November 18, 2005

Lies and the Lying Congressliars Who Lie Them

Hatched by Dafydd

I'm listening to Hugh Hewitt, who keeps cutting to the floor of the House to listen to Liberals Gone Wild (if they hold a wet T-shirt contest, I'm out of here). I heard a rapid-fire, one-two punch of mendacity from the Democrats that I just had to share.

First, I don't know who it was (we didn't hear the announcement), but Democrat 1 said that 15,000 soldiers had been "grievously wounded."

This was followed immediately by Rahm Emmanuel, that paragon of honesty who used to be a top aide for that other paragon of honesty, Bill Clinton; Emmanuel said that we had seen "25,000 wounded" in Iraq.

I found this a fascinating synchronicity, because just last night, I read this Mudville Gazette post:

In [Rep. Murtha's] speech demanding our immediate surrender in Iraq he cited this statistic on casualties over there: "Over 15,500 have been seriously injured".

He's been visiting them in the hospitals, and that's awesome. But he may have gotten that bit of numerical intel from British sources - specifically the UK's Telegraph, who recently claimed

While much was made of the US death toll recently reaching 2,000, little has been said of the 15,000 who have returned home mutilated.

You see, that's not quite right.

There have indeed been over 15,500 wounded. But of those, 8375 returned to duty within 72 hours - so although those wounds weren't funny perhaps those wounds weren't quite serious either. Still, 7347 troops have been wounded severely enough to require over 72 hours recuperation. Furthermore, 2,791 Soldiers were wounded seriously enough to require evacuation to Stateside Army Medical facilities. And 280 amputees have been treated in Army facilities as a result of the war. A lot of unscrupulous types who just want to pretend to "support the troops" ignore these facts in favor of the less correct (and more impressive) claim that 15,500 troops have been seriously wounded, or maimed, or mutilated. The real numbers are big enough - I just can't understand why some feel the need to pad them.

At this point, on Iraq policy, the Democrats have dropped barren reason and left themselves only fury (Rahm Emmanuel), hysteria (Dennis Kucinich), sarcasm (Nancy Pelosi), and bile (the normally gentlemanly Tom Lantos). Speaker after speaker arose from the left side of the aisle claiming that nameless Republicans had "questioned the patriotism" of John Murtha (the "uncheckable anecdote" again).

Samuel Johnson said that "Patriotism is the last refuge of the scoundrel." If so, accusing your opponent of questioning your patriotism, when all he has questioned is your judgment and sanity, is the last refuge of the tongue-tied. Resorting to easily disproven lies about the number of "grievously wounded" is the mark, not of desperation, but of just not giving a damn anymore. Resorting to the infantile attack of calling the president a "liar" and the vice president a "chickenhawk" and "vice president of torture," because you would fight the war differently (if at all), is what Rudyard Kipling called "the mark of the beast."

I am so tired of this Democratic Party. It has never been worse than it is today. I am so tired of the lies, the smears, the hysterical fear mongering, the faux tears, the ersatz outrage at imagined slights. I am so tired of Nancy Pelosi's snide asides; she literally said today that John Murtha had shown "great courage" by "speaking truth to power." I rib you not: she used those very words. She has become a walking parody of a radical San Francisco feminist.

I am tired of the rot that reaches out and touches every member of that party, no matter how sane he was before the 2000 election. The miasma of corruption that follows Democrats around, like the cloud of dust permanently hovering over Pig Pen, has reached out a tendril and struck again... and I am utterly disgusted by it, never more so than today.

I held off on this post until I saw the final vote on the Murtha proposal. Here is the tally:

Republicans: 0 Yea, 215 Nay (16 not voting, probably already home for Thanksgiving);

Democrats: 3 Yea, 187 Nay, 6 voted "present" (6 not voting).

Bernie Sanders: 1 Nay

Well, the Murtha episode is all over but the shouting now... and expect plenty of that, as Republicans take to the weekend talk shows pointing out that the Democrats may talk a good fight about "a war we shouldn't even be in," but when actually put to a vote, they had to suck it up and admit the Republicans are right to stay the course.

And the Democrats will take to the airwaves whining that it was a totally unfair ambush to force them actually to vote on their defeatist and increasingly reality-challenged rhetoric.

So it goes.

Hatched by Dafydd on this day, November 18, 2005, at the time of 8:48 PM

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Comments

The following hissed in response by: Bill Faith

I quoted you and linked to your post at "Hawkish" Dem: Time To Cut And Run -- Part 2

The above hissed in response by: Bill Faith [TypeKey Profile Page] at November 18, 2005 11:42 PM

The following hissed in response by: Dafydd ab Hugh

Bill Faith:

Wait... Michelle Malkin, John Hinderaker, and -- Big Lizards?

What is wrong with this picture?

Heh,

Dafydd

The above hissed in response by: Dafydd ab Hugh [TypeKey Profile Page] at November 18, 2005 11:56 PM

The following hissed in response by: RBMN

I'm listening to Hugh Hewitt, who keeps cutting to the floor of the House to listen to Liberals Gone Wild (if they hold a wet T-shirt contest, I'm out of here).

I don't know. If limited to just the junior female staff on the Democrat side, there may be some potential there.

The above hissed in response by: RBMN [TypeKey Profile Page] at November 19, 2005 8:42 AM

The following hissed in response by: Jim,MtnViewCA,USA

Could not agree more. I was young and foolish once and was taken in--I voted for Jimmy Carter because I was convinced the US was the problem. After Afghanistan was invaded and Iran took the embassy hostages it began to dawn on me that perhaps the locus of evil was NOT in North America.
Let's hope that some of these pathetic Dems will eventually lurch into the truth as well.

The above hissed in response by: Jim,MtnViewCA,USA [TypeKey Profile Page] at November 19, 2005 11:22 AM

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