# Let's cheer the right-wing smear machine! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 12, 2005, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-cheer-the-right-wing-smear-machine/316768 "2005-08-12T19:25:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![bizzwire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/958977/32.png) [@bizzwire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bizzwire)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2005, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-cheer-the-right-wing-smear-machine/316768/81 "2005-08-13T00:48:48Z")
> [@Stephe96](#): > > AirHead America scandal … COMIC GOLD!!! ---
**Author:** ![RedFury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ec9cab/32.png) [@RedFury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedFury)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2005, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-cheer-the-right-wing-smear-machine/316768/82 "2005-08-13T00:56:12Z")
> [@Stephe96](#): > > Funny how she’s not blaming the enemy for killing her son. You mean the “enemy” Bush created by invading Iraq? Yeah, fuckin’ hysterical. ---
**Author:** ![Zebra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/c0e974/32.png) [@Zebra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zebra)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2005, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-cheer-the-right-wing-smear-machine/316768/83 "2005-08-13T00:57:31Z")
> [@Giraffe](#): > > I don’t fault Bush for not meeting with the woman, and I certainly don’t think she has a “right” to meet with him. However, I think she is absolutely right to do what she is doing, and that the individuals who are trying to smear her for it are assholes. She lost her son and wants to protest. Good for her. That’s what America is all about. I agree that she has a right to do what she is doing. I just disagree with her. I also think this is another ‘really slow news day’ for this to be on TV. “Someone’s protesting the war” is not news. ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2005, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-cheer-the-right-wing-smear-machine/316768/84 "2005-08-13T01:24:09Z")
> [@bizzwire](#): > > COMIC GOLD!!! And while I’m at it, why do they call it Ovaltine? The mug’s round, the jar’s round…they oughta call it ROUNDtine! ---
**Author:** ![cosmosdan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@cosmosdan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cosmosdan)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2005, 1:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-cheer-the-right-wing-smear-machine/316768/85 "2005-08-13T01:33:59Z")
> [@Stephe96](#): > > I’ve never said differently. But if Congress had voted “No,” then we wouldn’t be in Iraq. It may be a toss up. A group of liars who get us into a war or a group of cowards in congress that let it happen. No wait. It’s that fat bastard Moore who’s to blame. Actually I’m no fan of Moore. I joined Move On in the begining but have since withdrawn support because of their bad choices. I’m sure groups will use this mother for their own political ends but to dismiss or critisize her by parroting the republican shills is a useless bit of hypocrasy isn’t it? Here’s a novel idea. Perhaps we could demand a liitle honesty from both sides of the arguement. ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2005, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-cheer-the-right-wing-smear-machine/316768/86 "2005-08-13T01:38:31Z")
> [@cosmosdan](#): > > Here’s a novel idea. Perhaps we could demand a liitle honesty from both sides of the arguement. You’ve got my vote! ---
**Author:** ![cosmosdan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@cosmosdan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cosmosdan)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2005, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-cheer-the-right-wing-smear-machine/316768/87 "2005-08-13T01:43:00Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > \*Leon Panetta: You voted for the Iraqi resolution. Do you have any regrets? > > Senator Clinton: I don’t regret voting to give the President authority. I regret the way he used the authority.\* > > Sorry, but this is a crock. Any member of Congress who grants “authority” to a President to stage war without a Congressional war declaration (preceded by a full debate) has abdicated his or her responsibilities. Almost all of them are old enough to remember the Tonkin Gulf Resolution and how it was used by LBJ to sink us deep into the Vietnam quagmire. > > Everyone who voted for the Iraq resolution took part in a copout, and should be deeply ashamed. right on. They were political cowards and that interview is how the game is played. In my book they are just as dishonest as Bush is. ---
**Author:** ![Southern\_Gentleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@Southern\_Gentleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Gentleman)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2005, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-cheer-the-right-wing-smear-machine/316768/88 "2005-08-13T01:43:28Z")
Giraffe, He be funny. But wise at the same time. ---
**Author:** ![Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e36b37/32.png) [@Airman\_Doors\_USAF](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airman_Doors_USAF)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2005, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-cheer-the-right-wing-smear-machine/316768/89 "2005-08-13T01:47:08Z")
> [@Stephe96](#): > > I love it. I loved watching the Move-On idiots and the Michael Moore morons lose “the most important election of our lives.” I was happy last November and I’m happy right now. Give me a call. I’d be happy to forward you to my recruiter so you can express your support for President Bush with your enlistment. We always need more enthusiastic war supporters to show their patriotism by signing up. I’m sure you’ll be just as happy under fire in Iraq. Hopefully more happy than her son is right now. Or you could just get off this lady’s back. People are allowed to change their minds, especially if they lost someone under questionable circumstances. ---
**Author:** ![cosmosdan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@cosmosdan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cosmosdan)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2005, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-cheer-the-right-wing-smear-machine/316768/90 "2005-08-13T01:50:06Z")
> [@Pochacco](#): > > Agreed. But standing by and letting a wrong be committed is not the same as committing it yourself. > > If my buddy gets drunk and announces that he’s going to walk down the street and beat the crap out of his ex-wife, and I say “Yeah, go ahead, she deserves it”, I certainly bear some responsibility for what insues. But not as much as my buddy does. I can’t agree with this. Coward may be different in the dictionary than Liar but I doubt either has any moral high ground to claim. If you let your drunk buddy beat up his ex wife without making any effort to stop him you are not guilty of the same heinous act but you are both guilty. ---
**Author:** ![Southern\_Gentleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@Southern\_Gentleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Gentleman)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2005, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-cheer-the-right-wing-smear-machine/316768/91 "2005-08-13T01:50:53Z")
> [@Airman Doors](#): > > Give me a call. I’d be happy to forward you to my recruiter so you can express your support for President Bush with your enlistment. We always need more enthusiastic war supporters to show their patriotism by signing up. I’m sure you’ll be just as happy under fire in Iraq. Hopefully more happy than her son is right now. > > Or you could just get off this lady’s back. People are allowed to change their minds, especially if they lost someone under questionable circumstances. If people who support Bush and the war were to join up and back up their words, we’d have no college republicans. Then where would we be? ---
**Author:** ![cosmosdan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@cosmosdan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cosmosdan)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2005, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-cheer-the-right-wing-smear-machine/316768/92 "2005-08-13T01:59:59Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > Well “good” is in the eye of the beholder. Far be it from me to offer a “good” answer to that question, but at this point the soldiers are dying in order to help Iraqis create a free country for themselves. We might not like that answer, but I don’t see why it isn’t “good”. Yeah, Bush has been all over the map on the reason for the war, but whether or not you consider the reasons “good” or not depends on your presepective and what you’re trying to accomplish. The goal of trying to establish a democracy in the middle east is not a bad one. Even though that isn’t the reason we were originally given. Since the begining I haven’t believed that we could build a democracy at gunpoint. I even hoped I was wrong and maybe there were enough people in Iraq that who wanted and would work toward a democracy. Now I believe that this admin doesn’t really want a democracy in Iraq in the sense that Iraqi’s determine their own fate. They want a government that defers to US interests in that region. That little stipulation makes a very difficult task impossible {assuming it wasn’t already} ---
**Author:** ![Southern\_Gentleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@Southern\_Gentleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Gentleman)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2005, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-cheer-the-right-wing-smear-machine/316768/93 "2005-08-13T02:04:59Z")
While I am no fan of Bush. Someone tell me what the name of the operation to invade Iraq was again. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2005, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-cheer-the-right-wing-smear-machine/316768/94 "2005-08-13T02:06:24Z")
> [@rjung](#): > > And that’s not even counting the stuff from Drudge and O’Reilly _et al_ from earlier this week. Ah yes, the blogmeister stikes again. Look, you keep talking about O’Reilly “smearing” her. Where has he done this? I couldn’t find the transcript of the show I watched, but he was very respectful of her grief and he emphasized that she had every right to do what she is doing. He did call her something like “misguided” and he did posit that she is being used by [MoveOn.org](http://MoveOn.org), but that isn’t a smear-- it’s not an unreasonable proposition to make even if you don’t agree with it. > [@](#): > > As for the folks who say, “she already met with Bush,” I guess I wasn’t aware of the law that says you can only meet with the POTUS only once. And your point is what, that the president MUST do everything that he is not forbiden by law from doing? ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2005, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-cheer-the-right-wing-smear-machine/316768/95 "2005-08-13T02:13:53Z")
> [@Gangster Octopus](#): > > He volunteered is the stupidest argument. They may be volunteers, but there is implicit in that vulnteering that the Presidnet won’t send you off on some ego-aggrandizing clusterfuck. No, unfortunately that is not implicit, in fact, it is implicit that you may be sent off into danger for goals that are not yours. (I say this as a past volenteer) You should know what you’re getting into. But the Op is correct, smearing a Mom of a casualty of Bush’s war, will probably do more to turn opinions against the President’s actions. ---
**Author:** ![RedFury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ec9cab/32.png) [@RedFury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedFury)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2005, 2:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-cheer-the-right-wing-smear-machine/316768/96 "2005-08-13T02:24:53Z")
> [@Southern Gentleman](#): > > While I am no fan of Bush. Someone tell me what the name of the operation to invade Iraq was again. Sure. Originally, it was called [Operation Iraqi Liberation](http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/04/20030401-2.html)…until they realized the acronym of same was either A-too honest or B-a Freudian slip. ---
**Author:** ![Southern\_Gentleman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e68b1a/32.png) [@Southern\_Gentleman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Southern_Gentleman)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2005, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-cheer-the-right-wing-smear-machine/316768/97 "2005-08-13T02:29:22Z")
> [@RedFury](#): > > Sure. > > Originally, it was called [Operation Iraqi Liberation](http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/04/20030401-2.html)…until they realized the acronym of same was either A-too honest or B-a Freudian slip. Operation Iraqi \*\*_Freedom_ \*\*. Coincidence? ---
**Author:** ![RedFury](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/ec9cab/32.png) [@RedFury](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedFury)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2005, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-cheer-the-right-wing-smear-machine/316768/98 "2005-08-13T02:35:38Z")
> [@Southern Gentleman](#): > > Operation Iraqi \*\*_Freedom_ \*\*. > > Coincidence? Guess you have problems reading what’s on your screen – that was NOT the original name. O.I.L. was. As for the name change, a turd smells just as putrid by any other name. Thanx for the inspiration, Bard. ---
**Author:** ![cosmosdan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a6a055/32.png) [@cosmosdan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cosmosdan)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2005, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-cheer-the-right-wing-smear-machine/316768/99 "2005-08-13T02:35:46Z")
> [@John Mace](#): > > You mean like this, from the [IRAQ WAR RESOLUTION 107th CONGRESS 2d Session H. J. RES. 114 October 10, 2002](http://www.yourcongress.com/ViewArticle.asp?article_id=2686) > > Yeah, yeah, it was the main reason. But saying that wasn’t part of the resaon is simply untrue. And at this point in the war, it IS the reason. I’m curious. Did the Iraqi liberation act of 1998 recommend a military invasion? The problem is it isn’t the reason. We’ve supported tyrants and dictators in the past as long as they conceded to US interests. Saddam is a good example. Are we now going to buy the same lame rhetoric and flag waving? Look at the evidence. Who has this administration supported to govern. Not Iraqi residents who might actually do whats best for Iraq. Iraqi con men who have been paid by the US for years. I think the concern over what will happen if we pull out is a legitimate one. Chaos and civil war? Thats what we have now. How long do we wait to see real progress? How much should it cost us? How much will it cost us in the future? Is it progress against terrorism? ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2005, 2:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-cheer-the-right-wing-smear-machine/316768/100 "2005-08-13T02:35:47Z")
> [@Southern Gentleman](#): > > Operation Iraqi \*\*_Freedom_ \*\*. > > Coincidence? Probably. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-cheer-the-right-wing-smear-machine/316768.md?page=4) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lets-cheer-the-right-wing-smear-machine/316768.md?page=6)