liberals’ incorrectly believe their utopia has come–bake sale intelligence faulty, however
we’ve all seen this knee-slappin’ liberal bumper sticker:
this “bake sale” scenario [link] is clearly part of liberals’ fanciful utopian world (a world which also includes free sex without the nasty commitments and, of course, babies) and now they’ve manufactured some lies to back themselves up. notice the outrage, then notice that it is faked. cue al gore:
[soldiers'] families have to hold bake sales to buy discarded Kevlar vests to stuff into the floorboards of the Humvees! Bake sales for body armor. [source]
cue john kerry:
as president, I will see to it that we don’t have to have bake sales…to supply the troops of the United States of America. [source]
our illustrious and well-informed reader, edmo, emails:
These clowns destroy the defense budget, then blame Bush that the soldiers don’t have enough equipment. They eviscerate military manpower and then complain that Bush didn’t send enough troops to war (after they complained that he shouldn’t have sent any to war in the first place).
indeed, the hypocrisy is appalling. eliana johnson checked the facts. guess what she found!
I found only two references to the bake sales supposedly launched to purchase this armor. The first was in Washington’s Spokesman Review; the reporter quoted a woman who claimed that “parents in the Midwest were doing carwashes and bake sales.” I was unable to contact her, but the reporter told me that he had not verified her claim, nor was he sure whether her reference was to bake sales for body armor specifically or to support-the-troops bake sales generally. The second bake-sale reference came from an editorial in the Amador Ledger Dispatch. Its outraged author cited the “several hundred bake sales by moms and wives to provide body armor for their sons and daughters, wives and husbands.” The paper’s editor, who himself wrote a story rebutting the piece in question, told me that he could not verify that one such bake sale— let alone “hundreds” — had taken place. [source]
liberals are pretending not to be overjoyed at the prospect of military bake sales…maybe they’re trying to win the very military vote that al gore sought to disenfranchise in the 2000 election (hey, maybe if they vote for the democrat this year, al gore won’t sue to have their votes thrown out!). i quote edmo again:
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard this silly liberal refrain that because Bush is not supplying the troops adequately with Humvees and body armor their families are being forced to hold bake sales to buy the stuff themselves. Well, of course, like so much liberal nonsense, it’s a myth.
both al gore and john “i’m proud i voted against funding the war” kerry claim outrage at the (fictitious) bake sales. buuuut…the real question is, what did john kerry do as a senator when american soldiers’ lives were on the line?
In fact, Kerry did vote October 11, 2002 to grant Bush authority to use military force against Iraq at his discretion, and a year later Kerry also voted against Bush’s request for $87 billion to fund military operations and reconstruction in Iraq and Afghanistan.
the bill Kerry opposed did contain $300 million requested by the Pentagon to buy best-grade body armor for all troops in Iraq, and also contained additional combat pay and health benefits for reservists called to active duty. [source]
cripes. the more i think about it, the more i think kerry personifies that line from the budweiser commercial,
“i have told a ridiculous lie…to back up a friend’s ridiculous lie”
…but kerry should add, “and to get elected.”
Liberal utopia is something out of a Kurt Vonnegut story.
I dream of a conservative utopia.
You mean they’re not holding “hundreds of bake sales”? Darn. I thought I finally found a reason why Americans are so fat these days.
By the way, since when does anything John Kerry has to say need to be grounded in the truth? He just spouts off whatever is convenient at the time and lets the media elite clean up the mess for him.
-jdm
On the other side of this goofy bumper sticker, the point needs to be made that bake sales wouldn’t be necessary for schools either if it weren’t for the entrenched teachers unions that have priorities that are far from and usually in opposition to quality education and value for the education dollar. Typical liberal mentality - sounds good on a bumper sticker, doesn’t stand up to reality and deeper thinking.
The very beginning of this page proves the point, that the “bake sale” is itself an age-old metaphor with political meaning — i.e., ‘i’ll be happy when the libraries get funding and the army is forced to hold a bake sale’.
Are families indeed having to provide armor for their own troops, perhaps even fundraising for them?
To quote a January 16, 2004 article on FOX NEWS of all places
“The U.S. government should be ashamed that communities around this country have had to accept the burden of equipping our troops. It is a national disgrace when the Department of Defense is so ill-prepared to equip our soldiers that their friends and families are forced to consider holding ‘Bake Sales for Body Armor,’” wrote Rep. Ted Strickland (search), who has tracked this issue for months, in a letter sent Wednesday to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
Also later in that article:
“Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry (search), a presidential candidate, has introduced legislation requiring the Department of Defense to reimburse family members who used their own money to purchase body armor that the government failed to provide.”
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,108589,00.html
And that’s even beside the point — the point being that the troops, and indeed America, was perhaps illequipped to conduct this war fully and needs more support.
Let’s at least rise above a little and debate the issue at hand.
i believe we should more adequately fund (even overfund) the military. however, the point of this post was to show the hypocrisy of the left. particularly john kerry, who has sided against the military on pretty much every vote for which he’s been present over the last 16 years. now, however, he says that an underfunded fighting force is somehow george w bush’s fault.
point #2 of the post, which neither of your examples refutes, is that there have been no bake sales. you are right–perhaps it is useless to nitpick (were there actual bake sales? or did troops’ families have enough money in their savings to purchase and send their loved ones more body armor?) this might seem pointless, but i’m just trying to point out that the democrats are LYING to win votes in an election year: they have a long-held tradition of weakening american military power. no matter what they tell us from now until november–they will not make our military stronger or our troops safer than has george w bush.
in conclusion, james, they debated “the issue at hand” in congress. john kerry, john edwards, and others voted against funding the troops and the war (they’re even “proud” they voted against the $87 billion). i’m merely calling them on it.
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