...I'm okay with being REALITY-based.




Tuesday, October 21, 2003
      ( 9:18 AM )
 
A Conservative Crosses Over

I was amazed by a commentary written into our local paper at the end of last week. I've been anxious to blog about it because, to me, it seemed pretty extraordinary. It was written by Becky Miller, formerly a senior aid to one of this state's most notorious conservative bullies: Bill Sizemore. She always thought she'd been in the right - and even when she saw Sizemore for the criminal that he was, she still felt confident in her ultra-right views. And she was validated by the talk radio and the president and Sean Hannity and all those folks.

But then, she took a chance. She read Al Franken's Lies and The Lying Liars that Tell Them. And it changed her forever.

I read the book in one sitting. It is an amazing book,
and -- if you're a decent, honest, hard-working,
patriotic, true-blue conservative who listens to Rush
Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly and watches Fox News --
an earth-shattering book.

[...]

Until I read this book, I believed the Bill Sizemore/
Oregon Taxpayers United mess was a bit of a fluke.
(In 2002 I testified against him in a civil trial in which
a Multnomah County jury found that his charitable
foundation and political action committee had
committed fraud and forgery, and that Oregon
Taxpayers United had engaged in a pattern of
racketeering to obtain signatures on initiative petitions
for tax measures drafted by Sizemore.) The spin, the
lies, the greed, the disregard for the everyday person
-- I thought it was all just a fluke and really limited to
this one little pustule of filth that had festered in a little
storefront in Clackamas, Oregon. Boy, was I wrong.

I believe Franken is telling the truth in his book
because it meshes perfectly with what I personally
have observed.

She goes on to say that she heard someone call into a talk radio show (the beastly Lars Larson, a local neo-con hate spewer who, I am ashamed to say, has now gone national) the other day and say that even if Rush Limbaugh confessed it himself, this listener would never believe he was a drug addict. But now Ms. Miller sees this incredulous attitude for what it is. Al Franken has cured her!

The leaders we conservatives have trusted have
taken advantage of our trust to line the pockets of
the wealthy and powerful, and it's time we rose up
and drove out these greedy liars. They've hijacked
and distorted our belief system for their own gain,
and in doing so are destroying our credibility.

And if we decent, honest, hard-working, patriotic,
true-blue conservatives of this country neglect the
duty we have to our children and grandchildren, we
will never be able to work with those decent, honest,
hard-working, patriotic, true-blue liberal Americans
that these lying creeps have taught us to despise.
We will never be safe to debate them or, when
warranted, to listen to them and maybe even agree
with them. We will never be safe to work out our
differences or to work together. And we will never be
able to build on the all-American sense of unity that
burst forth following 9/11, only to disappear shortly
thereafter in a cloud of lying, greedy partisan politics.

I'm still a decent, honest, hard-working, patriotic,
true-blue conservative. But Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly,
Ann Coulter, Sean Hannity and the rest of you lying liars
-- I'm through with you! (Read the book, and you'll get
that one, too.)

Amen, sister. Welcome to the Revolution.

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