Why we need Retired General Turnipseed

“Does anyone else find it hilarious that Bush is defending his military record and being disputed by a General Turnipseed? How many of you would keep this name if you were born to this?

I see that Bill O'Reilly had to eat his hat publicly on the WMD record. He actually said that he was very concerned about the Bush Administration misleading the public and he felt that all Americans should be as well. So I am not the only Republican who is feeling a bit betrayed. I especially feel bad for the soldiers who have died or been injured in this conflict because they went into it with certain convictions that may not have been true. How many times has that happened in the American history? We should be especially careful in our country to make sure that our armed forces are not abused by our politicians.

Soldiers went to Iraq and killed Iraqis under the belief that the Iraqis had weapons of mass destruction and planned to use them. Do we want the soldiers to feel like they were murderers instead of protectors? This is a very serious national problem. I certainly don't want to condemn or blame the soldiers but they may feel very fractured on their own. The blame should be on the top leaders, but we still need to support and care for our military men and women.

The Democrats can take this and run with it, but if they have any more Clintonesque soap opera escapades, the cross over Republicans will desert them. They should take heed.”

“O'Reilly surprised me. I didn't think he would apologize. He gets a free pass on his next one.

Funny -I always read it as Turpinseed. I guess I'm slightly dyslexic or my brain just wouldn't process a ridiculous name.”

“Well said LyndyS, from another RINO.”

“I feel betrayed. I have for quite some time now and even before the whole Iraq mess.”

“Lyndy, great post. Your qualms are another reason to re-think the pre-emptive wars.
I also agree that the next president is going to have to walk the straight and narrow.”

“Turnipseed?
I wonder if the kids razzed him in school.

There is a guy on the local NPR radio here who has a jazz show and a soft spoken, some might even say "gay", demeanor.
His name is Andy Beinstock.....sounds like "Beanstalk".
I'll bet he got his ass kicked in school.”

“Can you just imagine the abuse as a child, with names like those? Changing one's name is not that expensive.”

“Sorry to go off topic, but maybe you should tell that to Dr. Peter Wacker at the geography department at Rutgers.”

“Not to get off topic, but Ped has a great one about an optometrist in Boston, also. Can't remember his name though....... nevermind...”

“Hey, I went to hs with a Larry Langbeen. He was cool in my book. Very smart.”

“that Gen. Turnipseed has also said that he traveled so much during that time that it's unlikely he would remember Bush assuming Bush had served in his unit at that time.”

“We have a professor John Brain.”

“Lyndy - I appreciate your thoughtfulness.

I don't think the US soldiers should feel like murderers instead of protectors. Saddam Hussein's regime was a blight and his removal is a plus - hopefully something better will result. I think the decision to go to war - at least when we did and in the manner we did - was wrong, the cost (in terms of international credibility, principles of national sovreignity, human lives, etc.) was too great. Still, if anything good is to come of this - it wil be because of our soldiers. Right now, they are protecting us, Iraqis and much of the world - hopefully we can find a course of action that will allow them to succeed. I wish I knew what course of action that was, and can only hope that there will be enough wisdom among the people involved.”

“We had a scout leader named Colonel Derryberry.... He got transferred and kinda left us in the lurch.”

“I used to know a dentist in Western, NC - Andrews I think whose name is Dr. Harry Dick.

no kiddin, i'm serious - couldn't believe it.”

“I had a class once in college with a guy whose name is Harry Butts. No #&%!$! When the prof called roll the first night, he paused like he thought it might be a joke, then went ahead with it. The kid raised his hand and said "Uh, call me Kip". We did and his real name was never mentioned again.”

“

"How many of you would keep this name if you were born to this?"
LyndyS

My doctor's name was "Belch!" She finally changed it by getting divorce and returning to her previous name.”

“Yikes! I had a friend whose married name was Pugh, like pee-ugh. I couldn't believe she didn't keep her own name, but she said that it was worse.”

“Stinkybutt?”

“She said it was Clapp.

I guess that could be worse.”

“Well blow me down! Thanks for the info and heads up! WoW! Increditble!”

“I didn't hear about General Turnipseed, but it sure is a funny name. I think the best thing they can do now is put the political stuff aside and find out what went wrong and fix the CIA as soon as possible so they have a better idea what terrorists are planning next. It should not take a year to find that out. Also what happened with the British intelligence? Did they see the same thing the CIA did? This whole thing may appear years down the road on that show on the History Channel, "Great Blunders in History".”

“Yes Rich, that is one of the saddest things, is that Hussein may have pulled a big one over on Bush in bluffing that he had a much scarier arsenal than he really had. Something that Bush will be remembered for throughout future decades of history study.

There is an outside chance that there were weapons and he actually shipped them to his enemies in bordering countries. But that doesn't fit Hussein's profile, IMHO and it could be hard to cover all the tracks on something that big.”

“This thread got off topic so fast I never got a chance to comment on LyndyS' original post.

I've heard similar comments from friends and other people here. I can't imagine that Bush has picked up a single supporter in the last couple of years so maybe I can sleep easier at night, knowing that this nightmare is coming to an end.

I've always considered myself a moderate. I've voted for moderate Republicans and would again. I guess most people also consider themselves moderates and the way Bush ran as a 'uniter, not a divider' and then immediately turned around and played to the hard right despite winning (or actually losing) by the slimmest possible margin has really turned off reasonable people.

I really hope his replacement governs with interests of 'We the People' in mind.





Republicans Who Support 'Anybody But Bush'
By DOUG THOMPSON Capitol Hill Blue

George Meagher of Charleston, South Carolina, is a veteran and lifelong Republican who, by his own admission, put his “heart and soul” into working for George W. Bush in 2000.

Meagher organized veterans and once proudly displayed pictures of him and his wife with Bush.

No more. Meagher may vote Democratic this fall because he’s fed up with what he sees as lies and deceit by President Bush and the Republican leadership in Washington.

“I should be all choked up at not supporting the President,” says Meagher. “But when I think about the 500 Americans killed in a war, with what we’ve done to Iraq and with what we’ve done to our own country, I can’t see any other way. Look at it. We’re already $2 trillion in debt. Something has to be done.”

Meagher is not alone when it comes to Republicans who are having serious second thoughts about George W. Bush.

John Scarnado, a registered Republican and sales manager from Austin, Tex., voted for Bush in 2000 but now says he will vote for John Kerry if the Massachusetts Senator wins the Democratic nomination.

Scarnado cites Iraq and Vice President Dick Cheney’s ties to scandal-scarred Halliburton as two reasons he can’t vote for Bush again.

“It’s just too much old boy politics with the Bush administration,” Scarnado says. “I don’t like that.”

Neither does Londonderry, New Hampshire farmer Mike Cross, who voted Republican in 2000 and who says he doesn’t care much for John Kerry but has “had enough of George W. Bush.”

In travels around the country in recent weeks, I’ve found many Republicans who feel betrayed by their own party. They say the President lied about his reasons for going to war with Iraq, has abandoned basic Republican principles like a balanced budget and now ignores states' rights.

“He acts more like Bill Clinton every day,” says one state GOP chairman. “How am I expected to rally our party to support someone like that?”

Some say they may stay home on Election Day. Others say they will hold their nose and vote Democratic.

“I’ve had with George W. Bush’s lies and his fat cat buddies,” says Sandra Waterson, a banking executive in St. Louis. “He’s a disgrace to the Presidency and the Republican Party.”

Tim Blevins, a Vietnam veteran from Waterloo, Iowa, isn’t fond of John Kerry’s antiwar activities after he came back from Vietnam but says “Kerry went to Vietnam and fought like a man. He didn’t use his daddy’s connections to hide in the Air Guard and avoid fighting for his country like Bush.”

Publicly, Republican strategists say they are not worried about dissension in the GOP ranks but privately they admit real concern.

“The fallout is significant,” admits one GOP pollster. “We could be seeing as much as 15 percent of Republicans who won’t vote for the President’s reelection.”

This jives with a recent nationwide CBS News poll that shows 11 percent of those who voted for Bush in 2000 now say they will support the Democratic candidate. Another poll by Princeton Survey Associates finds 19 percent of Republicans and 56 percent of independents say they can’t support Bush’s re-election.

Bill Flanagan, an Ohio Republican, is one of those.

“The lies and our boys coming home in body bags are reasons enough,” he says. “I can vote for John Kerry. I can vote for just about any Democrat over George W. Bush.”

The defections aren’t limited to voters. In the last two months, a dozen Republican members of Congress have told me they will distance themselves from Bush in their reelection campaign.

At a recent GOP retreat, House Speaker Dennis J. Hastert faced hostile Republican conservatives, led by Rep. Chris Cox of California.

At one point during a heated closed-door debate, one angry GOP house member told Hastert: “We might as well have a Democrat in the White House. At least we know what to expect from a Democratic President.””

“go George go! as far away from the oval office as possible.”