great comment!! It's really unbelievable to complain about earmarks so much (as they are) when earmarks only account for about 2% of the bill!!
Jon Stewart tonight said it was like going into the 99¢ and complaining because something cost $1.01!! And the way they are fighting Obama, instead of coming together (either across the aisle or even among members of their own party) just shows how truly out of touch and desperate they really are!! ----- Original Message ----- From: <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 2009 9:03 PM Subject: {Dawgs/Dittos} Open letter to Republicas > > > Open Letter to the Republican Traitors (From a Former Republican) by > Frank Schaeffer > March 8, 2009 > http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/open-letter-to-the-republ_b_172822.html > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fy1G1qdvIAI&eurl=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frank-schaeffer/open-letter-to-the-republ_b_172822.html&feature=player_embedded > Dear Republican Leaders: The Republican Party has become the party > dedicated to sabotaging the American future. Check out the sermon I just > delivered about the Republican Party on CNN when being interviewed by > D.L. Hughley -- and/or read on. > You Republicans are the arsonists who burned down our national home. You > combined the failed ideologies of the Religious Right, so-called free > market deregulation and the Neoconservative love of war to light a fire > that has consumed America. Now you have the nerve to criticize the > "architect" America just hired -- President Obama -- to rebuild from the > ashes. You do nothing constructive, just try to hinder the one person > willing and able to fix the mess you created. > I used to be one of you. As recently as 2000 I worked to get Senator > McCain elected in that year's primary. (McCain and Gen. Tommy Franks > wrote glowing endorsements regarding my book about military service, > AWOL.). I have a file of handwritten thank you notes from Presidents > Ford, Reagan, Bush I and II. In the 1970s and early 80s I hung out with > Jack Kemp and bought into his "supply side" myth and even wrote a book > he endorsed pushing his ideas.) There's more, but take it from me; my > parents (evangelical leaders Francis and Edith Schaeffer) and I were > about as tight with -- and useful to -- the Republican Party as anyone. > We played a big part creating the Religious Right. > In the mid 1980s I left the Religious Right, after I realized just how > very anti-American they are, (the theme I explore in my book Crazy For > God). They wanted America to fail in order to prove they were right > about America's "moral decline." Soon after McCain lost in 2000 I > re-registered as an independent in disgust with W. Bush. But I still > respected many Republicans. Not today. > How can anyone who loves our country support the Republicans now? Barry > Goldwater, William F. Buckley and Ronald Reagan defined the modern > conservatism that used to be what the Republican Party I belonged to was > about. Today no actual conservative can be a Republican. Reagan would > despise today's wholly negative Republican Party. And can you picture > the gentlemanly and always polite Ronald Reagan, endorsing a radio > hate-jock slob who crudely mocked a man with Parkinson's and who now > says he wants an American president to fail?! > With people like Limbaugh as the loudmouth image of the Republican Party > -- you need no enemies. But something far more serious has happened than > an image problem: the Republican Party has become the party of > obstruction at just the time when all Americans should be pulling > together for the good of our country. Instead, Republicans are today's > fifth column sabotaging American renewal. > President Obama has been in office barely 45 days and the Republican > Party has the nerve to blame him for the economic and military cataclysm > he inherited. I say economic and military cataclysm because without the > needless war in Iraq you all backed we would not be in the economic mess > we're in today. If that money had been spent here at home on renovating > our infrastructure, taking us toward a green economy, putting our > health-care system in order we'd be a very different situation. > As the father of a Marine who served in George W. Bush's misbegotten > wars let me say this: if President Obama's strategy to repair our > economy, infrastructure and healthcare fails that will put our troops at > far greater risk because the world will become a far more dangerous > place. So for all you flag-waving Republicans who are trying to > undermine the President at home -- if you succeed more of our troops > will be killed abroad. > When your new leader Rush Limbaugh calls for President Obama to fail > he's calling for more flag-draped coffins. Limbaugh is the new "Hanoi > Jane." > For the party that created our crises of misbegotten war, mismanaged > economy, the lack of regulation of our banking industry, handing our > country to rich crooks... to obstruct the one person who is trying to > repair the damage is obscene. > Just imagine where America would be today if the 14 to 20 million voters > -- "the rube base" who slavishly follow the likes of Limbaugh -- had not > voted as a block year after year thus empowering the Republican fiasco. > We would have a regulated banking industry and would have avoided our > current financial crisis; some 4000 of our killed military men and women > would be alive; over to 35,000 wounded Americans would be whole; we > would have been leaders in the environmental movement; we would be in > the middle of a green technology boom fueling a huge expansion of our > economy and stopping our dependence on foreign oil, and our health-care > system would be reformed. > After Obama was elected, you Republican leaders had a unique last chance > to send a patriotic message of unity to the world -- and to all > Americans. You could have backed our president's economic recovery plan. > Since we all know that half of our problem is one of lost confidence and > perception, nothing would have done more to calm the markets and project > resolve and confidence than if you had been big enough to take Obama's > offered hand and had work with him -- even if you disagreed > ideologically. You had the chance to put our country first. You utterly > failed to rise to the occasion. > The worsening economic situation is your fault and your fault alone. The > Republicans created this mess through 8 years of backing the worst > president in our history and now, because you put partisan ideology > ahead of the good of our country, you have blown your last chance to > redeem yourselves. You deserve the banishment to the political > wilderness that awaits all traitors. > > Frank Schaeffer is the author Crazy for God: How I Grew Up as One of the > Elect, Helped Found the Religious Right, and Lived to Take All (or > Almost All) of It Back > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WebTV Dawgs/Dittos" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/WebTV-Pals -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
