Scott McClellan's new book What Happened

[jillian]

As just a few sentences illustrated Jillian, the guy is a nutjob. I don't care if right or left, would you want your son exposed to this in college?

He's saying what most of the people I know say. Is everyone but your *side* a nutjob?

Does that answer your question? *shrug*

My son already knows what this administration is.

 

[Annie]

He's saying what most of the people I know say. Is everyone but your *side* a nutjob?

Does that answer your question? *shrug*

My son already knows what this administration is.

Gee, I thought you were more open-minded.

 

[OrnotBitwise]

Good idea ... why don't you? That "Bush lied" schtick is WAY old. Most every bit of intelligence from most nations concluded Saddam had WMDs. The few detractors that said "wait a minute, he might not" PRIOR to anyone actually knowing hardly equates to a lie.

If most of the world believed St. Saddam as pure as the driven snow, then how come UN Sanctions remained in place? And how come UN weapons inspectors were on the ground in Iraq looking for what everybody already knew he didn't have while he dillegently acted as if he WAS hiding something?

Sorry, bud ... the accusation doesn't wash. Just more revisionist Monday morning quarterbacking from the left.

Come now. I am not asserting that Hussein was "as pure as the driven snow." In fact no one is at the level of national politics. I'm simply asserting that his government was not any sort of credible, imminent threat to the United States. There's a huge wasteland of room between saying that Saddam was somehow a Good Guy and saying that the Iraqi government he dominated was enough of a threat to the United States that it needed to be, uhm, "taken out."

It is not in any way valid to say that if I do not believe the invasion of Iraq was justified then I must believe that Saddam Hussein was an (unmolested) altar boy. There's always a question of degree and proportionality -- something you conservatives are all too ready to brush aside. You don't seem to do gray very well.

 

[midcan5]

You can pick on his style but his content fits conservative accomplishments well. Accomplishments is probably the wrong word but it is results that count, he nails them.

 

[midcan5]

OrnotBitwise, another of the old crew, welcome.

 

[Annie]

Come now. I am not asserting that Hussein was "as pure as the driven snow." In fact no one is at the level of national politics. I'm simply asserting that his government was not any sort of credible, imminent threat to the United States. There's a huge wasteland of room between saying that Saddam was somehow a Good Guy and saying that the Iraqi government he dominated was enough of a threat to the United States that it needed to be, uhm, "taken out."

It is not in any way valid to say that if I do not believe the invasion of Iraq was justified then I must believe that Saddam Hussein was an (unmolested) altar boy. There's always a question of degree and proportionality -- something you conservatives are all too ready to brush aside. You don't seem to do gray very well.

Right, Saddam was the same as say Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, or George Bush. Now I understand. Then again this is Putin, he falls where on your scale. Or Chavez? Castro? Brown?

 

[OrnotBitwise]

Right, Saddam was the same as say Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton, or George Bush. Now I understand. Then again this is Putin, he falls where on your scale. Or Chavez? Castro? Brown?

It's not a scale, per se. There are too many dimensions to reduce it to a simple "Goodness vs. Badness" axis.

How many of the nations whose leaders you've named would you advocate invading and occupying? That's the real question. You can say that Saddam Hussein was an evil freakin' dictator and I wouldn't disagree for a second. He was. That isn't enough to justify invading another sovereign nation, killing tens of thousands of people and uprooting the lives of millions. Not by itself.

You simply can't impose freedom on anyone. It won't work. In the practical sense, you can't "liberate" a nation from its own government unless there's a strong native opposition movement ready to step into the power vacuum AND one that is in favor of your intervention. That's a rare combination. It certainly didn't exist in Iraq.

Cuba? Oh, hell no. We tried that, for one thing, and it didn't turn out well at all. More to the point, the majority of Cubans are proud of their nation and would never support any sort of military intervention. Not even those Cubans who hate Fidel's guts.

Venezuela? Please, give me a break. You want to turn that nation over to the corrupt, grasping plutarchs who would inevitably take over should Chavez be overthrown? I should think we'd have learned our lesson from Nicaragua and El Salvador.

Russia? That's . . . that's too over the top to even consider. There are far less messy ways to commit suicide.

 

[jillian]

Gee, I thought you were more open-minded.

I have made observations over the last seven years that have resulted in certain conclusions. Must one not ever arrive at an opinion in order to be "open-minded". If that's the case, I'll pass.

But you know what, I have voted for a republican in every mayoral election I ever voted in, and a good chunk of the gubernatorial elections (when Pataki was running). And I will probably do so again. But until this virus passes that's infected repubs on a national basis, I can promise I will never use my vote to help send a repub to Washington again.

 

[DeadCanDance]

I was going to go through this whole rant, but became bored. This poli sci prof is enough to give all a bad name. He's not typical in his stupidity, but too much so in his bias.

David Michael Green is a professor of political science at Hofstra University in New York. He is delighted to receive readers' reactions to his articles (dmg@regressiveantidote.net), but regrets that time constraints do not always allow him to respond. More of his work can be found at his website, www.regressiveantidote.net.

Rant?

I scanned this, and these sentiments are exactly how tens of millions of americans feel. From Terri Schiavo to Iraq, to the mountain of debt your president has loaded our children with. There's very little in there that is factually wrong, albeit it is written as a criticism of these lame conservative policies.

This guy is an american who is free to express his opinion. There was nothing in here, that isn't shared by tens of millions of americans.

And what's it got to do with his teaching? I'm under the impression he posted this on a private blog, or something. Every citizen of this country has the right to express an opinion.

 

[Chips Rafferty]

I have made observations over the last seven years that have resulted in certain conclusions. Must one not ever arrive at an opinion in order to be "open-minded". If that's the case, I'll pass.

But you know what, I have voted for a republican in every mayoral election I ever voted in, and a good chunk of the gubernatorial elections (when Pataki was running). And I will probably do so again. But until this virus passes that's infected repubs on a national basis, I can promise I will never use my vote to help send a repub to Washington again.

You can be sure of one thing; the next Presibent will sycophantically seek and have the blessing of the Christian kingmakers.

A MINORITY of manifestly malicious, "evil" people - that their professed saviour would have flogged out of the synagogue - masquerading as a “moral majority,” run American politics.

Christ Almighty could return and run for office and he wouldn’t get an endorsement, from either Partei, unless he played the hypocrite and pretended to be a typically pharisaic American Christian.

In fact, the way he dressed and wore his hair would likely get him dragged to death behind some good ol’ boy's pickup truck for being a filthy poncing little ******.

America, unlike most western nations, is a country with its communal mind still mired in the 17th century. Americans have been brainwashed from birth to believe that only they, as true Bible believin’ Christians, are inherently “decent” and thus manifestly destined to dictate to an "evil" world.

Nothing can change in the US, or the wider world, until Americans are de-programmed from this Christapitalist inculcated myth that they are more deserving than others.

One only has to compare the fruits of American politics – mass murder, mayhem, mugging, and misery on a global scale - with its alleged compassionate pacifistic Christian credentials, to see that “something is rotten in the state of Denmark.”