One of my favorite moments when watching the “Daily Show with Jon Stewart” is when he shows politicians making seemingly passionate statements about their rivals (political or otherwise), at which point Jon will show a clip from a few years that will show just how big a hypocrite that person is – mostly because they said or did the same thing before!
It’s what is officially known as Selective Amnesia, or as I like to call it, Bullshit Fever.
Politicians don’t realize that in this day and age, pretty much anything that they have ever said in public is available in the public domain. Which means, at a very high level, check your own past before criticizing anyone else’s past.
I just read an example on CNN.com. From none other than former NY Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who seems to have had the biggest memory lapse of all. Recently, a lot of former Bush Administration officials (Darth Cheney, Dana “I’m pretty so I can say what I want” Perino and former Darth Cheney aide or paduan, Mary Matalin have made statements about the lack of domestic terror attacks under George Bush.
Really?
I mean, really?
Here’s the quote by Giuliani:
“We had no domestic attacks under Bush; we’ve had one under Obama”
He made that quote on ABC’s Good Morning America.
Do you see where I am going with this?
The biggest domestic attack which occurred on September 11th 2001 happened when Bush was president. We all know how he reacted to that.
Now some of you may say that this was the beginning, and that anything after that counts, since it was only after that, that the “War on Terror” began. I don’t agree with you – he was President, and the buck stops there. However, even if I conceded that point, then what about the Shoe Bomber Richard Reid in late 2001? Wasn’t that a domestic terror attack?
Oh, and those are the ones that are publicly known. Whatever your views, you have to consider the fact that there may have been other attacks that are kept under wraps for National Security reasons.
Either way, ever since Darth Cheney left office, he has done nothing more than criticize the people that have taken over. Instead of constant criticism and name calling, how about doing something constructive? Well, I know that asking him to shut the hell up would be constructive, but I mean how about doing something to help? Terrorists attacking this country is a problem that faces us all – irrespective of our political or religious beliefs. Shouldn’t we be working towards resolving that?
It’s like the time when the war in Iraq was becoming less popular (not long after the “Mission Accomplished” debacle). All of a sudden, if you were against the war, then you were automatically against the troops. What a colossal load of crap! Everyone supports the troops – well everyone except those crazy church weirdos who say that any soldier who dies in Iraq dies because we allow homosexuality to “run rampant” in this country. You know who I mean.
Back on topic though, it is typical for those who want to use pressure and fear to make statements like that. I’ve always supported the troops, even though I have always felt that the war in Iraq was a mistake. If you don’t agree with me, consider one simple fact. We are opening schools in other countries, and closing schools in our own. Does that sound like it makes sense to you? It doesn’t to me. Instead of a “War on Terror”, I have some other suggestions:
“War on Homelessness”
“War on AIDS”
“War on cancer”
“War on drugs”
“War on ignorance”
That last one may sound a little out there, but believe me, the solution for that war is simple – education!
Oh, and I also think that if members of Congress didn’t get such exemplary healthcare, then our national debate wouldn’t be as hard. A friend of mine went for his annual checkup last week, and he asked his doctor what he thought. His doctor said that anything would be better than what existed today. Anything.
I guess that says it all!
Anyway, my post was about selective amnesia. Watch the Daily Show – you will see a lot of reports on it, because it seems like politicians like to talk. Without thinking first 
)
A song. What sort of song could follow such a post?
How about “Silent Lucidity” by Queensryche?
Peace!