Thoughtful guy in this video essay on politics. The visual is interesting and well done.
Archive for February 11, 2007
Sean Hannity - Takes a Hit From the Right
Debbie Schlussel Hates Sean “Vanity” As Much As She Hates Atheists and Muslims - Liberal Values - Defending Liberty and Enlightened Thought
I’ve been critical of Debbie Schlussel for her slurs on Barack Obama’s name and for her atheist-bashing on CNN earlier in the week. We’ve had different views on 24. I even agreed with her once before with her dismissal of Mel Gibson’s apology. Now she has taken on a much better target, Sean Hannity, apparently renamed Vanity. Schlussel is accusing Hannity, oops, Vanity of plagiarizing her work. If Schlussel is going to wage a jihad against Vanity and bring other conservative bloggers into it I wish her luck.
Me too.
~Judgement
The Raw Story | Frank Rich: Stop Obama before he’s ‘too’ experienced
What Obama did not have to say is that he had the judgment about Iraq that his rivals lacked. As an Illinois state senator with no access to intelligence reports, he recognized in October 2002 that administration claims of Saddam’s “imminent and direct threat to the United States” were hype and foresaw that an American occupation of Iraq would be of “undetermined length, at undetermined cost, with undetermined consequences.” Nor can he be pilloried as soft on terrorism by the Cheney-Lieberman axis of neo-McCarthyism. “I don’t oppose all wars,” he said in the same Chicago speech. “What I am opposed to is a dumb war.”
Cheney Wisdom
What Planet Is Cheney Living On? - Helen Thomas
His experience has obviously not improved his vision. After the first Persian Gulf War ended in March 1991, Cheney — then serving as defense secretary in the first Bush administration — was asked on ABC-TV why Operation Desert Storm had not gone all the way to remove Saddam Hussein from power.
He replied prophetically: “I think for us to get American military personnel involved in a civil war inside Iraq would literally be a quagmire. Once we got to Baghdad, what would we do? Who would we put in power? What kind of government? Would it be a Sunni government, a Shia government, a Kurdish government?
“Would it be secular, along the lines of the Baath party? Would it be fundamentalist Islamic?” he asked. “I do not think the United States wants to have U.S. military forces accept casualties and accept responsibility of trying to govern Iraq. It makes no sense at all.”
~War Authorization - Good Question
Daily Kos: State of the Nation
This question, this irritating question that some people just won’t let go, isn’t a check for 20-20 hindsight. Neither is it a request for judgment on the administration’s effectiveness in matters strategic or tactical. The question, Senator Clinton, is have you learned anything? Have you learned that to authorize war is always a last resort, not a first, or seventh, or seven times seventh. Have you learned that it’s not okay to allow fear – including fear for your career in politics – to herd you along with the crowd. Have you learned that good judgment isn’t just avoiding error. it’s acknowledging that an error has been made and working promptly to correct it.
~Salvation Agenda
American Prospect Online - The Recruit
The recruitment canard explains a lot about why Haggard’s fall from grace, although swift and thorough, did not irredeemably condemn either the man or the empire over which he presided, including the political movement to make gay marriage unconstitutional. Instead, Haggard reinforces the need to labor on. If Haggard could be recruited — and, by the other side of the coin, converted — then why concede the point that God could have made gay people in his image?
