The Official List of all obvious Right-wing double standards

[Mr Bean]

Gathered for research purposes is the growing list of Right Wing double standards from the year 2000 onword. Things that were acceptable in 2001 or 2002 but are now this close to destroying America. Why you might ask? Because it's a Democrat doing it not a Republican. Or what was unacceptable in 2003 or down right evil in 2004. Is now just fine.

Adultery
Bill Clinton extramarital affair while in office
Wiki
Between 1995 and 1996, President Bill Clinton engaged in an affair with Monica Lewinsky. Several times giving President Clinton Oral sex while in the White House with at least one instance occurring in the oval office.

Because of this the Republicans attempted to impeach him and gained power to launch several special investigations which in the end concluded that no serious laws had been broken by the President and he served the remainder of his term but was hounded every day for the affair by Republicans.

John Ensign extramarital affair while in office
LA Times coverage
Between December 2007 and August 2008, Republican Senator John Ensign was engaged with an affair with Cynthia Hampton a campaign staffer. During the year long affair they had sex numerous times and several payments were made to Cynthia's children and her husband. At the end of the affair in 2008 the payments stopped, Cynthia's son who had been hired by the RNC during the affair was let go and her husband was likewise fired. After all of this came out in 2009 there was a brief push by Democrats for Senator Ensign to resign but removal from the Senate was never discussed. And the Republicans threatened to filibuster any censure motions. John Ensign remains a senator at present and from all appearances will run for re-election.

In 1998 while running for Senate against Harry Reid, John Ensign said the following

“I came to that conclusion recently, and frankly it’s because of what he put his whole Cabinet through and what he has put the country through,” “He has no credibility left.”

In 2004 while discussing the Defense of Marriage Act he referenced his 1998 quotes and reaffirmed that politicians who have affairs should resign. After the David Vitter scandal broke John Ensign refused to call on Vitter to resign. The Vitter DC madam scandal broke right during the middle of Senator Ensigns own ongoing affair in 2007.

To add to the list please use the following code

Code: Select all

[b][size=140]Subject[/size][/b]
[b][size=120]Unacceptable Democratic Behavior/Action[/size][/b]
Link
What was unacceptable
Results

[b][size=120]Acceptable Republican Behavior/Action[/size][/b]
Link
What is now ok because it's Republican
Results

[Edi]

Torture
Iranian torture of arrested protesters wrt 2009 election
Glenn Greenwald at Salon.com (contains further links)

The United States has strongly condemned the Iranian regime for torturing people who were arrested in conjunction with the protests against Ahmadinejad's re-election to the office of the President of Iran. Furthermore, the US has protested the lack of due process in these same cases

Results:
The US protests have been lodged and Iran has made some soothing noises while not giving a damn in reality

US torture and murder of prisoners in Abu Ghraib and Bagram detention facilities, lack of due process for Guantanamo detainees
Glenn Greenwald at Salon.com (same article)

The United States military and intelligence services have tortured and even murdered prisoners held in Abu Ghraib, Iraq, and in Bagram, Afghanistan. Detainees held at the Guantanamo facility are denied access to a court of law to have their guilt or innocence determined and often this denial is justified by claiming that the evidence against them, obtained through torture, would not stand up to scrutiny in order to secure a conviction (instead of acquittal).

Results:

The Abu Ghraib facility abuses were curtailed after an enormous international outcry, but despite massive evidence of involvement up to the level of the US Secretary of Defense and other high ranking administration officers as the originators of the torture orders, only a handful of enlisted people were prosecuted and convicted as "a few bad apples".

Numerous high level officials of the Bush administration wrote numerous documents to justify and legitimize "interrogation" methods that resulted in death sentences for anyone who applied them to Americans during WW2. Guantanamo detainees have still not received due process and Abu Ghraib style conduct is business as usual at Bagram, which remains a black hole and seems to be replacing Guantanamo as the facility of choice for detaining people without due process.

[Dalton]

Lewinsky scandal stuff has been merged into the commentary thread.

[Crossroads Inc.]

While IM not too good at making an official list. National Security is the obvious one to add right now.

After 8 years of "We need to fight them THERE so they do not fight us HERE" we get people like Pat Buchanan and others complaining about wars oversees weakening our home defenses.

After 8 years of "I'll give up a little Freedom so the Nation can be safe" or "Safety first, civili liberties second" We get people like David Harsanyi and even Oli North talking about how Obama is stripping us of our freedoms but strip searching people and taking away are freedoms in the name of Security!

[Thanas]

After 8 years of "We need to fight them THERE so they do not fight us HERE" we get people like Pat Buchanan and others complaining about wars oversees weakening our home defenses.

Buchanan has always been against the Iraq war and against foreign adventures. You might fault him for other stuff, but on the issue of wars he has always been consistent.

[weemadando]

What about "Big Government"? Which the right always rail against, but Reagan presided over the largest bloat in the US gov't in modern times and Bush added multiple multi-billion dollar agencies to an already bloated "security" portfolio.

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

What about "Big Government"? Which the right always rail against, but Reagan presided over the largest bloat in the US gov't in modern times and Bush added multiple multi-billion dollar agencies to an already bloated "security" portfolio.

Look up "Starve the Beast". This and their tax cuts for the rich to force social safety-net cuts is precisely their official policy.

[The Yosemite Bear]

as a result of wingnuts about the hurt locker

Support the troops= accept any illegal activities committed by government/military. But don't give the actual soldiers necessitites, like body armour, medical attention after they are disabled, a GI Bill.....

[The Yosemite Bear]

Small Business: when talking about defending practices that are pro-monopoly (overseas tax shelters, GS Fraud, Health Care, etc)