Brave Mitt

You gotta give it to him. Mitt Romney has guts. Not only was he courageous enough to falsely accuse the President of something he didn't do and, in the middle of a dangerous crisis, insult the actions of our brave diplomatic corps, but he also showed spine by defending the fucking asshole who took it upon himself to throw a match into an ocean of gasoline.

Check out the fearlessness of Mitt's initial statements in regard to the American Embassy in Cairo's initial statement:

"I'm outraged by the attacks on American diplomatic missions in Libya and Egypt and by the death of an American consulate worker in Benghazi. It's disgraceful that the Obama administration's first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks."

Then later:
"...the statements were inappropriate and, in my view, a disgraceful statement on the part of our administration to apologize for American values.
I think it's a terrible course to -- for America to stand in apology for our values...And apology for America's values is never the right course."

From what Mitt said, you'd think that right after an American was killed in the attack in Libya, Obama pleaded for forgiveness from the attackers then apologized for granting the right of free speech in our Constitution. But just like almost every other time Mitt opens his mouth to utter something, he said the exact opposite of what the truth is.

Check out this timeline of exactly what was said, when and by whom, and how it (mis)matches with what Romney charged: What They Said, Before and After the Consulate Attack - Graphic - NYTimes.com

This was the Embassy in Cairo's initial statement which Mitt described as "disgraceful" "sympath[etic] with those who waged the attacks" and an "apology for America's values" and which he falsely attributed to the Obama administration as their first response to the attacks on our missions :

"The Embassy of the United States in Cairo condemns the continuing efforts by misguided individuals to hurt the religious feelings of Muslims – as we condemn efforts to offend believers of all religions. Today, the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, Americans are honoring our patriots and those who serve our nation as the fitting response to the enemies of democracy. Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy. We firmly reject the actions by those who abuse the universal right of free speech to hurt the religious beliefs of others."

Disgraceful? Sympathetic to the attackers of our missions? An apology for America's values?

What's disgraceful is how Romney insulted our brave diplomatic corps who, in service to our country, put their lives at risk in one of the most dangerous parts of the world and only made a perfectly reasonable, even-handed "fair and balanced" statement intended to calm a dangerous situation. Mitt wouldn't give the experienced people who were in the heat of battle the benefit of the doubt as how to best handle a very volatile situation which was developing quickly. It's like he wanted them to stand on top of the wall with a megaphone and yell "Now listen you Muslims. Everything in that Movie is the truth. You just can't handle the truth. Now back off before we let you have it!" Mitt and his fellow conservative chicken-hawks should try that next time something like this happens.

But maybe I'm being unfair referring to Mitt as a chicken-hawk because I heard that he earned a Purple Heart during the Vietnam war. Not that Mitt ever served in Vietnam. You see, even though he demonstrated in favor of the draft during the war, he used a deferment so he could serve as a Mormon missionary in the brutal and dangerous jungles of France. The way he got his Purple Heart is when he was annoying a French patron who was trying to enjoy one of the lowest heart disease rates in the world by practicing the French tradition of drinking a daily glass of wine. Part of the Mormon mission is to convince people not to drink alcohol. As Mitt preached the evils of drink to the Frenchman, he reached out to stay the wino's hand. This caused some of the wine to splash onto Mitt and produce a purple, heart shaped stain on his crisp starched-white Mormon shirt. Story goes, Mitt's salesmanship sold the Frenchman on the idea that wine could only cause him harm. So he gave up wine drinking on the spot. Unfortunately, the gentleman died of a heart attack in his mid forties.
Oh well, at least Mitt got out of going to Vietnam!

Sympathetic to the attackers of our missions?

Does this sound like sympathy with the attackers?
"Today, the 11th anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, Americans are honoring our patriots and those who serve our nation as the fitting response to the enemies of democracy."

Notice how Mitt used the plural when he referred to the "attacks on our diplomatic missions." In other words, he included the attack in Libya which caused the deaths of three Americans. He was trying to make us think that the statement was made after those killings. As the NY Times reported, the statement was made by the Embassy in Egypt before the first attack even happened. The Administration's first response after the killing in Libya was to strongly condemn the attacks.
Ain't Romney something?

An apology for America's values?

Did you see an apology anywhere in that statement? I always thought that apologies required the use of words like "we apologize" "we are sorry" or "we deeply regret." It wasn't an apology, it was a condemnation of the asshole film that got three Americans killed. Something that jerk-off Romney should have done in the first place. Instead, the fuck decided to inflame the emotions of his countrymen by doing exactly what his ultra-conservative religious fundamentalist counterparts in the Arab Middle East do: throw even more gas on the fire.

Far from apologizing for American values, the statement proudly asserted them: "Respect for religious beliefs is a cornerstone of American democracy."
From the way Romney and his fellow war-mongers have been behaving, it looks as if they would like to apologize to right wing "Judeo/Christians" for the Founding Fathers including Islam in that one. (Check out Jefferson's writings on that: http://www.theatlantic.com/daily-dish/archive/2010/08/jefferson-on-the-toleration-of-islam/183790/ )
But what about free speech?
The statement went beyond defending it as an American value by calling it "the universal right of free speech."
The exact opposite of what Romney charged.

Do you recall what the appeasing Muslim-sympathizing General Petraeus said two years ago?
The US military commander in Afghanistan warned that the lives of American troops would be endangered if evangelical Christians in Florida went ahead with plans to burn the Koran on the ninth anniversary of September 11. I think that should apply to Romney's reckless staements, as well.