Be afraid: Bush puts fear back into election

[DoYouEverWonder]

August 7, 2004

"I'm asking for your vote again and I'm running because there's more to do to keep this country safer," George Bush told supporters in the battleground state of Ohio as the threat of a new terrorist attack still gripped the country.

"One of the lessons of September 11 is we face a deadly foe who will kill on a moment's notice to try and shake our confidence and our will."

A week after the Democratic candidate, John Kerry, promised America that his campaign would mark the triumph of hope over fear, Bush proved that fear will remain a powerful force in this battle. The most dramatic terrorism alert since September 11, 2001, has forced Kerry to accept that the election will be fought largely on terrorism and national security, where Bush holds the advantage.

All week heavily armed soldiers have been patrolling the financial district of New York, searching vehicles approaching the Capitol in Washington and guarding the subways in both cities. But as images of aggressive military sniffer dogs flooded TV screens, the fear was undercut by a heavy dose of cynicism, captured succinctly by the US's favourite political satirist, Jon Stewart. If al-Qaeda was even thinking of using cats this time, he quipped, we're ready.

The gag summed up the risk for Bush as he campaigned this week. He was accused of exaggerating the terrorist threat and making Americans feel more vulnerable at the same time. By week's end, senior White House and intelligence officials were furiously leaking information to convince sceptical media and citizens that the latest alert was deadly serious.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/08/06/1091732092449.html?oneclick=true


Bu$h puts fear back into the election because that is all he has left. All fear, all the time. That's our George.

[Bertha Venation]

1. dang... are you clairvoyant?

I just said to Mrs. V. not half an hour ago, "there's something really wrong in this country when people are literally terrified that a certain person will be elected president."

I'm not scared of terrorists. We're not fully prepared to stop them right now; I work in Washington, DC; I don't wish more death & chaos on us, but if I'm going to die in a terrorist attack, so be it. We all die. I'm not afraid to die.

I'm terrified of this life under George W. Bush and his regime -- and beside myself with the prospect of another four years of it. I can't handle it.

How anyone can think he's been a good president, let alone a competent leader in any venue he's ever appeared in, is beyond me. His only talent has been to prop himself up on the false praise of power-hungry sycophants. He's surrounded himself with smart people whose stark ambition and lust for power have banded them together to be amazing puppeteers: they make an astounding number of Americans believe Pinocchio is a real boy.

This country has become a laughingstock -- the world over and to many of its own citizens -- under George W. Bush. His regime are terrorists; when you fear your government more than outsiders, what other label do your leaders deserve?

I am a patriot and I love my country, but I fear my leaders (that includes the current Congress) and I intend to do all I can to show them the door. It's my duty and my right -- and anyone who doubts that needs to read the Declaration of Independence: "that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness."

[the Kelly Gang]

2. a coward & bully who can only use fear on his own people