I'm still sick but... thanks for the Bookmark!
Thanks to Nefarious_hatter for bookmarking me on the Riceball... er, I mean the RiceBowlJournals. It's a place for Asians to connect through blogs. I have met a bunch of great people here on Xanga--not just Asians, of course--but through RBJ, I have connected with some Asians I might not have met otherwise, such as yenly, steve, shiz, spygirl, aznquarter, and hyojin, just to name a few. Anyway, Hatter, thanks for the bookmark; I added you to my Tomodachi list on both the main page and the comment page.
BTW: I've taken the liberty of putting your mugs in my gallery (bottom of main page). Its just a link from RBJ, but if you would rather not have you face on my page, let me know and I will take it down. I have NOT put links to the face to protect your identity...
I' |
m still sick. Being at school all day yesterday did not help me. I wanted to get home early but was unable to due to students needing some help. I'm so loyal to them that it kills me... literally! Just kidding. Anyway, I'm not much better today, but I will go and definitely go home early today to sleep ALL weekend... well except for my Xanga fix, and the Swinging Sam joke, if anyone wants to hear it.
Anyway, yesterday I left you guys without discussing the two things that stood out to me in the debates. Actually, there were three. One about John Edwards and two about Dick Cheney.
First, Cheney is one ruthless son of a bitch. There was a portion of the debate when Edwards stated that 90% of the casualties in Iraq are U.S. casualties, a statement that was meant to underscore the Bush administration's inability to create a significant coalition of allies. Cheney comes back with Iraqi figures. According to the Vice-President, if you include Iraqi casualties, the number of US casualties make up far less. Edward, trying to clarify what he meant, stated that he was referring to the coalition numbers. Right when he said it, I thought, "He shoulda said prefaced his statement with something like, 'in addition to the number of brave Iraqi'". But he didn't and this is how Cheney responded.
CHENEY: Classic example. He won't count the sacrifice and the contribution of Iraqi allies. It's their country. They're in the fight. They're increasingly the ones out there putting their necks on the line to take back their country from the terrorists and the old regime elements that are still left. They're doing a superb job. And for you to demean their sacrifices strikes me as...
EDWARDS: Oh, I'm not...
CHENEY: ... as beyond...
EDWARDS: I'm not demeaning...
CHENEY: It is indeed. You suggested...
EDWARDS: No, sir, I did not...
CHENEY: ... somehow they shouldn't count, because you want to be able to say that the Americans are taking 90 percent of the sacrifice. You cannot succeed in this effort if you're not willing to recognize the enormous contribution the Iraqis are increasingly making to their own future.
When Edwards had his chance to speak again, he should have responded directly, and in fact acuse Cheney of distorting his words, that it was a "classic" example of how Cheney misrepresents other people. But he didn't, and John Edwards, in my view, came off as a lightweight. He lacked the gravitas that Cheney or many other politicians have. When Cheney sucker-punched him, he rarely punched back, or he punched back ineffectively.
Cheney sucker punched him again when he talked about Edwards record in the Senate. He accused him of rarely showing up. And as Vice-President, he is also president of the Senate and said:
CHENEY: You've missed a lot of key votes: on tax policy, on energy, on Medicare reform. Your hometown newspaper has taken to calling you "Senator Gone." You've got one of the worst attendance records in the United States Senate. Now, in my capacity as vice president, I am the president of Senate, the presiding officer. I'm up in the Senate most Tuesdays when they're in session.
This was a hard blow by Cheney. Highlighting Edwards poor showing on the Senate floor calls into question his responsibility as a senator. And this would have been a legitimate slam had he not followed this comment with:
The first time I ever met you was when you walked on the stage tonight.
All of us who have been watching the TV news shows know that this is a lie. He may have not met Edwards on the Senate floor, but this meeting at the debate was not the first meeting. They had met at least twice before at a prayer breakfast and in the studios of Meet the Press. Cheney's comment exposes him as a cheap-shot artist. And I'm not sure I want a cheap-shot artist in the White House, a heart-beat away from the presidency. But what puzzles me is why Edwards did not retort. He surely remembered they had met, but he said nothing. Did he purposely keep mum to let the news people find the mistake so they would spend an entire news cycle focusing on Cheney's lie? Nah, I don't think he's that nimble. At least he didn't seem like it on Tuesday. But deliberate or not, it worked out in his favor as all the presidential election news focused on Cheney's lies.
That's right, "lies", plural. While the "first time I ever met you" was a cheap shot, his other lie has much deeper implications. Either he is a true bastard who will stoop to any level to win, or he is forgetful and out of touch with reality, as Kerry and Edwards have insisted. When Edwards stated that the Bush Administration has taken us to war claiming that there was a tie between Al Qaeda and Iraq, Cheney responded: "I have not suggested there's a connection between Iraq and 9/11. But there's clearly an established Iraqi track record with terror." But after that statement, all the news services and talking heads--well, maybe except for those at Fox--showed tape of Cheney's Meet the Press gig where he specifically stated
In September, he told NBC anchor Tim Russert on "Meet the Press'' that "if we're successful in Iraq ... we will have struck a major blow right at the heart of the base, if you will, the geographic base of the terrorists who have had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9/11."
Now I don't know about you guys, but this is really starting to get ugly for me. While John Edwards truly seemed like a lightweight with little experience, I'm not sure I would want a ruthless bully as Vice President either...
What do you think?
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