answering Janets questions

Last night when I heard that Keith Olbermann had recieved a fake Anthrax letter I decided to visit the folks at http://www.olbermannwatch.com to get their reaction.

Mostly, the people there just fling trite and nasty comments around... but I found one person asking a serious quesiton:

Janet Hawkins:

"Who would you ans your fellow quislings condemn--Bush et al or The islamofascists to death given a choice?"


So i had to respond:

Janet, honey, if you want something taken seriously, please don't use bogus rhetorical devices like false dichotomy while your asking the question. I know Hannity does it all the time but lets try to be better than that.

Still, I am going to answer your question best I can.

I condemn the Bush for his incompetence, cronyism, inept diplomacy and malfeasance. I also don't like the way his administration has supported torture, no bid contracts for friends, insane budget deficits, lack of respect for human rights and international law (most of which WE authored over the last 50 years). I think his handling of the Iraq war, Katrina, Dubai ports deal, Harriet Myers, Valery Plame and a dozen other issues has been disgraceful.

But I do not think that anyone in the Bush Administration should be put to death for it. I don't even think they should be impeached. I am kind of ambivalent about jail time for the crimes they have committed. I think they and their bankrupt neocon philosophies like preemptive invasion should be marginalized and then put out to pasture with the other bad political ideas of the past. (i.e. monarchy and communism).

At the same time, I also condemn the terrorists for acts of brutality and outright murder of innocents. Its not really an either or thing. These are criminals and should be treated as such and brought to justice. I am not big on the death penalty because I think it would be a greater punishment for these people to be put into jail and kept alive for as long as possible to stew in their own hate.

You see the bottom line is that I hold my president to a higher standard than I do the terrorists. I really want him to be a good guy. I dont hate the guy, but I am bitterly disappointed that he has turned out to be far worse than any president we have ever had. That does not mean I want to give the terrorist a free pass.

By the way... if you want to be taken seriously outside of the right wing echo chambers you should drop the term Islamofascist. It makes no since. A fascist is someone who believes government and corporate interests should work together to form a "more perfect" state. Italy and Germany were the only truly fascist states. The USA has some fascist tendencies but we keep them in check most of the time. The people your calling islamofascists have no state, hate most corporations and want to establish a theocracy. Islamic Extreamists is a much better term.