have a point, and it's time that we ALL back up our words with action.
Bring your DD214, and you and I can go down and reinlist together.
I see the rats continuing to full implosion. Their attack machine is alive and very sickly. This Moulitsas dude is clearly insane.
And Sam Alito is on his way to confirmation for the Supreme Court.
"It's bad enough that they wouldn't deign to join the boots in the ground in Iraq."
I get this often. If I bother to respond at all it is to tell them that AFAIK, they just don't accept 47 year old cancer patients for active duty.
"the enormously influential left-wing blogger Markos Moulitsa"
Who? I've never heard of this guy.
Yeah, we should go back to the glorious days of the Klinton Administration, in which Alpha Male Klinton watched a series of terrorist attacks and did nothing, other than enjoy Monica's attentions. He proved what a tough guy he was over and over and over. On the other hand, draft dodger Hitler-wannabe Chimpy Bushit proved what a worthless coward he is by actually trying to stop any future attacks. How dare he!
I'm so confused. I thought George Bush was an out of control blood thirsty dumb as a rock cowboy war monger. Clearly I need my memes refreshed.
Say what? You never heard of Markos Moulitsa?
It's Bravarian for Micky Mouse.
warmest regards!
Let me get this straight...."We are not weak on defense! You are weak on defense because you are a scardy cat!!!"
Wow.
Of course! If we were really courageous, like Code Pink, George Soros, and Kos, we would view the prospect of innocent people being murdered for the benefit of Islamic fascists/totalitarians as nothing to worry about!
Dear Kos: You're a damned idiot.
rl
Ooooo, SCARY! Poor little Americans, pissing themselves because some guys took out a couple of buildings.
The unmasked liberal view of human life and liberty
Cordially,
The idiocy from the left never stops--we're not afraid, we're simply doing something about it. The left would not.
I'm not sure about that. Really imagine a nuclear attack to NYC. 7 million people dead or dying. Mass panic, finance shut down, millions more families without one or more parents, cries for restitution. Every large city has its own panic, people leave in droves. Next, terrorists have more attention with proof they have weapons, hold cities for ransom, more panic.
To me, 9/11 was surmountable for the US since it really was "isolated." Luck of the draw to be in the buildings hit...whereas a nuclear explosion is not isolated. That would draw true panic countrywide (especially libs who don't believe there's any danger). To me, stopping a nuke scenario is paramount.
Amazing that now they attempt to turn "doing something about it" into cowardice, and "turning a blind eye" into heroic action. Bad=good, wrong=right,
The liberals aren't "on" to anything - that's their problem.
The leadership of the dem party is following the Daily Kos.com to get their talking points. I hope they keep it up - America is already fed up with it .. and this latest will not sit well at all.
Interesting point. According to Libs, we should be afraid of Global Warming, but accepting of being slaughtered, in the thousands, by terrorists.
They carp over connecting the dots in criminal sense. They have no appreciation for connecting the dots in the larger sense.
9/11's impact was not in its direct danger to individual safety, but for its indication of larger trends:
The historical intersection of major weapons with crazy tyrants, the ineffectiveness of US intelligence here and abroad, blind faith in impotent diplomacy, the moral weakness of former US allies and mulitculturalists at home which hamstring an organized defense.
That these candy-ass libs think this is all about machismo means they are even less serious than I thought.
The RATS and Muslims better be very afraid, another attack on the scale of 9/11 and Muslim neighborhoods will look like Bondai Beach. And US citizens are way better armed than Australians.
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