Patty Murray, material girl: Farah slams Sen for cloaking bin Laden's actions in fake compassion

When I read the words about Osama bin Laden attributed to Sen. Patty Murray in an address to high-school students, I was almost certain it was a joke. It had to be some kind of parody, a spoof, a satire. Surely no one – certainly not a U.S. senator – could be that stupid.

In case you missed it, Murray, D-Wash., explained to Columbia River High School students in Vancouver why bin Laden is so popular around the world with his constituents.

Now there are several ways to attack this statement – so many, in fact, it's difficult to know where to begin.

First, it's just not true that bin Laden has done any of these things. True, his family is in the construction business, but they get paid billions of dollars for building things. No, bin Laden – certainly not the terrorist-killer Osama – has ever built anything out of a sense of charity.

But what really struck me as so absurd about the statement was the notion that bin Laden has built day-care centers. Just think about that! There are no day-care centers in an Islamist society, except the built-in day-care center that every family has – the mother. The idea that Islamists would build day-care centers to permit women to work is one of the reasons I was so sure Murray was the subject of a hoax. But no. She wasn't kidding. She really said these words. And she really meant them.

What Murray said about bin Laden provides more insight into the way her mind works – and the minds of others like her – than it does about bin Laden. She knows nothing about bin Laden. She knows nothing about Islam. She knows nothing about foreign affairs or the Middle East or even the impact of faith and religion upon people.

Patty Murray and most of her friends – and the fools who vote for her – are "materialists." They believe you can explain most everything about the world and the way it works on the basis of stuff they can get their hands on.

To Murray, people only care about their basic needs being met. People are generally incapable of meeting their own needs in Murray's world. They always need help from the benevolent forces of government. Murray, of course, has built her political career around the concept of forcibly confiscating other people's wealth and redistributing it to build a power base. That's what she does. That's what she understands. That's all she knows. In that sense, she's kind of a professional thief.

Remember Robin Hood? It's said he robbed the rich to give to the poor. In fact, if you read the old fables and watch the movies, you'll see he robbed government and gave to the people. Murray and her colleagues are like reverse Robin Hoods – robbing the people and giving to government.

She and her friends do this, of course, all the while cloaking their theft in the language of compassion.

Should it surprise any of us that she now cloaks bin Laden's actions in the same kind of phony compassion?

In fact, bin Laden's appeal has nothing to do with giving out goodies to the people. He doesn't do it. And, even if he did, he couldn't buy the kind of support that would make people kill themselves for him and his cause.

Bin Laden is tapping into a deep-seated hatred and resentment against the U.S. and the West – and particularly the rotten materialistic values of people like Patty Murray. That's what bin Laden really hates. Sure, he hates Christians. Sure, he hates Jews. But, just as much, he hates the moral relativism of people like Murray, who think people's souls are for sale for a bowl of pottage or "free" health care.

Murray's comments not only betray her ignorance of our enemies, they betray an underlying sympathy for them – as well as a not-so-veiled anti-Americanism.

If Trent Lott deserved to lose his leadership role in the Senate for his stupid comments in praise of Sen. Strom Thurmond, surely Patty Murray should be drummed out of the upper house for her comments in praise of Osama bin Laden.

Oh, no! Not another GOP faux pas!
by JohnHuang2
December 23, 2002

Oh no, not again.

Folks, if you thought the media firestorm over Trent Lott was overkill, well, you ain't seen nothing yet, my friends. Just wait till the media jackals, licking their chops, sink their teeth into this one.

Brace yourself: I predict the latest GOP foot-in-mouth/faux pas, once the network newsies get wind of it, will make you downright nostalgic for Lott. Jennings, Rather, Brokaw, Woodruff et al, right about now, are probably drooling.

What is it with Hill Republicans and bloopers these days, anyway? Sheesh, haven't we already been embarrassed enough? Seemingly, when it comes to gaffes/goofs/verbal boners, Congressional Republicans have, for reasons which baffle me, more than their fair share. Is there something in the water, or what?

One wag suggested, only half-jokingly, keeping a muzzle on GOP pieholes.

Talk about handing our enemies the ammo to shoot us, the blooper I'm about to tell you about, far and away, takes the cake.

No, it's not another 'racially tinged' remark, if that's any comfort, but it's verbal arson guaranteed to spark an even bigger media hullabaloo, all the same.

And, worse still, unlike the Lott spat -- which, despite weeks of negative publicity, ended with Republicans on top and Democrats on defense again -- this looming controversy has, I'm afraid, the potential for real, long-lasting damage to the Party.

It involves, at once, the GOP's greatest strength but the Democrats' greatest vulnerability: National Security.

Democrats, chafing after midterm elections dominated by questions of security and defense, will, no doubt, go to town on this latest GOP gaffe. Republicans, from Presidents Dwight Eisenhower to Richard Nixon to Ronald Reagan to George W. Bush, have, on foreign and defense matters, amassed considerable political capital. Then along comes this stupid GOP Senator whose slip-of-the-tongue threatens to throw it all away. Incredibly, this Senator is, to boot, up for reelection in '04!

What Senator, you ask? What slip-of-the-tongue?

Well, you're not going to believe this (actually, when I heard about it, I could barely believe it myself) but, here goes:

First of all, this GOP Senator, to be fair, claims she was only trying to be "intentionally provocative" in an effort to elicit a thoughtful discussion, you see. Speaking last week to students at a high school honors class in Vancouver, Wash., GOP Senator Patty Murray (R-Wa.) touched off a furor after telling attendees that America has a lot to learn from terror mastermind Osama bin Laden -- no, not the terrorism, but what she called his tireless work to "help" the sick and the poor of this world.

"We've got to ask: Why is this man [Osama] so popular around the world?" the GOP Senator Thursday told dumbfounded students at Columbia River High School. "Why are people so supportive of him in many countries that are riddled with poverty?"

He's also got, I would add, a huge fan base at Harvard and Berkeley and Hollywood and CNN and Democrat National Committee headquarters, but that's besides the point.

So, why is Osama so popular? Because, 'splains Sen. Murray, Osama is not as bad as evil Bush makes him out to be, after all; in fact, he's a pretty swell dude -- more like a missionary whose vocation in life is doing good works, works of charity, serving the poor -- a kinda Mother Teresa with nails-and-bolts-packed explosives strapped to her body.

Sure, his 'noble deeds' include leveling a couple of skyscrapers one September morning, and, sure, thousands of innocent men, women and children perished, but, hey, can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs, right?

Forget 9/11 for a moment, Sen. Murray seems to suggest, instead wrap your mind around all the wonderful altruism Osama, the virtuous terrorist, er, philanthropist, has provided:

"He's been out in these countries [serving the poor] for decades, "Sen. Murray gushed, "building schools, building roads, building infrastructure, building day-care facilities, building health care facilities, and the people are extremely grateful."

So, how does warmonger Bush stack up against big-hearted Osama and his unselfish devotion to the downtrodden and powerless? Has Bush shown as much good-will and concern for the well-being of the poor and oppressed as Osama has?

No way, says Sen. Murray. "We haven't done that."

Why, Osama's loving and caring, kinder and gentler, 'compassionate terrorism' beats Bush's 'compassionate conservatism' hands-down, says Sen. Murray!

"How would [the poor] look at us today, "Sen. Murray mused, "if we had, [like Osama], been there helping them . . . rather than just being the people who are going to bomb in Iraq and go to Afghanistan?"

Her fellow Republicans, to their credit, immediately pounced.

"It is absolutely outrageous and despicable to imply, "said state GOP chairman Chris Vance, "that the American government should learn a lesson from the madman who murdered thousands of American citizens."

Mr. Vance added angrily that he knows "Sen. Murray has a habit of sticking her foot in her mouth, but this goes way beyond a simple gaffe, "it "sent the message to these students that the United States somehow deserved or brought on the September 11 terrorists attacks. I think all decent people can agree that we most certainly did not, that this was an unprovoked attack of terrorism."

Strong words, yes, but the real test, as I see it, is whether Republicans take it a step further, beyond demanding retraction, and call on one of their own to resign, making the Senate 50-50 again, putting the Democrats within striking distance of retaking the gavel in January.

One thing about this episode I do find strange, very strange though: This happened last Thursday, right? That's 5 days ago; here we are, five full news cycles later, yet, the networks have yet to pick up this story...

I just can't figure that out...

Unless . . . UNLESS . . . WAIT A MINUTE!

AH-HA! I should've known! Patty Murray's a DEMOCRAT, NOT A REPUBLICAN!

What was I thinking?! Sheesh!

Small wonder we haven't heard a peep from Tom Brokaw, nor Dan Rather, nor Peter Jennings about any of this. The media would rake a Republican Patty Murray over the coals by now. We'd see endless 'Will-Patty-Murray-Be-Forced-To-Resign?, or, 'Is-This-The-End-Of-The-Republican-Party?' media panel discussions/symposiums. Shows titled, "GOP melt-down: Countdown to bankruptcy" would breed like rabbits. Apologies? To heck with apologies -- nothing short of her hand on a platter would satisfy the press. Even censure wouldn't suffice.

Will we ever even see a network blurb on this?

Ha! Don't hold your breath.

By the way, her office defends her comments this way: Look, Osama's no darling, but, hey, he's not some white southerner running as a Dixiecrat, either! So there!

So Strom Thurmond is, by this perversion of logic, worse than Osama bin Laden.

Go figure.

Some question Murray's sanity.

I say, what sanity?
Anyway, that's...
My two cents...
"JohnHuang2"
Copyright Enrique N. ©2002

Friday, December 27, 2002

Quote of the Day by kayak

Patty Murray – day 8

OK. Let’s summarize the bidding (as they say in bridge).

Patty Murray, Radical Left “Mom in tennis shoes” (D) Washington, believes Osama Ben Laden is the world’s heartthrob because of his humanitarian efforts in poor countries. She feels that America has not done as much as OBL to educate, heal, construct and establish day care centers in Moslem countries in which women are not allowed outside the home without a male relative as an escort.

She has her defenders. Her staff, which defines her critics as far right crazies. The old mainstream media, who are studiously ignoring her, when not criticizing her critics as defilers of the First Amendment (Washington Post). And Michael Swetnam, Chairman of The Potomac Institute of Policy Studies, who is quoted as saying the Murray’s analysis is pretty much on the mark. I e-mailed him and, so far, have not received a reply.

Silly me. I had been under the impression that OBL achieved fame and adulation by bombing the hell out American embassies, American warships, the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, killing well over 3000 citizens of “The Great Satan” in the process.

Here I had assumed that our aid, just to Afghanistan, which exceeded $170 million in 1991 alone (pre-9/11), had not caused the Taliban to love us. So I assumed that aid was not the key to the love of the Moslem “street.”

What I do know is that Patty Murray represents the thinking of the Democratic Party. The party of KKK Kleagle Robert Byrd, Bull Connor, and all the rest of the segregationist South. The party that kept Blacks in actual slavery before the Civil War and has herded them into crime ridden ghettos while keeping them in poverty in the 20th century. The party of Castro supporters. The party of presidents that lie under oath, suborn perjury and rape women. The party that votes early … and often. The party that divides rather than unifies.

Patty Murray has let slip the mask of compassion that hides the true face of the modern, racist, bigoted, divisive, anti-Semitic, anti-American Democrat Party. We cannot allow the mask to slip back over the face of hate.

The time has come to prove that the old media does not control the access to the opinions of the American people. The Internet, talk radio and one lone fair and balanced TV network have finally come into their own.

Let’s prove we have the power. Don’t let this drop.

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