Say it ain't so, Kosmo
This is two and a half minutes of disturbing footage. No matter how bad heckling may be, when it sparks an outpouring of racial epithets it reveals a whole lot more about the Heckled than the Hecklers. As a Seinfeld fan I find this particularly disturbing, something along the lines of finding out Babe Ruth corked his bat. The show Seinfeld was always very lacking of ethnic diversity, especially considering it was set in the great melting pot of cities; New York. But Kosmo Kramer seemed the most racially blind of the central characters. He was friend to all sorts of people--like Silvio the hispanic superintendent, Sid the African-American that parked cars on the block and Ping the Chinese delivery boy. But fiction and reality are very different things, and Michael Richards will have a hard time getting past this venomous diatribe.
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
Tuesday, November 07, 2006
Big Surprise!! Saddam sentenced to hang just in time to save the Republicans
Hey, we got our October Surprise—a couple days late—but how surprising was it to see the verdict handed down in the Saddam Hussein mockery…I mean, trial, all gift wrapped and ready for the Monday morning news blitz in the U.S.?
Great post from Sunday at Baghdad Burning about the Saddam Hussein verdict and how little it means to anyone outside the White House. The idea that the trial was ever fair or public or just is really comical. It’s been a show for the Western media and has been spun or blacked-out completely in Iraq. Granted, Saddam Hussein was and is a bad guy and he should be punished, but the idea that any of this is some triumph of justice is comical.
One thing to keep in mind is that the horrendous crimes he has been sentenced for occurred one year before this video and we absolutely knew it at the time but for some reason we weren’t appalled back then. At least not appalled enough to stop doing business with him.
Hearing Bush herald the Hussein verdict yesterday as some triumph of justice and democracy reminded me of the scene in HBO’s terrific series Rome in which Caesar presides over the public execution of a beaten down and barely conscious old king of Gaul. The Caesar allegories weren’t just in my own head however, here’s a piece from Guardian that points to similarities between the Roman Emperor and our Emperor-in-Chief.
Great post from Sunday at Baghdad Burning about the Saddam Hussein verdict and how little it means to anyone outside the White House. The idea that the trial was ever fair or public or just is really comical. It’s been a show for the Western media and has been spun or blacked-out completely in Iraq. Granted, Saddam Hussein was and is a bad guy and he should be punished, but the idea that any of this is some triumph of justice is comical.
One thing to keep in mind is that the horrendous crimes he has been sentenced for occurred one year before this video and we absolutely knew it at the time but for some reason we weren’t appalled back then. At least not appalled enough to stop doing business with him.
Hearing Bush herald the Hussein verdict yesterday as some triumph of justice and democracy reminded me of the scene in HBO’s terrific series Rome in which Caesar presides over the public execution of a beaten down and barely conscious old king of Gaul. The Caesar allegories weren’t just in my own head however, here’s a piece from Guardian that points to similarities between the Roman Emperor and our Emperor-in-Chief.
End Joe-mentum; Ned Lamont for Senate
I voted for Ned Lamont today because Joe Lieberman has been a yes-man to the Bush-Cheney Invasion Juggernaut from the start. I voted for Joe three times before today—though not for him as VP candidate in 2000, that year I voted for Nader. For me it was this interview and this statement from Lieberman that soured me on the guy—though the idea he has ever really been a liberal is a joke. Remember, in 2000 Joe was the right-leaning, hawkish foil to the liberal environmentalist Al Gore. And don’t forget about Terry Schiavo—Joe was on the wrong end of that one too.
Since mid-July I have been a volunteer working for the Ned Lamont campaign because I think Connecticut deserves a Senator who doesn’t roll-over for Dick Cheney and George Bush. This is an administration out of control and Joe’s claims of bi-partisanship are downright ludicrous when you’re dealing with a bunch that values embryonic goo over innocent men, women and children in Baghdad. The fundamental difference between Lamont and Lieberman is that Lieberman believes the Neocon crap about democracy’s infectious qualities and the idea that somehow a Western-friendly Iraq would become an ally and more importantly a beachhead in the Middle East from which the U.S. could launch missions into Iran and Syria. That dream looks pretty ridiculous now in the very bloody reality we see in Iraq but that hasn’t stopped Joe Lieberman from giving Bush-Cheney the green-light on Arab-killing and corporate profiteering in the Tigris-Euphrates Delta.
Plain and simple the Iraq War hasn’t helped anyone, except Iran, Halliburton and plenty of defense contractors.
The Bush-Cheney administration has terribly mishandled the War on Terror by sending US forces into Iraq—a country that had nothing to do with 9/11—and Joe Lieberman has cheered Bush on the entire time.
What do the experts say about Iraq and the Republican talking point that says “we’re fighting them there so we don’t have to fight them over here”?
“That argument works if you assume there is a finite group of people you can attract to one place and kill, but we seem to have expanded that group of people. The National Intelligence Estimate says we’ve expanded that group of people. This is not a group of flaming liberals saying this, it’s the collective opinion of 16 separate US intelligence agencies saying that there are more jihadists because of the Iraq War… Terrorism figures have basically gone exponential since 2003, when the 2006 figures come out I think it’s going to be a pretty sobering set of figures.”-Peter Bergen, author & terrorism analyst (AC360, 9/26/06)
“The American military presence has become a liability to long-term political stability in Iraq. And, the American presence in Iraq is radicalizing mainstream Muslim public opinion throughout the Muslim world, not just in Iraq. I don't think American policy makers have an appreciation of the gravity of the crisis and the damage that the American military presence has done to vital American interests in the region…”-Fawaz Gerges, author & professor of Islamic Studies (CNN’s AM, 10/24/06)
"While our army is bogged down in Iraq, the Iranians who had suspended their uranium enrichment activities have resumed them. Basically they are going full speed ahead toward a nuclear weapon. And they mock our president because they say: You can’t do anything. And why can’t you do anything? Your army is tied down in Iraq and secondly if you attack us our allies in Iraq, our Shiite allies, who you put in power, will attack you." –former U.S. ambassador Peter Galbraith BookTV C-Span2
People say monomania isn’t good for any political party but the Iraq War has become the central issue in this campaign and Joe Lieberman has been wrong on Iraq from the start. At about 250 million dollars per day, the Iraq War is costing American tax-payers more than our schools, or health care or social security combined and for what? We’re spending money to make more terrorists?
Joe has been in the Senate for 18 years and when you look at his record, how he's voted and which votes he's skipped, it's very clear he has lost touch with Connecticut’s citizenry. Let’s hope it stops tonight.
The polls are closed now in CT. Let the counting begin!
Since mid-July I have been a volunteer working for the Ned Lamont campaign because I think Connecticut deserves a Senator who doesn’t roll-over for Dick Cheney and George Bush. This is an administration out of control and Joe’s claims of bi-partisanship are downright ludicrous when you’re dealing with a bunch that values embryonic goo over innocent men, women and children in Baghdad. The fundamental difference between Lamont and Lieberman is that Lieberman believes the Neocon crap about democracy’s infectious qualities and the idea that somehow a Western-friendly Iraq would become an ally and more importantly a beachhead in the Middle East from which the U.S. could launch missions into Iran and Syria. That dream looks pretty ridiculous now in the very bloody reality we see in Iraq but that hasn’t stopped Joe Lieberman from giving Bush-Cheney the green-light on Arab-killing and corporate profiteering in the Tigris-Euphrates Delta.
Plain and simple the Iraq War hasn’t helped anyone, except Iran, Halliburton and plenty of defense contractors.
The Bush-Cheney administration has terribly mishandled the War on Terror by sending US forces into Iraq—a country that had nothing to do with 9/11—and Joe Lieberman has cheered Bush on the entire time.
What do the experts say about Iraq and the Republican talking point that says “we’re fighting them there so we don’t have to fight them over here”?
“That argument works if you assume there is a finite group of people you can attract to one place and kill, but we seem to have expanded that group of people. The National Intelligence Estimate says we’ve expanded that group of people. This is not a group of flaming liberals saying this, it’s the collective opinion of 16 separate US intelligence agencies saying that there are more jihadists because of the Iraq War… Terrorism figures have basically gone exponential since 2003, when the 2006 figures come out I think it’s going to be a pretty sobering set of figures.”-Peter Bergen, author & terrorism analyst (AC360, 9/26/06)
“The American military presence has become a liability to long-term political stability in Iraq. And, the American presence in Iraq is radicalizing mainstream Muslim public opinion throughout the Muslim world, not just in Iraq. I don't think American policy makers have an appreciation of the gravity of the crisis and the damage that the American military presence has done to vital American interests in the region…”-Fawaz Gerges, author & professor of Islamic Studies (CNN’s AM, 10/24/06)
"While our army is bogged down in Iraq, the Iranians who had suspended their uranium enrichment activities have resumed them. Basically they are going full speed ahead toward a nuclear weapon. And they mock our president because they say: You can’t do anything. And why can’t you do anything? Your army is tied down in Iraq and secondly if you attack us our allies in Iraq, our Shiite allies, who you put in power, will attack you." –former U.S. ambassador Peter Galbraith BookTV C-Span2
People say monomania isn’t good for any political party but the Iraq War has become the central issue in this campaign and Joe Lieberman has been wrong on Iraq from the start. At about 250 million dollars per day, the Iraq War is costing American tax-payers more than our schools, or health care or social security combined and for what? We’re spending money to make more terrorists?
Joe has been in the Senate for 18 years and when you look at his record, how he's voted and which votes he's skipped, it's very clear he has lost touch with Connecticut’s citizenry. Let’s hope it stops tonight.
The polls are closed now in CT. Let the counting begin!
Monday, November 06, 2006
Sunday, November 05, 2006
Scary Dick Cheney
Cheney's take on the Terrrorist-election connection is really paranoid stuff. This administration is in fantasy land.
When Stephanopoulos reads the Perle/Adleman criticism it clearly angers him and Cheney gives his usual, didn't read it-won't comment.
What the public thinks doesn't matter to Dick.
He makes it clear there will be no accountability, no oversight, no end.
Cheney's take on the Terrrorist-election connection is really paranoid stuff. This administration is in fantasy land.
When Stephanopoulos reads the Perle/Adleman criticism it clearly angers him and Cheney gives his usual, didn't read it-won't comment.
What the public thinks doesn't matter to Dick.
He makes it clear there will be no accountability, no oversight, no end.
Andrew Sullivan & Christopher Hitchens weigh-in on Kerry's bumble-mouth, Iraq and the sorely-need Bush Intervention
As a liberal I always love to see conservatives or libertarians that I respect see things my way or the Leftie way. Hitchens and Sullivan are pretty rough on Dubya and Grand Moff Cheney in this clip. It's delicious. Hitchens has such a kicking vocabulary he is great to listen to. Likewise for Sullivan.
-A.P.
As a liberal I always love to see conservatives or libertarians that I respect see things my way or the Leftie way. Hitchens and Sullivan are pretty rough on Dubya and Grand Moff Cheney in this clip. It's delicious. Hitchens has such a kicking vocabulary he is great to listen to. Likewise for Sullivan.
-A.P.
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