The march of TV-friendly fake ends of the Iraq War celebrations roughly every week and a half continues unabated, with Vice President Joe Biden appearing on a very special episode of Comedy Central’s “The Colbert Report” to participate in the latest sham ending to a war that is very much still going on.
Biden’s primary mission was to serve hot dogs to the returning troops and, it seems, to give the public a sense of some historic moment in the studio. Then, as President Obama did during the last fake end of the war, he lauded President Bush.
“Mr. President, thank you,” Biden declared, adding that while “we disagreed on policy. But you deserve a lot of credit, Mr. President.” President Obama had previously praised Bush for his “commitment to our security” and lauded the war as a “remarkable chapter” in American history.
What disagreement Vice President Biden was referring to, however, remains a mystery, as he was among the loudest proponents of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and continued to champion the war for years.
At the same time Vice President Biden insisted to host Stephen Colbert that the administration was deliberately avoiding using the term “victory” to describe what had happened in Iraq, though a number of officials, including Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, have insisted the war is “over” and President Obama admonished Americans to “turn the page” on the conflict.
At the same time 50,000 US troops remain in Iraq, and while they have been officially reclassified as “non-combat” troops they continue to participate in combat missions.
Proves the Dems are worse the the Repos. At least with the Repos, they make no bones about being blood thirsty warmongering murderers. The Dems pretend to be something else when they really love the taste of blood just as much!
Yeah, Republicans will stab you in the front and the Democrats will stab you in the back. At the end of the day, they're both good for nothing.
Biden is a bloodthirsty Nazi Scum.
Except that many Dems voted against the October 2002 AUMF. Not all of them, but many of them. IIRC a majority in the House.
In the Oct 2002 vote on the Iraq war,
There was a majority of Dems voting against. 126-82 with one Dem thinking it was so unimportant they didn't vote. In the Senate it was 29-21 in favor of war.
Of course, the Dems always play tricky games with votes. Once everyone is sure that something will pass, some will pretend to switch sides and oppose it, because its better politics for them. But, if push really comes down to shove, most of those votes would be Yes votes.
On the last round of war funding. The Democrats tried to create a smokescreen by making a very strange 'rule' that split the vote into five pieces. The vote on the rule was the key vote. If it didn't pass, the whole deal on the war funding would have failed. Every single Democrat, including Kucinich, voted YES on the rule and it won by only five votes.
In that same batch of votes just a few months ago, there was a vote to defund the war. Only 22 Democrats voted to end the war.
So, you are right. But just remember, they are very tricky on their votes once everyone is sure a majority exists to pass something. Lots of people will cast pretend NO votes because they think it makes them look better. But when later and closer votes come along, those same no votes can become yes votes when the leadership needs them.
Colbert is really going light on the "end" of the war.
Although he does make fun of yet another "Mission Accomplished," it is far from other scathing critiques, for example his address at the White House Correspondents dinner where he referred to the assembled "journalists." as stenographers much to their annoyance. On the issue of yet another "end" to the war, where the irony runs very deep indeed, he is much less sharp.
Of course he remains head and shoulders above Jon Stewart who long ago sunk into derrier kisser of the Democrat Party establishment. Not much of worth remaining in the case of Stewart – and ever less funny.
John V. Walsh
Colbert has become Bob Hope.
Except that Bob Hope never ridiculed the war policies of the day through parody. Here is an example from Wednesday night: [video shot of soldiers at a US base] "These are combat troops…" [shot of soldiers at an Iraq base] "…these are non-combat troops. And if you can tell the difference, then you're the president of the United States."
Colbert is very subtle. Often to the point where I can't watch him. His comedy is very subtle and you have to listen closely to catch the parody. Even the speech and the correspondents dinner was the same.
Frequently , I can't watch his show. He sounds so much like a pro-war right winger, that I just can't take it. Even though I know its parody. But some nites I'm in the right mood to catch the parody and enjoy it and then I'm cracking up listening to him.
We have definitely moved into some surreal territory where politicians make declarations completely at odds with anything real and NO ONE CALLS THEM ON IT. "Well, I'm sure Obama and Biden would NEVER lie about something as important as this." Whatever happened to fact checking? Did it end up in GiTMO too?
There was a wave of media consolodations through the 80's and 90's. This meant two things.
— media stopped 'wasting' money on fact-checking.
– like with any job, everyone does what they think their bosses want. These days, the bosses are other corporations like GE or Microsoft. So, most journalists self-censor to make the bosses happy. Those that don't have short careers.
The key thing to learn is that the media is lying to you. It won't change if you write a letter. But, what you can do is to stop watching and stop listening to them. You can teach other that they lie, and get them to stop watching and stop listening.
My favorite scene in the move "V" is near the end when the Great Leader is trying to address his people over the TV sets, but all he's talking to is a bunch of empty chairs. That needs to be our goal. That when Obama and Biden claim they've ended the war and start praising Bush, that they are just talking to a bunch of empty chairs.
biden was put in there to make obummer look good, but the guy won't shut up, along with Quale they should make the front page of mad mag.
Anything's possible if you spel it rite – like:
justis – that's what Bushco was bringing AQ to – via renditions and waterboarding and the hi-jinks at Abu Gahrib
freedumbz – that's what 'they' hate 'us' for, our ability to get sold any bill of goods an idiot can contrive.
victry – that what you call it when you change the definition of what's happening to call it winning.
etc