Last time I looked up the word “hero”, it didn’t include getting shot down and captured by the enemy. That, I think, is more on the lines of the word “loser”. Nevertheless, the Republicans, many of whom didn’t think very much of John McCain prior to the convention this week, have changed their tunes and decided that he’s almost as big a hero as Chimpy McFlightsuit, who became a hero, you will recall, for managing to dodge the same war McCain got shot down in and spending all his weekends getting plastered.
But I am not the one who’s going to rant about this. Instead, let me point you to this post at the forums of Democratic Underground, a site not known for the temperance of its viewpoints regarding the righties in the first place. This particular poster recalls a figure who was the brunt of some pretty malicious smears and lies from the Republicans during the ’04 election: former Georgia senator Max Cleland. Cleland lost three limbs after picking up a live grenade that another soldier accidentally dropped. He acted to save other people at his own great sacrifice, and THAT is a much better definition of hero than anything the Republicans can muster up about their candidates.
If the Republicans aren’t very good at identifying real heroes, they are pretty good at spewing hate and belittling others, as the current brouhaha-du-jour about “community organizers” shows. Well-known technologist and writer Douglas Rushkoff posted about the rhetoric of hate and fear as he saw it manifested at the RNC.
Dear Harvey, Pete, Barry, Kevin, and every other weathermonkey on Boston-area TV: Enough is enough. The fucking blizzard was THIRTY-TWO YEARS AGO. It’s time to stop trotting out the same blurry videotape of cars stuck on Rt. 128 that is older than some of the people who are actually on your broadcast, just so we [...]
It’s going to be a long two months waiting for the iPad to actually ship so that all the tech bloggers and their hangers-on will stop writing so much speculative bullshit about iT and turn their attention iNstead to some other thing that’s going to Change Life As We Know iT. Since you cannot click [...]
Please, please, PUH-LEEZE stop talking about “What do we call the last decade?” Nobody could come up with an acceptable choice ten years ago, and nobody’s going to come up with one now. “Aughties” and “Naughties” are contrived and stupid, and so is the very idea that anything wraps up all nice and neatly into [...]
If you’re a Democrat and you’re a Silver Star-winning Vietnam vet who divorced his first wife to marry a rich heiress, you’re an “out of touch gigolo” (and just where are those tax returns anyway?). Your war wounds aren’t real, and you hate America.
If you’re a Republican and you’re a Silver Star-winning Vietnam vet who divorced his first wife to marry a rich heiress, you’re a loving husband and father (and those tax returns are none of your goddamn business!). You’re a battle-tested hero, and you put America first.