I'm Not Stupid, How 'Bout You?

Since I will be on the road for a work-related mission for a couple of days, I thought I'd get this off my mind.

New York Times columnist Tom Friedman pitched a great piece in the Friday edition. In case the link doesn't quite work, here's a snippet:

George Bush, Dick Cheney and Don
Rumsfeld think you’re stupid. Yes, they do.

They think they can take a mangled quip about
President Bush and Iraq by John Kerry — a man who is
not even running for office but who, unlike Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney, never ran away from combat service — and get you to vote against all Democrats in this election.

Every time you hear Mr. Bush or Mr. Cheney lash out against Mr. Kerry, I hope you will say to yourself, “They must think I’m stupid.” Because theurely do.

They think that they can get you to overlook all of the Bush team’s real and deadly insults to the U.S. military
over the past six years by hyping and exaggerating Mr. Kerry’s mangled gibe at the president.

What could possibly be more injurious and insulting to the U.S. military than to send it into combat in Iraq without enough men — to launch an invasion of a foreign country
not by the Powell Doctrine of overwhelming force, but by the Rumsfeld Doctrine of just enough troops to lose?

What could be a bigger insult than that?

What could possibly be more injurious and insulting to our men and women in uniform than sending them off to war without the proper equipment, so that some soldiers in
the field were left to buy their own body armor and to retrofit their own jeeps with scrap metal so that roadside bombs in Iraq would only maim them for life and not kill them? And what could be more injurious and insulting than Don
Rumsfeld’s response to criticism that he sent our troops off in haste and unprepared: Hey, you go to war with the army you’ve got — get over it.
...

The Bush team has created a veritable library of military histories — from “Cobra II” to “Fiasco” to “State of Denial” — all of which contain the same damning conclusion offered by the very soldiers and officers who fought this war: This administration never had a plan for the morning after, and we’ve been making it up — and paying the price — ever since.

And what could possibly be more injurious and insulting to our men and women in Iraq than to send them off to war and then go out and finance the very people they’re fighting against
with our gluttonous consumption of oil? Sure, George Bush told us we’re addicted to oil, but he has not done one single significant thing — demanded higher mileage standards from Detroit, imposed a gasoline tax or even used the bully
pulpit of the White House to drive conservation — to end that addiction. So we continue to finance the U.S. military with our tax dollars, while we finance Iran, Syria, Wahhabi mosques and Al Qaeda madrassas with our energy purchases....

If you don't do anything else this week, I hope you'll get out and vote, and really think about it, think about what's at stake.

I've been having a Darrell Scott kind of day. I often am attracted to his work a song at a time because they really are poignant, straight-shooting tunes. In a lot of ways he does with his songs what I've fallen into with this blog -- he puts his honest self forward, his views, stuff about his painful past --only it gets recorded by other people. At least it serves a higher purpose, even if it's to get some of us thinking, singing, or voting.

Go to Darrell's MySpace page and check out this tune from his latest release, The Invisible Man.

GOODLE, USA

WHAT IF NO ONE WOULD KILL FOR THEIR RELIGION

WHAT IF ARMIES HAD A BAKE SALE FOR THEIR WARS

WHAT IF THE CHILDREN OF THE WORLD MADE WORLD DECISIONS

& PAINT-BY-NUMBER JESUS WASN’T EVEN HANGIN’AROUND ANYMORE

(CHORUS) EVERYTHING’S A-OK IN THE USA IN THE GOODLE USA /EVERYTHING’S A-OK IN THE USA IN THE GOODLE USA

IT’S LIKE EVERYTHING AND NOTHING LEADS TO WISDOM

IT’S LIKE NO ONE REALLY MEANT WHAT THEY MEANT

IT’S LIKE EVERY MAN’S A KING – EVERY HOUSE A KINGDOM

IT’S LIKE JOE McCARTHY WAS OUR ACTING PRESIDENT (CHORUS)

I KNOW THAT I, I’M JUST A DREAMER-A COMMON MAN SCHEEMER

LOOKING FOR LIGHT OUT OF THE DARK NIGHT OF MY SOUL

I HEAR THE DRUMS OF WAR, THEY ARE A’CHANGING

AND EVERYBODY’S GETTING IN THE GROOVE

LAUGHING AND DANCING AND TALKING AND JAMMMIN’ AND SINGIN’YEAH, WE GOT NOTHIN’ BUT LOVE TO PROVE – HOW ‘BOUT YOU?