A Christian suicide bomber
I'm speaking -- metaphorically, of course -- about Rev. Jeremiah Wright's remarks to the National Press Club today.
MS. LEINWAND: What is your motivation for characterizing Senator Obama's response to you as, quote, "what a politician had to say"? What do you mean by that?REV. WRIGHT: What I mean is what several of my white friends and several of my white Jewish friends have written me and said to me. They said, "You're a Christian. You understand forgiveness. We both know that if Senator Obama did not say what he said, he would never get elected." Politicians say what they say and do what they do based on electability, based on sound bites, based on polls -- Huffington, whoever's doing the polls. Preachers say what they say because they are pastors. They have a different person to whom they're accountable.
The only possible reason for Rev. Wright to say this is that he doesn't want Obama to be elected. It's obvious to any intelligent person -- which Wright obviously is, despite his often flagrantly racist and ludicrous views -- that the possibility of Obama possessing a secret allegiance to those views, which he must conceal in public for reasons of expediency, is exactly the reservation voters have about him. These are the words of a man who does not care about his own public image, but cares very much about Barack Obama's -- and does not like the man one bit.
Why would this be? Presumably Wright feels betrayed by Obama's refusal to carry the AIDS-as-government-genocide-project and 9/11-as-God's-judgment flags into a general election. To get a little more Karnak, it's also possible that Wright doesn't want Obama to become President because that would constitute an explicit refutation of Wright's "racist America" thesis.
So will this be good or bad for Obama? Oddly, as Ambinder points out, it's hard to say. The Clinton/GOP argument now rests, perversely, on taking Wright at his word. Will the public buy this? Or will Obama now find it even easier to distance himself from his former pastor?
Time will tell. But this is a good start:
"I think certainly what the last three days indicate is that we're not coordinating with him. He's obviously free to speak his mind, but I just want to emphasize [that] he is my former pastor. Many of the statements he made both to trigger this initial controversy, and that he's made over the last couple days are not statements that I heard him make previously. They don't represent my views and they don't represent what this campaign is about."
--
The other day I heard that ignorance and apathy are sweeping the country. I didn't know that, but I don't really care.
--
The other day I heard that ignorance and apathy are sweeping the country. I didn't know that, but I don't really care.
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(Matthew 5:29 - American King James Version)
And do it on national TV; it'll do wonders for sales of the book you were pimping at the Press Club yesterday.
--Even a dead midget is far from light. - Confucius
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)pull it from thy mouth. For the last eight years, we've been watching one outrageous statement after the other emerge from the mouths of Republican babes and sucklings, case in point John Hagee.
Say what you want to, trying to disconnect McCain and Hagee. None of the Wright tar hurled at Obama is any less adhesive when it's hurled at McCain for Hagee. One difference: McCain's unable to control the message from his followers. Obama's clearly no acolyte of Wright, no more so than McCain is the butt-boy for every Right Wing hack.
More importantly, look at who votes for Obama and who doesn't. The old-line Black Church still holds onto Hillary Clinton. Hillary does amazingly well among older blacks, especially black women.
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| parent )Didn't a US Archery Team guy lose an Olympic Gold Medal that way?
Look again, BP - nothing in my comment makes the slightest reference to Obama. All I did was ridicule Wright. So your poured your McCain/Hoagie Carmichael diatribe into the wrong fumarole. It sounded like a rebuttal waiting for an argument to me.
--Even a dead midget is far from light. - Confucius
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| parent )Must be something in the water. Or, perhaps, the news.
--"We should not tie the hands of law enforcement in the effort to bring these terrorists to justice"- Leon E. Panetta
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| parent )You know how bloody-minded and Biblical us conservatives can be. And may I suggest that you aren't necessarily the most objective evaluator of low humor here?
BG, it's Wright's right eye that he's supposed to eject. Right. As in the Right. And as in Wright's hatred of the Right. Geddit? Whoo, I kill myself.
--Even a dead midget is far from light. - Confucius
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| parent )I'm chuckling at the mental picture of Barry ripping out Wright's eye and chucking it at the press corp right now. :^)
--The ultimate result of shielding man from the effects of folly is to people the world with fools. -Herbert Spencer
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| parent )There's P. J. O'Roarke and a fraction of the south park jokes, but that's about it.
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| parent )which is part of the Department of Redundancy Department. You may now use "OBE" as a suffix whenever you post.
--Even a dead midget is far from light. - Confucius
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| parent )Assuming you're a Firesign Theater fan, of course. But hey, maybe not - I hear one of them outed Thomas Eagleton just for laughs.
--Even a dead midget is far from light. - Confucius
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| parent )Because Wright is so politically extreme, he said what he said in deference to Obama because he wanted to allude that they were really political brethren. I'm not sure if Wright fully understands how wide the chasm is between his views and the American mainstream, nor is he cognizant of how many Americans are repulsed by some of his political views, nor do I think he was aware of how damaging his comments really were. He's telling his "truth" regardless of how Americans would respond. I think he got sucked in to the warm waters of Moyers' softer-than-softball interview and became too candid in the process. He is book-smart but bone stupid in other areas, and judging by his demeanor and comments at the National Press Club and--using my own vast Karnakian powers--he thinks he's the smartest man in the room. He definitely had the biggest ego in the room.
Maybe I'm spitballing, but I don't think Wright intended to damage Obama's political chances, but damage did happen.
Rather, my take is that the pastor acted out of selfishness, seeking to prioritize the rehabilitation of his reputation and upcoming book deal over the welfare of Obama's campaign for president.
Even if Obama disassociates himself from Wright, the damage is done. Obama sat in the pews most Sundays over the past two-plus decades, listening to his spiritual mentor bring forth all kinds of political extremism (his sermons were steeped with political commentary), and he would only break from Wright when the political waters got too hot.
Obama himself said: "I think that people were legitimately offended by some of the comments that he had made in the past. The fact that he is my former pastor I think makes it a legitimate political issue."
It is a legitimate issue because Obama chose this anti-American extremist as his spiritual advisor and stuck with him for 20-plus years.
--"I want America to know that I'm, like, totally ready to lead." -- Paris Hilton
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)Looks like someone didn't read or watch the press event.
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| parent )Wright's raison d'etre as a public figure is the width of the chasm between his views and the American mainstream. He'd be stupid indeed not to realize that.
--The other day I heard that ignorance and apathy are sweeping the country. I didn't know that, but I don't really care.
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| parent )I just think that his political acumen is outstripped by an ego that is lacking in self-observation, dulled by hearing too many hallelujahs and amens to his sermons.
--"I want America to know that I'm, like, totally ready to lead." -- Paris Hilton
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| parent )for slavery. Nope, not helpful talking points to anyone who wants to get elected to national office in this country.
--Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. -JH
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| parent )Current politics aside, I'd say the list of apologies for slavery is a long one:
Antietam
Gettysburg
Cold Harbor
Petersburg
etc
etc
bloody etc...
If the good rev wants more than that, he can pucker up and kiss my $%^&*#@^#%$.
--The ultimate result of shielding man from the effects of folly is to people the world with fools. -Herbert Spencer
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| parent )...if the folks currently in charge weren't the ideological and geographic descendants of the folks who were fighting on the wrong side of each of those battles.
--It's impossible to debate if people simply hold beliefs that have no grounding in reality.
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| parent )...not least of which that I'm both ideologically and geographically closer to "the folks currently in charge" than you are, and I had an ancestor on the winning side (and fighting in a foreign war, no less!)
--The ultimate result of shielding man from the effects of folly is to people the world with fools. -Herbert Spencer
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| parent )We being the US government. I guess it's too much to ask.
--Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. -JH
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| parent )14 April, 2005: "Brazilian President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva has apologised for his country's role in African slavery while on a visit to Senegal."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4446647.stm
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| parent )after the 1820-ish abolition of the slave trade: Brazil, France, several European countries, etc. are more willing to offer apologies. Why? They can disclaim liability for torts of the prior government(s).
The US, unfortunately, still has the same duly ratified government it had throughout the slave years before the Civil War, making it in theory fully liable for any claims for reparation.
--Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. -JH
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| parent )I certainly never saw historians or government officials in Brazil blame slavery on the colonial and imperial governments. The term "we" is always used, rather than "they." For example, here's Lula in the linked article: "I want to tell you... that I had no responsibility for what happened in the 16th, 17th and 18th Centuries but I ask your forgiveness for what we did to black people."
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| parent )They can credibly disclaim liability for policy consequences before any of the regime changes in 1822, 1889, 1930, 1946, 1964, and 1985. There's no legal entity left to take responsibility for slavery.
--Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. -JH
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| parent )(Though if you want to talk about the Federative Republic, you could go back to 1889)
So when you mention liability you're talking about legal recourse? I'm not sure whether the constitutional government can be held liable for the periods prior, but the country's debt certainly always carried over.
Historically though, the blame lies with the country rather than the government, since slavery was practiced by a lot of is people -- ie, other than the early slave trade promoted by the portuguese crown, nobody was forced to keep blacks enslaved. I see Lula's statement as that of a diplomatic representative of the people, not of the current or historical governments.
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| parent )for war crimes or reparations by a previous government, for example, under international law as I understand it. Debts are a little bit different, since they're a critical part of the new government's diplomatic relations & I think they're assumed voluntarily.
An official apology from the US government would strengthen any claim of legal liability for slavery (although any such case would also have totally different legal problems to overcome).
--Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. -JH
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| parent )Link. Gotta love Tom Harkins' Claude Rains imitation - classic.
BTW, are you in favor of reparations? I've been working on a diary on that subject for awhile, writing the conclusion first, of course.
--Even a dead midget is far from light. - Confucius
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| parent )remedy that makes much sense and yet, great harm done that carries over to today and the grievance is valid.
--Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. -JH
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| parent )decided to go with the idea of reparations in principle, so long as they were fair and equitable. Who would pay, and who would get paid? The more I thought about that, the more I realized that it would be extremely difficult to administer the actual distribution of funds in a way that wouldn't seem very unfair to great swathes of the populace.
--Even a dead midget is far from light. - Confucius
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| parent )Who's the injured party, and who's the offender? How do you quantify the loss, and who do you attribute it to? Answering these questions (or superseding them with a better idea) is going to take a modern Solomon.
What I don't think is the right answer, though, is pretending there's no problem in the first place, which is the current official policy as well as the attitude of most Americans.
--Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. -JH
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| parent ).
--It's impossible to debate if people simply hold beliefs that have no grounding in reality.
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| parent )....never having to say you're sorry. My take, anyway.
--The ultimate result of shielding man from the effects of folly is to people the world with fools. -Herbert Spencer
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| parent )governments can't apologize for taking lives away by offering other lives in payment. You just gotta say sorry. 40 acres and a mule was a good start. Didn't work out so well.
--Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. -JH
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| parent )If we already made good in 1864, what's the biggie? We might as well stop worrying about this and this too. People should learn to be more thankful.
--Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. -JH
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| parent )"We should not tie the hands of law enforcement in the effort to bring these terrorists to justice"- Leon E. Panetta
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| parent ).
--Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. -JH
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| parent )Wouldn't you take it as another chance to preen and pose about your holier than thou attitude about oranges when we are arguing about apples, as you did with Bernard?
--"We should not tie the hands of law enforcement in the effort to bring these terrorists to justice"- Leon E. Panetta
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| parent )We're having a factual argument about whether the Civil War excuses all wrongs done to black Americans from 1789 up to the present. One implication would be that Civil Rights was superfluous. Your take?
--Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. -JH
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| parent )1 study on death row statistics and a cite on incarceration rates being tossed from left field into an argument about whether or not the Civil War is enough of an apology from the US government for slavery.
--"We should not tie the hands of law enforcement in the effort to bring these terrorists to justice"- Leon E. Panetta
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| parent ).
--Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. -JH
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| parent )He's right, man, the Civil Rights thing was a tangent on your part. Slavery (that is, the alienation of free-will and labor from a large number of people in indiscriminate fashion) was a stain, and said stain was expunged by a great number of people getting shot over it. Jim Crow was another matter entirely, if not a nice one, either.
--The ultimate result of shielding man from the effects of folly is to people the world with fools. -Herbert Spencer
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| parent )you succeeded where I failed.
--"We should not tie the hands of law enforcement in the effort to bring these terrorists to justice"- Leon E. Panetta
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| parent )If I'm missing something, subtle isn't gonna steer me straight again. :)
Meanwhile I retrenched up yonder.
--Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. -JH
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| parent )I went off on the phrase "never having to say you're sorry" as applying to more recent history. It's what I get for blogging while trying to do more productive things at the same time.
--Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. -JH
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| parent )....doing anything productive. :^)
--The ultimate result of shielding man from the effects of folly is to people the world with fools. -Herbert Spencer
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| parent )Obama's race speech addressed inequities but also tried to transcend. Wright addressed inequities with big helpings of bitterness, hyperbole and anti-Americanism.
--"I want America to know that I'm, like, totally ready to lead." -- Paris Hilton
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| parent )We don't live in Cuba.
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| parent )All I'm doing is exercising my right of free speech by criticizing the content of his.
--"I want America to know that I'm, like, totally ready to lead." -- Paris Hilton
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| parent )My point is that it's anti-American to not criticize your government when you see a problem. This is supposed to be a country of citizens, not subjects.
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| parent )He slandered, reveling in discredited conspiracy theory that our government foisted AIDS on black people and drawing moral equivalence between our government and al Qaeda, to name just two examples.
--"I want America to know that I'm, like, totally ready to lead." -- Paris Hilton
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| parent )He is misguided on the first, and you are misrepresenting him (more untruths?) on the latter.
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| parent )Call it "misguided" or whatever, Wright still slandered the American government with his discredited AIDS conspiracy theory. As for Wright equating the United States with al Qaeda, I made no misrepresentation. Quoting from his 9-16-2001 sermon:
The translation is pretty easy, User. Wright is saying that we were a terrorist nation long before al Qaeda came into being, and our terrorism begat theirs. He offered no moral distinctions between us and al Qaeda. We are just as guilty for our terrorist acts as Osama bin Laden is for his. Here's an excerpt from his 4-13-2003 sermon:
I think I represented Wright pretty accurately, and considering the above (and his other comments), it's also my opinion that he is an anti-American political extremist. None of this offended Barack Obama at the time. But by golly, that stuff Wright said over the weekend, that's just too much.
--"I want America to know that I'm, like, totally ready to lead." -- Paris Hilton
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| parent )since what the Americans did to the Sioux, the Apache, the Iroquois, the Comanche, the Arapaho, the Navajo, what the Portuguese and then the Brazilians did to the Tupi, the Guarani, and other tribes, that was all a combination of conquest, enslavement, and genocide. Similarly for what everyone did to the Africans, maybe without the genocide. Similarly, oppression in the case of Jim Crowe laws and support for South African apartheid. I'm not sure if terror is the right word though.
Here he's incorrect in that we weren't a terrorist nation (we were an enslaving, aggressive, conquering nation), and the horrors afflicted upon american indians or blacks aren't connected to middle eastern terrorism. So yeah, this part doesn't make much sense. But it doesn't make him anti-American, just inaccurate, since the horrors he mentions did occur.
In the next quote you're right that he's calling the invasion and occupation of Iraq an act of state terrorism. It's hard to quibble with him, since the pointless war was started for the basest reasons and conducted in a manner leading to tens of thousands of dead innocent Iraqis. I'd call George Bush and his fellow travelers craven, jingoistic monsters, but I don't know about terrorists, especially since this is a long war destroying whole chunks of the country rather than a one-off attack.
Still, that's not anti-american slander, that's patriotic opposition to the party of torture, even if he has his terminology wrong.
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| parent )Wright used the words and he owns them, and there's no escaping his statement that, "we are doing is the same thing al Qaeda is doing under a different colored flag." If that's not claiming moral equivalence with al Qaeda, I don't know what is.
--"I want America to know that I'm, like, totally ready to lead." -- Paris Hilton
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| parent )our government and its application of the military killed a lot more innocent people.
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| parent )....call Wright a worthless anti-American imbecile for seeing incorrectly. Which he does, and is.
--The ultimate result of shielding man from the effects of folly is to people the world with fools. -Herbert Spencer
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| parent )the smartest thing any politician could do is to follow the example of Ronald Reagan: consistently profess a Deep And Personal Relationship With God (TM) while religiously avoiding setting foot inside an actual church.
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)to the Obama campaign is spot on IMO. I've listened to his jeremiads to the point of nausea. Wright is an extremely nasty, sarcastic, condescending and apparently delusional race pimp, like Al Sharpton without the intelligence or sense of humor. But not entirely; if you listen carefully to the Press Club speech you'll hear him peddling - I'm shocked! - a book he's writing. Just the thing to read over fresh-squeezed OJ and blintzes at a table on the ninth tee of that ritzy whitebread community he'll be moving into any day now.
Some have compared Wright to Farrakan, but I disagree - the latter is a far better speaker, and does a much better job of cloaking the bile he's spouting.
The real difficulty for the Obama campaign it to keep voters focused on BO's case for improving race relations while the self-flagellant press continues to treat Wright as if he were something other than a divisive nutjob.
--Even a dead midget is far from light. - Confucius
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)because Wright is quoting Reagan's anti-terrorism guy and ambassador to Iraq, Edward Peck, a man with sterling Conservative credentials. You really need to see who's saying this "chickens coming home to roost" line. This is a serious man.
Here's a transcript from Peck and Maginnis, on Crossfire in October of 2001.
Pretty damning stuff, from a guy who should know.
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| parent )based on forged documents aimed at disrupting US relations with Africa during the Ford and Carter administrations. Only a lackwit like Wright wouldn't know he's actually spouting propaganda from a USSR disinformation campaign. I gues Barnum was right: you can fool some of the people all of the time. Or for all time.
Oh, BTW and JFTR, the "PRESS" above is Bill Press, who was sort of a crude prototype for the angry drooler with the glasses on MSNBC, what's his name. You know, the guy who pretends to be a sports commentator.
And CounterFeint is a lefto-crypto-whacko advocacy site that has zero credibility; take a look at some of the crapola it's come up with over the years. That said, it's unlikely, but not unprecedented, that the wingers there would fabricate direct quotes. I doubt that happened here, but I will look for a legitimate media source for the above quotes and post it here if I find one. No need to thank me. %^>
--Even a dead midget is far from light. - Confucius
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| parent )shall avail you naught. We're talking about the source of Chickens Come Home to Roost, the tape in heaviest rotation.
The cites are from CNN. Are you debating the accuracy of the quotes?
Of course Wright's an idiot. No debate there. I wrote a longer comment on this in (
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| parent )But I do shake a mean sheet of galvanized roofing to make thunder in my part-time job on the Foley stage. Not to mention creating the whistling of falling bombs.
--Even a dead midget is far from light. - Confucius
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| parent )"and if she possibly could, she would accuse him of being responsible for male pattern baldness in the United States"
Who said conservatives don't do humour? Nice link.
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| parent )the US invasion of Iraq in 2003, I have come to see that, under the circumstances:
1. It was inevitable, given the political and economic nature of the US as the sole superpower
2. The US has to stay there until stability is achieved, or it will have to give up on its superpower status, sooner rather than the equally inevitable later.
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| parent )We knew, whatever emerged in post-Saddam would be the very enemies Saddam had been murdering for decades. Yes, it's easy to have 20/20 hindsight, but let's just look at who Saddam fought and who we're now fighting and do a goodness-of-fit analysis.
1. Iran's hegemony. Saddam had fought a long and inconclusive war with Iran. The West found good reasons to help him.
2. Shiite theocracy in his own country. Saddam had more Shiites on his Ba'ath Party books than Sunnis: he murdered the clerics who opposed his monopoly on power, including Moktada Sadr's father and aunt. We're now backing the SCIRI Party aka Badr Brigades against Sadr.
3. Restive Sunni tribal sheikhs. We're doing exactly what Saddam did with the non-Tikriti Sunnis: buying them off and incorporating them into units on US payrolls.
4. Thieving bureaucracies. Saddam's chief complaint, and now our chief complaint, is that everyone lied to him. Saddam couldn't get the crooks out, nor can Maliki or our boys.
5. Internal power struggles. Maliki now faces a world where only his Badr Brigades serve as a skeleton for the putative Iraqi Army. Sadr pulls his reps out of the Iraqi Parliament and we can do nothing. Sadr hides in Iran, just like Saddam's enemies did.
6. Rebuilding a war-torn society. After the Iran/Iraq War, the country was nearly bled dry. A few years of respite were followed by the disastrous war in Kuwait, then the years of bombings, embargoes and the like. Iraq was once a middle class country. Saddam was once a modern, progressive man. He built schools and roads and won a UNESCO award for literacy.
We've turned into Saddam. The USA and the Iraqi government now see the "necessity" of torture to fight an implacable insurgency.
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| parent )what is or is not "inevitable". I agree that there were reasons for the US invasion of Iraq, not all of them obvious to those who supported it, but reasons aren't justifications. Bank robbers have reasons to rob banks, too.
I'm trying to stay away from the shoals of moral argument, because I know we have a perhaps intractable disagreement, but I am both incensed and put on my guard whenever someone tells me something is "inevitable".
--The other day I heard that ignorance and apathy are sweeping the country. I didn't know that, but I don't really care.
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| parent )way by overpowering smaller poorer ones (and I include poor in ability with poor in cash). Always has been, always will be.
Just as inevitable as the better off crust of the world that floats on a much larger current of injustice and inequality (and dare I say it, slavery, even). Maybe the crust is a bit thicker today, but not by that much.
I think its called the human condition. I think there's still a reason to cheer, when despots such as Mugabe or Saddam get their comeuppance. And when some institution of injustice is taken down. But it doesn't alter the basic fact.
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| parent )This attitude has been pressed into despicable service very, very often. Slavery is an excellent example, since the Biblical mentions of slavery were used as "proof" that the institution was eternal.
We don't know what always has been or will be. Sometimes resignation is the worst kind of arrogance.
--The other day I heard that ignorance and apathy are sweeping the country. I didn't know that, but I don't really care.
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| parent )a far cry from the way the sound bites make him sound, when taken out of context. He's only divisive if you're unwilling to listen to someone remind you of the fact of 400 years of slavery, that patriotism is a kind of idolatry, and that the American dream of freedom and justice for all is still just that. The original Jeremiah was called a traitor as well, and for the same reasons.
--Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. -JH
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| parent )I mean, just look around you, friend. And relax.
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| parent )I despise your so-called standards.
--The ultimate result of shielding man from the effects of folly is to people the world with fools. -Herbert Spencer
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| parent )- Login or register to post comments
| parent )....appears to be coming around to my way of thinking (on this one, at least.)
--The ultimate result of shielding man from the effects of folly is to people the world with fools. -Herbert Spencer
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| parent )Look at his recent speech on race or his 2007 speech on foreign policy and the production of terrorists. He's still way, way, waaay to the left of you.
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| parent )Every pre-industrial country had slavery. It was an economic necessity. Why am I even arguing this obvious?
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| parent )Welcome to American political discourse my friend. Just a heads up, arguing the obvious is also called nuance over here.
--"We should not tie the hands of law enforcement in the effort to bring these terrorists to justice"- Leon E. Panetta
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| parent )Hey, half of India needs slavery too by that metric.
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| parent )Didn't you know? And doesn't it reinforce my point?
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| parent )I guess this is the crux of the matter for India:
I don't think it reinforces your point though. The fact that it exists doesn't make it right. Remember, American plantation owners also relied on economic necessity as their argument. Still not an excuse.
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| parent )"Relaxing" is not the word that springs to mind. Sure, it's not exactly fair to apply 21st century morality to the 19th, but where'd the 21st century morality come from?
--The other day I heard that ignorance and apathy are sweeping the country. I didn't know that, but I don't really care.
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| parent )always win. I'm just immoral to accept inequality for what it is.
I'll put it down to generic Calvinism.
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| parent )Thats how I know this stuff. I might be a Guerrerist, but I haven't paid all of my subscription.
Edit: that was a reply to username
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| parent )I almost replied to that last one with a "Welcome to the Club, Here's Your Membership Card" package!
Note: If you've been asked to pay dues or a subscription fee, it wasn't authorized or condoned by me in any way. That means it was Jordan or SNK, and I salute them for getting on-board with the true spirit of this enterprise. Bravo, gentlemen!
--The ultimate result of shielding man from the effects of folly is to people the world with fools. -Herbert Spencer
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| parent )offensive, and completely and utterly true. I will note however that all funds have been donated to the Help Me Help You Help Myself Foundation so, in a way, it was in your own best interest to pay the dues. In another, more accurate way, it was in my interest. But that's what we Guerrerists are all about!
--Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. -JH
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| parent )"In another, more accurate way, it was in my interest."
You got an actual verbal guffaw out of me on that one.
--The ultimate result of shielding man from the effects of folly is to people the world with fools. -Herbert Spencer
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| parent )of being sympathetic to (some of) his general aims and themes, while being utterly alienated by his specific claims. (Horowitz? Jesus wept.)
Listening to Wright speak on American imperialism is like listening to a gender feminist denounce rapists. At every mention of The Patriarchy, one's features contort bit by bit into a permanent wince, even while agreeing that yes, rape is a very bad thing.
--The other day I heard that ignorance and apathy are sweeping the country. I didn't know that, but I don't really care.
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| parent )do live in a (mildly) patriarchal culture, and there are some gender feminists worth listening to. Judith Butler? Donna Haraway? Eve Sedgwick? Everyone hates a Jeremiah.
--Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. -JH
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| parent )It's hard to tell whether this is a new phenomenon or if it's been this way from the beginning.
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| parent )If you can accurately describe someone as a gender feminist, it's pretty much the same as saying "this person is not worth listening to--except in self-defense if she somehow gains power and you are male."
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| parent )if you can accurately describe someone as a gender feminist, it's pretty much the same as saying "right-wing extremists won't listen to that person, while others will weigh the arguments."
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| parent )What bothers me is the snake oil employed as an aid to swallowing and digestion. Smashing the dominant mythology only to make way for a new, but equally vulgar and stupid, mythology is not progress.
Judith "I never knew my penis was socially constructed" Butler is one of my personal villains, so perhaps it's best we don't go there.
--The other day I heard that ignorance and apathy are sweeping the country. I didn't know that, but I don't really care.
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| parent )Same kind of venom: the activist jilted by the pragmatist. This is in many ways a wise man, but I think he believes Obama really might sell out the liberation ideology in exchange for power. "Confusing God and government," etc.
--Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. -JH
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)The Obama Fox Interview:
http://www.theseminal.com/2008/04/27/the-anatomy-of-a-fox-interview/
Everyone saw that coming. This is why Kos et al were disappointed with Obama's decision to legitimize Wallace and his fellow travelers.
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| parent )isn't such a great way to delegitimize Fox either. I mean, in theory, withholding access from a news network is a great way to let that network die on the vine. But in fact, Fox has all the access it needs, and all the audience it needs, which is all the legitimacy it needs. I thought Obama made the whole network look like chumps in his appearance.
--Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way when you criticize them, you're a mile away and you have their shoes. -JH
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| parent )I didn't think it was a good idea, but he acquitted himself admirably and may have done something to dispel the clucking sounds from the right.
Kos was probably disappointed that Obama didn't show up waving that ridiculous orange banner. "Well Chris, as I was saying the other day on dubya-dubya-dubya-dot-dailykos-dot-com, once again that's dubya-dubya-dubya-dot-dailykos-dot-com..."
--The other day I heard that ignorance and apathy are sweeping the country. I didn't know that, but I don't really care.
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| parent )... where are you getting this from?
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| parent )Tehran?
Anyway, on Reverend Wright Andrew Sullivan just wrote this: