Republican Party: Please stop lying.

Open letter to the Republican Party:

Please stop lying. Guiliani made points about Obama’s experience, and his argument there was on solid footing. Then he said:

Look at just one example in a lifetime of principled stands - John McCain’s support for the troop surge in Iraq. The Democratic Party had given up on Iraq. And I believe, ladies and gentlemen, that when they gave up on Iraq they were giving up on America. The Democratic leader in the Senate said so: “America has lost.” Well, if America lost, who won? Al-Qaida? Bin Laden? In the single biggest policy decision of this election, John McCain got it right and Barack Obama got it wrong. . . . full speech

Bush told us Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. He was wrong. Ever since then, our Republican Party shouts Al-Qaida/Bin Laden and Iraq in the same breath. There is no connection. Al-Qaida/Bin Laden were sheltered in a completely different country called Afghanistan.

It’s easy to prey upon American’s weak education system, its overworked class is too busy to remember what Bush told it last week. Have some moral character, though. Admit you’re wrong. Admit our leaders will send people to die if it fills their pocketbooks. You say you believe in Hell but you act like you can outrun it.

no child left behind

This focus on math and science, you’ve got to think about what it replaces. It’s hard for people to imagine but community life was our focus for most of humanity’s time line. Lots of singing. Math & science represent the isolating disciplines. The scientific method is not born of a thirst to communicate but for achievement. And achievement is ever restless for more, pushing above your neighbors. What have we achieved? Less free time than we had before our technological advances. Crowded, massed cities of lonely neighbors.

Somewhere the high school nerd, the one you saw get bullied, well he’s still lonely but he’s making a lot of money. His work creates weapons for bigger bullies. Those bullies say our country is losing its dominance in math and science. This September 11 I’m remembering everything we’ve lost including the three World Trade Center buildings, even if we’ve forgotten both our neighbor and that three buildings collapsed.

dan b. underhill on irony

annalee newitz on transformers

If you want to enjoy this flick without guilt, you will have to ignore the whole Middle East issue. Of course, one could say the same thing about living in the United States. Maybe Bay has succeeded in pulling off some social commentary after all: welcome to the United States — ignore the Middle East stuff, but stay for the masturbation jokes and cool special effects.