Ten Examples That Explain Why Right Wing Rhetoric Is Based on the Premise that People Are Stupid:

by William G. Resh

"I think you're stupider!"

1. Rush Limbaugh on the torture of Iraqi civilians in Abu Graib prison (after a caller likened it to a college fraternity prank):
"Exactly. Exactly my point! This is no different than what happens at the skull and bones initiation and we're going to ruin people's lives over it and we're going to hamper our military effort, and then we are going to really hammer them because they had a good time. You know, these people are being fired at every day. I'm talking about people having a good time, these people, you ever heard of emotional release? You of heard of need to blow some steam off?"

2. Donald Rumsfeld on Face the Nation:
Don Rumsfeld: You and a few other critics are the only people I've heard use the phrase 'immediate threat.' I didn't. The president didn't. And, uh, it's become kind of folklore that that's what happened.
Face the Nation: You're saying that no one in the administration said that?
DR: I can't speak for nobody or everybody in the administration and say that nobody said that.
FTN: The vice president didn't say that?
DR: Not to... If you have any citations, I'd like to see them.
FTN: We have over here... It says, (quoting) "Some have argued that the nuclear threat from Iraq is not imminent, that Saddam is at least five to seven years away from having nuclear weapons. I would not be so certain." (Donald Rumsfeld, September 18, 2002)
DR: Mmhmm… And, uh...
FTN: It's close to imminent (laughs).
DR: Well, um, I've tried to be precise. I've tried to be accurate. And…
FTN: (Quoting) "No terror state poses a greater or more immediate threat to the security of our people and the stability of the world than the regime of Saddam Hussein in Iraq." (Donald Rumsfeld, September 18, 2002)
DR: Mmhmm… Uh, my view of the situation was that… he… he had… the best intelligence we had from other countries...

3. George Bush to Polish television station during a visit to Krakow, Poland (May 30, 2003):
"You remember when [Secretary of State] Colin Powell stood up in front of the world, and he said Iraq has got laboratories, mobile labs to build biological weapons," Bush said in an interview before leaving today on a seven-day trip to Europe and the Middle East. "They're illegal. They're against the United Nations resolutions, and we've so far discovered two. And we'll find more weapons as time goes on," Bush said. "But for those who say we haven't found the banned manufacturing devices or banned weapons, they're wrong. We found them."

4. George Bush when asked by Diane Sawyer whether Iraq possessed WMDs or was pursuing the possibility of obtaining them:
"So, what's the difference?"

5. Dick Cheney speaking at VFW 103rd National Convention, 8/26/2002:
"Simply stated, there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction. There is no doubt he is amassing them to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us."

6. Dick Cheney on Meet the Press (3/16/03):
"He's had years to get good at it and we know he has been absolutely devoted to trying to acquire nuclear weapons. And we believe he has, in fact, reconstituted nuclear weapons."

7. Condoleezza Rice on why the president included a claim that Iraq sought uranium in Africa in his January 28, 2003 State of the Union address. (CIA expressed their doubts about the claim in two memos to the White House, including one to Ms. Rice.):
"My only point is that in retrospect, knowing that some of the documents underneath may have been—were, indeed, forgeries, and knowing that apparently there were concerns swirling around about this, had we known that at the time, we would not have put it in… And had there been even a peep that the agency did not want that sentence in or that George Tenet did not want that sentence in, that the director of Central Intelligence did not want it in, it would have been gone."

8. George Bush responding to a citizen who told the president that he was disappointed in the president's work up to that point (July 4, 2001):
"Who cares what you think?"

9. Donald Rumsfeld in an August 5, 2003 press briefing:
"But, as we all know, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence."

10. Anything that follows the sentence, "I'm George Bush and I support this message."



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