So, the Seattle Times has endorsed Sen. Barack Obama for the Democratic nomination. Big deal. Next week they’ll also endorse Sen. John McCain on the Republican side. If the Times really embraces the kind of change they believe Obama represents, they wouldn’t endorse anybody for the Republican nomination, least of all a warmonger whose idea of straight talk is promising crowds “there will be other wars.”
Personally, I doubt many Washington state Democrats are looking to the op-ed pages for advice on who to caucus for on February 9, but if they are, I’m guessing the most influential endorsement of the primary season may have come today in the New York Times, and I’m not talking about an unsigned editorial. No, the big news following Obama’s impressive 29-point rout of Hillary Clinton in yesterday’s South Carolina primary was the moving op-ed column written by Caroline Kennedy, “A President Like My Father“:
OVER the years, I’ve been deeply moved by the people who’ve told me they wished they could feel inspired and hopeful about America the way people did when my father was president. This sense is even more profound today. That is why I am supporting a presidential candidate in the Democratic primaries, Barack Obama.
My reasons are patriotic, political and personal, and the three are intertwined. All my life, people have told me that my father changed their lives, that they got involved in public service or politics because he asked them to. And the generation he inspired has passed that spirit on to its children. I meet young people who were born long after John F. Kennedy was president, yet who ask me how to live out his ideals.
Sometimes it takes a while to recognize that someone has a special ability to get us to believe in ourselves, to tie that belief to our highest ideals and imagine that together we can do great things. In those rare moments, when such a person comes along, we need to put aside our plans and reach for what we know is possible.
[…] I have never had a president who inspired me the way people tell me that my father inspired them. But for the first time, I believe I have found the man who could be that president — not just for me, but for a new generation of Americans.
I suppose I might have a reputation for being a hard-edged cynic, but my eyes actually teared up a bit when I first read Kennedy’s words. I so desperately want to believe what she believes, that Obama really does have that “special ability” to inspire and to lead and to bring us back together as a nation. I fully understand her father was just a man, as flawed as any, but that doesn’t diminish President Kennedy’s impact as a leader, however symbolic, and I too long for a president who can inspire me the way so many of my parent’s generation were inspired by him.
As both a liberal and an American, I have long felt cheated by history… robbed of a promising future by a handful of assassins’ bullets. Had President Kennedy lived to complete his terms, might we have avoided the mistakes that led to an all out involvement in Vietnam, a war that divided our nation and drained us of precious blood and treasure? Had Bobby Kennedy survived to win the White House, would American liberalism have survived to finally achieve the vision of economic justice and security first enunciated by FDR, and wouldn’t Americans have retained the faith in government that carried us through the Great Depression and World War II, rather than seeing that faith shattered by the betrayal that was Watergate? Had Martin Luther King Jr. lived to guide our nation to the Promised Land, rather than just glimpsing it from some far-off mountain top, would the Republican Party have been free to so ruthlessly exploit Nixon’s “Southern Strategy” to advance their selfish, conservative agenda?
My critics like to characterize me as some wide-eyed, lefty moonbat, but I’m nothing more or less than a 1970’s-era centrist who has been radicalized in style if not in substance by a decades-long, right-wing campaign to defile the proud legacy of American liberalism, and to brand its adherents as idiots, ideologues, traitors and worse. The radicalized middle from which I come did not lightly seize on unbridled partisanship as our political weapon of choice, but that is the weapon that has been used to cudgel us into submission for far too long. That the fierceness of the netroots and the new progressive movement to which it belongs frightens the political and media establishment, is understandable, but there is absolutely no evidence to suggest that our aggressive rhetoric and tactics have not played a significant role in our recent electoral victories. Only now that a netroots-powered Democratic majority is on the verge of seizing unchallenged control of the federal government, do we hear a renewed call for bipartisanship… and that is why I wince every time I hear Obama echoing their frame.
When Obama talks about reaching his hand across the aisle, the cynic in me envisions the other side leaping at the opportunity to lop it off. When Obama talks about bipartisanship, I fear it means willingly sacrificing the very political advantages we have fought so hard to achieve. It’s not that I don’t trust Obama, it’s just that I don’t trust the Republican leadership to reciprocate in kind… not these Republicans… not the party that so joyously swiftboated a war hero, and took a man who left three limbs on the battlefield and morphed him into Osama bin Laden. Hardened by decades of partisan, political war, I admit to finding a certain degree of solace in the more calculating nature of Hilary Clinton — the very same quality that appears to turn off so many other voters. Better to be calculating than naive.
That said, I want to believe, like Caroline Kennedy, in the promise of Obama. I want a president who I don’t simply admire, but one who I find truly inspirational. I want my eyes to fill with tears, not at the thought of what might have been, but what can be. And not since Mario Cuomo ended his flirtation with a White House bid back in 1991 have I found a presidential candidate who offers me this hope.
Tomorrow, Sen. Ted Kennedy will appear with his niece at a rally in Washington D.C., to announce his endorsement of Barack Obama, and to personally pass the torch of Camelot on to a new generation. No doubt the right will take the opportunity to vilify Sen. Kennedy in the hope that some of their ridicule might rub off on the man he supports, but in doing so they perilously dismiss the power of symbolism, for even Ronald Reagan’s “shining city on a hill” was a reference to Camelot, and an attempt to co-opt the aura of the Kennedy era as his own.
Perhaps Camelot was always only a dream, but that doesn’t mean it can’t someday come true. Tomorrow, Barack Obama, surrounded by his beautiful wife and young children, standing beside the daughter and brother of the fallen king, has an unprecedented opportunity to rekindle this dream in the hearts of Americans. It is an opportunity to restore the faith of even hardened cynics like me.
About the ONLY thing you got right is the part wher eyou admit you are a “wide-eyed, lefty moonbat.”
Kennedy (JFK) got absolutely RUN DOWN at Vienna by Khrushchev. So much so that the Soviets put that WALL UP IN BERLIN (it took a MAN to tear it down: Reagan)! Almost immediately after seeing what a pussy JFK actually was, the Soviets started putting missiles in Cuba. It wasn’t until Reagan (there’s that MAN again) actually reaffirmed the Monroe Doctrine that the commies started withering away in this hemisphere.
There is too much ground to cover in all the crap you listed, but basically FDR’s and RFK’s greatest failings were in the anti-Christian belief that you could give a man a fish and he’d eat for a lifetime. And, LBJ (a democrat) gave us Vietnam and the democrat surrender gave the world the resulting domino effect of communism in SE Asia that killed millions.
King screwed up when he took his message of love and turned it into one of self-hatred and loathing of America throughout the world. Because GOOD Americans actually believe that ALL men should live freely, not just whites and blacks in America.
Yes. THERE WILL BE WARS! Because much of the world wants us to live in the filth and misery that they themselves have chosen for their own lifestyles. Kenya is just the latest. Did WE cause that? Hell, no. But there is hatred there. Hatred of our freedoms, our life, our economy, our wealth. NONE OF THAT WAS JUST GIVEN TO US. We have to constantly remain vigilant against the enemies, both outside and within (like yourself!!) who would rather see us surrender THAN LIVE AS FREE MEN!
Our real problem isn’t who our nominee will be. The scary thing is that McCain is the likely Republican nominee. And, looking at Darryl’s projections, that does not bode well for any of the Senators.
@1, Reagan the MAN who
Invaded a speck of an island in the Carribean because he didn’t like their medical school
Cut and ran in Lebanon
Raised taxes 8 times in an effort to correct his initial fiscal folly
traded arms for hostages
likened psychopathic killers to our founding fathers
claimed ketchup was a vegetable
claimed trees caused pollution
….that Reagan?
Goldy, I realize your Camelot ideals are ideals, but as I posted before AG RFK directed the FBI to begin tracking MLK Jr in 1961. JE Hoover did it with glee. So why did RFK want to track MLK Jr? Communism?
1 – yet another right wing loon who comes here to call names.
Kennedy blockaded Cuba and forced the missiles out.
The wall was an unfortunate development but there was a Cold War going on. Kennedy’s restraint minimized bloodshed and the development of a “hot” war which neither side wanted.
I supposed if you lived back then you would have voted a second term for Hoover?
If “commies” withered away from Reagan actions then explain Chavez and a good part of South American moving to the left on Bush’s watch. I guess you’re going to blame that on Bill Clinton.
While you’re at it blame Kenya on Bill Clinton.
Yes, there will be wars but WE don’t have to start them. If you think all wars are because people are jealous of this country then you’re hopelessly paranoid.
If you’re convinced Goldy is an “enemy” of this country why don’t you report him to Homeland Security. Or perhaps you have and they, ahem, ignored you?
3 – don’t forget being guided by his wife’s astrologer.
Goldy,
Methinks you sell Obama too short on that ‘retching across the aisles’ stuff. He can, and will, play hardball with the best of them.
Think of it as offering the GOP one last chance to come to their senses.
that does not bode well for any of the Senators.
Just show people this:
http://tinyurl.com/ypfauz
ProudASS@3: Reagan made tax deals with Congress. Congress raises taxes ProudASS.
Need another PuddyCivics Lesson?
What did the donkeys do with the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 besides lie to Reagan?
I blame Rwanda on Clinton!
#1: Contrast JFK’s inept attempt to integrate Ol’ Miss with Eisenhower’s surgical strike against Democrat Little Rock.
Remember that JFK and RFK tried to suppress MLK’s Dream rally in D.C.
That RFK ordered or approved the wiretapping and harassment of King.
That the first civil rights bills since Reconstruction were produced by Eisenhower and his administration.
That LBJ, as Senate leader, stripped all enforcement mechanisms from Ike’s civil rights bills of 1957 and 1960.
That Eisenhower, defying Democrat resistance, effected the integration of D.C. and quickly completed the job of integrating the armed forces, a responsibility that Truman fumbled.
That FDR’s New Deal ag policy propped up the neo-slavery practiced by Southern Democrat landowners, and was devastating to Southern black sharecroppers.
That the Democrat Party in its platform of 1924 refused to condemn lynching.
That Democrats in Congress refused to outlaw lynching.
That Democrats in 1920 whispered loudly that Republican Harding was too dark to be president. The Democrat VP candidate that year was FDR.
That FDR and JFK and LBJ used a secret taping system.
That Democrats probably stole the 1960 presidential election, and that Democrat dirty tricks (google or wiki ‘Dick Tuck’) may have skewed and screwed other elections.
That JFK manipulated our free and independent press. Bradlee wrote about this in 1976, and a recent book shows how JFK wrote a Saturday Evening Post article in 1962 that maligned Adlai Stevenson.
&c. (Would go on and on with this, but some commie-symp simp would accuse me of being hateful.)
‘Retching across the aisle’ indeed.
@3…PTBAA…
No, the Reagan who kicked the pathetically incompetent Jimmy Carter’s ass to the curb in 1980 and then who kicked his even more pathetically incompetent VP, Walter Mondale’s ass even further to the curb in 1984.
The Ronald Reagan who called B.S. on surrendering to the Soviets, who then dared them to race to the finish line knowing full well they’d exhaust themselves and not be able to finisn.
The Ronald Reagan who believed in the American people as opposed to the Jimmy Carter who blamed the American people.
The Ronald Reagan who gave us back our government and made it possible for us to keep more of our own money.
The Ronald Reagan who inspired us rather than the Jimmy Carter who depressed us.
The Ronald Reagan who won the Cold War rather than the Jimmy Carter who came damn close to losing it.
That Ronald Reagan…
The Piper
@5…YippyLil’Boy…
So, you confess that Hugo Chavez is a Communist? You said it:
“If ‘commies’ withered away from Reagan actions then explain Chavez and a good part of South American moving to the left on Bush’s watch. I guess you’re going to blame that on Bill Clinton.”
BTW…nobody mentioned Bill Clinton. Your own insecurity is such that you know he’s responsible for all sin on earth, hence your mention of him.
Psychotropic medications might help…consult your shrink.
The Piper
Speaking of simps, there he is! Seymour Hersh showed beyond all reasonable doubt that JFK was doped at his 1961 summit with Khrushchev. Nikita knew that JFK’s ineptitude at Bay of Pigs demonstrated a president who was weak or worse. The Missile Crisis was a direct consequence of our president’s ineptitude, and Vietnam can be understood as JFK’s belated attempt to act tough and stand tall.
Kennedy talked at his inauguration about ‘our hour of maximum danger’ or something like that. Hersh shows that America’s hours of maximum danger were when we entrusted our fate to a kid and to a kid’s kid brother.
If only half the mountain of posthumous charges against JFK are true, and if we consider only Kennedy’s abuse of drugs (perscription and quasi-narcotic), then Watergate starts to look pallid and pale in comparison.
(Reagan, of course, just keeps looking better and better. So there.)
I blame Rwanda on Clinton!
Why can’t you stay on topic PSilly?
Are you saying you absolve the MRND?
@7…PTBAA…
“Methinks you sell Obama too short on that ‘retching across the aisles’ stuff.”
Retching across the aisle?
Methinks you’re getting Freudian!
The Piper
My daddy can be your daddy up!
Fianlly saw Charlie Wilson, a bad movie about an amazing story, if true. Let’s all pause to ponder the unlikely possibility that, once upon a time, there were Democrats who understood that the evil empire was them, not us. JFK, to his credit, was one of those Democrats from an earlier era. Harry Truman, with all his faults, belatedly learned that FDR’s infatuation with Stalin was misguided. Better belated than never.
But remember this from Charlie Wilson: If Tip’s ‘Crats were indeed running foreign policy from the House and from Cocaine Charlie’s hot tubs, if they were fighting a $1 Billion off-the-books war, they were concurrently slapping down Reagan’s meager request for fighting communists close to home, in Nicaragua. What’s with that?
Setting Boland traps for a duly re-elected president who was trying to nip the Chavez-lite Sandinista contagion. What’s with that?
Fianlly = Finally. Evil empire was them = USSR, not Democrats, although a case can be made.
they were concurrently slapping down Reagan’s meager request
There were no Russian military units in Nicaragua.
The contra’s raping, killing, looting and drug running didn’t reflect very well on the U.S.
‘Course I’d like to suspend disbelief and reality, and to believe that Barack Hussein Obama is the Great (insert modifier here) Hope. But as pedo Pete Townsend said, I’d just get fooled again.
(Still, of the thousand clowns running the run this year, Obama’s the least clownish. And we desperately need to decompress from Bush.)
(McCain on Meet the Depressed today sounded old and tired. Perhaps because he’s old and tired. Too bad, since the R’s have only one old white hope this year, and it’s Maverick John. Sux 2 B us.)
No doubt about it, Obama is an inspirational figure, and I also long for what he promises. But first we need to elect the bitch in combat boots, and after she finishes off the GOP traitors, then — and only then — can we send in Obama to make our country whole again and light that city on the hill.
No Russian military units. OK, you win. We’ll forget all those Czech/Warsaw Pact weapons that Daniel and his biddy bro were using in their genocide campaign against the Moskito Indians on the coast.
Are you really an apologist for Ortega and Ortega, or are you just pretending to be chadt?
the Chavez-lite Sandinista contagion.
IIRC, Daniel Ortega is once again President of Nicaragua.
On Bush’s watch!!!!
LMAO!!!
And what’s so bad about Chavez – don’t we buy oil from him to fuel our SUV’s?
Think about the that when you fill up.
@1 What a load of revisionist crap! The only reason Raygun could get away with cracking jokes about “bombing Russia in 10 minutes” is because JFK stared down Khrushchev in Cuba. Khrushchev’s fall eventually opened the door to Gorbachev; and it was Gorbachev, not Raygun, who ridded the world of Soviet communism for good.
their genocide campaign against the Moskito Indians
Oh? How many were killed?
Oh gawd. Just when we thought it was safe to triple-lindy back into the HA cesspool, along comes Rog.
Bitch in combat boots: first thoughts were of St. Darch Burner, but you apparently refer to the OTHER bitch in combat boots.
Traitors? Gag me.
(Carrying my lantern at hi noon looking for an honest Democrat, and it’s still Russert. Man, the man’s good. Also add Scott Noble and Brian Sonntag to the Honest Democrat list. Exclude anyone from the list who posts at HA.)
Who knew Goldy was a sentimental romantic? Who knew he also misreads history.
If you go back to the foreign policy of FDR at the time of WW II, it was to wage war demanding unconditional surrender. He let nothing stand in the way of the pursuit of that goal. Criticize him? You’d find yourself in an Alabama federal penal work camp. Enemy aliens? Round them up, intern them or, in the case of the German saboteurs of Ex party Quirin, have them electrocuted with SCOTUS approval eight-weeks after their apprehension.
Bobby Kennedy? Did you know that Sen. Joseph McCarthy was Godfather to his first child? And Old Joe Kennedy and McCarthy were good friends and bosom buddies? Both Bobby and Jack Kennedy refused to criticize McCarthy since he was popular in Massachusetts.
“Selfish conservative agenda?” What’s selfish about wanting to keep more of what you earn so that you can spend it on your family? Whatever happened to the notion that your life as an American is your responsibility, and your success or failure isn’t the government’s fault. Nor should the government insulate you from bad choices or failure to do a better job by taking from those who have and giving to those who oft times won’t?
Whatever happened to the America of opportunity? Where every American has the chance to work hard, risk, and get into those upper income brackets that you seek to destroy?
What’s wrong with distinguishing between a policy that’s hard on our enemies versus one that’s soft on them and identifying who associates with which idea? Could it be that Georgia voters felt Max Cleland, disabled war hero that he is, was out of step with them and needed to be replaced?
The difference between Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama is that Reagan believed in the people who elected him, while Obama believes the people who may elect him need government in order to have good lives.
From where I sit, the more government we have, the worse off we are.
To contend you are of the middle is to delude yourself. And to suggest that a netroots-controlled Congress is on the horizon misreads the landscape. Frankly, you and I have more in common with each other than you do the bulk of American voters in the middle. They find ideology and partisanship distasteful while we revel in it.
You exist on the extreme of the left provoking discomfort even among more moderate and conservative Democrats. You may have a few friends in Olympia, but isn’t it interesting how the HA Happy Hoolihopes for a governmental agenda don’t seem to be going anywhere. Democrats in Olympia and Christine Gregoire want to be re-elected, and listening to you is a one way ticket to resume city and a job search.
Still, it’s nice to see you have a soft and sensitive side.
Just how many times have you seen Love Story?
The Piper
@3 “….that Reagan?”
Yeah, that’s him, Saint Ronnie — the guy they think invented “freedom.”
@26…RR…
You mean the same Gorbachev who sought to crush the Afghan resistance by appointing the most ruthless general in the Red Army to go in an conduct a scorched-earth, kill-everything-that-moves (including women and kids) military campaign?
That Gorby?
Remember…you didn’t get to be El Jeffe in the USSR by taking long walks in the rain, caring for stray puppies, and donating blood…You get there by shedding the blood of others.
The Piper
27: Lots.
26: Without B of P and the Vienna summit, there would have been no missiles of October. It’s well, I suppose, that the world didn’t end in October 1962, but let’s not pretend that RFK’s self-serving ’13 Days’ or Schlesinger’s self-serving ‘history’ of the period were anything more than agit-prop.
Recent scholarship by recent scholars, mostly from the left, tells the story that wasn’t told then. Start with this: ‘When Presidents Lie.” Author? Eric Alterman. Perhaps you’ve heard of him … ?
@5 We might have fewer enemies if we didn’t meddle in some many countries and fuck over so many people.
32 – Don’t be a coward. What’s the number?
Republicans never met a commercial interest or repressive rightwing regime they didn’t love.
In some South American countries, the poor are forced to pay 25% of their income for drinking water, and the money goes to rich expatriates living in the U.S.
Why should they like us?
@7 I’m not convinced of that. I don’t think he should be using bipartisan rhetoric. I don’t think our party’s next leader should negotiate with these GOP assholes. I think we should destroy their party.
From where I sit, the more government we have, the worse off we are.
The more government employs mercs and contractors to drive empty trucks and wage endless wars at six figure salaries, the better off Pooper and his fellow travelers are.
In their talking points addled heads that is.
34: Maybe like the relevant range for civilian deaths in Iraq: Somewher between 50,000 and 1,000,000.
Give or take. More or less.
35: That’s an artless paraphrase of the slam-dunk put-down against Peanut Jimmie Carter: That he never met a tyrant he didn’t like.
I agree with Goldy that if JFK hadn’t got shot, we might have avoided the Vietnam mess. My question is this: why the fuck did LBJ want to get involved in that mess? What was the advantage to him and the Democrats of the time?
Coward @ 40
Interesting. A spread of 950,000. Ok let’s say it’s at least 25,000 Moskitos killed by the Sandinistas.
Name your source for this information.
“I think we should destroy their party.” And that’s an artless paraphrase of something Alec Baldwin already said about Republicans … something about killing their wives and children.
(Ann Coulter’s mot about killing Islam’s leaders and converting the others to Christianity came later, and was a conscious riff on Baldwin. Too bad y’all didn’t get the joke.)
@9 No, puddy. It’s time for me to give YOU a civics lesson. Reagan and his successor really did raise taxes 8 times. Congress went along because the situation required it. It turned out wingnut economics is “voodoo economics” after all, as David Stockman said. You see, cutting taxes usually reduces revenues, and when you increase spending at the same time, you get unsustainable deficits. So, Reagan and Bush41 had to raise taxes to keep the economy from going under. If you load too much cargo on a ship and let too much air out of the ballast tanks, it sinks. When Nixon tried this, he got stagflation. When Reagan tried it, we got a depression. It took a Democrat, Bill Clinton, to straighten the whole mess out and the Clinton years were the first decent economy we had since JFK. And, once again, we need a Democrat to clean up the mess another Republican buffoon left behind him.
43: Yep. A big interesting spread. Just like all those unsubstantiated WAG & SWAG guesses we get from Amnesty International and the Lancet about Iraq.
@35…RR…
Just watched a clip on KING5 about the death of Indonesia’s former president, Suharto. Showed Bill Clinton greeting him warmly followed by similar footage between Suharto and Nelson Mandela.
Suharto was reportedly responsible for some 500,000 deaths in Indonesia.
Democrats have had as many group hugs with international thugs as anyone.
You a big fan of Fidel Castro? How about those bums in Hezbollah and Hamas? And Nancy Pelosi playing lovey-dovey with Bashar al-Asad of Syria? What a progressive he is!
Rabbits are notorious for having small, almost microscopic, brains. In your case, that you use so little of the so little you have ought to be a source of embarrassment for you.
The Piper
This time, I don’t want to wait 30 years for a Democrat to repair GOP economic mismanagement, because I’m not going to live that long.
46 – Don’t weasel. What’s your source for the “genocide” (your word) of the Moskitos by the Sandinistas?
Don’t weasel.
@47 I have no trouble being smarter than you.
46: Voodoo economics … no, Rabbit, an obscure back-bench pol named Bush said that. Stockman purported to show that Bush’s slander was true, unless a plethora of magic asterisks were inserted throughout the budget.
Roger Rabbit says:
This time, I don’t want to wait 30 years for a Democrat to repair GOP economic mismanagement, because I’m not going to live that long.
Well, at least we can look forward to that, Roger. Thanks for cheering everyone up a bit! Cheers!
@10 Clinton blames Rwanda on himself. Unlike chimpface, he’s man enough to admit he made a mistake.
@53…RR…
Was that before or after he never had sex with that women, Miss Lewinsky?
The Piper
First Church Weasel: If anyone’s forgotten, the ref to First Church of GHWC is a straight steal from the always reliable New Republic. You know, the serious left-of-center mag for whom Stephen Glass was resident fabulist. Not to be confused with the always-relaible and canonical Jayson Blair Times.
Check this space tomorrow for Moskito citations. Just be assured that I’m not layin’ a Rigoberta Menchu fable on you, ok?
Dude, you are a fool. You don’t get to the center by tacking to the extreme left. You may have been proud centrist once, but now you are a Progressive Moonbat, whether you admit it to yourself or not. You are just as bad as the right wingers you decry, because extreme left positions won’t solve US problems any more than extreme right positions. You are really just a cynical contrarian trying to make a buck off your outrage.
If you had any integrity at all, you’d admit that most of your edginess is just fodder for a hopeful, and yet still pretty lame, career in radio.
@10 (continued) The funny thing is, though, wingnuts have totally inconsistent positions on Rwanda and Kosovo. They criticize Clinton — with some justification — for not intervening in Rwanda … an intervention that might have cost many American lives. But they also criticize Clinton — without any discernible justification — for intervening in Kosovo … an intervention that stopped a genocide and didn’t cost a single American life. Why is that? Which is it? Intervene or not intervene? I guess, if you’re a wingnut, your position is the opposite of whatever Clinton did. Yes, that’s gotta be it!! Clearly, it was blind unreasoning hatred of Clinton that motivated Gov. Huckabee to release a sexual predator who subsequently murdered two women. What did that rapist do to earn Huckabee’s clemency? Why, the little girl he raped is distantly related to Bill Clinton, therefore deserved to be raped, that’s what! Yes, life is sooooo simple when you’re a wingnut: You don’t have to do any thinking at all, you only have to let blind unreasoning hatred of Clinton do all your thinking for you! You may go now, puddy. Dismissed.
Goldy, I’m shocked. The only apt comparison between JFK and Obama is the ability to inspire.
Have you listened to Obama at all?
He does NOT say anything about reaching across any aisle. He says his job is convince everyone to come to the progressive agenda.
He does NOT say anything about negotiating the progressive agenda. His whole shtick is to use his considerable powers of persuasion that the progressive agenda is right for America and invite everyone to join in to implement it.
Good grief. If you’re gonna doubt the guy, at least do it from an informed platform.
And you can see what good results the combat boot couple got in SC…they lost EVERY county save the rich coastline Myrtle Beach area.
You can see what good results the combat boot couple got in NV…won the Vegas business, high end union class, lost EVERY other county.
And Iowa? NH? Won where the state/county party apparatus had it’s hold, and couldn’t even do that without dragging Emily’s List considerable organization into it. Lost EVERY other county in both states.
Look it up. Then if you still think it’s sinful to decide we are all more alike than we are different, have at your dissing.
Listen to the man’s words. Look at his actions. Compare it all to the triangulated mess that is the combat boot power couple.
I expect better of you Goldy.
Clinton did not take the blame for Rwanda, nor did JFK take the blame for Bay of Pigs. Kennedy made Trumanesque noises about the buck stopping in the Oval Office, then he knee-capped the CIA, the agency that tried to tell him it was folly to change the proposed invasion site and that it was folly to withhold air support.
Clinton made a flaccid post-Monica ‘apology’ for Rwanda. Pointless apologies are a Clinton signature. Look for the next tranche of apologies (re his racist sliming and maligning of Obama) at an illegal fund-raiser near you.
Ahhh.. The name morphing troll weasels away..
No numbers or authoritative sources – just random spews from propaganda outlets like Frontpage Magazine.
@13 This may not sit well with you, piper, but it was mujahedin like Osama and Heckmatyr who brought the Soviets to their knees, not Reagan.
Clinton didn’t want a repeat of Somalia in Rawanda. A mistake. Probably should have at least pushed more action from the U.N.
Kosovo was not genocide. So attests Benjamin Schwartz of The Atlantic (from about three years ago, the issue with Michaelangelo’s David Goldstein on the cover). BS wrote that allegations of Balkans genocide were exaggerated by Tony Lewis, and that compliant Big Media, BM, picked up the torch and put Clinton in a box. Bill couldn’t back down before leftist hysteria, and maybe didn’t want to … wagging Monica’s dog, and all that.
(Bosnia, 1995, KVI Kirby Wilbur did say ‘just wait ’til the body bags start coming home.’ To Clinton’s credit there were none, as you aver, but the cost in collateral damage was about 3000 Serb civilians collaterally damaged to death. OK with you?)
@24 Meanwhile the Contras were selling girl scout cookies?
62: Correction … from the ridiculous UN. The organization that was propping up Saddam with oil-for-torture money. The organization whose peacekeepers nototiously rape children in Africa. Maybe it was best that the UN did what it does best, ineffectual nothing.
Chocolate mint Kontra Kookies turn me on, bro.
Been about three years since I’ve been to Frontpage, for the Horowitz smack-down of Chomsky. Having been present at the creation of the loon left, Horowitz is non-pariel (sp?) at fumigating its smelly orthodoxies.
Mr. Davis: Very good. Recall also that, in Nevada, Bill lapsed into a vicious whine about vote suppression. These people, Clinton & Clinton, are shameful & shameless.
On the subject of rape. Interesting story in the Bothell Times about the role of our esteemed PA Dan Satterberg and his little lamented mentor Norm Maleng in concealing, excusing and abetting rape by Husky football players. Typical republican goat fuckers.
@31 This Gorby, shown here hanging out with one of his buds. http://tinyurl.com/2ysrdc
Unfortunately for your argument, it was not Gorbachev who invaded Afghanistan (that was Brezhnev) or sanctioned the scorched-earth policy (that was Andropov and Chernenko). Gorbachev came to power in March 1985, and within days the Russians began shifting from the offensive to an exit strategy in Afghanistan.
You are also wrong about Gorbachev’s background. He was not a KGB chief or military leader, but the agriculture minister, and he was elevated to the communist party’s top position to reform a failing economy.
Last I checked, they don’t give Nobel Peace Prizes to bloodthirsty tyrants.
Next time, do a little research to spare yourself public embarrassment, piper. You look like an idiot in this post — that’s what happens when you shoot from the lip.
“This time, I don’t want to wait 30 years for a Democrat to repair GOP economic mismanagement, because I’m not going to live that long.” Am trying, am really trying, to rise above my almost-fatal attraction to the cheap shot. Rather than reverting to snarkasm, I’ll remind everyone here that no one here gets out alive.
@32 A certain number of dead rabbits is inevitable and a manageable problem. The solution is to MAKE MORE RABBITS!!! http://www.funpic.hu/en.picvie.....d&p=7
Wingnutz!!! Rudy goes down in flames for the last time in Florida. You heard it here….uh, sometime.
Instant replay: The stars and thumbs are for Eric Alterman’s grrrrrreat book, When Presidents Lie. Give it to your friends.
So THAT’S the Rabbit Habit!
My species is fighting simultaneously on several fronts; and in the ongoing Cars vs. Rabbits, Hawks vs. Rabbits, Dogs vs. Rabbits, and Hunters vs. Rabbits conflicts, there will be casualties.
A pipe one toke over the line @ 13: “The Ronald Reagan who gave us back our government and made it possible for us to keep more of our own money.”
Well, no. For most of us, the increased FICA tax has more than offset any income tax reductions, a tax that has been used shamelessly by both parties to fund ongoing government programs while the rich skate.
Beam me up. I’m outta here.
(Getting mired in the quagmire of my own typos.)
@ 76: Don’t overlook Ben v. Jerry, 590 A.2d 888 (Vt. 1995)
Have no idea if the case is about rabbits, but WTF.
@41 Huh? You’re confusing Carter for someone else. Like maybe THIS guy. http://www.injusticebusters.co.....msfeld.jpg
CluelessIdiot@5 wrote: “While you’re at it blame Kenya on Bill Clinton.”
I answered: “I blame Rwanda on Clinton”.
Clueless you need to take your Fukitol! Your bowels are so backed up.
@74: See also Alterman’s “What Liberal Media?”
A classic.
@44 That’s your idea, not mine. I’m not for killing anyone. Well … there are exceptions. http://tinyurl.com/2pf27x But as for Republicans, no, I just want to get rid of their party, and the Republicans themselves I’ll leave to the Great Mother Rabbit Spirit to do with as She pleases. I’m sure She’s got something in mind for them.
There’s not much difference between Obama and McCain on the issues which is why neither of them will get my vote in November. Obama’s record is scant. McCain’s record is wrong.
But what I DO look forward to is being rid of the Clintons once and for all.
@51 You must have missed Stockman’s mea culpa. Here it is. http://www.theatlantic.com/doc.....d-stockman
@52 Reciprocity requires me to wish for you to drop dead, too.
Hey Rabbit – Did fed gummint revenues DOUBLE under Reagan?
Yes or No.
Fucking idiot… it was a spending problem brought about by the moonbats in congress. Do you remember the term “Dead on Arrival”.
Don’t try to change history with me around.
Asshole…
@54 Once again, piper, you’d serve yourself better to do some research before flapping your jaws and embarrassing yourself.
“Four years after the genocide, Clinton issued what today is known as the ‘Clinton apology,’ in which he acknowledged his failure to efficiently deal with the situation in Rwanda.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R.....n_genocide
@56 Goldy has a radio show and you don’t, neener neener.
Let’s review what the phrase “extreme left” means to a wingnut:
Liberals gave us the Constitution, Bill of Rights, free speech, a free press, freedom of religion, the rule of law, and due process of law.
Wingnuts: Arrest and imprison people without charge or trial; deny them access to their families and lawyer; encourage guards to beat, rape, sodomize, torture, and murder them without determining guilt or innocence; imprison critics and dissenters; spy on your medical, financial, employment, school, and library records wihout having to show probable cause or get a court order; let bank robbers, psychos, white supremacists, neo-Nazis, and skinheads own military assault weapons; force-feed religion to public school children; and do all this while preaching to others about “morality.”
Liberals gave us the 40-hour work week, overtime pay, minimum wage, child labor laws, workplace safety laws, injured workers benefits, unemployment insurance, collective bargaining rights, the G.I. Bill and veterans benefits, and Social Security and Medicare.Right wingers oppose minimum wage laws, overtime pay, unemployment benefits, safety regulation, and benefits for injured workers.
Wingnuts: Anti-union “right to work” laws; no minimum wage, Social Security, or Medicare; but lots of corporate welfare.
Liberals gave us universal free public education, the cornerstone of our democracy and economic prosperity.
Wingnuts: Give tax money to private schools with no accountability for how the funds are spent, what the children are taught, or whether they learn.
Liberals gave us consumer protection laws, public health programs, and environmental laws that cleaned up the air we breathe and the water we drink.
Wingnuts: Regulation is “communism,” global warming is bunk, and “tree huggers” are “terrorists.”
And you call US “extremists”?!!!
Pelletizer@45: Answer my question, or are you scared? Start with 1982 before jumping to 1987, because we’ll get there when you start with 1982.
Again a PuddyCivics Lesson:
What did the donkeys do with the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act of 1982 besides lie to Reagan?
Pelletizer: “When Reagan tried it, we got a depression.”
Really? You are too funny dumb bunny!
@58 Sorry, but that’s not the Obama I’ve been reading about in the news. How progressive is it, for example, to shoot for universal health coverage of only those under age 18, and write off the adult uninsureds as too expensive to care for? But yes, I agree the Clintons are playing some dirty pool — and I don’t like it. A lot of other Democrats don’t like it, either, and it they go too far it could cost her the nomination. Although I have endorsed Clinton and intend to vote for her in my caucus, I constantly assess the political situation, just as I constantly reassess the ever-changing stock market, and I’m capable of adjusting my position if an evolving situation requires it.
But keep in mind, also, that if Obama can’t take some shit off the Clintons he sure as hell won’t be able to handle the Republicans. What the Clintons are doing is peanuts compared to what the Republicans are going to do.
*********************************************************
BH and JFK in the surf
Goldy,
If you are a romantic I must be a figment of your heated imagination (:)>
Back to Obamalot.
1. Apaprently a Horsesass attracts a lot horse flies. At least most fo the horse shit eating repicans here look a lot like thopse pests.
2. BHO is very much reminiscent of JFK in ways:
I. He is bright. BHO not only psekes, he writes and writes well. We have not had a Prexy who could do that since Carter. (try reading anything William or Hillary have written w/o help).
II. He mingles easily with other bright people. WADR to Hillary, mu guess is that she si better at telling bright people what t do than asking them what she should think.
III. he is young and has two kids, Do not underestimate the courage of a father of two young people.
IV. He has shown an amzing sang froid. WADR. this giu has handles Bill Clintoi with an assuredness that is amazing.
V. He is NOT indebted to the usual folks. JFK’s debts were to Daddy and maybe the Teamsters. BHO is the cleanest guy to get thi8s far since Jimmy Carter.
So far so good, but I would go further. JFK preached a new frantier and meant it. BHO’s sermon is different. It builds on the strenghts of his predecessors .. INCLUDING Ike and Reagan.
You say you are worried about the other side slapping the welcoming hand. I am not worried. BHO is a pretty muscular fellow and .. more important ..the American public and the world are hungry for sanity,
Consider three scenarioes:
HRC is Prexy Repricans will fight her tooth and nail and her weapons? Thes ame unimpressive Billybong we just saw.
John MCCain is Prexy. The SAME Repricans will fight him! For JM to govern he will need to workj acr0ss thye aisle.
BHO .The only pewrson who might be able to return us to the days when the reps and dems fought to get elected and then the Congress returned to government across the bipartisan center.
How is this for a dream:
BHO Prexy
Jim Webb vice
John McCain SOD
John Edwards AG
Richardson SOS
Paulson treasury
Bill Amb to UN
Napolitano or Murry HHS
Tilighman NIH
Whitman EnvironmentPA
Schwarznegger Commerce
Wes Clark Am to China
Gore Special Ambassador for Environmental treaties
of course Emanuel replaces BHO in the Seante and Hillary is Majority Leader!
Is this a pipe dream? It is if anyone BUT BHO is elected.
Pelletizer: Me dismissed.
Clinton is held up as the “Great Black President”.
Yet when he really could show what he thought about the Black Fatherland, step in and stop the genocide, “He fell down, he lost his crown, not at the feet of Jesus!”
So Pelletizer you are Dismissed by
1) Ignorance
2) Stupidity
3) Moronic mindset
4) Lack of historical reference
5) Love of Clinton
6) Prejudice
See ya dumb bunny!
@93
Roger
you forget, Bush ain’t running. McCain ain’t no GWB.
@59 “Clinton did not take the blame for Rwanda”
How much blame should Clinton take for Rwanda? He didn’t hack anyone with a machete. The “blame” belongs to the Rwanda government and their puppet murderers. Clinton faced the difficult decision of whether to commit American troops and spend American (perhaps a great many American lives) to police somebody else’s country — not usually a popular course of action in our country. (Even Bush couched his invasion of Iraq national security terms.)
And criticizing Clinton from hindsight doesn’t answer the difficult question of whether America should, or can, deal with Africa’s problems. Tribal warfare is endemic on the Dark Continent; warfare and genocides are never-ending there; and the causes have deep roots that cannot be easily solved. How many hundreds of thousands or millions of troops would we have to station there to keep the peace?
Prof. Jared Diamond argued in his book “Collapse” that the Rwandan genocide was primarily a result of too many people chasing too little agricultural land. He points out that, while most westerners think of it as a Hutu-against-Tutsi ethnic conflict, in fact many Hutus also were killed and those targeted generally were prosperous Hutus who owned land. Population had grown to the point where the amount of available arable land averaged less than 1/4 acre per person. It had grown to the point where, for many, survival required reducing the population. If he’s right — if you see Rwanda as a response to a looming threat of mass starvation — then mass killings or at least mass explusions were inevitable, and no army could have discouraged it except by the mass killing of the killers.
The questions before Clinton were whether anything could be done, and whether trying to do it was worth American lives. In hindsight, it can be argued that he made the wrong call.
And if he is to be blamed for that, then Republicans must share some of that blame, because Clinton undoubtedly was spooked, and made more reluctant to act, by the bitter condemnation heaped on him by Republicans of his intervention in Somalia just a year earlier (and subsequently heaped on him again following his highly successful intervention in Kosovo).
But, more than anything, given the veering inconsistencies of the right’s positions on Somalia (opposed intervention), Rwanda (favored intervention but only in hindsight), and Kosovo (opposed intervention), wingnuts like you are in no position to criticize Clinton’s call on Rwanda; and to do so reeks of hypocrisy and self-serving partisan sniping.
So, go fuck yourself, and fuck the horse you rode in on.
I’m 61 Goldy. I love Obamarama. I love his passion more than anything.
I believe that Obama is a type of politician that only come along maybe once in a generation. His idealism and coalition building message of hope and change scares the hell out of both ordinary squares and the powers to be.
Especially the people who think their revolutionaries already. Been there done that. But these old dogs are really only interested in the continuum of their pigeon holed, labeled and politically correct dogmatic beliefs about everything.
God having to agree with anyone outside the boundaries of their limited belief systems is for the most part completely impossible.
Obama’s biggest detractors will not be on the Right. They will be made up of the intransigent political establishment hacks of the LEFT like Billary and the Democratic party elite unwilling to relinquish power.
@63 “Kosovo was not genocide.”
Typical. When a wingnut loses an argument, he reverts to the old tried-and-true wingnut tactic of “lie and deny.”
Here’s the truth:
“The Yugoslav Wars were … the bloodiest conflicts on European soil since the end of World War II. They were also the first conflicts since World War II to have been formally judged genocidal in character ….”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yugoslav_wars
“In August 2000 the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) announced that it had exhumed 2,788 bodies in Kosovo … about 850 were thought to be victims of war crimes. … In July 2001 … authorities announced the discovery of four mass graves containing nearly 1,000 bodies. The largest grave was found on a Serbian Police training ground in Batajnica just outside of Belgrade.
” … Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević [and others] were charged by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) with crimes against humanity including murder, forcible transfer, deportation and ‘persecution on political, racial or religious grounds’. Further indictments were leveled … against former armed forces …[and] police official[s] … for crimes against humanity ….”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovo_War#War_crimes
For graphic, gory, photographic evidence of the Serb genocide in Kosovo click here: http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkil.....BODIES.HTM
Why the hell do people respond in a logical fashion to people who voted in Bush twice? Bush, who has added at least five TRILLION dollars to the national debt.
Fuck trying to convince these idiot Republicans. They are wrong now, they were wrong before, and anything they say is wrong. They voted for Bush twice, how much evidence do you need that they are fucking stupid.
They are just a bunch of fucking fuck ups.
@66 Yes … you seem like the type.*
* The type that would suck cock for murderers of nuns.
ProudASS: “Well, no. For most of us, the increased FICA tax has more than offset any income tax reductions, a tax that has been used shamelessly by both parties to fund ongoing government programs while the rich skate.”
Another PuddyCivics lesson:
Wow ProudASS: You forget the big activity of December 1987 when the donkey rushed in to tax waiter and waitress tips? Why did congressional donkeys hate the little people? Hmmm…?
Remember what Daniel Patrick Moynihan said?
@67 Horowitz isn’t even capable of fumigating his own kitchen sink.
Artistdogboy@98:
Great commentary…
Clueless the Foolish Idiot (YLB) will disagree with you. I appreciate your candor. Donkey are racists. We see it in these donkey primaries. You see this by their acceptance of headless lucy’s comments. Ask YLB the Clueless Idiot Fool why he accepts Lucy’s comments against blacks.
Don’t worry he won’t answer you with an answer. Totally a fool.
@71 “no one here gets out alive”
As John Maynard Keynes said, “In the long run, we are all dead.” He was referring to the limitations on compounding as an investment strategy, but it applies to other things as well.
@75 What were you expecting, a square dance?
@78 Has the Rapture come? I can’t wait for the Rapture to get here! 144,000 Republicans gone in a thunderclap and cloud of smoke! It’s not enough, but it’s a start.
@79 Hmmm, can’t find it on the internet, but it’s got a sexy cite.
@81 Why do you blame Rwanda on Clinton? You Repubs didn’t want Clinton to go into Somalia. You didn’t want him to go into Kosovo. Why Rwanda? Explain your inconsistency.
@81 (continued) Oh wait, I know what it is:
It’s Clinton’s fault! It’s Clinton’s fault! It’s Clinton’s fault! It’s Clinton’s fault! It’s Clinton’s fault! It’s Clinton’s fault! It’s Clinton’s fault! It’s Clinton’s fault! It’s Clinton’s fault! It’s Clinton’s fault! It’s Clinton’s fault! It’s Clinton’s fault! It’s Clinton’s fault! It’s Clinton’s fault! It’s Clinton’s fault! It’s Clinton’s fault! It’s Clinton’s fault! It’s Clinton’s fault! It’s Clinton’s fault! It’s Clinton’s fault! It’s Clinton’s fault! It’s Clinton’s fault! It’s Clinton’s fault! It’s Clinton’s fault! It’s Clinton’s fault! It’s Clinton’s fault! It’s Clinton’s fault! It’s Clinton’s fault! It’s Clinton’s fault! It’s Clinton’s fault! It’s Clinton’s fault! It’s Clinton’s fault! It’s Clinton’s fault! It’s Clinton’s fault! It’s Clinton’s fault! It’s Clinton’s fault! It’s Clinton’s fault! It’s Clinton’s fault! It’s Clinton’s fault! It’s Clinton’s fault!
That’s right! Everything’s Clinton’s fault! Is Bush’s economy tanking? It’s Clinton’s fault! Do imported toys contain lead paint? It’s Clinton’s fault! Did Port of Seattle staff throw contracts to their cronies? It’s Clinton’s fault! Got herpes? It’s Clinton’s fault! Do the Huskies suck? It’s Clinton’s fault! Global warming? It’s Clinton’s fault! $100 oil? It’s Clinton’s fault! Is Dino Rossi constipated? It’s Clinton’s fault! Is Stefan’s kid undisciplined? It’s Clinton’s fault! Ad nauseum.
@84 Pay your gambling debt, you congealed conglutination of curdled pigeon poo!
@96 What makes you think the Rethugs are going to let McCain win their party’s nomination?
@95 et al. – sorry, pudpacker, but I don’t have time for now right now. I’ll deal with this later.
for you right now
@98 No, it’s about money for Social Security, Medicare, and health care, among other things.
This is great news:
http://www.politico.com/news/s...../8134.html
@101 Because kicking them is fun.
Pelletizer@111: Good job. Save this post for later use.
BusdriverMike: My issue: ~500,000 aborted black babies. One could have grown up to be president.
Nuff said.
Obama’s Muslim faith will be his downfall if he is still in it after Super Tuesday. This country will never elect a Muslim as President.
Sure is a royal pain in the ass having to sort through all the SPAM from Rabbit Shit to find worthwhile postings.
PIdiot – If Obama’s the nominee, I’ll vote for him.
I’ll take him any time over the ugly bunch vying for kingpin of your corrupt party.
1. I actually believed in myself long before Obama or Hillary came on the political national scene.
2. Goldy..centrist????
3. Obama thought that by invoking Ronald Reagan’s name he could nab a few republican votes later on. It certainly wasn’t a comment designed to impress democrats. They hated Reagan’s guts. I remember the vitriol and screeching from the left against Reagan in the ’80s when I wasn’t following politics super-closely. But the angry stuff spewed by the lefties just made them look scary and marginalized to an innocent onlooker like me at that time.
Troll @ 121,122
Obama is not a Muslim.
http://www.factcheck.org/elect.....obama.html
You probably know this already in which case:
Fuck you!
Note to Stupes: Are you proud of this ugly crowd you run with?
@113 Roger Rabbit says:
@96 What makes you think the Rethugs are going to let McCain win their party’s nomination?
They are in a deep, deep drainage ditch. They don’ got nobody else!
They run the guy who looks like Frankenstein and lose all the villagers.
They run the mad Italian and loose both the villagers and the cops.
So, I think there only alternative may be for them to numinate McCain, force him to take Frist or Gingrich as veep and then arrange for a heart attack,
@121 My Goldy itches …
You seem to mis-understand. Sure Barck is a Muslim, but he is a good Muslim.
Then there is Mccain .. how do we know what long term suggestions they brain washed into him? Aint’t y’all afreaid he will go dim bulb and turn the leys over the a Chicom?
Then there is Romney .. the guy who wears a tattered set of superman long johns uncer his everyday clothes just in case he eeds to fly to the rescue of an innocent fourth wife in distress. BTW .. I heard that God may chose Mitt as the new Prophet of the LDS .. can he be Prophet and Prexy?
BTW …
as you must know the Mormons baptize dead folks into their religion. You don;t suppose that Romney has provided this servive for Raygun do ya?
“My critics like to characterize me as some wide-eyed, lefty moonbat, but I’m nothing more or less than a 1970’s-era centrist who has been radicalized in style if not in substance by a decades-long, right-wing campaign to defile the proud legacy of American liberalism, and to brand its adherents as idiots, ideologues, traitors and worse. ”
Goldy,
I see ya and raise ya on that one.
28:
I’m an honest Democrat. I don’t know you, and already, I hate you.
See? That’s honesty right there for you.
tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick tick
@22
Hey, we’re singing the same tune…
Piper Scott is smarter than what he says:
If you go back to the foreign policy of FDR at the time of WW II, it was to wage war demanding unconditional surrender. He let nothing stand in the way of the pursuit of that goal. Criticize him? You’d find yourself in an Alabama federal penal work camp. Enemy aliens? Round them up, intern them or, in the case of the German saboteurs of Ex party Quirin, have them electrocuted with SCOTUS approval eight-weeks after their apprehension.
Are you REALLY comparing the terrorist gangs, as bad as they are, to potential world conquering axis???
Bobby Kennedy? Did you know that Sen. Joseph McCarthy was Godfather to his first child? And Old Joe Kennedy and McCarthy were good friends and bosom buddies?
What is the point. Read Malcom X .. real people grwo up. As opposed to the infant in the WH.
“Selfish conservative agenda?” What’s selfish about wanting to keep more of what you earn so that you can spend it on your family? Nothing .. at least nothing more than might deter a bankrobber. BTW, when you go to church do you take money out so you can buy candy on the way home??? Tell me WHO is more given tor preaching moral responsibility:
Jimmy Carter or GWB?
John McCain or Daddy Bush?
Whatever happened to the America of opportunity? Where every American has the chance to work hard, risk, and get into those upper income brackets that you seek to destroy? You mean the one Jefferson and Franklin fought for with free education for all so they could compete on an equal ground? Or are you a secret Federalist and pus=hing the Whig agenda of a natural upper class?
What’s wrong with distinguishing between a policy that’s hard on our enemies versus one that’s soft on them and identifying who associates with which idea? No issue .. but do you think GWB has the fainmtest idea of who the real enmies are?
The difference between Ronald Reagan and Barack Obama is that Reagan believed in the people who elected him, while Obama believes the people who may elect him need government in order to have good lives.
This is bizarre. It was old Raygun who wnated to re-regulate our personal lives. And ‘xactly what orogram advocated by BHO do YOU oppose? Universal voluntary health care? Universal education??
Frankly, you and I have more in common with each other than you do the bulk of American voters in the middle. They find ideology and partisanship distasteful while we revel in it.
Can you spell R O V E?
You exist on the extreme of the left
Calling Goly LEFT is hilarious. To quote Benson, “I knew the left, anf you Goldy ain’t him.” Left ??
Do you even know what the left was? Or is in Europe today?
but I’m nothing more or less than a 1970’s-era centrist
BULLFUCKING SHIT. YOU WERE WHAT? ALL OF 5 IN 1970???… GROW THE FUCK UP ASSHOLE… JFK WOULD SPIT IN THE FACE OF TODAYS
“LIBERALS”SOCIALIST FUCKERS.PERHAPS IF HE HAD LIVED WE WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN BURDENED WITH LBJ, HIS FUCKING DRUNK BROTHER AND JIMMY FUCKING CARTER.
TAKE YOUR CROCODILE TEARS AND STICK EM UP YOUR ASS. THE ONLY PRESIDENT YOU CAN CRY ABOUT LEGITIMATELY IS BLOW JOB CLINTON.
Perhaps Camelot was always only a dream, but that doesn’t mean it can’t someday come true. Tomorrow, Barack Obama, surrounded by his beautiful wife and young children, standing beside the daughter and brother of the fallen king, has an unprecedented opportunity to rekindle this dream in the hearts of Americans
DIGUSTING TRIPE.
‘KING’ ‘CAMELOT’…. YOU’RE AN IDIOT.
OBAMALOT
BARRY HUSSEIN-ALOT… OOOH… AND YOUR BAD BOY SMOKES…TSK TSK, THE BOY FAILS PC-ALOT… EVEN THE HUSSEIN WIFE-ALOT SAYS THE KIDDIES WON’T KISS HIM GOODNIGHT BECAUSE BARRY HUSSEIN STINKS-ALOT.
The Reagan legacy is the worst kind of historical revisionsm, and long on fable, short on facts. As I mentioned, reagan raised taxes three times, with the Congress, to arrest his dangerous exploding deficits, and even woke up for a few days to try and get real nuclear arms control treaties signed. I can go on and on about his idiocies and mistakes, but the current occupant makes me almost nostalgic for he and Nancy’s astrologer. That damn astrologer would have gotten out of Iraq.
This Reagan revisionism is not much different than using Rambo as a history of Vietnam- which come to think of it, the R’s and the Neos did, which is why we are in a quagmire in Iraq.
BTW, the quote Reagan used, “shining city on the hill,” is not from Camelot, its from John Winthrop, nearly 400 years ago, describing the new world religious exemplar of a colony of religious utopianism he hoped to establish. Of course, then they chased Roger Williams to RI, the Quakers to Pennsylvania, committed genocide against the native Americans, etc. A fitting model for RR.
It’s also true that many liberals think they are centrist. It’s only OTHER people who are partisan.
@136 Foss
Mostly we agree but it seems to em that there is not much evidence that the Mass settlers had to kill the indigenes … smallpox worked that trick,
As for Raygun ..
The unending RW propaganda machine has turned Reagan’s failed presidency into a global success.
The only thing Ronnie does desrve credit for is reversing the blahs that Carter conveyed. BUT this came at great cost … neglecting the energy issues, mismanagement of the fall of the USSR, permanent screw up of a lot of Latin American relationships,
sad.
Dear Mr. Goldstein: Thank you for your thoughful editorial. Tried to comment on Huffington but took too long to retrieve password. Found the 27 comments thus far very superficial…missed the point completely:
Of course T. Kennedy is going to endorse Mr. Obama, for he perceives him to be maleable, useful, inexperienced President-to-be. Barack, of course, may prove to be a person of sterner, more moral metal, but Kennedy is projecting upon him an easy mark.
For Caroline, much as I hesitate to comment on her life of unforeseen and undeserved multiple personal losses and tragedies, she is a woman who has lived a life of extremely rare priviledge in this great country – as is so markedly now evidenced in her endorsement of Barack. Only a women who has lived most of her life unsullied by the realities of working-class and middle-class life in this country and the mean politics and policies that are imposed on these millions of lives could endorse Mr. Obama.
Do you follow? I know this sounds ungenerous towards Caroline with all her many sorrows…but Caroline had a very special mother of rare depth and intelligence who figured out how to live a difficult life on her own terms, then Caroline married very, very well and has nurtured a successful, happy marriage blessed by several healthy intelligent children. For much of her life, she shared memories, challenges, sorrows and joys with a witty, generous, street-smart sardonic brother…one can only imagine the loss and, yet, the true joy and strength that Caroline derives, on a daily basis from having been the sister to, the daughter of such unique, grounded Americans.
I won’t even attempt to write of her father Jack and how her years with him, her loss of him, her memories have played out in her life, for her own words speak to this quite well enough.
For Barack, as a Chicagoan who lived many years in various part of this fair nation and then returned and who also has traveled abroad to the ‘civilized, cultured west’ and also third world countries, there is really no place quite like Chicago, and still no place that does the still dirty, mean-spirited, self-serving back-room, front-room, in broad-daylight, tax-payers be damned politics like my beloved city on a shining lake. I suspect that Mr. Obama is still to beholden to quite a few senators here, a an almost indicted governor and a very, very, deeply compromised mayor-king.
You see, Mr. Goldstein, here in Chicago, as in all the great cities in this nation and around the world and in all the rural areas as well, there are women, children, parents, families, brother, sisters, uncles, aunts, cousins, grandparents and friends who day after day, week in and week out, year after year, going back generations experience similar unforeseen and undeserved tragedies who do not, cannot and will not (until there is a seachange in this country) every experience 1/1000 of the priveledge that Caroline has had to buffer her losses and sorrows.
These are the true silent majority in this country, the uncounted, the unrepresented, the forgotten – but these are the citizens that I believe that Hillary has never really forgotten that she has worked for for many, many years as has been born out in so many programs, policies and initiatives, in her many friendships, working relationships. She understands these front-lines, these back alleys, these low-income neighborhoods very, very well.
Old liberals die hard, but usually, Mr. Goldstein, they die well, surrounded by friends, family and loved ones, comforted by memories of hard-fought victories and unsung glories – usually that of a once lost life, found again, perhaps even on the streets of Chicago, New York, LA or Seattle.
Regards,
Fay
Spencer says: Nuthin important. You too are a moron. You listened to the Hilary sound byte right? You too drank the Clinton Crime Commission kool-aid. Now what Obama said was cut but Hilary and Bill. Typical really typical.
I bet you thought the Berlin Wall was a great idea too! I bet you thought keeping people in communism too was a great idea!
This is the New Progressive Donkey Thought? Amazing…
Fay, you like Hilary?
Well what was she doing as a board member of the Moonbat! hated WalMart?
So you are evoking class warfare over the life Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg inherited?
How tyically Donkey-like you are.
Bugs Bunny:
The facts of the economics:http://www.heritage.org/Research/Taxes/BG1414.cfm
When you want to discuss the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1982 let me know…
Yes, I do like Hillary. Also have donated cold, hard earned cash to Barack. Also like both donkeys and elephants and even bunnies and bugs and puds (I think, whatever they might be…) However, not much into war, even ‘war fare’ and I like all the classes and will fight for each and all and their right to be represented, fairly and thruthfully.
As Hal Hartley’s character Henry Fool says, “I gravitate to the lowest common denominator…on principle”(including you, PuddyBud, although you seem a bit upset today, but I would fight for even you, my boy). That’s just the kind of gal I am.
Like all of us, both Hillary and her husband have many failings and many fine qualities…grow up…donate to some campaigns, okay? Whomever meets your standards and then vote, and oh, by the way, please (oh pwuttee pwueezz) offer to drive a couple of elderly neighbors to the polling place on election day, it might do ya’ some good, PuddyBud, old Bugs wud a dun dat.
Regards,
Fay
BTW – All these dems and repubs alike who invoke the memorie of Ronnie. Don’t they remember how seemingly overnight our cities were suddenly populated by the barely coherent mentally-ill, now homeless, who were turned out onto the sidewalks and streets by Ronnie’s unilateral swipe of the pen by which he cut funding for treatment centers, half-way houses and inpatient facilities for the mentally-ill, recovering drug-addicts, mentally disabled, even psychologically impaired veterans?
I remember, quite clearly, how our cities changed. I remember the challenges that LA, Santa Monica, Seattle, NY, Chicago and other urban centers and cities, counties and all the towns in between suddenly experienced. I remember the dismayed physicians, nurses and therapists. I remember the police officers suddenly faced with arresting an ever increasing population of relatively harmless citizens who were primarily ill, not violent or criminal…and…these same police districts grappling with issues of where to safely hold them…in the city or county jail with true criminals? I recall the heartbroken families left with no support, no funding, no safe harbor for their very, very ill loved ones.
Yuk. Very disturbing indeed.
Overnight, Ronnie changed this country for the worst and many cities have never been able to successfully implement or patch together funding strategies to address the many patients and families affected by those republican policies, and the cowardly democrats that sat idly by, allowing them to take place.
Nancy admonished, “Just say No.” And she and Ronnie did. They said ‘No.” to a lot of Americans.
Any democrat or republican that holds the Reagan administration up as any kind of fond memory of bold leadership has a case of unforgivable amnesia.
Too dangerous to hold office of any kind.
Ooops, now I’m sounding a bit upset, PuddyBud. So sorry…
Regards,
Fay
Billary assassinated Obamelot. They re-positioned him as the BLACK candidate.
Sorry, but Billary will be in the Democrat’s ticket. And, that’s too bad, because as an independent, I was going to vote for Obama. Lot’s of us were.
#36 Roger Rabbit says:
What do you suggest? Should we be the police of the world and arrest these expatriates and ship them back to their country?
Isn’t this indicative of the extreme left? Expatriates screw their country and you believe that america is to blame.
Goldy lied:
Once again, liberals blaming others.
Your critics point out your extreme-left leanings. It’s your views and beliefs that earn you the wide-eyed lefty moonbat title. You earned it, wear it in pride.
“When Obama talks about reaching his hand across the aisle, the cynic in me envisions the other side leaping at the opportunity to lop it off.”
At some point, one side has to reach across or nothing will ever change. It’s like the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Both sides have reason to be upset, reasons to be distrustful, reasons to be violent. But until one side makes an effort and it is reciprocated on the other side they will always be at war. Is it possible or likely that will happen? Lately, I think not. But there was a moment there in the 90’s before both sides pissed it away. Another similarity: Rabin. Some people prefer to be at war.
107: Am familiar with Keynes & his aphorism and its context. Also familiar with Jared Diamond’s Collapse, pun intended, having read it. Weak arguments throughout. Keith Richburg of the Washington Post is a better guide to Rwanda.
Bosnia/Kosovo: Go to the dead tree Atlantic Monthly, issue cited, and refute S(c)hwartz, if you can.
Moskito Coast: A google of Sandinista+Moskito+Genocide yields dozens and hundreds of hits, including this from YLB’s beloved FrontPage:
“Unlike the Somoza regime, the Sandinistas did not even pretend to include democracy as a serious political objective. They forcibly relocated tens of thousands of Moskito Indians from the Atlantic Coast of Nicaragua, and imprisoned, tortured and murdered hundreds of them. According to the Nicaraguan Commission of Jurists, the Sandinistas carried out over 8,000 political executions within three years of the revolution. The new communist regime succeeded in setting up a brutal tyranny that would distinguish itself as having one of the worst human rights records in Latin America.” (http://www.frontpagemag.com/Ar.....aspx?GUID={A3B05D5B-3136-48B9-9AD7-41ACD7190B07})
Ben Bradlee in 1976 wrote about JFK manipulating reporters and press reports. Here’s a recent discussion of the phenomenon:
“In an act stunning for its cold malice, it was John Kennedy himself who planted this hostile account of Stevenson’s role during the crisis. … JFK had the opportunity to knife Stevenson, and that is exactly what he did. Stewart Alsop has acknowledged that Kennedy read the article before publication, editing the section on Stevenson to make the UN ambassador’s position seem less rational. … the president himself was the ‘non-admiring official’ (cited as a source) … who alleged that Stevenson ‘wanted a Munich.’ … ‘I want it in,’ Kennedy insisted.”
AGAINST THE PRESIDENT, MARK J. WHITE, 2007, PAGE 245
Stevenson, Democrat candidate for president in 1952 and 1956, was despised by the testosterone-poisoned Kennedys. During the Missile Crisis of 1962, UN Ambassador Stevenson sounded Kennedy-tough in public but was conciliatory in secret EXCOMM discussions about the crisis. Stevenson proposed doing a deal with Khrushchev (pledging to not invade Cuba; trading NATO Jupiter missiles in Turkey for the Soviet missiles in Cuba) and was humiliated by RFK and JFK who whispered loudly that Stevenson was a pouf.
Then the Kennedy’s did the deal that Stevenson proposed, a deal not disclosed in RFK’s book about the crisis, a deal not disclosed until 30 years later.
“I want to believe!” – The Gospel According to Goldstein, last night.
Rev. Goldstein, faith-based preacher to the Seattle echo chamber, wants to believe in the myth of the old Camelot (1961-1963) and in the new improved version being spun by Senator Obama. Like the mythical Camelots of T.H. White and JFK, Obama’s is a confection mix-mastered from thin history and an appealing persona.
JFK had 6 ineffectual years in the House and 8 ineffectual years in the Senate (mostly running interference for Joe McCarthy, who was dating his sister and employing his brother) to back up his presumptuous pursuit of big-time power. Obama has 2 ineffectual years: Next to nothing that can be defended, next to nothing that can be attacked … the convenience of vapidity is that it’s almost impossible to land a punch. Obama, in other words, is a dream candidate. Like Kennedy, but even dreamier.
I, too, want to believe. Want to believe that a Republican something can beat an Obama nothing, but America’s not like that.
149 – So you extend credibility to a right wing propaganda scream mag.
Nice.
Andd…
You still can’t produce reliable sources of information that confirm yours and Frontpage’s claims.
You just believe everything the right wing spews..
Nice try..
Regarding hand-lopping —
Those with fealty to the Republican machine can absolutely be trusted to lop off any hand that reaches out for compromise.
I imagine that Obama’s reaching out to Republican/swing/conservative voters at large — people not emeshed in the machine. That’s probably necessary to do. Not only to increase the chance of winning the election — but for us to get anywhere once he’s elected on stuff like climate change, turning foreign policy around….
Roger Rabbit @ 93…How do you enforce mandates? It isn’t working in Mass., so how could it work on a 300 million scale? You don’t need to force people to get insurance, you need to make it so they can afford it….so says Obama. Best read those plans bub…HRC answers Obama with subsidies of her forced buy into existing commercial insurance…how do we afford that while guaranteeing continued profit to the insurance industry? You call yourself progressive?
@ 94…we expect the smears from the Repubs but finding it completely out of line to eat our own with such relish. Huge difference. General elections allow vice pres to do the dirty work…Bill’s given free rein to hatchet in a PRIMARY at ONE OF HIS OWN? How would you feel about Michelle Obama doing what he did to another candidate? Remember Teresa Heinz Kerry and her rap? But Bill gets a pass on ONE OF HIS OWN? Sorry. This isn’t about being for Obama, it’s about being completely fed up with this sort of politic.
artistdogboy @ 99 COULDN’T AGREE MORE…
@ 122 Really stale old story…if that’s the best you can do, yeesh.
Spenser @125 Obama raised the spector of Reagans POLITICAL ACUMEN, not Reagan or his policies. This isn’t that hard…Obama said Reagan gathered a bunch of disparate interests together to forward the agenda he wanted. Obama is saying he wants to gather a bunch of disparate interests together to forward an agenda OBAMA wants to. See how easy that is? Course it rises above the usual soundbite BS that politics is today…it requires a little thinking, but I bet you can get it. I do agree with you about the reactions though…told us more about those reacting than it did about Obama and his thoughtful approach.
Fay Driscoll @ 139 Any of those wonderful programs you speak so fondly of authored by HRC (not Bill, but her)? Anyone else running for Prez ever worked for any of those programs?
The Kennedy endorsements mean two things…older folks like them and political machinery for the ground game.
Who is singing Reagan’s praises on policy? What he did well was get elected and there was a way he did it…gathering up a batch of disparate interests to form a huge majority. Why can’t liberals get that? If we don’t get smart about how to freakin’ win we will never implement any liberal/progressive policy. We sure won’t get it eating our own.
Fay wrote:”“I gravitate to the lowest common denominator…on principle”(including you, PuddyBud, although you seem a bit upset today, but I would fight for even you, my boy). That’s just the kind of gal I am.”
I’ll take the boy comment under advisement. Since I don’t know you personally and your politics leave much to be desired, I’ll wait until I know you before I’ll allow you to have my back.
Since you wrote you gravitate to the lowest common denominator have you formally introduced yourself to Rujax! and Clueless yet?
Clueless an almost wise man Carl The LeftFoot Grossman said information can come from many sources… He’s a 16%er group member. So what’s your problem Clueless with facts on Moskito Indian genocide?
A simple Google will produce other sites, but as always Clueless can’t stand seeing truth unless it comes from warm white sticky kool-aid sites!
“War was used by the Sandanistas to try to either control or exterminate the Miskito Indians.”
Find the comment Clueless.
YLB: To repeat, there are dozens or hundreds of references to Sandinista genocide against the Moskito Indians. I pulled one, FrontPage, to twist your little pink tail. Take it or leave it. Check the others. Or don’t check the others. Matters not.
This all depends on who’s writing definitions. Was Kosovo genocide? Was Ortega’s war against Nicaraguans? Up to you.
I report; you distort; you decide.