A study in contrasts

Ponder this:

Cindy Sheehan spends the hottest weeks of the summer of ’05 in Crawford, Texas, where you could fry an egg on the ground in the shade, trying in vain to get a simple answer to a simple question. And seeing as she wanted to ask it of George W. Bush, you’d think it would be a snap, right? He’s a simple kind of guy, or so he would have us believe (and certainly his stumblebummery would indicate.) One hour alone with him–that’s all she wanted. And never got.

Well, last night at the State of the Union address, Cindy got–MAYBE–all of five minutes, but she still didn’t get to ask her question, even if her t-shirt did: “2,245 Dead. How Many More?”

Simple, right?

Apparently, too simple for BushCo. Or rather, too plain and bald and–gasp!–honest. After all, the SOTU is not meant to be a showcase for true American values, such as those of free speech and the right to peaceably assemble; it is to be understood strictly as an exercise in Bushish mendacity these days. Only, out of politeness, we’re supposed to exercise a little mendacity of our own and not admit as much. We’re supposed to sit on our hands and watch in silence as blatant hypocrisy plays out before our very eyes. And of course, we don’t even get a barf bag for our pains…

But quite aside from the contrast between the different treatments of Cindy Sheehan and Mrs. Bill Young, here’s another contrast you might want to study: the different treatments of Cindy Sheehan and Cindy Sheehan. First, by her own president:

Then, by the president of Venezuela:

You really have to wonder which country actually has the much-vaunted freedom and democracy of America.

And finally: Isn’t it funny that the right-wingers keep yattering on about how Hugo Chavez is such an evil tyrant, even in the face of so much evidence to the contrary? Let’s face it–those people must be vampires. They don’t cast a shadow; they ARE the shadow. They don’t cast a reflection because they ARE the reflection. And what a bad reflection on their country they are…

Totally through the Looking Glass, in other words.