Credo
"Sign on, young man, and sail with me. The stature of our homeland is no more than the measure of ourselves. Our job is to keep her free. Our will is to keep the torch of freedom burning for all. To this solemn purpose we call on the young, the brave, the strong, and the free. Heed my call, Come to the sea. Come Sail with me." -- John Paul Jones
"Pardon him, Theodotus; he is a barbarian, and thinks that the customs of his tribe and island are the laws of nature" --George Bernard Shaw, "Caesar and Cleopatra"
"And those who were seen dancing were thought to be insane by those who could not hear the music."--Friedrich Nietzsche
"A kind Providence has placed in our breasts a hatred of the unjust and cruel, in order that we may preserve ourselves from cruelty and injustice. They who bear cruelty, are accomplices in it. The pretended gentleness which excludes that charitable rancour, produces an indifference which is half an approbation. They never will love where they ought to love, who do not hate where they ought to hate."--Edmund Burke
“You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”--General Sir Charles Napier
"Μολὼν λαβέ" -- Leonidas
"Blogito Ergo Sum" -- Neptunus Lex
When I saw the headline, I thought you were talking about the *clap*.
*snicker, snicker* (gotta laugh so I don’t cry)
Lex, am I only imagining a certain “freedom” in your writing when you discuss our congressional overlords?
That lying former naval officer (with the characterization of discharge on his original DD-214 never revealed) has no right to even comment on national security affairs.
The traitor probably voted for peace, before he voted against it.
It’s interesting to me that someone whose fellow service members died in one of the Navy’s most costly foreign attacks in the last decade would not see fit to classify such an attack an act of war. I wonder what threshold of aggression one would need to cross for John Kerry to feel like our nation and way of life were at war; seems that 3,000+ civilian casualties doesn’t quite get you there…
~LTJG Tim
and eventually he will be the *senior* senator from massachusetts.
they must be so proud.
MA get what they deserve in the way of representation. So, since I’m in California, my question is: What the heck did I do to deserve my Senatorettes?
but John Fing Kerry almost makes my Senatorettes, at least one of them, look semi Ok. That is not a resume enhancing thing.
And just under 50% of 2004 voters thought this blow dried empty suit was qualified to be POTUS. That’s the problem with universal suffrage: the idiots get to vote.
Which is why the founding fathers created the Electoral College.
I would point out since I was one of th 50% in 2004 that it was less about Kerry but more about the fact that the current occupant of the White House was also not qualified to be POTUS.
FbL, I thought the same.
I’ll try to remember this polite-sounding method of telling someone they’re not only ugly, they’re also an idiot.
…LTJG Tim, Congrats!
…So Skip…, your solution in 2004, was , in your mind, to send another unqualifed person to the White House …..
Same logic that says we’re losing in Iraq. These people never cease to amaze me. Truthfully, Neville Chamberlain wasn’t this bad, historical, in the sense of Britain’s long pattern of diplomatic policies. Now Kerry’s probably jockeying for Sec. State in an Obama admin. What a disaster.
My vote in 2004 was all about the war in Iraq. Period-nothing else. And how much I hated Donald Rumsfeld. Get rid of Bush-Rumsfeld goes away too. Made sense to me at the time.
Yes, I hate George W. Bush that much. From my point of view he has been just as much of a disaster. You can save your breath trying to convince me otherwise-I’m pretty set in my convictions on this.
What 2000 and 2004 (and 2008)highlights to me-is that both parties have flawed systems for choosing candidates. Both the Republicans and the Democrats cannot choose the best people because of the process-and the impossible standards we hold the candidates to.
Obama is not going to win BTW. I think McCain will win about 285 electoral votes. The Congress though will be controlled by the Dems. For that you have George Bush to thank.
Well, by his own definition, he only served in peace time then.
I am not beating anyone’s drum here. Just used your words Skip. My point to you is that emotions like anger (and hate) are luxuries that are too pricy to afford in this political environment. I think from a conservative’s viewpoint that GWB has been an unmitigated disaster in office and set conditions for the extreme left to exercise more influence in this country than their numbers merit or deserve . I also agree with you that BHO will not win but it will be close.
The Skipster recently snarked on his own blog that he had been accused of BDS “for the hundredth time,” yet he still trumpets his hatred of GWB. Even to the extent that he refuses to recognize that the ’06 elections did get rid of Rummy and did lead to the surge strategy.
More than that, he places all onus on the current GOP situation on pore ol Dubya’s head, while (apparently) pointing no fingers at the Republican leaders themselves. It’s all George’s fault that the compassionate conservatives inside the beltway acted like a bunch of power-mad, pork-engorged hypocrites.
The current status of the GOP has nothing do do with Denny “slimeball” Hastert, Ted “bridge” Stevens, or Trent “haven’t paid for my own lunch in years” Lott. Oh no!…
Skippy-sama: two words: seek help, now.
(Somewhat) more seriously, the logic of Senator Kerry’s words are unchallengeable; since there had been no declaration of war (or AUMF), we really were “basically” (i.e. technically, as a point of law) at peace.
Mind you, I’m not saying it wasn’t a dumb thing to say, but technically he’s right.
Just like technically he earned all three Purple Heart citations.
You know. Technically.
Casey,
I guess it is all up to interpretation. I am not sure exactly what the 06 elections had to do with the surge. ( Which was not a surge, but a graduated troop increase over time and was not sustainable as is being proven now as the numbers come back down-exactly as was predicted long before “progress” started happening.) . Also 04 and 06 were two years apart. Rumsfeld was still there in 04. Are you saying the surge would not have happened if the Republicans had kept control of Congress?
Bush is the leader of his party. He sets the agenda and he also can herd the cats back into line if he chose to. He is the visible symbol of that agenda. Hastert, Lott and the rest are symptoms not the root cause.
And in truth, whatever agenda Bush had, became sidetracked by the war in Iraq. Even his own people acknowledge that.
Being able to see that does not make one deranged-just intelligent.
Re: The Cole-it is important to remember that Bush had an opportunity to correct any mistakes Clinton made after 20 Jan 2001. He essentially carried on the Clinton policy for whatever reason.
In order:
-the 06 elections gave the Democrats the balance of power, and Rummy immediately resigned. Yes, I do see a linkage. Also, the surge/uptempo/whateveryoucallit change in strategy followed after the 06 elections.
Bush is not necessarily the leader of the party, but leader of the current adminstration. This is a distinction many folks fail to observe.
re: deranged; I merely cite your own statement of “hatred” for Bush. I don’t hate Obama, Kerry, either Clinton, or even Nancy Pelosi, although “loathe” does come to mind after the latter’s recent idiot remarks with respect to Iran.
I do despise gits like Warner, Hastert, and Lott as much much as other wankers such as Byrd, Waters, and Jesse Jackson.
Certainly Bush made very significant mistakes with respect to Iraq strategy, but “hatred?”
As for Bush, Clinton, and the Cole; hindsight is always 20/20. Very few (if any) informed observers, at the time, made a public case for a significant change in policy. Let us especially note that Bush campaigned against “nation-building” in 2000.
I will make the claim that the common wisdom of the time was that the United States was the last-man-standing “hyperpower” (hideous term), and that Fukyama’s claim with respect to the “end of history” seemed self-evident.