St. McCain is increasingly annoyed that his "100 Years In Iraq" pledge is predictably biting him in the ass.
Responding to Obama’s frequent mocking of McCain’s suggestion that U.S. troops might remain in Iraq for 100 years, the Republican nominee-in-waiting said the Illinois senator failed to understand that America has kept forces in Korea, Japan, Germany and Kuwait long after wars in each country ended.
"In all due respect, it displays a fundamental misunderstanding of history, of how we’ve maintained national security, and what we need to do in the future to maintain our security in the face of the transcendent challenge of radical Islamic extremism," McCain told reporters on his campaign plane.
Someone who favorably compares Iraq — three religiously and culturally distinct countries crammed into one by British after World War I — with the ethnically, culturally and largely religiously united societies of Germany and Japan, displays a fundamental misunderstanding of history.
Someone who favorably compares the United States’ peaceful occupation of Germany and Japan, neither of which were resulting in American casualties 5 years after our arrival, displays a fundamental misunderstanding of history.
Someone who asserts that occupying Iraq for 100 years is the solution to "radical Islamic extremism" displays a fundamental misunderstanding of history.
Someone who is so objectively wrong about so much — and is clearly confused about the present (above) — probably shouldn’t be lecturing anyone else on their supposed historical ignorance.
But look, if St. McCain really thinks that comparing Iraq to Germany is really going to make people suddenly love the disastrous occupation of Iraq and happily accept another few trillion dollars and several thousand more American casualties, he’s in for a serious beatdown in November. So knock yourself out trying to make that sale, St. McCain.
Related posts:
- Sunday Late Night: Iron Lady Feared One Germany
- In Iraq, As in So Many Contexts, Withdrawal is Victory
- FDL Book Salon Welcomes Dahr Jamail, The Will to Resist: Soldiers Who Refuse to Fight in Iraq and Afghanistan
- Frank Rich: McCain Was Wrong On Everything. CNN Treats Him As Sage
- Get a Grip, Wingnuts: John McCain Obsessively Quotes Mao Zedong
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what an ass
McCain is a damned fool, but at least he’s their damned fool.
You know what I don’t get? Why McCain thinks staying for “100 years” is a PLUS for him. What is the polling against the war – over 70% opposed?
I’d never vote for the lying, unethical warmonger anyway, but he thinks people want to stay there for 100 years?
Yep, McCain conveniently leaves out how we get from the current state of affairs in Iraq to the peaceful presence of a few troops (like in Germany and Japan) he claims to be seeking. Just can’t happen.
And, by the way, it seems to me that the best answer to the “transcendent challenge of radical Islamic extremism” is to stop poking hornet’s nests with sticks.
The Bush family likes comparing Iraq to Germany. They got richer from the former and are getting richer from the latter.
Perhaps it’s worth noting that American troops are far from having been in Korea, Germany, or Japan for a hundred years, either.
Rummy said that most insurgent insurrections last about 10 years- that means that we’re about half way through with Iraq (in the unlikely event that Rummy was right.)
“In other words, you have the choice of making these facts clear to your people, of giving them a broader perspective than they formerly had. I believe that if you look back on the war’s development so far, you will conclude: “We have chosen the better side. Things could not continue as they were. That would have been possible only by holding Germany down, which is unthinkable.”
Today you have the opportunity of accepting all the advantages that the German Reich has to offer. You have our protection. No one can attack you. You have the opportunity to tell all of Germany of your virtues. You have the opportunity to send your music to Germany, your films, your literature, your press, your radio. You know that the German people have a great interest in culture. We cannot and do not want to change that. We are not dictators, but rather instruments of the will of our people.
As I said, we offer you cooperation. I have offered you here a foundation for understanding. We do not ask anything dishonorable of you, or that you become parvenus or lackeys, or whatever.
That gives no pleasure in the long run. But I do not believe that it is asking too much that, in this dramatic moment in European history that will lead to new forms of human community, we come to an understanding about these matters, to create clarity and decide if we will be friends or foes.
We want to know if we are friends of foes of another people’s intelligentsia. Over the past few years, we have proven our abilities as enemies. If you display a positive and active loyalty, you will see what kind of friends we can be. Friendship between the German and Czech peoples will result.
My task today has been to make that clear to you. I believe we could work together, and that we will. I am firmly convinced that if you are willing to show loyalty, you will do us and your Czech people a big favor. One cannot go by what people say today. The average man does not see very far. The task of the intelligentsia is to help him see further, to help him imagine things that will be. The role of the intelligentsia is to open the way to coming events, not be blind servants of the present.
I therefore urge you to speak of these matters to the Czech people. If we did it, the Czech people would not believe us. We are National Socialists, and they might think we were speaking egotistically, even though our only goal is to establish clear relations between two peoples who have to get along with each other. You live there, we live here. Only a vast natural catastrophe that destroyed our people could change the present situation. Since that is not likely, we will have to get along. Whether we like each other or not is irrelevant. What is relevant is that we want to give the millions of Europe a common basis and a common ideal. England has until now resisted this ideal. England has attempted to keep Europe in disorder, since it saw that as the best defense of its island existence. But it is falling under the gigantic blows of our army. Once it falls, we will have the chance to bring peace to Europe. You are warmly invited to join us.”
Goebbels
http://www.calvin.edu/academic/cas/gpa/goeb31.htm
Rummy isn’t too bright, or he’d notice that arithmetic means are affected by outliers.
Where does he think he would get the troops to stay 100 years? There are going to be fewer and fewer people willing to go into the military since they have seen how the troops are being treated now.
McCain = DRAFT
No, it’s to smash the hornet’s nest over and over until the pony appears.
I was going to post this in EPUlandia downstairs but then I saw BT was making an excellent point!
I think the back-room GOP bigwigs know that McCain is just an old man whose time came and went eight years ago. They gambled and picked the wrong telegenic candidate-W. Now that the GOP brand is destroyed they have no one to turn to but McCain.
As long as McCain keeps publicly fucking up on the war and the economy (the only two issues that will really matter in the general), the Republican money brokers will continue to hold back the big bucks. No one bets on a lame horse.
In the meantime, McCain continues to give the Dems fodder with which to grind him up in the general.
http://www.crooksandliars.com/…..icy-gaffe/
It’s simply unimaginable to me that St. John can get more than 45% of the vote in the November. And coattails? Anybody really think he can convince the electorate to vote more Republicans into the House and Senate?
Have the Koreans the Germans or the Japanese been asking us to just leave for the last three years? If they did would we go, I wonder?
Can’t we please get a few medical specialists to diagnose him over the tv? Isn’t it time we have a mental test for anyone that wants office? This guy didn’t wear makeup yesterday and he looks like he is about to die. His skin would have made WC Fields think he had missed a few cocktails and needed to catch up in a hurry. WC would be ashamed that someone else could look more drunk than he.
Then let’s get the shrinkers involved because there is enough video to create a sitcom. I would like to suggest a title like, “what will John say next?”
Is anyone else disturbed at his continual comparison of Iraq with Germany and Korea?
By the time Clusterfuck leaves office- the war in Iraq will have been with us for six years- if it’s gonna die a slow death after 10 on it’s own momentum- that makes the odds good for a candidate who promises a secret plan to “end it in my first term”.
I’m disturbed any time a transparently invalid analogy is passed off as God’s truth. Which means that I’m disturbed by Republicans quite often.
He thinks it’s fine to stay in Iraq for 100 years AS LONG AS American troops aren’t the ones getting killed.
That’s just great.
I would be happy to have an al Qaeda safehouse next door to me AS LONG AS all they were doing was holding bake sales for youth football and running the Neighborhood Watch.
I Can Haz Seeryus Forn Polsy Xprt Baj Now?
Whenever I debate my Republican brother I ask him why, if Obama’s the foreign-policy naif, he espouses all the positions that people who actually know what they’re talking about in the region hold, and Serious Expert McCain’s “ideas” are the property of Cheetos-flecked bloggers?
He can never answer that.
Hi, EDP, how are you?
“Where do we get the troops?” — We’re going to procreate them there.
Didn’t you catch the article about married soldiers living together in IRaq yesterday?
Very cute, his and her M16’s under the bed. It’s just like life in a West Bank settlement.
Disturbed? Only because I think it is inaccurate. I think far more valid comparisons are the Americans in the Phillipines, France in Algeria and Vietnam, and America in Vietnam.
Of course the Germans, Japanese, and Koreans actually wanted us to be there (especially the Germans after what they did to the Russians and what the Russians were doing in the East).
The Iraqis, on the other hand, and somewhat understandably, want us gone.
Obama campaign’s view of St McCain:
Barack Obama doesn’t need any lectures from John McCain, who has consistently misunderstood American national security and the history of the Middle East in arguing for an invasion and 100-year occupation of a country that had nothing to do with 9/11. Instead of spending trillions of dollars on permanent bases that the Iraqis don’t want and that won’t keep the American people safe, Barack Obama will end the war in Iraq and finally press Iraq’s leaders to take responsibility for their future.
Never have so many been so wrong about so much.
Bush’s third term??
I don’t think so.
Hadn’t thought of that. “Grow your own Army”. It would appeal to the wingnuts.
Back from Vancouver with a bad cold and a serious case of post-conference letdown. It was a good conference for me, lots of meals with colleagues, and the session I co-organized went very well indeed. Now I’m at a bit of a loss for a way to continue that momentum.
I like the comparison rather to the US, who have been besieged by leaders who at first had the support of the people, but who have been subjected (just like the Germans) to endless war, loss of civil liberties, corporate control and a destroyed economy…hoping to be liberated by another “party” that will remain for 100 years and never, ever allow this to happen in this country again. JMHO
I’m getting a dog because I need some momentum. Maybe you should, too.
A history teacher friend of mine recently said,
“The most experienced person to ever become President was Richard Nixon. The least experienced was Abraham Lincoln. It’s not experience-it’s character and judgement.”
I thought this made a lot of sense.
I wonder why there’s no Bush family members serving in Bush’s war?
Yep, that and the fact that we promised to rebuild their countries…a promise we actually kept.
In Iraq, it’s pretty clear to everyone we’re just there for the oil.
It is just like Korea, Germany, and Japan, just with more explosions, oh and then there is the civil war, but aside from that it is exactly like them.
Dugg it….
LOL
Cowards and elitists. They are the great thinkers and we are the ones who do the fighting – right? /s
gw has screwd the repug party. hehehe
Yeah, but he never says how long he’s willing to let Americans get killed. And if asked he’ll say “when the job is done” which gets you right back to 100 years.
Exactly. This speaks volumes about who he is as a person. He defines himself through war (military service) and it (military) is what has formed him/ created him (for better or worse). The fact that he can easily juxtapose Germany, korea and IrAQ demonstrates his failure to distinguish the causes of these various wars, why they were fought, etc. as opposed to a simplistic good guys vs bad guys
Yeah. You’d think a party so f’d up would be less dangerous, somehow.
My grandfather served in both WW I and the Philipines before that. He told us the Philipines was much scarier, as you didn’t know who the enemy was.
Here’s the damn deal
President GW Clusterfuck has managed to get the US of A in the middle of a civil war- both sides are attacking us- and we are arming both sides…..
Took a genius like Paetraus to figure out this stratergy….
Brilliant!
If people keep resigning to spend more time with their families, Bush is going to have to turn out the lights himself in January. I can’t wait to see that moving van in front of the WH.
Exactly.
His fairytale is that either the troops will kill every single Iraqi that wants to kill them and then the remainder of the Iraqis will embrace American occupation/presence forever…or that the Iraqis will suddenly or gradually decide that occupation/presence forever is inevitable and give up and stop killing Americans…or that..or that…
McCain is stupid. It ain’t reality and it ain’t ever gonna happen, which is why if America stays in Iraq, there will be violence and killing and war forever.
Get the hook and haul this loonybin off the stage…please.
Too bad it won’t be flag-draped.
inresonse to kemo he will out sourse the job to private security firms like black water
You and Blue Texan are both right. Apparently 99 years of killing and one year of peace is good enough for McCain. Not that that would happen either.
The key to dealing with any of this bunch is to make them repeat their answers over and over until they put some actual nouns and verbs in them.
Reminiscent of one of Reagan’s famous comments of ‘you’ve seen one giant Redwood, you’ve seen them all’
In reality I’m convinced that McCain represents a leadership element that knows more about the economy than it knows about Iraq or her neighbors and the realities of war and occupation.
I’m trying to figure out how to measure negative knowledge….
it’s just bizarre. do they figure no one is listening to mcsame and that’s why they’re letting him be a crazy? are they hoping he’ll melt down before convention and they can replace him w/ someone else? are they trying to innoculate us against reason so we continue to be used to having leaders who are just loons?
mcsame is certainly not in charge of himself. so, why are the handlers letting him act like this?
I think accomplishments DO reflect character and judgement. Experience is not necessarily related to accomplishments … and also, besides character and judgement– sanity would be a nice change!
McCain needs to stop seeing everything in terms of his Vietnam experience, it clouds his judgement
In 1902, Republican Senator George Hoar gave a speech excoriating the imperialists, especially for US military conduct in the Philippines…A while back, I went through excerpts of the speech, and updated it for Iraq. 106 years ago-and it could have been given yesterday.
Wrong Then, Wrong Now…
FWIW.
And note — we withdrew from Vietnam and the world didn’t end.
IIRC, at the times we’ve suggested leaving Germany and Japan, the Germans and the Japanese strenuously objected. Why? Because when we spend our money, our youth, our arms, our military expertise and installations in their territory, they don’t have to. They seem to be quite content to continue the relationship wherein we are there to provide for their defense for as long as possible. Given that we are now short of troops and arms and military installations, I doubt they could pay us enough to make up for the shortfall. Wonder if McCain has thought about those consequences?
Not so easy.
I vote for
Well, yeah. That’s a whole other issue, and unfortunately, neither Obama or Clinton would advocate withdrawing troops from Germany or Japan either.
for the rest of us, I’m not so sure about McCain
Heh…
i know, Lincoln was a depressive, goodness knows what sort’ve pathologies nixon had and Dubya has … maybe we should require psychologists to certify them fit to serve before we give them the football
If McSame had studied at Annapolis, he might have picked up a bit of history there. He brags about being in the bottom about 10% of his class. It sounds macho not to be a student, and that seems to be the point of whatever he says.
That’s the drill anyway. Its what they say their goal is. I think Dubya might be stupid enough to believe it. I don’t know if McCain does. McCain, like Dubya, certainly wants to keep fattening the wallets (while draining the treasury) of the MIC including all the private subcontractors.
Even a 6th grader can figure out the logistics. When a mother, child, father, or other gets maimed or killed, the doer becomes a sworn enemy.
Don’t forget that we’re also paying both sides, RW. Heaven forbid we should forget to pay them both.
Based upon McLame’s own recorded remarks, he clearly does not understand the Iraq situation at all. It’s really that simple. He is relating many other past conflicts as a measurement of what is going on and what should be done in Iraq to something that is completely and utterly different, rather than looking at the reality in Iraq, understanding it, and having the good judgment to solve the problem. He is not capable of that. He is not fit to lead this or any other country. He’s a stupid, stubborn, bonehead. This isn’t Germany, or Japan in the wake of WWII…this is Iraq…now…2008. Hellooo…
From your list, no need for psychologists. Just stop putting Republics in office.
Americans got paid $400 to vote for Dubya. We’re getting $600 to vote for McCain.
McVain surely recognizes that the “artificial” country of Iraq created by our bestest friends and allies The Brits is just one of many successes they had as the sun set on their Empire… Palestine, The Indian Raj, Pakistan, Hong Kong (probably the most successful), Bangladesh. Hell, there isn’t much of that part of the world that the Brits and their corporate armies did not fuck up as they left.
Maybe McVain ought to be running as the candidate of the East India Trading company on a “Keep the Brown Man Down” platform. He’s all but saying it now, why not just embrace the suck Senator. You know you want to…
IIRC, didn’t France correctly perceive that after defending Western Europe from the USSR, the main purpose of NATO was to dominate the local economies of the host nations? Thus, they developed their own nuclear weapon, and told NATO-at least the military wing-to take a hike.
Late to the thread and didn’t read the commments.
I saw the comment made on some plane. McCain needs to be asked exactly why do we have military forces in Japan or Germany? What are the local threats that require we base forces there?
He’s a jerk.
And that policy of bases around the world is stupid and wasteful. Shut them down.
isn’t there some guy that has proven that conservatism is a mental disease?
McCain didn’t mean that the war will last 100 years. He meant that when he’s a hundred years old, the war will still be going on. That’s like next year.
This constant blabber by elitist liberals about McCain’s education is going to bite you in the ass.
One minor difference: hostilities seized for the mostpart within weeks of the US/allies going into those countries. Here we are 5 years later and hostilities are rampant (even with the surge).
Zero works for me
On the other hand, the old adage that unfortunately there is a limit to genius but no limit to stupid, also works for me.
The most bothersome part is the room full of bobbling heads nodding to every inane comment or argument he makes.
for kirk and all – completely OT.
starhawk has a piece in the wapo’s “on faith” section that i hope many will read, “Denied Entry Into Israel“
i don’t consider myself a pagan, but i’ve participated in two actions organized by and with starhawk and have the greatest respect for her as an activist, a writer and as a visionary.
In Florida, they’re closing down schools. Keeping the bases, building prisons, and closing public schools. Its a Republican meme.
Not really off topic, but, is Bush trying to restart the Cold War? I figure that Cheney and his pals, and McCain would surely fit in this mold, are so stuck in their ways that the only war they know how to fight is the cold war. So rather than just deal with the War in Iraq, they’d rather just relight the war with Russia.
Yes, why doesn’t someone ask him about Iran’s role in cease-fire? They will probably not dare because it will be akin to saying the emperor has no clothes.
blue, I sincerely hope the obama staff reads here at the lake and gives him this bit verbatum, I am kind of certain you would not mind it if he lifted that from you
excellant
Actually Sander I can give you one really good reason for those bases, they are the only chance that millions of Americans ever have to be part of a culture that is outside their experience. Silly as it sounds, more soldiers, sailors, airmen and Marines get to learn something about another country that way than any other.
Some of the bases do have legitimate security purposes or logistial missions, and are worth keeping. Certainly not in the numbers that we had in the Cold War, but some need to be there.
My 2-cents.
Well, what I’d like to know is, what happens if there is an incident somewhere in the world anytime soon. Even in Iran, where do we get the soldiers to deal with it? How does Bush or McBush or Darth Cheney get off talking up the virtues of war with Iran when we’re already overextended in Iraq and Afghanistan, and also Pakistan is on the verge of an explosion, India may take advantage of the current unrest in Pakistan at any time and we have our remaining troops tied up in Germany, Japan, Korea, et al. And on top of it all, much of our armaments have been used up and burned out in the current two wars we’ve spent the last five years fighting unnecessarily. And, BTW, has anyone counted or kept track of the number of older, saner Generals and Admirals that have resigned in protest over the last two years? I wonder if Fallon will go public?
Amen
i have a friend who lives in central florida – she decided to home school her kids because the schools were so bad.
Well, it depends where one stands. Wasteful? Certainly, although the artificial stimulus created by a wartime economy in peacetime has been a constant economic stimulus, as weapons of war need to be constantly updated and replaced…stupid? Not if your intention is to dominate the world, or as much of it as you can.
I have wondered that exact same thing. It was their most glorious hour… a test of wills fought by old draft-dodging 4-F men using the bodies of those able to perform the mission.
Especially since he graduated in 1958. Fifty years ago!
Dakinidat, I don’t really think we need a psychologist or psychiatrist to tell us that anyone that wants to be President in 2008 is certifiably nuts!
Not at all, but Barry’s got game. I’m sure he can come up with an even better riff. Thanks though.
Very few middle of the road schools here. Really good, and really bad. Jeb’s tax cuts have really hit hard in the last two years, and the schools are now generally getting worse.
Eerie how that resonates. Although, I’m afraid it’s too late for the last paragraph to hold much hope:
As it probably was in 1902, at least in the short term.
‘Well, what I’d like to know is, what happens if there is an incident somewhere in the world anytime soon. Even in Iran, where do we get the soldiers to deal with it? How does Bush or McBush or Darth Cheney get off talking up the virtues of war with Iran when we’re already overextended in Iraq and Afghanistan, and also Pakistan is on the verge of an explosion, India may take advantage of the current unrest in Pakistan at any time and we have our remaining troops tied up in Germany, Japan, Korea, et al. And on top of it all, much of our armaments have been used up and burned out in the current two wars we’ve spent the last five years fighting unnecessarily…”
_________
Bombs. We will have to resort to mass-scale remote killing, ‘cuz we’re not gonna be able to take and hold ground.
From our own Treasury, right? Good catch!
Christ, those guys were good. It’s chilling to re-read them in the light of your typical Rethug talking head’s spew. The rhetoric is carefully framed to make anyone who opposes them seem like a paranoid nut. It leaves a lot of emotional escape hatches for those who preferred to remain in denial. Rove learned is trade from the master.
At least they ain’t leavin no dumb ass children behind!
I would agree.
I would also like to say that wrt “Islamic extremism” one needs to look at the root causes and our massive contribution to same.
Did he not eschew Falwell et al until he embraced Hagee & Falwell?
(he probably reveres Gen. Boykin and his ilk, and always has.)
Ha?
We keep bases so enlisted soldiers can be exposed to other cultures? Gimme a break. We could sponsor trips for citizens at 1/100 the cost!
We don’t need logistical support for our missions because we don’t HAVE any missions that are legitimate.
Didn’t we just order 500MM$ for tankers so we can do long range “operations” I mean bombing???
or, instead of all those bases and mcbush’s war, here’s something else (in addition to schools) we could spend the money on:
John McCain just said that he’s really only 68.
In dog years.
The third that runs the AMA, doubtless.
April fools! He’s 71!
Big Pharma and the insurance lobby will continue to step on the airhose of this “socialist” idea.
I kind of get your point, but I’m reminded of that bumper sticker from a few years ago:
“Join the Army. Meet people from other cultures. And kill them.”
When caught fudging his age, reagan use to say they must have mixed the babies up in the hospital. such a joker!
Good one!
Whose babies? Reagan was a young man compared to McCain. McCain could be 80 after two terms.
McInane strains credulity.
And then the agenbite of inwit will be as real as the gluteal indentation.
John McCain just announced his plan to reinvigorate Public Broadcasting by bringing back the Lawrence Welk Show!
NCLB and failed schools: the good teachers move to the good schools. The failed schools continue to worsen. Good teachers don’t want to stay in a failed school.
NCLB was designed to take a wrecking ball to public education.
Yes but on the upside we can drive on privatized roads to privatized prisons holding those who could not afford privatized education.
Another reason he needs to eat more prunes.
Punaise, how great to find you here.
Just headed out, but logged back in to celebrate seeing you here.
Be well!
Off on the business of the Queen. See everyone later.
Oil companies argued today that they needed the $18 billion in government tax breaks because to give them up would damage their reputation for greed.
read about the 22 yrd old orthodox jew who got a $300MM defense contract. WOW this looks very weird.
http://majikthise.typepad.com/
We could draft some Quiverfulls! /s
McCain likes Iraq because it’s dusty, like his underwear.
Ron –
Mark Twain -
–Anti-Imperialist Homecoming, 1900
–The American Flag, 1901
those interested in old school flame wars can google – Twain responds to Kipling :D
cheers, Kirk! I crawled out from under a rock for April 1.
a rock?
i pictured you on a beach drinking mai tais
mai tai, swell!
alas, no. more like nose to the grindstone at my day job….
hey there.
I recently crawled out, too!
Y’all– I love/respect/like lots of old people, fat people, all kinds of people. I do not judge people on their appearance, their age, their background or their current circumstances.
I do not like McCain.
The Germany/Japan/Korea comparison is an RNC shoppe talking point. Bush repeatedly used it earlier. That McCain repeats it as often as he does illustrates a point Christy made in an earlier thread: McCain’s campaign is really a subset of an RNC-led campaign.
McCain would be a much harder ventriloquist’s dummy to control than Shrub, who’s never operated without strings. But he’s strikes me as manipulable by talented pros using different but complementary techniques. He hasn’t attracted three score and counting high-powered lobbyists to his campaign because he doesn’t burn the ribs at the barbie.
Like Bush, McBush is set in his ways, none to curious or informed, with too much to prove to have stable judgment or see through courtiers’ ways as often as necessary to maintain the kind of informed control reportedly maintained by Kennedy and Cheney (to different ends, and Kennedy officially was President).
But I agree that “100 years in Iraq”, and equating a failed state, riven by sectarian violence, with culturally homogenous nations – which were wholly internally at peace for the duration of those occupations – is political poison. So, Bring.It.On.
angie! long time no see. thought about you on St. Patrick’s Day.
ah, that’s too bad. well good luck with the grindstone, it is great to see you here whenever you can.
I think of you very often.
:Q
(I love my moniker)
I think it was Digby who called him The Klingon Candidate. Hell, even on Star Trek the guys who considered everything a threat to honor that must be settled by mortal combat were seen as tiresome and dangerous. And in that world, you really could get killed instantly by scary brown people!
thanks selise. March was Step 1 of a necessary self-imposed de-blogification program, with mixed results.
good thing about grindstones – sparks fly.
(I love my moniker)
all hail Angie O’Plasteigh!
sander0 at 115
thanks for that link, hmmmmm…..
(that site, they were hot on the trail of something last year, too, can’t remember what)
? – someday i hope to hear a report-back on that…
whatever is takes to make the sparks fly!
p.s. it is great to have angie back… makes the thought of a blog sabbatical less appealing.
punaise at 119 says-cheers, Kirk! I crawled out from under a rock for April 1.
to get some april ’fuel’?
to get some april ’fuel’?
jokers wiled!
? – someday i hope to hear a report-back on that…
not as drastic as it sounds – just needed to focus on work in these sketchy economic times. was devoting a tad too much time to thread-hopping .
blushing here… thanks to all of you.
(how can I thank you enough for keeping up the good ‘fight’ and maintaining my evanescant ’sanity’ lo these long 7 years?
In reference to the war in Iraq, the WaPoo’s Richard Cohen (or his editors) used a picture of Anne Frank and a cursory review of a revisionist book that argues we should not have fought World War Two, to refute the argument that we should not be fighting this war in Iraq.
That false comparison demeans Americans almost as much as it demeans the words and spirit of that remarkable girl we came to know only through her Diary. Which was also the lens through which many of us vicariously first came to grips with the horror of war. Mr. Cohen, have you no shame?
punaise -
yeah, i can relate to that!
angie – right back at you.
gotta go get some stuff done myself, hope to catch up with you both in the threads
“Someone who favorably compares Iraq — three religiously and culturally distinct countries crammed into one by British after World War I — with the ethnically, culturally and largely religiously united societies of Germany and Japan, displays a fundamental misunderstanding of history.”
Or a fundamental misunderstanding of reality.