Happy Independence Day, everyone. At the end of a week in which the voice of the Republican party called for a military coup against our government, a frequent guest on Fox News, to the nodding agreement of one of its house idiots, hoped for a terrorist attack of cataclysmic proportions*, and when a former Bush diplomat called for the bombing of Iran for the third time in less than two weeks, it's nice to know there's still a party that believes in democracy and constitutional government, wishes for safety of its people, and advocates restraint in foreign policy.
Let's hope that one party thus inclined is enough.
________________________
* I have to add: as inured as I may be to the crazy one hears on Fox News, this may be a new low. We need an attack, he says, to wake people up to demand our government keep us safe. In other words, the longer we go without an attack the more evidence there is that we're not being kept safe from an attack. Even for the RWS™, that's pretty jaw-dropping. (Of course, hearing Sarah Palin say that staying on her job would be weak, and quitting is strong is right up there, as Orwellian as it gets. As are the wild huzzahs from the rightosphere.) If it were ever clear how badly our country is being served by the extremes of the right, and how much better off we'd be with a credible opposition, it's now. We. The people. Are screwed!
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"Restraint in Foreign Policy"?????
ReplyDeleteTell that to the families of the 20,000 Marines who began Combat Operations in Afghanistan this week...Sounds almost like something the previous president did...what was it called??? Rhymes with "Purge".... Except it was a High War Crime when they did it...
Didn't know you were a Limbaugh listener... can't stand the guy myself... But thats how this country started, shootin a bunch of Snooty English who wanted to tax our Whiskey and Tea, like one of the founding father's said,,,
"A little Revolution every now and then is a good thing"
Frank
Hi Dr S -I am late putting my Independence day post up and just did and then I came over here and see we both had the same Idea with our pictures (yours is better-mine doesn't have signatures:)
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed hearing Palin again. My first impression was that she is gearing up to run for election in 2012... but I don't know. I hope nothing is wrong. One conservative expressed she was concerned that the other shoe was going to drop. Hope she's wrong.
Time will tell.
Happy July 4th to you and your family Dr S! :)
"a party that believes in democracy and constitutional government"
ReplyDeleteWell, it's not BO, now is it? A government run by czars unaccountable to Congress, and now this:
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/07/us-russian-arms-negotiators-under-the-gun-might-temporarily-bypass-senate-ratification-for-treaty.html
Who needs the Senate? The president can do it all by himself! Shred the Constitution! Long live King Obama!
Good one, BB. I guess you wrote this sort of stuff about Bush, too, huh? And, per usual, you have nothing to say about the specifics of my post. It's comments like yours that keep bringing me back, confirming my conclusions about the opposition, every time. Like, y'know, going off like a July 4 dud, ignoring the most important paragraph in your fizzle of an article:
ReplyDelete"The most ideal situation would be to finish it in time that it could be submitted to the Senate so that
it can be ratified," said White House Coordinator for Weapons of Mass Destruction, Security and Arms Control Gary Samore. "If we're not able to do that, we'll have to look at arrangements to continue some of the inspection provisions, keep them enforced in a provisional basis, while theSenate considers the treaty."
Stop the presses!!! Obama is being, uh, practical. Thoughtful. Careful. Trying to find a way to maintain important rules while the Senate gets around to it. Subtle stuff. Sorry if I hurt your head.
About that, you're outraged. By your silence, I assume you're just fine with calling for armed overthrow of our democracy, a nuclear attack on the US, and bombing Iran.
So I read your post early in the day yesterday, and I watched/read the links. Honest to goodness, it depressed me. I was in a foul mood for about an hour. It's sad we have these psychos in our society. At the same time, I guess it's our society itself that gives them the RIGHT to have said DSM-IV diagnostic code.
ReplyDeleteA. Limbaugh doesn't speak for the Republican party. I know you wish he did, but you'll just have to get over that.
ReplyDeleteB. Since you don't understand the US Constitution, you'll probably not understand the one in Honduras. The part that says the pres can't start his own referendum to change the constitution, so that he can't run again. If BO tries to change the US Constitution to run for a third term, you'll probably back that as well.
C. Here's what they want to do: "bypass the Senate's Constitutional role". Why? The dems in Congress have given up on reading what they pass--like the 1200 page cap and trade bill--like the stimulus (how's that working out, by the way?)--why not just hold up a blank legal pad, get the dems in the Senate to approve it, then write whatever he wants?
D. The "specifics of your post" is that you have nothing good to say about BO--not his reaction to Iran, his reaction to Honduras, not his promise of no higher taxes broken, not his promise of unemployment no higher than 8.5% if his "stimulus" bill passed broken--so you find isolated incidents of Republicans saying things you don't like to rant about.
E. Incidentally, Joe (Secret Service nickname "Bozo") gave Israel the green light to bomb Iran: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/05/AR2009070502731.html. Can't blame that on Bolton, or anyone but the Gifted One himself.
A: tell that to every R politico who falls over himself to bow and scrape.
ReplyDeleteB: Your evidence for my lack of understanding of the US constitution is what, exactly? Yours, however, shows clearly in thinking BHO could unilaterally "change" the constitution.
C: The headline could have just as easily said "Obama seeks ways to retain nuclear inspections while Senate diddles around." That's the point of the article.
D: The specifics of this post were the specifics of this post. It's about what it's about, not what you somehow think it should have been about. What it's not about is a very long list, indeed. Carrots, for example. Honduras. Clams.
E: I know what JB said. It's not, by any stretch, akin to what Bolton said. Obama has made it clear what he thinks about an Israeli strike (hint: he's against it.) Is it not true that Israel could strike if it chooses and we couldn't stop them? Unless you're advocating a preemptive strike on Israel.
Seaspray - You hope nothing is wrong?
ReplyDeleteYou mean - Other Than -
Palin's quitting the job she promised Alaskans she would do, all of the unethical use of her office - Troopergate, firing the librarian who refused to remove books for her, her support for a group dedicated to taking Alaska out of the union, the shopping spree, allowing her daughter to sleep in the same room with her boyfriend - etc. etc.
It's like the old joke about the theater critic asking Lincoln's wife - "Other, Than That, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you like the play"?
Don't worry Seaspray - It is highly improbable that there is anything Ms.Iquitarod could do that you would be unable to overlook, ignore, see as wrong, or actively defend in the face of all facts or logic.
You are a True Believer.
By the way - you asked me for links to information on Bush's conversations with God. Since you never replied when I posted them, I supposed that you had simply moved over to "Surgeon's Blog" and never saw them.
But just in case, here they are again.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/oct/07/iraq.usa
George Bush: 'God told me to end the tyranny in Iraq'
The Guardian, Friday 7 October 2005
George Bush believes he is on a mission from God, according to the politician Nabil Shaath.
George Bush believes he is on a mission from God, according to the politician Nabil Shaath. Photograph: Charles Dharapak/AP
George Bush has claimed he was on a mission from God when he launched the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, according to a senior Palestinian politician in an interview to be broadcast by the BBC later this month.
Mr Bush revealed the extent of his religious fervour when he met a Palestinian delegation during the Israeli-Palestinian summit at the Egpytian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, four months after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.
One of the delegates, Nabil Shaath, who was Palestinian foreign minister at the time, said: "President Bush said to all of us: 'I am driven with a mission from God'. God would tell me, 'George go and fight these terrorists in Afghanistan'. And I did. And then God would tell me 'George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq'. And I did."
Mr Bush went on: "And now, again, I feel God's words coming to me, 'Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East'. And, by God, I'm gonna do it."
See full story at the link
http://www.counterpunch.org/hamilton05222009.html
In 2003 while lobbying leaders to put together the Coalition of the Willing, President Bush spoke to France’s President Jacques Chirac. Bush wove a story about how the Biblical creatures Gog and Magog were at work in the Middle East and how they must be defeated.
In Genesis and Ezekiel Gog and Magog are forces of the Apocalypse who are prophesied to come out of the north and destroy Israel unless stopped. The Book of Revelation took up the Old Testament prophesy:
“And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle … and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.”
Bush believed the time had now come for that battle, telling Chirac:
“This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people’s enemies before a New Age begins”.
See full story at the link
http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/pressreleases/stories/2005/10_october/06/bush.shtml
http://www.vancouverite.com/featured/bush-god-iraq-and-gog-was-religion-motivation-for-war/
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/12/world/middleeast/12prexyweb.html?_r=2&ref=world&pagewanted=print&oref=slogin
EugeneInSanDiego
P.S. Be patient, wait to see if Rush, et.al turn against her: then you can just say that Sarah "Is not a true Conservative" - as you all do now about Bush.
Hi to EugeneInSanDiego,
ReplyDeleteA while back, you posted a quote from John Patrick's delightful play, "Teahouse of the August Moon," which I saw performed in 1954 in New York City. I was 15 years old at the time.
Recently, I came across a journal from my high school days. In it, I wrote down the exact quote from the play.
"Pain makes man think, thought makes man wise, wisdom makes life endurable."
That quote has grown to mean a great deal to me at this time in my life.
Eugene, I don't know who you are, how old you are, or where you are, but I just wanted you to know that I connected with you when you reminded me of that quote from a truly remarkable play. Thanks for your participation in this and other blogs. You never know where an idea will lead!
Warm regards on a summer day,
EK