I don't think he understood or believed a word he said.

And how can I believe him when he has done nothing but lied before?  Boy who cried wolf?  I s'pose I'm putting my trust, whatever trust is left, in congress. 

• So, does anyone believe a word of - Bush's speech about bailing out the -sm
  • I DESPISE bush, but he's right about this - Me
    • re sheeple - Ivy
  • A little satire about the bailout scam. sm - LVMT
  • All this will be the least of our problems........ - after October 1.........sm
    • I saw this earlier. sm - LVMT
  • maybe they could give it to construct universal healthcare - that would be better than stimulus checks!!!
  • This is truly socialism. These banks and rich Wall - Sharon
    • i saw that with whoppi - ...
    • EXACTLY. Bush didn't want SCHIP but he darn - sure will help out his buddies on wall street
      • Just a little clarification here.... - sam
      • Well, he ain't alone.......congress full of money - hungry politicans.......nm
  • I don't think he understood or believed a word he said. - huh?

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This article can be found on the web at
http://www.thenation.com/doc/20051024/zirin

Pat Tillman, Our Hero

by DAVE ZIRIN

[from the October 24, 2005 issue]

I don't believe it, seethed Ann Coulter.

Her contempt was directed at a September 25 San Francisco Chronicle story reporting that former NFL star and Army Ranger war hero Pat Tillman, who was killed in Afghanistan last year, believed the US war on Iraq was f***ing illegal and counted Noam Chomsky among his favorite authors. It must have been quite a moment for Coulter, who upon Tillman's death described him in her inimitably creepy fashion as an American original--virtuous, pure and masculine like only an American male can be. She tried to discredit the story as San Francisco agitprop, but this approach ran into a slight problem: The article's source was Pat Tillman's mother, Mary.

Mary and the Tillman family are relentlessly pushing for answers to the questions surrounding Pat's death in Afghanistan. They want to know why it took the Pentagon five weeks to tell them he died in a tragic case of friendly fire. They want to know why they were unwitting props at Pat's funeral, weeping while lies were told by eulogizing politicians. Mary is now hoping that a new Pentagon inquiry will bring closure. There have been so many discrepancies so far that it's hard to know what to believe, she said to the Chronicle. There are too many murky details.

The very private Tillmans have revealed a picture of Pat profoundly at odds with the GI Joe image created by Pentagon spinmeisters and their media stenographers. As the Chronicle put it, family and friends are now unveiling a side of Pat Tillman not widely known--a fiercely independent thinker who enlisted, fought and died in service to his country yet was critical of President Bush and opposed the war in Iraq, where he served a tour of duty. He was an avid reader whose interests ranged from history books...to works of leftist Noam Chomsky, a favorite author. Tillman had very unembedded feelings about the Iraq War. His close friend Army Spec. Russell Baer remembered, I can see it like a movie screen. We were outside of [an Iraqi city] watching as bombs were dropping on the town.... We were talking. And Pat said, 'You know, this war is so f***ing illegal.' And we all said, 'Yeah.' That's who he was. He totally was against Bush. With these revelations, Pat Tillman the PR icon joins WMD and Al Qaeda connections on the heap of lies used to sell the Iraq War.

Tillman's transition from one-dimensional caricature to critically thinking human being is a long time coming. The fact is that in death he was far more useful to the armchair warriors than he had ever been in life. When the Pro Bowler joined the Army Rangers, the Pentagon brass needed a loofah to wipe their drool: He was white, handsome and played in the NFL. For a chicken-hawk Administration led by a President who loves the affectations of machismo but runs from protesting military moms, this testosterone cocktail was impossible to resist. The problem was that Tillman wouldn't play their game. To the Pentagon's chagrin, he turned down numerous offers to be its recruitment poster child.

But when Tillman fell in Afghanistan the wheels once again started to turn. Now the narrative was perfect: War hero and football star dies fighting terror. The Abu Ghraib scandal was about to hit the press, so the President found it especially useful to praise Tillman as an inspiration on and off the football field, as with all who made the ultimate sacrifice in the war on terror. His funeral was nationally televised. Bush even went back to the bloody well during the presidential campaign, addressing his team's fans on the Arizona Cardinals' stadium Jumbotron.

We now know, of course, that this was all a brutal charade. Such callous manipulation is fueling the Tillman family's anger. As Mary Tillman said this past May, They could have told us up front that they were suspicious that [his death] was a fratricide, but they didn't. They wanted to use him for their purposes.... They needed something that looked good, and it was appalling that they would use him like that. A growing number of military families, similarly angered, are criticizing the war in Iraq through organizations like Military Families Speak Out.

As for Chomsky, whom Ann Coulter would undoubtedly label treasonous, Mary Tillman says a private meeting was planned between him and Pat after Pat's return--a meeting that never took place, of course. Chomsky confirms this scenario. This was the real Pat Tillman: someone who, like the majority of this country, was doubting the rationale for war, distrusting his Commander in Chief and looking for answers. The real Pat Tillman, the one with three dimensions, must stick in the throat of the Bush-Coulter gang, a pit in the cherry atop their bloody sundae.

nm

.

I agree with the post.  Thanks for posting it.  I'm sorry this entire thread has been invaded by those who are only here to attack.  They are showing their true colores, though.  They want to control what eveyone reads, sees, speaks, thinks and which God they believe in.  These boards are only a microcosm of the country, and they are quite representative of their party.  The more they reveal their controlling selves here and places like this, hopefully, the more people will see it for what it is and finally feel they've had ENOUGH!  For that reason, I personally hope they keep it up. 

And when will it be?  Bush has already admitted that solving this quagmire will be the responsibility of a future President.  If we *stay the course,* any terrorist or insurgent would then be given a free pass to kill our American soldiers (brutally, like they did this morning) while these soldiers are trying to fight for the Iraqis.  They scream and yell against amnesty for illegals who want to come here to work, but they're in favor of it if it involves our troops being killed.

HOW TWISTED IS THAT?!!

I'm grateful the majority of these Senators showed support for our troops and respect for their lives.

Regarding the definition you posted:   “deeply disparaging and are used when the speaker deliberately wishes to cause great offense,”  I submit the following:

I think there is much ado about nothing here.  Does anyone say the "C-word" when blacks refer to whites as "crackers?"  I don't even bother finding that offensive.  Again, political correctness.  Such as one time I received an email saying "black" was ALWAYS capitalized but "white" was never capitalized.   Fine with me.  So if "black" is capitalized why is "white" never capitalized???  Black and white are colors, why should either be capitalized?  Which, by the way is what the next QA person informed me of, as if I didn't already know that.

I have used the infamous "N-word" but never in connection with the color of a person's skin. I used the term exactly as described by Mr. Webster.  Most usually I have used it to describe what we Caucasians would call "white trash" or people who have 50 cars up on jacks in their front yards.  I grew up in a community where there were no blacks so I certainly grew up with no predjudice and I still have no predjudice.  Black or white we are all God's children and one is no better, or worse, than the other.  Not meant to be off topic, just to say that in my opinion, Obama should not be viewed as being "black" or "white."  He should be judged based on his own merits, or lack thereof, as a human being.  While I don't support him, I am probably less critical of him than I am of McCain.

Twelve more people dispatched by McCain to Alaska to further vet Palin (AFTER she was announced).  Things not looking good.  Speculation is that her name will be withdrawn.  No communists are involved in the vetting.

SOME people are worth defending . . . (not all) Katrina deja vu.  The true conservative mind unmasked.  Thanks for the insight.

banks & the stock market?  Instead of giving $700B to them, maybe some of it should go to helping Galveston & New Orleans. 

The average Joe is gonna take a hit in this, either way.  And, that being the case, I'd feel a lot better about all of us kissing our retirement goodbye, and most likely spending our old age on the government dole, if all those greedy fat-cats went down the toilet with us.

I simply answered as to where they were when the vote was being taken. 

You'd make a good politician with your constant need to always have the last word and manipulating every post you read.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UqiPrRG5lNU&feature=related