Hey…

zed. a good man gone bad or a bad man emerging behind the facade of good? American tragedy or sameold. any thoughts?

Good Morning!

Anyone else notice how little is heard from The esteemed Colin Powell. Especially considering how he was the toast of the town back then.

But George Bush got himself reelected by starting an unwise war, planning it badly, and then using it as an issue to accuse everyone else but he and his sycophants of being cowardly defeatists as we march onward toward the ever undefined, ever more elusive, “Victory”.

No. He did not get “re-elected” he was not elected the first time and was not elected the second time. The fuck**s stole the election with the assistance of the supreme court, they sold us the illegal invasion and then stole the second election with the help of Blackwell et al in Ohio.

Anyone else notice how little is heard from The esteemed Colin Powell

It is hard to speak with one’s head up ones ass.

I read somewhere that he was the guy trying to cover up My Lai back in the day. Answers the question posed by Bluestate.

Poor Colin.

It was his “Adlai Moment“.

Not.

zed.

Not…*g*

You lie down with dogs, you wake up with toast crumbs in your sheets.

He was never a good man. Yet another myth. he covered up the My Lai massacre.

Why would he ever show his face again?

It was not just Powell that failed us, it was every Senator that voted for the war resolution.

The “Powell Doctrine” = use of overwhelming force.

Oh that’s nice. That how the disgusting police behave at peaceful demonstrations.

The man is disgusting a he betrayed his race.

The man is disgusting a he betrayed his race.

No, he betrayed the HUMAN race.

Powell, the “good” soldier “who only followed orders” - he sold the American people down the river and ended his career in disgrace.

Maybe some day he’ll fess-up and tell us what motivated him to bring us an unnecessary war that has wrecked our military, robbed the National Treasury and broken our hearts.

Joe-Lie…a joke…

Colin…sucker, used by the BushCo and the neocon cabal…

amen!
just as Hillary can do more than just agitate for women, btw

Yes, Colin betrayed everyone…including himself, as he now realizes…

Hill on the Today Show. Now Obama…

just as Hillary can do more than just agitate for women, btw

that clinton woman will nothing but try and enhance her cash reserves and her power. Not a good person at all.

Obama: “Today will not be decisive…” duh…

Lieberman is driven by his religious agenda. He sees himself as the protector of Israel, first.

He’s a fundi like the rest of them and religion rules everything they do.

Powell and Blair
Names that will live in derisive fame who were used and abused by the world’s most powerful 10 year old. Pathetic.

He realized it when he did it. He made a pact with the white guys to do their bidding when he went to West Point.

US military attacks people of color. But they won’t admit it.

Matt Lauer with that “home state” business again for Hill…meaning NY. Yuk…

Just wondering.

Powell has always struck me as the one person from the Bush cabal most likely to finally have an attack of conscience and go public with chapter and verse, both of the deceptions in which he was involved and those which he observed first-hand. I realize that his role in the My Lai coverup argues strongly against that, but we always can hold out hope…

that may or may not be the case, my point being that a woman isn’t restricted to women’s causes

I remember being so surprised that the man suddenly adopted the “party line” and went about selling it for all he was worth! And his stock, in my view, just plummeted! What, I wondered at the time, did they do or say to twist his arm? It was so sudden. Such a huge turn-around. And such a mistake!

Colin Powell–the losing member of a losing team.

Hillary is not intellectually honest and so I don’t care for her as executive.

Let her use her power in other ways. Women, children and whatever else she cares about.

Good morning Attaturk and the pups,
To thank this crew plan ahead to boycott any spending on 3/19, the start of these boys glorious adventure.
Also wear an armband with the # 5 or the # 6 crossed out . Show where you stand. Peace now damn it!

Aha. True.

I realize that his role in the My Lai coverup argues strongly against that,

I don’t think a lot of Americans realize this fact/part of his life…

Jim, he has cultivated such a false image and very much aided by the MSM and especially the Rs who are dying to find blacks to show that they aren’t racists.

He was nothing but a sell out [edited by mod] for his entire trajectory. But he knows it and doesn’t have the courage or the honesty to admit what a sell out he was to himself, his race, his country and the world.

How he looks in the mirror is amazing.

[Mod Note; Please find a different, less offensive term for the thoughts you are trying to convey.]

dam sander in a bad mood today?

Speaking of Howard Dean, I seem to recall that he had a few questions round about this time as Gephardt and Lieberman were enabling the Bush-Cheney rush to a unilateral war of choice (audio here):

Governor Howard Dean’s Speech at Sacramento, California
The California State Democratic Convention, March 15, 2003

(Edited Transcript)

What I want to know is what in the world so many Democrats are doing supporting the President’s unilateral intervention in Iraq?

Pause as the auditorium erupts in pent-up frustration and agreement.

What I want to know is what in the world so many Democrats are doing supporting tax cuts, which have bankrupted this country and given us the largest deficit in the history of the United States?

What I want to know is why the Congress is fighting over the Patient’s Bill of Rights? The Patient’s Bill of Rights is a good bill, but not one more person gets health insurance and it’s not 5 cents cheaper.

What I want to know is why the Democrats in Congress aren’t standing up for us, joining every other industrialized country on the face of the Earth in providing health insurance for every man, woman and child in America.

What I want to know is why so many folks in Congress are voting for the President’s Education Bill– “The No School Board Left Standing Bill”– the largest unfunded mandate in the history of our educational system!

As Paul Wellstone said– as Sheila Kuehl said when she endorsed me– I am Howard Dean, and I’m here to represent the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party.

I want a Democratic Party that will balance the budget. Bill Clinton balanced the budget and, starting in 1993, without a single Republican vote, kicked off the greatest 10 years of economic growth in this nation’s history. No Republican president has balanced the budget in this country in 34 years. If you want to trust somebody with your taxpayer dollars, you’d better elect a Democrat because the Republicans can’t manage money.

I want an economy in this country where we create jobs that don’t move offshore. I want an America that has health insurance for everybody. I want a government that stops passing un-funded mandates and starts funding the ones we’ve got, like special education. I want a government which will give us a foreign policy so when we walk down the streets of the capitals of our friends we don’t have to worry about watching our backs wherever we go as Americans.

We’ve had two fine people– United States Senators Edwards and Kerry– who’ve done a lot for our country, and they have served us honorably. And if either one of them wins the nomination I am going to support them and do every thing I can to help them win the White House. But I don’t think we can win the White House if we vote for the President’s unilateral attack on Iraq in Washington and then come to California and say we are against the war. And I don’t think we can win the White House if we support the President’s “No School Board Left Standing Bill” and then come to California and tell every body that we are going to do all kinds of things for education. And I don’t think we can win the White House if we skip the most important abortion vote in the last year and then come to California and talk about pro-choice.

I am not surprised that only 15% of people between the ages of 18 and 25 vote because we have not given them a reason to vote, and we are going to give them a reason to vote now.

I was Governor for so long that I got to serve through not one but two Bush recessions. And in Vermont, I was very proud to balance the budget. We balanced the budget; we set money aside in a “rainy-day fund”; we paid down almost a quarter of our debt. The reason that is important is because it is hard to fund social justice without a balanced budget, which is why this President doesn’t have one.

In our state, our budget is still balanced and we are not cutting higher education, we are not cutting K-12, and we are not cutting health care for kids. That’s what we need in this country. I am a Governor, and I have done it.

In our state, everybody under the age of 18 has health insurance. We have made Medicaid into a middle-class entitlement. If you make $52,000 a year or less in Vermont, everybody under 18 in your family is entitled to Medicaid. We charge if you are at the upper-end of that: We charge $50 a month that insures everybody in your family under the age of 18. Now, if we can do that in a small rural state which is 26th in income in the entire country, surely the most wealthy and powerful society on the face of the earth can grant all of its citizens health care. I am a Governor, and I am a doctor, and I have done it.

In Vermont, we have conserved hundreds of thousands of acres that will never be developed. And I might add that they’re never going to be drilled on either. If I get to be President, I will protect California as well as Florida.

Let me tell you something else. One of Bill Clinton’s greatest legacies to this country was the promise he kept to make his cabinet look like America. I thought one of the lowest moments of this President’s presidency was about five weeks ago when he used the word “quota” five times on national television on the evening news. The University of Michigan does not now and never has had a quota system and the President knows it.

We need affirmative action in this country, and we ought to stand up and say so and be proud of it as a society. California is a precursor for the rest of this country. You have five big minorities and lots of small minorities. In alphabetical order, you have African Americans, Anglos, Asian Americans, Latinos, and Native Americans. Soon, all of America is going to look like California. And when it does, I want to make sure that every American is included in the very best institutions that we have in this country. As a nation we either admit that we are all together or we will be divided as the Republicans have divided us since 1968 under Richard Nixon’s Southern Strategy.

I don’t want to be divided any more by race; I don’t want to be divided any more by gender; and I don’t want to be divided any more by sexual orientation.

Senator Kerry was reported to have said that he could win without the South. I don’t want to win without the South. I want to go to the South, and I’m going to say to white guys that drive pick-up trucks with Confederate flag decals on the back of their car, “We want your vote too, because your kids don’t have health insurance either.”

I want to end on a personal note. Three years ago next month I signed a bill into law called the Civil Unions bill, which gives gay and lesbian Vermonters the same rights I have: visitations for their significant other in the hospital, inheritance rights, and insurance rights. Vermont clearly is a place where every American is equal in the eyes of the law.

I want the President of the United States to explain to all Americans why he doesn’t believe that all Americans should be equal under the law. I signed that bill six months before an election when it was at 35% in the polls. I never had a conversation with myself about whether or not I would sign the bill because I knew that if I was willing to sell out the hopes and dreams of a significant portion of our people, then I had wasted my life in public service.

I have never lost an election, but my career has never been about winning elections. My career — and this campaign — is about changing the Democratic Party. It’s about changing America. And this campaign is about taking back the White House so we can have health insurance, so we can have a balanced budget, and so we can have an inclusive society where everybody believes in each other and believes in America.

I want the opportunity to work with extraordinary people in California. I will work with California instead of against you. I will work with Nancy Pelosi. I will work with Diane Feinstein. I will work with Gray Davis. I will work Herb Wesson. I will work with Jon Burton. And I’ll sure work with another Democratic from the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party, Barbara Boxer.

We are not going to beat George Bush by voting with the President 85 percent of the time. The only way that we’re going to beat George Bush is to say what we mean, to stand up for who we are, to lift up a Democratic agenda against the Republican agenda because if you do that, the Democratic agenda wins every time.

I want my country back! We want our country back! I am tired of being divided! I don’t want to listen to the fundamentalist preachers anymore! I want America to look like America, where we are all included, hand in hand. We have dream. We can only reach the dream if we are all together - black and white, gay and straight, man and woman. America! The Democratic Party! We are going to win in 2004! Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Stand up for America, Stand up for America, Stand up for America!!

He wasn’t able to stop the war or win the presidency, but by the time Howard was done speaking, he had made it impossible for any of the war mongers to win the Democratic nomination for president in 2004. If that was the only thing he’d done, it would still be enough to earn him my respect.

I didn’t.

LOL! Last thread too… Sander is a dam?

Back from voting. What a farce. In this high income neighborhood on the East Side of Manhattan, voting is surely the stepchild of democracy, enough to turn off most anyone. The old lever machine for my district was broken. That’s 1/4 of the machines for the four districts voting in that location. Two poll workers were talking where voters would cue up, thus blocking the process. It took another poll worker about 2 minutes to find my name in the alphabetical listing so I could sign in (it looked liked she turned every page in the Bs before getting to the Cs, then somehow went to far in the Cs and had to page back). The paper ballot on top of the pile had a large rip in it, so I asked for one that wasn’t torn. After filling out the bubble, it was folded and put in a cardboard box with a slot on top. How secure is that? And can an optical scanner read a paper ballot that has been folded? I have my doubts.

LHP sez that NYS wants the best voting system. I guess she has never visited my district.

Answering a question of yours from yesterday. Many people were having huge problems at TPM. (still today the system logs you out at times even if you appear to be logged in… save anything you want to post… or it may become a victim of karma)

lol, my spelling/grammar matches sanders mood ;)

Thanks for digging this one up. Too bad Dean had to scream that night…

attaturk, I think we can do something here

colon Powell is supremely embarrassed, his spouse is supremely disappointed, his children, the children of his children will have to live with his shame

I think we need to get posts like this one over to him and I think we need to make them even more succinct

Powell still has the power to get these criminals thrown in jail, he still can reclaim some of his integrity

he can still voluntarily appear before congress, by surprise, by secret council so there won’t be time to declare states secrets

and even if state secrets are declared, he needs to make testimony in spite of it

we CAN bring these criminals to the bar of justice, all it will take is for colon Powell to realize he can still be a patriot

if he does not, he will be regarded as a traitor to this country and her constitution

that can be the lead or something similar to a host of blogs;

“colon Powell, a traitor to this country and her constitution”

we can site the references from his chief of staff, from his wife, from his own statements

we can demonstrate he HAD to know his testimony was a lie

he even said so, he even told us why he didn’t present those “aluminum tubes of mass destruction”, he said “it was the weakest part of the pitch”

then he goes in front of the world and uses his reputation for integrity to demonstrate data he knows as a fact is weak

Thanks for the memories…..♪♪♪

How he looks in the mirror is amazing.

Yes, that is the problem, isn’t it? I think that is where I was coming from in my earlier point. Any normal person would be so haunted by both of his atrocious acts that some sort of public contrition would be necessary. That he doesn’t speaks volumes, but optimist that I am, I will give him some time after Bush is out of office to come out before I give up all hope on his humanity.

Thanks. I eventually got on without rebooting. Seems to be OK for me today.

“public contrition”

We need a lot of that!

Damn that is awfully sad. That we cannot get an efficient, universally acceptable and secure voting system in this country is only the result of a lack of will.

Main site better. Cafe still a problem. Glad you’re doing ok there.

in this high income neighborhood on the East Side of Manhattan,

My own neighborhood in Minneapolis, the Warehouse District loft area, is yuppified and somewhat artsy, so I suspect Obama will carry the neighborhood caucus. I suspect the Upper East Side will be split between Hill and Obama…

“political will”

Morning Attaturk ‘n pups,
tjbs: been not spending for a while. bluejeansntshirt is not just my pseudonym but my one man movement. wear em every day to show em who we are.
all are welcome to join (no membership fees). no logos allowed on the tshirt though. turn the tshirt inside out if it has a logo. it’s cooler that way. peace now, double damn it!

You got it. Voting technology is not rocket science.

Speaking of which: nostalgia story from early childhood. We lived across the street from a small triangular shaped park. The voting booth, a life-size Monopoly-style building, was brought in & placed there a day or two before voting day. When I was very young, the trailer with the booth on it was still pulled by horses.

Problems in the toobz.
My 45 was in response to SanderO @ 35.

does anyone think edwards would take the vp spot?

does anyone think hillary will?

of both will accept, who gets the nod?

I don’t think hillary is the women getter she is supposed to be, I think edwards and oboma is a better ticket for getting votes

Yep that is what I meant. My excuse? I have been shoveling snow and I fuc**ng hate it.

No stationary signs anywhere nearby. There were two young forlorn looking people holding Obama signs.

I have been enjoying spring weather for the better part of this winter here in lawn guy land new york

lol! understand completely, living in the snowbelt.

BTW, all the D candidates were still on the NYS ballot.

Iirc, there was a very poor sound system which distorted his voice and made it sound worse.
:(

does anyone think edwards would take the vp spot?

Yes,and I hope he will

does anyone think hillary will?

Oh gosh I hope not. Can you imagine bigbill as semi first man?

If wither of them are sincere about helping their country and they believe that they can ensure a victory as VP and that they can have a bog voice in the executive, a al Cheney, then they should take the offer of VP if it is made. Act like a grown up and not a grown ego.

does anyone think hillary will?

And let me add that putting the word “vice” anywhere near bigbill would not be a goodidea.

Can you imagine bigbill as semi firstvice man?

Fixed it for you.

Before My Lai there was the Tet Offensive. This is the 40th anniversary of North Viet Nam’s drive to destabilize and seize control of the South Vietnamese government. I don’t know where Colin Powell was in early 1968 but I remember a Viet Cong guerrilla whose body lay in the middle of an intersection in the Cholon district of Saigon for days. Charlie was shooting up the whole place and no one was willing to get shot by a sniper to remove the body. It was a time when if you saw the sun come up it meant you had survived another day. I still sleep better during the day than at night.

At one time Colin Powell was the most respected African-American in the country. Now? I wouldn’t piss on him if he was on fire.

I don’t think Hillary would be asked in the first place, and I don’t think she should. She’s secure in her leading role in the Senate anyway.

I’m there! I gotta go with the baggy khakis tho.

Good thread, Ataturk.

That little shot of Powell, should have a caption:

“Folk, I have here in my hand an exquisite concoction of Dr. bush’s hair-grower and orgasm-enhancer. If I told you the secret ingredients, I’d have to kill you, but, I’m such an honest snake-oil-and-body-parts-salesman, that I’m going to ‘fess up and tell you that me’n the chefs at Langley, Virginia labored long and hard to get just the right mix of koolaid and bullshit, so that we could save the universe (not to mention, Halliburton and Bechtel, with Blackwater bringing up the rear…) and make available to you good, peace-loving, ‘murkans, this remedy.

Y’all step right up and get in line. No pushing and shoving, I’ve got plenty for all of you.”

But, firecurs, I’ve got to tell you, if Sen. Clinton pulls out a win today, you better enjoy reading Ataturk’s good thoughts piece on this, because if we’re brain-dead enough to nominate her, in the general, you won’t be seeing or hearing a FUCKING word of it, from the Clinton camp.

I beleive one of the very first things the next president should do is demote the office back to doing press conferances and funerals

You’re right… might have been obvious to people in the room. But a lot of people who saw the video didn’t know that. Perception is all…

I would save Edwards for A.G. what a rat terrier,what a wealth of idiots to go after.

Q: What is so rare as a day in June?
A: A plain white T-shirt with nothing written on it.

I think whoever is pres next better pick a good VP cause impeachment will on the R agenda.

I beleive one of the very first things the next president should do is demote the office back to doing press conferances and funerals

And where are the questions to the two candidates we have been given about rolling back the unconstitutional “powers” that bushco has usurped?

the Cholon district of Saigon

Ah ah. The setting for most of the scenes of Marguerite Duras’s L’Amant (The Lover)…both novel and film.

Perhaps, but a sharing of power may not be a bad thing either.

The executive a la Bush had way too much power and that was after the others who grabbed too much.

Good morning firedogs.

OT: Good news this morning.

Going up to read.

OK. but only if they come in blue. ;o)

Attaturk…

man, you are right about that

I think if Hillary wins she will have inoculated herself if she had Obama as VP because the repubs couldn’t stand putting a black man in office

and if Obama wins then the same thing would be true, they couldn’t stand the idea of putting either a women or THAT women in office

on thing great this president actually did;

he made it possible for a women and a black man to actually be elected to the office, he has enraged so many people, they will over come their misogyny and there bigotry

Nomolos@63: I think Edwards would consider the VP spot from Obama. I hope not, from Hillary.

I’d rather see him as A.G. That would be a natural, to me. :o)

But I don’t understand why he didn’t endorse Obama yesterday, when it would have counted most. And when it would have been most valuable, for him.

And I don’t understand why he hasn’t, at the least, put a stop to all this write-in nonsense. The reasoning of, seemingly, a LOT of frustrated Edwards supporters, is “Let’s pad John’s delegate count for the convention”

It’s crazy. If Clinton wins a clear victory today, she can waltz into Denver and wipe her ass with Edwards’ little delegate stash.

Edwards NOT endorsing Obama was a huge plus for her. Same thing with Gore. They had a chance to pick the next president, now they may wind up rubber-stamping another cliff-hanging defeatsnatch.

No sense to it.

As a veteran, the memory of Powell’s performance causes extreme anger whenever I think of it. I can play still play back the visual in my mind. It marks the day that he betrayed everything his uniform and his military service ever stood for. Most of all, he betrayed hundreds of thousands of men and women in uniform - past, present and futurNot to mention the rest of this country’s citizens.

Powell deserves nothing but contempt for the rest of his life. [edited by mod]

[Mod Note; In the comments here at FDL, please do not suggest actions violence or harm on anyone, including public officials. Thank you.]

We’d skirt Cholon on our way to the Phu Tho Race Track to wait for the ARVN to sweep the road before we hauled ass through the Delta.

good points all around.

And the bitch is, I bought it becuase I trusted someone who had seen the waste in the Nam. I’ll never fucking learn.

Peace symbols are OK. wow starting a movement is tougher than i realized.
A plain red, white or blue (my fave) t-shirt would look great in big numbers.

I’m with you on the first paragraph, but not the second.

If Powell had an ounce of self-respect remaining, he’d call out the Bush Administration for the manipulative, arrogant, and (insert additional perjorative adjectives here) folks that they are. He’d be on the Sunday talk shows, on the radio, writing op-eds, and maybe even appearing on various blogs.

If he had an ounce of self-respect remaining, he’d spend it trying to make up for the damage he helped BushCo inflict. Instead . . .

*crickets*

For me, as you know, it’s a black turtleneck & blue jeans.

I read somewhere that Edwards said he would not take that slot again.

I’m hoping he’s in charge of fighting insurance companies for Health Care!

how about just no logos. We’ll never agree on anything else :)

If Powell had an ounce of self-respect remaining

Whatever made you think he had an ounce of self-respect to begin with?

And for whoever said his ignominy is on his children & grandchildren, I might remind that at least one of his children is trying hard to outdo his father.

BTW, it was my army major efriend who initially put me onto Powell’s My Lai coverup. There are plenty in the army for whom Powell is anathema.

Peace symbols are OK.

☮ ☮ ☮

Good morning pups! Excited about Super Tuesday! Only registered a few days ago, have to find out where to vote.

Will your vote count more where you moved to than where you left? You could have voted absentee in your old location, n’est pas?

If a bullfrog had wings he wouldn’t bump his ass when he hopped.

You’re so hip, (wo)man. And, I mean that in a nice way.
ps - the 14 year old is not happy about getting up at 6, ’cause we gotta leave early to go, you know…vote!
He’ll get over it. I’ll stop and get him some take-out breakfast.
Woo Hoo. I always get excited about this ritual.

I’ll be in the plain white tshirt.

yesterday Hartmann had spokes persons on for H and O. Evan Bayh for Hill and Kerry for Obama. Says a lot to me.

Zogby on C-SPAN. Ron Paul supporter sez he’ll vote D if Ron Paul is not on the ticket on account of war. Zogby sez he hears that a lot.

Welcome to California.
Here’s a link: http://web.info.com/infocom.us.....kw=Polling

Day One: note to self ease up on the uniform requirements.

LOL. First (and last?) time anyone called my hip. I’ll cherish it.

That really was a great speech

You may have to reregister as a R if you want people to wear uniforms.

But you ARE. I’ll remind you from time to time.
The least I can do, for all You do.

lol, yeah, that is what i like about being in a dis-organized political party.