DELAY: HOUSTON AS BAD AS IRAQ

Or Iraq is as good as Houston. It's hard to tell with a nut like Tom DeLay.

From the Houston Chronicle:

"You know, if Houston, Texas, was held to the same standard as Iraq is held to, nobody'd go to Houston, because all this reporting coming out of the local press in Houston is violence, murders, robberies, deaths on the highways," DeLay said.

"And if you took that as the image of what is a great city that has an incredible quality of life and an incredible economy, it's amazing to me. Go to Iraq. And see what's actually happening there.

Click here for the rest.

You know, as much as I criticize Houston for it's blandness, for being under the control of robber barons, for it's out-of-sight levels of industrial pollution, and on and on, it's still my hometown, and I think I can safely say that it bears absolutely no resemblance to Iraq. For one thing, I've never seen or heard of any improvised explosive devices taking out cops and Galleria shoppers. For another, I've never had my home invaded by soldiers searching for insurgents.

Wait, scratch that last one: Harris County Sheriff's deputies did once search my apartment, illegally, weapons drawn, for a car thief who was nowhere in the vicinity, but that only happened once, and, fortunately, they didn't break anything. Really, that's nothing like what Iraqis endure.

Clearly, this is another piece of Republican bullshit rhetoric attempting to put a happy face on all the insanity going on over there. I'm reminded of Rumsfeld making light of the looting of Iraqi museums, remarking on the news media continually running a clip of some guy taking a vase out of a building: "How many vases could there be in Iraq?" Actually, there were quite a few. Were quite a few.

No, Mr. DeLay, Iraq is not as good as Houston. Iraq is in chaos, and it's all your fault; it's the fault of all your ideological brethren, and it doesn't matter what you say about it. At this point, all the words in the universe couldn't spin the reality that Bush's war is a complete disaster. If there is any vestige of justice left in America, one day you and your cohorts will pay for your crimes.

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