My Conversation with a Middle Eastern Cab Driver today

[testing123]

My car is in the shop so I had to take a cab back from the grocery store today.

The cab drivers family was from a middle eastern country and we started chatting about politics.

The car in front of the cab had a Bush bumper sticker on it with a big black ? mark across Bushes name. The cab driver turned around to me and remarked that he didn't know anyone that likes Bush.

I said I haven't met anyone that likes him either. He told me that he was an avid listener of C-Span and he said that he swears that the callers calling in on the Bush line were hired by Bush and at that point we both laughed.

I told him that I hated Bush with a passion and that Saddam was better then Bush. He said that we didn't know the half that is going off over in Iraq and it's all over the middle east that the guys cutting the heads off are special trained American mercenaries.

He wanted to know if we had heard about American soldiers going AWOL and crossing the boarder into other countries with the help of Iraqis and I told him that it was the first time that I had heard anything like that but it's not hard to believe. I asked him if he meant the one guy that was born in Lebanon and he said no he means the kids that were born in this country. He told me that it was in one of the papers in another country that the several soldiers that were on tape getting their heads cut off were run aways that went AWOL and he heard that was the punishment for getting caught.

He got so pissed off talking about Bush that spit was coming out of this mans mouth at one point. He said that everyone that gets in his cab hates Bush and that everyone he talks to is going to leave the US if Bush steals another election.

Has anyone heard anything about a bunch of US soldiers going AWOL and hiding out in other countries?

[Don_G]

1. Nope

But, unlike 4 years ago, I can't find more than two people that admit to voting for Dimbo in the first place and one of "those" shoved it up my face after I delivered him and his wife to his Voting Booth.

Oh well, he's constantly crying about how far his $300 didn't stretch over 4 years but still listens to Rush and buys anything his kids ask for.

Good luck Asshole.

Maybe Kerry will wipe out your Credit Card Debt because Bush is too far in debt to the BankCorps to even think about getting you out of the hole.

[testing123]

2. The man got so pissed that he said that he was willing to go to jail

He said that he would be willing to do the world a favor and go to jail afterwards.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[testing123]

4. You don't believe that Bush is that evil?

Saddam didn't kill all of his people we did.

[js301]

5. If you actually believe that...

...I pity you.

[testing123]

6. Do you believe that * was elected?

:shrug:

[js301]

8. Your point?

I don't know what that has to do with him being worse than Saddam.

[testing123]

9. Saddam was elected by his people

Do you believe that * was elected?

[js301]

11. I am simply amazed!

You actually believe that Hussein was ELECTED?! I highly recommend that you do some research on how Saddam came to power!

Saddam was a member of the Ba'ath Party starting in the late 1950s. He was exiled to Egypt after the Party failed in an attempted to coup. By the late 60s, the Ba'athists were successful in overthrowing the government and put General Ahmad Hasan al-Bakr into power. al-Bakr was a relative of Saddam's who appointed Hussein Vice President and head of the Iraqi internal security service. This group of secret police was quite brutal, and Saddam used it to imprison or kill many of his pilitical rivals.

In 1979, al-Bakr was stripped of all government positions and forced to resign by Saddam. al-Bakr was placed under house arrest and Saddam assumed the presidency. Just days later, he called a session of the Iraqi national assembly. As he sat at the head of the room smoking a cigar like a mafia don, he proceeded to identify those members of the assembly who were "guilty" of treason. As their names were called, the "conspirators" were escorted out by the secret police to be executed. Dozens of his rivals in the Ba'ath party and the military were killed in this purge as Saddam consolidated his power.

If you don't believe me, try reading these sites. I especially recommend seeing this Frontline program that's aired on PBS several times.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/saddam/
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/iraq/saddam.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/events/crisis_in_the_gulf/decision_makers_and_diplomacy/216328.stm
http://www.policyalmanac.org/world/archive/iraq_timeline.shtml

Now if that's what you call being "elected by his people," then I really do pity you!

[testing123]

12. I asked you about * being elected

Why don't you want to answer the question about the unelected maggot that sits in our white house right now.

I will answer you as soon as you answer me. I asked you first!

[js301]

13. Eyes rolling...

Yes, I think Bush was elected legally according to the US Constitution. I didn't vote for him and I may not particularly like him, but he won legitimately. So whatever the point of this circular logic of yours is, I guess it's time to make it.

[testing123]

14. Bush Won Legitimately?

You mean he stole the election legitimately don't you.

[js301]

15. Beating a dead horse

I assume you're talking about the Florida recount. If you've been paying attention to the news, you know that a post-election recount by the Miami Herald and USA Today concluded that Bush did indeed win, by as many as 1,600 votes depending on the recount standards.

http://www.cnn.com/2001/ALLPOLITICS/04/04/florida.recount.01/

In my opinion, it's all irrelevant. Everything was in Gore's favor in 2000. He was succeeding a popular incumbent, the economy was strong, and the country was generally doing well. Yet Gore still managed to run such an awful campaign that he could do no better than a tie. He deserved what he got.

I've refuted two arguments and still not gotten a response as to what makes Bush worse than Saddam. If you won't anwer that question, then I'm not going to waste any more time on this futile exercise.

[testing123]

16. Bush Stole the Election honey

:kick:

[js301]

19. And don't call me honey

I prefer Sweetheart, thank you! :)

[Oilwellian]

17. Here's a suggestion

Why don't you tell us how Bush is better than Saddam.

[js301]

18. Why do I feel like I'm on trial?

I don't know why I'm suddenly in the position of defending a guy I didn't even vote for, but I do find this rhetoric rather offensive. In fact, I fear it will only help Bush be re-elected. Anyway, here's a couple obvioius reasons.

He's never had his rivals hauled away and executed by secret police.

He's never gassed his own people.

[testing123]

20. How can Bush get re-elected if he wasn't elected in the first place

How do you know that the re-thugs aren't behind the be-headings?

[Oilwellian]

21. You sound so sure of yourself

Perhaps you should research the Bushes family history before saying something so naive.

[js301]

23. Wow

I must say, I am impressed. I won't take any more of your time, so you can get back to researching those conspiracy theories.

Now I've got a story to tell the guys round the water cooler on Monday...

[testing123]

22. Please read some of the information on the Bush family

We are here and you can ask questions and we are more then willing to share our facts with you.

Please read as much as possible with an open mind.

Turn your TV off and stop reading the newspapwer from one source.

We are here for you!

[NMDemDist2]

24. whoops no, Bush DID NOT win florida

here is the post with the links in it (some are too old)

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=104&topic_id=1922440#1922790

but here is a working link tying to the newsweek article

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2001/112101a.html

[Elidor]

25. McPaper is hardly an oracle on the subject.

Jews for Buchanan, by John Nichols and David Deschamps, describes how Gore was systematically robbed of many tens of thousands of votes that would easily have put him over the top, including overvotes which were interpreted as valid for republicans and invalid for democrats. I don't even have time to catalogue all the dishonest tactics used by the GOP to interfere with a fair count.

Later in the thread you ask how you were put in the position of defending Bush. You volunteered when you said, "Bush did indeed win."

[js301]

26. Media

I trust USA Today and have no reason to believe that they would have lied.

Regardless, the whole argument that Bush didn't win the election is a waste of time. The people who are going to decide the election are middle-of-the-road voters, and that argument only resonates with hard-core Dems who are going to vote for Kerry anyway. Just accept that Gore lost the election and figure out how to avoid the same mistake this time.

I was only drawn into this sideshow because of the ludicrous notion that Bush is worse than Saddam Hussein. I'm still amazed that anyone actually believes that.

[testing123]

27. How many people did Bush put to death in Texas?

How many people is Bush responsible for killing in Iraq over oil?

Al Gore won the election and we are not a divided nation. Ruppert Murdoch wants you to think that so that the re-thugs can steal the election.

Do you want to live under a dictatorship with the Village Idiot being the dictator?

[Elidor]

29. I don't believe they lied

I do believe that like much of the media reporting on the 2000 election, they employed selective criteria in evaluating the vote.

I don't think examining the theft of democracy is a waste of time. It needs to be scrutinized carefully and safeguards put in place. But it is a moot point until we wrest control of our country from the hands of big money.

You are right in pointing out that Saddam executed rivals. I don't claim that Bush is worse toward his own citizens, but his much greater power makes him a much greater menace than Saddam ever dreamed of being. Saddam may have the higher kill count, but Bush is no less murderous toward Iraqis than Saddam was. Perhaps that is the point others in this thread have been trying to elucidate.

[fujiyama]

28. Saddam came to power

through a bloody coup.

Bush came to power through a blood less coup. So did Musharraf of Pakistan.

Sorry, Bush didn't win that last election legitimately. True, that won't matter to a majority of Americans, because most have the attention span of a fruit fly, and are fed a healthy dose of propaganda via Fox News and pretty much every other mainstream outlet. However, the way Bush came to power matters to a majority of democrats and those on this board -- so I wouldn't necessarily dismiss it!

[TheDebbieDee]

7. I've read infrequent stories about US Soldiers...........

going AWOL while in Iraq since last summer when I started lurking over at Smirking Chimp. I first read about the issue in an article in a French newspaper.

[testing123]

10. Of course Americans will never hear about this

We are living under a dictatorship right now.