News came through a few days ago that the House had passed expanded hate crimes legislation that would address attacks on gays. Bush, however, has threatened to veto it. His reasoning was screwy.
Washington Post:
The White House responded yesterday with a formal statement recommending that the president veto the bill.
"There has been no persuasive demonstration of any need to federalize such a potentially large range of violent crime enforcement, and doing so is inconsistent with the proper allocation of criminal enforcement responsibilities between the different levels of government," the White House statement said.
Tell it to Matthew Shepard. The problem is that there are many areas of the country where police fail (or, more accurately, refuse) to investigate crime committed because of the victims' sexual orientation. By making it a federal crime, people wouldn't have to rely on bigoted morons to investigate bigoted morons. It's basically anti-lynching legislation.
Bush has decided to side with the bigoted morons. Bush hates the same americans the haters do, proudly throwing in his support behind the bigots' cause.
The second group he hates would be sick people. Bush really hates sick people. And here's the thing -- he only hates sick americans. One of the many boons we've brought to the iraqi people is universal health care. Americans, on the other hand, don't deserve it.
Bush's first veto was of stem cell research funding. Of course, that might've helped americans, so that was a no-go. Likewise, a bill that would've made prescription drugs more affordable by allowing importation was defeated in the Senate -- the White House had threatened a veto anyway.
On the Iraq war, Bush vetoed a bill that would've required him to stop sending americans to their deaths -- eventually. He wouldn't have any of that. And, despite all the talk of supporting the troops in the field, they're still being sent over without adequate armor. As a result, the signature wound of the Iraq war has become head trauma and brain damage.
They can come home to slashed veterans' benefits -- or worse, Walter Reed.
Then there are the just plain old americans -- not sick, not fighting in the wars, not subject to hate crimes. The very best you could say about those is that the president just plain doesn't give a damn. If you need more evidence of Bush's dismissal of the importance of the common citizen than Hurricane Katrina, take the only thing he's ever done to help americans -- the tax cuts.
I know that my tax cut didn't really do a damned thing to help me -- it was chump change. Two bags of groceries and it was gone. The only reason we got one was to fool people into supporting a tax cut for the wealthy. So, he really didn't do it to help out the average american. We got the crumbs.
Sometimes I wonder if Bush doesn't think he's been elected president of Iraq. He sure seems to spend one hell of a lot more time worrying about that country than his own. In fact, one huge problem with the response to Hurricane Katrina hasn't changed at all -- National Guard units are short in the US. They're off 'helping' iraqis and that leaves us here at home screwed when we need them. After a tornado wiped out their town, residents of Greensburg, Kansas are learning the same lesson that the gulf states have -- the National Guard no longer guards this nation, but the nation of Iraq.
Not that he's done any better by iraqis than he has by us. For all his 'help,' he's managed to kill 62,942 of them so far.
Given that, I guess we should be happy he hates us -- Bush makes a better enemy than a friend.
--Wisco
Technorati tags: politics; war; health care; prescription drugs; Iraq; military; veterans; Katrina; FEMA; What did we ever do to Bush?
