Tuesday Morning Open Thread
9 hours ago
Showing posts with label Russia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Russia. Show all posts
Friday, September 12, 2008
Looking at the Moon Doesn't Make You an Astronaut
This quote-and-response regarding the Palin interview is just too awesome not to point out. From Balloon Juice:
Pressed about what insights into recent Russian actions she gained by living in Alaska, Palin answered: “They’re our next door neighbors and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska.”
Our very own Krista, in the comments, responds:And when I look out my window I can see the moon. Doesn’t make me a f*cking astronaut now, does it?
Sunday, September 7, 2008
McCain on Iraq; Irony Much?
I missed this quote from John McCain's acceptance speech but does anyone find it just a tad tone-deaf and ironic?
Russia’s leaders, rich with oil wealth and corrupt with power, have rejected democratic ideals and the obligations of a responsible power. They invaded a small, democratic neighbor to gain more control over the world’s oil supply, intimidate other neighbors and further their ambitions of reassembling the Russian empire.
Change just a few words and you get this:
[America]’s leaders, rich with oil wealth and corrupt with power, have rejected democratic ideals and the obligations of a responsible power. They invaded a small [Muslim country] to gain more control over the world’s oil supply, intimidate other neighbors and further their ambitions of [strengthening] the [American hegemony].
Thursday, August 28, 2008
Putin Accuses Bush of Prodding Georgia to Help McCain
I am not much of a conspiracy buff these days but our President has done far worse things than this that have been proven:
In an exclusive interview with CNN's Matthew Chance in the Black Sea city of Sochi Thursday, Putin said the U.S. had encouraged Georgia to attack the autonomous region of South Ossetia.
Putin told CNN his defense officials had told him it was done to benefit a presidential candidate -- Republican John McCain ...
"U.S. citizens were indeed in the area in conflict," Putin said. "They were acting in implementing those orders doing as they were ordered, and the only one who can give such orders is their leader."
Remember this story about Cheney trying to artificially foment war with Iran?
There [were] a dozen ideas proffered [by Cheney] about how to trigger a war. The one that interested me the most was why don’t we build — we in our shipyard — build four or five boats that look like Iranian PT boats. Put Navy seals on them with a lot of arms. And next time one of our boats goes to the Straits of Hormuz, start a shoot-up.Might cost some lives. And it was rejected because you can’t have Americans killing Americans. That’s the kind of — that’s the level of stuff we’re talking about. Provocation. But that was rejected.
Wednesday, August 27, 2008
British Foreign Secretary Calls BS on McCain
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband, the top diplomat of one of our closest allies, derided John McCain's bellicose rhetoric, calling his excessively provocative proposal to kick Russia out of the G8 "knee-jerk":
In a tough speech delivered in Kiev, Ukraine, Miliband said Russia will face consequences for its actions in Georgia. But he added: "In all international institutions, we need to review our relations with Russia. I do not apologize for rejecting knee-jerk calls for Russia to be expelled from the G8, or for EU-Russia or NATO-Russia relations to be broken. But we do need to examine the nature, depth and breadth of relations with Russia."
Friday, August 15, 2008
Wisdom from President Eisenhower for Today
Andrew Sullivan notes this poignant quote from President Dwight Eisenhower (of course, just a raving hippie peacenik):
"In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. ... We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together." Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961
Now I can more clearly see why his granddaughter, lifelong Republican Susan Eisenhower, endorsed Obama back in February:
Forty-seven years ago, my grandfather Dwight D. Eisenhower bid farewell to a nation he had served for more than five decades. In his televised address, Ike famously coined the term "military-industrial complex," and he offered advice that is still relevant today. "As we peer into society's future," he said, we "must avoid the impulse to live only for today, plundering, for our own ease and convenience, the precious resources of tomorrow. We cannot mortgage the material assets of our grandchildren without risking the loss also of their political and spiritual heritage. We want democracy to survive for all generations to come, not to become the insolvent phantom of tomorrow."
Thursday, August 14, 2008
McCain: A 20th Century Leader
There is a great new must-read post up today from Andrew Sullivan, who meditates on the state of American power in the world, the botched rationale for Iraq and the Georgia-Russia conflict. Money quote:
A thoroughly twentieth-century figure, [Sen. John McCain] lives and breathes war and conflict as a state of being. For him, it is always 1938 somewhere; America's duty is to control, occupy or intervene wherever any rival seeks influence and any group does not share our alleged values. And so American power must be brought to bear in Georgia and Iraq and Iran and Burma and Darfur and Bosnia and anyplace else where American interests are threatened or democratic allies seek help. And for militarist American exceptionalists, this all makes sense. This is the higher purpose McCain lives for: the glory of liberation, the thrill of conquest, the adoration of the soldier, the defeat of evil.
Read More: After The Cold War
Tuesday, August 12, 2008
McCain On Russia; Unhinged, Frightening
McCain's all-too-familiar rhetoric over the Georgia/Russia war of recent days is really starting to scare me. I had taken as a given that the idealogy of the neoconservative right had been thoroughly discredited by the farce that we got into in Iraq. Well, it looks more and more each day as if they have found a new champion in McCain.
John Marshall has it exactly right:
It's sort of funny when [McCain was] just an unhinged senator. But think for a moment where we'd be if this man were president right now, as he may well be in six months. This man takes the counsel of the people who got us into the Iraq War. On foreign policy, he is in league with the people who were so extreme they've now largely been kicked out of the Bush administration. People like John
Bolton and others like him.
It's beyond Obama or political strategy or dinging McCain on this or that policy. This man is simply too dangerous and unstable to be president. People need to wake up and get a look of the preview he's giving us of a McCain presidency.
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