no pussyfooting

"i suggest – no, i insist that it is you mr. president, you are a traitor..."

hi, this is richard speziale…it’s been happening to me past couple weeks – someone will say: ‘did you see whatzisface on msnbc? you hear what he said about bush?’
and i say ‘no. did he call the president a liar? did he accuse the prisident of treason?’
the answer is always, well, no he just stopped short of that…he came this close… he all but said...
here at dvtv, we don’t ‘stop short’. we don’t ‘come close’. we don’t ‘all but say’. we don’t ‘allude’. we don’t infer, we don’t imply. we don’t ‘insinuate’ or ‘intimate’- we don’t ‘suggest’
at dvtv, we don’t ‘beat around the bush’. for instance:
a common piece of advice for talk-show hosts like myself is to be angry – to hit the airwaves with a shaking fist an unmistakable sense of outrage and indignation about some injustice done to the public.
the outrages have been coming so fast and furious – the injustices so frequent – that it’s difficult to maintain a sense of anger from week to week. the outraegous acts of the bush administration have been so widespread that many of us – myself included – become merely cynical. therefore we have become complacent and even accepting of these injustices as business as usual – another day in bush’s america. we are not surprised that such things are happening in the country we love. we risk becoming resigned to the obvious demise and loss of the land of the free and home of the brave. even as i say it those expressions seem – quaint – almost nostolgic. the principles of american democracy seem to be a long lost hope firmly in our past.
and so, my anger this week is somewhat of a delayed reaction to an expression used by president bush on tuesday. that’s when bush accused critics of war in iraq of giving comfort to the enemy. this is a direct reference to article 3, section 3 of the constitution of the united states. article 3, section 3 defines treason. bush all but accused those who speak out against the war of being traitors.
as i have been an outspoken and consistant critic of the war on terror since its inception in september of 2001, i am, by his definition, a traitor. like tens of millions of patriotic american citizens who question bush’s wreckless and dangerous warmaking policies, i am guilty of treason, by his definition.
so my angry reaction to this ridiculous and unfounded assertation by the president is this:
i suggest – no, i insist that it is you mr. president, you are a traitor.
every time a law abiding citizen is arrested or harrassed or even questioned for exercizing their first amendment rights it is you who give aid and comfort to the terrorists.
every time a phone call is monitored by a government agency, every time an email is intercepted, that’s a victory for al-quida.
every vote you steal, every dirty dollar you add to your obscenely bloated campaign accounts, every election you fix and every dirty trick you pull to advance your party’s agenda, aids and comforts the enemy.
every poor person you let die of hunger and thirst in the streets of new orleans – those mr. prersident are acts of treason.
every day osama bin laden wakes up and reads the headlines, he laughs so much that he soils his caftan.
if you want to see the enemies of the united states, mr. president, don’t look to the streets where your critics gather. don’t look to the lawmakers who seek to limit your dictatorial powers you regularly abuse. if you want to see treason, mr president, look around the white house, look to your corrupt administration, and your evil vice president. if you want to see a traitor, mr. president, look in the mirror – look to yourself.
i firmly believe that history will show that you have bungled every action you have taken since september 11th. history will showthat you have perverted the considerable power of your office, you have killed hundreds of thousands of innocent people, killed thousands of members of our own armed forces, and maimed tens of thousands more in your sick power grab in iraq. history will show that you were opportunistic when the worst terror attack on the united states occurred, and you took the trust of the american people, a sacred trust afforded to very few presidents, and you arrogantly wiped your ass with that sacred trust.
i can’t find adequate words to describe my anger at your policies. my anger is only offset by a sense of tragedy. this was once a great country – not perfect, but idealistic and hopeful. it seems we are hopeful no more. the united states was admired and even envied by virtually every other nation on the planet. it can be a great country again, but george w. bush and company have ruined it for now. i am angry and profoundly saddened by the realization that it may take another generation ffor this great country to fully recover from the administration currentlyin power.
a great patriot once said that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance. he was talking about vigilance against tyranny, and specifically tyrants like those in the bush administration.
i say to all patriots: now is the most important time for vigilance – watch what this tyrant bush does and listen to what he says.