Need a Reason for a LTE? Here's One

The guest op-ed in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution is from a mother who's son is graduation from West Point this year. After reading her column, I ferverently hope that he is better informed on the issues than his mother, who obviously chooses the "We Distort. You Decide" option for her news. I will write a letter to the editors today. I invite as many of you as possible to do the same. When the AJC gets a flood of letters, they tend to discuss it on the editorial pages the day after publishing the letters, thus getting our points across twice.

I'll discuss her recitation of right-wing talking points below the fold. But to give you a taste, here's 2 quotes:

The Democrats in Congress want us to lose the war against terror.

The Democrats' defeatism is a grave threat to the security and prosperity of the United States of America.

Debbie Church is proud of her son. Good for her. She should be. He's graduating from West Point. Sadly though, her worldview is so distroted that she uses a moment of family celebration to repeat a slew of Fox Noise distortions. I'll point out a few that stand out. If you see any other relevant points, please mention them, as I don't want to miss anything when I craft my Letter to The Editor.

Debbie begins with some backstory

On Tuesday, I excitedly opened my letter from the United States Military Academy, which had a booklet in it explaining the graduation activities for my son.

As I perused the schedule, I vaguely noticed the seal of the Class of 2007 at West Point. It was an eagle perched over the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center with the motto, "Always remember, Never Surrender."

Fine. Very nice. Then we get the talking points:

That is when I almost sat down to cry over the state of our union. I remembered that just last week, Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) had stated that the war is lost. I remembered how Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) had compared our boys in the military to Nazis. I remembered Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi's trip to Syria, a known sponsor of terror in the region.

The Democrats in Congress want us to lose the war against terror. They have put their careers in politics way above the greater good of America.

OK. I don't for a second believe she suddenly had a flood of memories and sat down to cry over Democratic politicians. The Sen. Durban thing is a favorite Hannity talking point. And in reality, Durban was discussing reported prisoner abuse at Guantanamo. He refers to TACTICS, not "our boys". To be precise, proving the reality that there are not two sides to every argument, Durbin said "If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime — Pol Pot or others — that had no concern for human beings." But Debbie cries because she "remembers" that he called our soldiers Nazis.

As to the Pelosi trip, I notice she does not mention the GOP Congressman who was also there. Or the GOoPers who went to Syria just before Speaker Pelosi. As CNN reported "Lawmakers frequently travel to the Middle East, and several Republicans were in the region at the same time as Pelosi." But its just Dems in the region that are threatening national security? Oh, and don't forget that the Iraq Study group specifically recommended increasing diplomatic efforts to engage Syria.

And defending BushCo by claiming the Dems have put party before country? Puh-leez. Spare me that. Read about the AG scandal? The doctored climate change reports? Voter suppression? I'm presuming that Debbie did not get a chance to watch Bill Moyer's special report on how the media let Bush lie us into war with Iraq.

Americans are deceiving themselves if they think we can just leave Iraq and everything will be all right.

Is anybody saying this? The strawman in her head maybe? I think the argument is that we are making our nation less safe by continuing the occupation of Iraq. Having more our our servicemen die will not end the civil war in Iraq. The only one's who say things like "everything will be all right" are the neocons. Does she cry when she recalls "flowers and candies", "greeted as liberators", "the war might last a few weeks, but certainly not months", "Iraqi oil will pay for the war"?

The Democrats' defeatism is a grave threat to the security and prosperity of the United States of America. They voted in favor of this war.

No, Deb. The threat to our security can be seen in reservists serving a third tour in combat. Stop-loss measures. Insufficiently trained and equipped soldiers in combat. Injured soldiers being sent to Iraq. No National Guard equiptment at home for when summer wildfires erupt. These things- brought on by the endless war you love- are what threaten our security.

Oh, and the majority of Dems in the Congress voted against giving Bush authority to launch his fiasco. In the House, the Dems voted against the Iraq authorization by a 126-81 count. In the Senate all 23 "No" votes were Dems. Your party is the one that owns this war.

Its not the Democratic party that has destroyed our nation over the past 6 years. Its uninformed neo-fascists, like yourself, who have enabled this administration, Deb.