Bob Casey Is an Immoral Monster
I was bopping around the Intertubes this morning when a chance visits to Glenn Greenwald took me to Andrew Sullivan’s place, where the answer to the following question was illustrated in the starkest colors:
[The Israeli] assault on top of a blockade, carried out with an “iron fist” as the US was in transition from one president to another was backed by a resolution carried by unanimous consent in the Senate, and with only 5 votes against in the House. American public opinion, as Glenn Greenwald noted, was evenly divided, and Democrats sided more with the Palestinians enduring a blitz with some white phosphorus thrown into the mix. Is there any plausible explanation for this discrepancy apart from the Walt-Mearsheimer one?
Greenwald notes claims there is no plausible explanation for this discrepancy. I disagree. I disagree because of this:
Take a good look: your taxes helped pay for that, and your Senator, whether you are a democrat, a republican, or even a socialist like Bernie Sanders, approved of this unanimously in your name. Does it feel good to look at that dead kid? Does it? It damn well better, because YOU FUCKING PAID FOR IT!
There’s a good reason for the discrepancy, and it’s that many of our senators, including Bob Casey, are immoral monsters. I called up Senator Casey’s office this morning to ask if there was an address for the family of that little kid. “I realize Senator Casey thinks this is a good idea and decided to cheer on, in my name, a brutal assault that killed all these trapped people with white phosphorous (isn’t that a war crime?). But I have a five year old myself, and was wondering if you can provide me with an address so I can send my condolences, because I really do feel badly about this.”
What followed was a nonstop attack on my character from Casey’s foreign policy legislative aide, who accused me of not letting her speak and not being itnereted in ahvign a constructive conversation. When I told her I’d shut up and have that conversation, she told me that I really DIDN’T want to have that conversation. then she launched into a soliloquy about how Bob casey supports Israel’s right to defend itself, presumably by dropping white phosphorous on a trapped civilian population, but that he also supports humanitarian aid to the civilians. That’s the moral equivalency of me murdering your entire family, bulldozing your house and then giving you a couple of oranges and saying “there there, everything’s going to be OK and this is for your own good.” and then she went on and on that i really don’t want to have a conversation, even as i sat there quietly listening to her ramble on and on. In fact, the longer i sat in silence, the less and less coherent she became, and when I finally pointed that she was making no sense, she accused me of questioning her mental state. What was clear as day was that this woman wasn’t prepared to mount a defense of US policy (and thus Casey’s policy) toward Israel. All she had were personal attacks against a constituent.
Please don’t cry to me that boo-hoo Hamas has been lobbing missiles in Israel too. Israel is the biggest boy on the block in the Middle east, backed by a weakened but still powerful giant called the United States. They have nuclear weapons. They are led by two avowed racists, Lieberman and Netanyahu.
But when you’re protected from the bombs and the white phosphorous, when you’re wealthy and sheltered from want and hunger and poverty, it’s really easy to forget or even ignore the reality of places like Gaza, just as it’s easy to ignore Philadelphia while you hand out billions upon billions to banks, no strings attached.
That’s why I say Bob Casey is an immoral monster, just like every single one of his colleagues on the Senate. Sure, call me a hysteric all you want; tell me I have to see both sides of the issue, like Bob Casey’s staff claims he does (and don’t assume that I don’t); tell me alllll about it. And no, I’m not saying it’s OK for Hamas to lob missiles into israel, but hey: who the fuck got Hamas elected ANYWAY? Who made sure Hamas became a legitimate governing authority, and then tried to pretend that electoral results don’t matter?
So yeah, tell me all about it. and then look at that dead little kid and tell me this is OK.
Immoral monsters, all of them.
March 10th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
[...] should be over. As Fred Barnes illustrated nicely, Obama can’t get out of campaign mode Bob Casey Is an Immoral Monster – brendancalling.com 03/10/2009 I was bopping around the Intertubes this morning when a chance [...]
March 10th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
Sometimes I’m actually glad that I don’t have any senators representing me. Then again, if DC actually did have senators, you’d probably see a lot of 100-2 votes on shit like this, because we don’t have any wingnuts to pander to. Of course, that’s exactly why DC *doesn’t* have senators…