Monday Afternoon Quick Hits
- The Flaming Crotch terrorist will not be leaving American soil, by the way. He will be tried and convicted and punished right here in the United States. Yet another change from the cowardly Bush Administration.
- The GOP is seeking to blame the Obama Administration (i.e. the Transportation Security Agency) for the secrrity breach in Nigeria that resulted in the Flaming Crotch terrorist getting onboard with fireworks. This blame game is a wonderous exercise, for guess who voted against TSA funding time and again?
- Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), earlier this year: “If we’re able to stop Obama on this [health care reform], it will be his Waterloo. It will break him.” Sen. DeMint now: “I never wanted to break the President. ” Do they ever not lie?
- I guess our purist friends will view this another Obama failure, like they view all Obama actions:
William Hochul, a twenty-year prosecutor with expertise in running counter-terrorism cases, was in line for promotion to Main Justice in 2006. Until Monica Goodling, the infamous figure from the US Attorney firings scandal, found out his wife is active in Democratic politics and killed the appointment. Now President Obama has nominated him to serve as US Attorney in the Western District of New York.
- A must read from Stephen Walt of Foreign Policy magazine on why the West should stay on the sidelines during the Green Revolution in Iran:
If you’re looking for a useful historical analogy, think back to the “velvet revolutions” in Eastern Europe. Neoconservatives used to argue that the rapid and mostly peaceful collapse of communism proved that rapid democratic transformations were possible in unlikely settings, and they used that argument to justify trying the same thing in Iraq. (We all know how well that turned out.) In fact, the velvet revolutions were a triumph of slow and patient engagement from a position of strength. The upheavals in Eastern Europe were an indigenous phenomenon and the product of containment, diplomatic engagement, and the slow-but-steady spread of democratic ideals through the Helsinki process and other mechanisms. And the first Bush administration was smart enough to keep its hands off until the demise of communism was irreversible, which is precisely the approach we ought to take toward Iran today.
I’m not sure if I am happy that Jud thinks that DL is the place to put this stuff or if I am annoyed that he is shilling for a bunch of loons on our site.
At least he had the sense to do it on an open thread.
I am sorry, but I will not allow Delaware Liberal to be a organizing tool for teabaggers. Jud, you have an extensive email list that you can use, and you are free to post your advertisement on Rethug sites.
Geek, that is a textbook definition of spam and it should be deleted.
“Despite a $787 billion federal stimulus package, much of the U.S. economy continued to sputter throughout the year. The jobless rate topped 10 percent nationwide, scores of banks failed, the federal deficit tripled to a record $1.4 trillion, and stock fell to their lowest levels since 1997.”
– Year-end report on the economy by the Associated Press, 12/27/09
Let us all pray for the violent deaths of all Iranian cops.
All Iranian cops? What an idiot. Please inform yourself, kaveman. There have been scattered reports of Iranian cops letting the protesters protest, walking away and wearing the green headbands. Do you guys ever tire of your overly simplistic, good and evil views? Is there anyone you wouldn’t kill?
I don’t pray for the deaths of anyone, no matter how vile or evil the person is. Indeed, if I did pray for the deaths of people I despise, Kaveman, you would be in the Top 50.
And Pandora is right. It is the religious hit squads that are really doing the crackdown. Some of the actual police and military have been stepping aside and even joining the protestors.