Stupid e-mail from my wife's stupid friend (and my kick ass response)

[Catch22Dem]

Stupid e-mail first:
I'm trying to get all this political stuff straightened out in my
head so I'll know how to vote come November. Right now, we have one
guy saying one thing. Then the other guy says something else. Who do
we believe? Lemme see; have I got this straight?

Clinton awards Halliburton no-bid contract in Yugoslavia - good...
Bush awards Halliburton no-bid contract in Iraq - bad...

Clinton spends 77 billion on war in Serbia - good..
Bush spends 87 billion in Iraq - bad...

Clinton imposes regime change in Serbia - good...
Bush imposes regime change in Iraq - bad...

Clinton bombs Christian Serbs on behalf of Muslim Albanian
terrorists- good...
Bush liberates 25 million from a genocidal dictator - bad...

Clinton bombs Chinese embassy - good...
Bush bombs terrorist camps - bad...

Clinton commits felonies while in office - good...
Bush lands on aircraft carrier in jumpsuit - bad...

No mass graves found in Serbia - good...
No WMD found Iraq - bad...

Stock market crashes in 2000 under Clinton - good...
Economy on upswing under Bush - bad...

Clinton refuses to take custody of Bin Laden - good...
World Trade Centers fall under Bush - bad...

Clinton says Saddam has nukes - good...
Bush says Saddam has nukes - bad...

Clinton calls for regime change in Iraq - good...
Bush imposes regime change in Iraq - bad...

Terrorist training in Afghanistan under Clinton - good...
Bush destroys training camps in Afghanistan - bad...

Milosevic not yet convicted - good...
Saddam turned over for trial - bad...

Ahh, it's so confusing!

Every year an independent tax watchdog group analyzes the average
tax burden on Americans, and then calculates the "Tax Freedom Day".
This is the day after which the money you earn goes to you, not the
government. This year, tax freedom day was April 11th. That's the
earliest it has been since 1991. Its
latest day ever was May 2nd, which occurred in 2000. Notice anything
special
about those dates?

Recently, John Kerry gave a speech in which he claimed Americans are
actually paying more taxes under Bush, despite the tax cuts. He gave
no explanation and provided no data for this claim.

Another interesting fact: Both George Bush and John Kerry are
wealthy men.
Bush owns only one home, his ranch in Texas. Kerry owns 4 mansions,
all worth several million dollars. (His ski resort home in Idaho is
an old barn brought over from Europe in pieces. Not your average
A-frame).

Bush paid $250,000 in taxes this year; Kerry paid $90,000. Does that
sound right? The man who wants to raise your taxes obviously has
figured out a way to avoid paying his own.

Pass this on. Election Day is fast approaching.

---

My response:
I could shoot so many holes in this, it would be funny. The stuff about Kerry's taxes has been soooo debunked, so it looks like someone stuck a few moronic e-mails together and made one big fairy tale out of all of them. Kerry is worth far less than Bush, thus he pays less in taxes. Teresa is the rich one, and she paid a ton more than Bush. End of story. The ski resort in Idaho belongs to Teresa, and was actually brought over in pieces by her first husband, the Republican Senator from Pennsylvania. A hilarious bit of irony, since Republicans love to ignore this point. Then again, Republicans have a knack for ignoring facts, so it doesn't surprise me.

I'm not going to take the time to refute this e-mail point-by-point, at least not at work. However, if you think this election is about Clinton, you're hopeless. Also, if you think the Iraq war was about terrorism, sign up. Sign yourselves up and fight. Sign your children up. Make sure your local recruiter knows the names and addresses of every able-bodied young man and woman in your entire family. I spent eight years of my life in the military. I spent the summer of 1993 in Khobar Towers while my wife was home pregnant with our child. I left my 18 month old daughter at home, while I lived in a tent in the Jordanian desert. I had friends injured in the Khobar towers bombing. I arrived home after months in Jordan in 1996 only to be told not to unpack because we might have to go back because of Khobar. When I was in Saudi Arabia again in 1998, we were told that a threat had been made on our aircraft. They found a stinger missile kit outside the fence to our compound. Bin Laden was threatening my life before most of you knew he existed. The day our plane took off from there, it did maneuvers you wouldn't think possible. My family and I lived on the island of Okinawa, Japan for 4 years. We went without seeing our families for years at a time. A little girl spent the first 6 years of her life, not really knowing her extended family. The only family she knew then, was the incredible group of friends we had over there. People I love with all my heart to this very day. The ironic thing is, I wouldn't trade one second of that experience. I'm thankful for everything the Air Force gave me, and I recieved more military honors and decorations than I have wallspace on which to hang them, so I guess the Air Force kinda liked me too. So, you folks can talk all you want about how much you support the troops, but until you put the uniform on, you have no business criticizing, or ridiculing my political and ideological choices. You have every RIGHT to do so, and you're welcome for that, by the way, but I don't have to listen. So, you'd be doing my family a big favor, by keeping this nonsense to yourselves. After all, everyone hates chain e-mails. Oh, and if you believe everything you read in chain e-mails, Bill Gates wants to give you money just for forwarding this to 10 people. HAHAHAHA!

I'm sending this to my Air Force veteran friends. They'll get a kick out of it.

[Dookus]

1. awesome response

good for you.

[Catch22Dem]

2. Thanks

It started a whole shitstorm. This girl was way out-gunned by 2 of my liberal veteran friends, and out-classed by us all.

[progressivebydesign]

3. Perfect response!!!!

Absolutely right on!

[cally]

4. Great response

I don't get many of these emails. After reading your response, I wish I did. Hopefully you changed some minds.

[MARALE]

5. LOL

I am reading about dems like you every day, not willing to take all the lies anymore. This is great! I am ex-Navy and most of the military people that I know don't think this war is good or like Bush*. This is an ignorant person, most of the ones who blame the recession on Clinton are. I will bookmark this to read again when some Dittohead fool tries to argue with me.
Awesome!!!

[Catch22Dem]

7. Thanks!

My military buddies liked it. :D

[politicat]

8. Lots feeling that way... and welcome to DU! EOM

End Of Message

[4morewars]

6. Outstanding !!!!

Do you think it will penetrate ? I like to think we can open their eyes, I know I have turned a few. I even had a couple come back to thank me !

[Catch22Dem]

11. I forgot to tell you all what her response to my response was...

Something like:
Well, I didn't even write that, and I could go on for DAYS about Democrats and their welfare loving ways.

I just said, "we've had 900 men and women die since Bush declared "Mission Accomplished" and you're worried about welfare queens? Sure, there are people who take advantage of wefare, just as there are people who take advantage of corporate welfare like Kenny Boy Lay. It doesn't mean I think all corporations are corrupt. Likewise, not all welfare recipients are welfare queens. They're good people getting help when the Bush economy cost them their jobs.

[4morewars]

14. She's hopeless.

It's very difficult to get through to people like her. When I hear that I know I am dealing with VERY thinly veiled racism. Her one issue is hatred, may god have mercy on her.

[Catch22Dem]

15. I hear ya, and I wanna feel that same compassion, but...

Personally, I rather she burn in hell.

[4morewars]

18. LOL, I hear YOU !!!!

Many days I feel the same way ! I may feel that way in a while ! But right now, I just feel pity for her. It's another example of how racism and bigotry hurt ALL of us. She will vote against her own best interests, because she feels that the idiot in the Whitehouse hates "them" too(which, is probably true) ! But unless she is a self absorbed, greedy millionaire, he has no use for HER either.

PS: I LOVE the quote in your sig line! I have been meaning to tell you that for a while! Truer words have rarely been spoken ! (just look at the mess we are in !)

[Catch22Dem]

19. Thanks. That book made a huge impression on me

I don't even know the girl. She went to High School with my wife and moved out of state many years ago. She always sends this nonsense though. She's just a sad fool. That's all there is to it.

[ronnykmarshall]

21. I hear that!

I'm lucky not to have any friends like that.

[Blue Gardener]

9. I hope you "Replied to All"

I'm assuming she sent it to a whole list of people. Excellent response!

On Edit: Thanks for serving our country, you make me proud.

[Catch22Dem]

16. I did reply-all (n/t)

[GOPFighter]

10. A standing O!

Well done!

From another A.F. vet ('65-'69)

[Catch22Dem]

12. Back at ya!

Your years were much tougher than mine. *salute*

[in_cog_ni_to]

13. Excellent reply!

:toast: WTG!

[delete_bush]

17. Great response...

I was dutifully reading the RW talking points, mentally trying to refute them as I read. About midway through started thinking, by the time I get to your rebuttal this is going to be one helluva letter!

What makes your response so great is that you didn’t see the need to refute anything. Instead of responding point by point, which with this person will go absolutely nowhere (as you said, they just move on to another “issue” of which they’re equally ill-informed), you personalized the matter. Your humanity shows through in a way in which the soulless jackals aka Limbaugh-Hannity-et al cannot compete.

If I have any criticism of the Kerry campaign it is this, he’s great about explaining an issue, which I respect and admire, but I’m afraid he doesn’t resonate as well with those who need to feel an issue in their gut. Your email addresses the latter.

Although as posted elsewhere, this one is probably hopeless. The right has done an excellent job with their economic one-two punch of welfare queen/socialist that, when added to their alliterative trifecta of God-Guns-Gays, makes it sadly impossible to reach those who ultimately vote against their own self-interest.

[ronnykmarshall]

20. That responce was great ...

any reply to your responce.

[Catch22Dem]

22. Yeah, I posted it above...here it is again:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=2423844&mesg_id=2424003&page=

She's a moron!

[nookiemonster]

23. KICKIN' HARD!!

I'm a USAF veteran, 87 to 92 (41151A- Minuteman II missile maintenance). I love when chickenhawks get their medicine!!

I love the troops. From a troop.

[Catch22Dem]

28. Welcome!

Welcome to DU! I was 451X4A which later became 2A0X1A (around 94ish)
F-15 Avionics Test Station & Component Repair. It was great. I really loved the job.

[maveric]

24. "Clinton spends 77 billion on war in Serbia ..."

Did he really spend that much?
And what felonies did he commit while in office?

[davsand]

25. He got a hummer.

THAT was Clinton's big felony.

Well, that, and he was a successful Democat.


Laura

[SammyWinstonJack]

26. Is Clinton running for Pres again?

Great! Can't wait for vote for him. :bounce: :eyes:

[karlrschneider]

27. Well done, Catch. We need more progressive smart people in our aviation

industry.
:D

[Catch22Dem]

30. Always!

Been working with airplanes in one form or another since I was about 14. Hopefully, one of these days, I'll get off me arse and get in the cockpit. I did when I was about 16, but my folks stopped helping me pay for it (they really didn't have the money to begin with) and I never finished.

Hey Karl, my gramps, who was active duty AF, and later Tulsa Air Guard, has some great writings about his experiences with the Tulsa guard. He should really get them published one day. I think you'd like them, though. He wrote about his around the world trip to Afghanistan in 1962 (first around the world trip for Tulsa guard) where they delivered cattle to the Afghans. He also wrote about a near crash in an F-86D coming back from Denver. Amazing stuff. The most gut-wrenching is his writing about the invasion of the Rhineland in which he piloted a Waco CG-4A glider into Germany. That's a story that will make any pilot squirm. Anyway, I think you'd enjoy the stories. I'll see if I can compile them for ya and pass them along.

[Cha]

29. Yeah, anybody who would

start in on Clinton to try and make bush not to seem so bad is repeating limpbaugh smearing points.

I like the way you told her if she thinks the Iraq invasion was about terrorists..then just ..SIGN UP!!

[Liberal_Dog]

31. Superb!!

What a response. You totally kick butt.