Montanan's Tire of Burns shtick

[rsmith6621]

BOZEMAN, Montana -- Hobbled by a foot planted firmly in his mouth, dogged by nearly $150,000 in donations he took from clients of disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff, embattled Sen. Conrad Burns, R-Mont., is fighting back with pork and slime.

It's an unsubtle reference to a July 23rd incident at the Billings Airport, where Burns encountered an elite Virginia-based fire team imported to fight a major ranchland fire. Burns told them they'd done "a piss-poor job."

But Stony Burke, a country lawyer in Choteau, Mont. -- who voted for Burns and George Bush in 2000 -- says Montanans are getting "fed up.""I'm sorry I voted for these guys," Burke said. "I never thought they'd take us into a never-ending war, or usurp our rights, or that Burns would charge lobbyists for his services."

http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/connelly/288268_joel11.html?source=mypi

[acmavm]

1. Too bad Stony. There were a lot of us who knew exactly what

amoral bastards they are.

[calimary]

2. Yeah, somewhat difficult to find sympathy here for ol' Stony boy.

I keep getting back to the same - um, excuse me, ahem! - FACT that a lot of us DID know, back then, that bush was going to be bad for America. We weren't sure HOW bad, but we knew enough. AND we knew enough about his jones for revenge in Iraq, his Oedipal psycho-trip of needing to show his dad who had the biggest dick (so to speak), AND even worse, the people he then picked to surround himself with and to advise him - ALL, at the time, potentially bad news, just looking over who they were, where they'd come from, and what their mindset was. We KNEW, okay? We knew enough. And we knew by taking a small measure of time out during any given week to READ. To scan the internet, to look beyond the Swiffer-the-surface excuse for "news" coverage, to find out the real stories.

I say this as a retired reporter: MOST of the people here on DU, the ones who come up with the links and the analysis and the broad-based scanning of many media sources and digging, digging, digging, to get a fuller picture - these folks are ALL, to a man and a woman, 1,000 percent better qualified journalists than ANYBODY on TV, on radio, or in print at the moment - except for maybe somebody like Greg Palast or Robert Fisk or Joe Conason or Sy Hersh - all of whom probably do much the same homework. BAR NONE. You're all a bunch of World Class investigative reporters. YOU are the ones who deserve the perks, the face time, the big salaries and national/international network exposure (which, in one respect, the internet is providing you already). You're far beyond the reach of commercial contamination, and far more independently objective, even here, in what the industry calls "non-pro" status. What I have learned, just hanging here, from all the resources and research and analysis and perspective - has made ME better informed.

It was all there, available to ANY amateur sleuth who gave a damn and who wanted to check into things a little more deeply. If our friend Stony had had access to a computer and the internet back then, and any inclination to put in a little time to research the candidates to whom he would entrust our country, he would have known enough of this, himself. And he would have cast a MUCH better, wiser vote.

[acmavm]

3. You know, the night I heard the election results (2000) I cried.

When Gore caved, I cried. Not in hurt but in a ferocious anger because I could not believe that the country could be so disgustingly corrupt and jaded that they'd elect bush**. (I have to throw in that I hated his Daddy, maybe not as much as Reagan, but it was still hate indeed.)

I was right, we didn't elect the bastard. The Supreme Court did that for us.

Then in 2004 there was absolutely NO WAY that I thought he won it. Not for one stupid second, no matter who tried to tell us he did.

I was right.

Now look at us. And people like Stony want understanding and kudos for coming out of their coma.

Screw 'em. And I don't care who says that's no way to treat a 'convert'. Bullshit. He needs to understand what he did. And anyway, what's he gonna do? Vote for the same party of lying corrupt bastards again?