MalleusMaleficarum's Comments (126)

“Why stop fighting for health care now? Dean says we should continue to pressurize the House during reconciliation. Why not? Woolsey and Slaughter are already drawing a line in the sand. That is the spirit. Send a message to the Senate and the White House - now apparently under control of the capitulationist, Emanuel.”

“Forgive, minigun, she knows not whereof she speaks. Thanks to Tom Hayden for illuminating a remote passage of history and reminding us of the massive social and political progress of the sixties.”

“Arianna, You are listening to the doublespeak of the Ministry of War - when you accept the statements of Gates and Clinton at face value. Listen more closely to Gibbs - the chief spokesman at the Ministry of Information. Gibbs is echoing Obama - Gates and Clinton are echoing the Pentagon. There is a mighty conflict raging between the Oval Office and the Pentagon now allied with Foggy Bottom. Obama appears to know that he is joined at the hip to the progressives, and he must not alienate them during election years - which for him - 2011 is critically important. Troops will start returning from Aghanistan on time just as he stated and his mouthpiece reiterated. Gates and Clinton are part of a mad scheme to undermine the left and impel a confrontation between neocons and progressives in a Gotterdammerung of Obama. He knows this and is determined to avoid this crude ploy. At least, that is my guess. So stop fretting about Gates and Clinton, they are hanging by slender threads while Atropos is sharpening her scissors and measuring the length of their political lives -- right now.”

“Actually there are more alternative interpretations than the two you have presented. Your focus could be out of alignment - Obama could be the avenging angel working stealthily to control the robber barons - or he could be a fraudulent actor-puppet employed by the barons to act as their shadow warrior. It is still too early to tell which model of Obama is correct. Keep correcting the focus, this narrative is far more complex than most believe.”

“Bravo! Bravissimo! Bravo, Max Blumenthal! You have exposed the anti-semitic ideology that is deeply inculcated in Christian Zionism - the fundamentalist strain of dispensationalism. This psychic virus is dangerously embedded in the evangelical cults of Texas and the South. Emanating from 19th century Britain, it metastatasized across the heartlands of the American South permeating the teachings and propaganda of generations of evangelists and their "flocks" from Billy Sunday and Billy Graham to Bob Jones, Oral Roberts, Jim Bakker, Jimmy Swaggart and Franklin Graham as well as a host of others. You have much work to do, and I urge you to keep doing what you are doing. You are making a huge difference.”

“Thanks to Andrew Weil for informing us about new documents detailing our outrageous and unconscionable cruelty to animals. As a vegetarian for over 30 years, I was struck by an ABC documentary that played against 60 MInutes in the early 80s that vividly depicted the modern equivalents of the slaughterhouses of Upton Sinclair's classic, The Jungle. Pythagoras was the first western intellectual to argue against eating meat on the grounds of animal rights. We need more books detailing the moral and health benefits of deleting meat.”

“Netanyahu's conduct has been outrageous - and so has the conduct of many members of Congress including Steny Hoyer who urged the president to back away from talking about the settlements. Obama should take M. J. Rosenberg's advice and issue invitations to a command performance at Camp David to iron out the final details on a peace settlement. What a good idea!”

“Bravo! Arianna, you have hit the nail on the head. On March 17, 2003, Robin Cook resigned from Tony Blair's cabinet over the war in Iraq. Cook delivered a very calm and dignified resignation speech to Parliament that sent shockwaves through the Labour Party. Cook was a senior member of Tony Blair's cabinet. In the first years of the Blair government, Cook had been Foreign Secretary, and he launched an ethical initiative to revolutionize British diplomacy. After he resigned, Cook became the spiritual leader of the Commons. Sadly, he died suddenly and unexpectedly of a heart attack when his popularity and moral authority were at their peaks. If Biden resigned, he could - after a decent interval - launch his campaign for the presidency in 2012 - and follow in the footsteps of RFK who opposed the Vietnam War with a moral authority unique in postwar US history.”

“McChrystal was insubordinate. He should go immediately. Unsupportive of the forthcoming hybrid or reoriented strategy, McChrystal is not the man for command of ISAF. Petraeus has done little to justify his position in an administration attempting to reshape America's relations with the Muslim World as the first and foremost phase of strategy to strengthen American national security. Petraeus should prepare to write his memoirs just like McChrystal.”

“Bang on the money -- as usual. Afghanistan in and of itself is not the problem -- terrorism is the problem, and Al Qa'ida is the onus of the terror problem. If we secure Afghanistan, Al Qa'ida will simply move to Pakistan, Somalia and Sudan -- and elsewhere. Are we at war against terror -- or against the very culture of Afghanistan? Thanks to Tom Hayden for this excellent and incisive column.”

“Bang on the money. McChrystal is insubordinate. He should be fired. If Obama does not fire him, he would be giving a green light to further insubordination - an that decision would be fatal for his presidency. McChrystal has got to go.”

“Chimark, your comment flies in the face of the facts presented in the article. Did you read it? With the addition of the public option and tort reform, support goes over 50% -- and that is a huge majority. Nobody in that majority would agree with your claim that the people don't want a public option. BTW -- it is polls, not poles. These terms are poles apart. Based on Zogby's numbers -- and he is by a wide margin the most accurate pollster in America -- If the bill came to a vote, health care reform would win in a landslide. Re-read his article.”

“A medal? - For advising the president to send 40,000 more troops into the quagmire? Then why not give medals to Bush and Cheney for sending over 100,000 troops into Iraq? McChrystal should be fired because he is a loose cannon on deck who attempted to seize the powers of the presidency by going public in an international press conference to put pressure on a sitting president - instead of going through channels - he communicated with the Commander-in-Chief through the front pages of the world press. Give him the boot, not any more medals.”

“There is plenty of outrage about Iraq, Afghanistan and the ugly melting pot of Bush-Cheney foreign policy. When a General flies to London to hold an press conference to put international pressure on the president, he is clearly insubordinate and usurping presidential authority. This column does not state that McChrystal leaked his report, but whoever did it was applying pressure to the president. People are still trying to put pressure on the president to adopt McChrystal's report that would extend US involvement in a failing war for years to come. If Obama retains McChrystal, he will be granting carte blanche to every US military officer to be insubordinate. Is that what you want to see, Ryan? A military government, of the people, by the people, for the people?”

“Obama's reluctance to rubber stamp the Generals' demand for more cannon fodder argues against his sending a "Drop Dead Message" to the American people. That Obama compelled McChrystal to meet him at the airport in Copenhagen for a terse 25-minute chat about the leaking of his truly horrendous report (the war is far worse than the MSM had been led to believe) suggests that Obama may be prepared to do battle with the Generals. With virtually zero political support from his base for the expansion of the war in Afghanistan in the form of a massive 'McChrystal Surge' -- Obama's role in history is clearly at stake. With political crises in Congress over health care (the public option is on the chopping block) and his high-profile peace initiative in the Middle East hitting rough seas, Obama may not be able to afford another political crisis that rocks his already shaken base and could send his numbers spinning to Bushian levels in the run-up to his mid-term elections.”

“Thanks to Gary Hart for this concise encapsulation of the transformative phase of warfare that took place within recent centuries. Lest we forget, terrorism gained traction in WWI and WWII (although it certainly did not start with them). Hitler's blitzkrieg resulted in the terror-bombing of London during the Blitz that was made even more horrific with the introduction of V1 and V2 rocket attacks that launched shortly after D-Day. The Allied bombings of European cities ultimately culminated in the most horrific acts of terror in the history of the known universe -- the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. America has much to answer for in the annals of terror and the gross monstrosity of high-tech war. The latest trend to robotic drones in Pakistan and Afghanistan is a worrying signal that worse will soon be on the way - robotic bombs on wheels, in submarines as well as smaller robotic surveillance and terror devices that will come flooding out of the factories of blue chip US corporations.”

“This problem is too big to be allowed to fail. Few outside of the Israeli right have noticed -- and it is clear that Brenner has not noticed -- that during his address to the UN General Assembly Obama did threaten Israel with withdrawal of US support for its security if she does not ensure the rights of the Palestinians.

Here is the quote that sent shockwaves through Jerusalem and Tel Aviv: "The United States does Israel no favors when we fail to couple an unwavering commitment to its security with an insistence that Israel respect the legitimate claims and rights of the Palestinians."”

“Slavery is a shame. Wage slavery of illegal aliens and migrant workers in the USA frequently leads to sexual exploitation in addition to financial exploitation. Slavery in all of its manifestations must be eradicated by the expansion and enforcement of the Universal Charter of Human Rights that is contained in the UN Declaration of Human Rights that became international law in 1948. Item Number 4 addresses slavery directly: "No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms." Thank goodness for Russell Simmons and his involvement in the United Nations as well as his marvelous organization: the Hip Hop Summit Action Network and the work of Dr. Benjamin Chavis.”

“Jimmy Carter is dead right -- American racism is alive and kicking in the Tea Party-Anti-Obamacare movement. Eric Deggans recalls the tactics of the opponents of civil right very well - stigmatizing King; Jackson and so many others by painting them with the McCarthite brush while branding them: Communists; Socialists and Marxists. Bravo!”

“Thanks for this hopeful agenda for the West, but it is glaringly apparent that the intellectually challenged populations of the USA are residing in the South East, the Plains from the Dakotas to Texas as well as pockets of redness in Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Utah and Arizona with Nevada and Colorado flashing from red to blue. Moving the Democratic National Convention to Denver was a good move, but hardly all that needs to be done. Much more must be done by the people of the West themselves - many of whom are victims of right-wing media and talk-radio pundits. A new media needs to emerge in the West. While it is great the HP is now based in Denver that is merely one small step instead of a quantum leap on what will be a rocky road to recovery.”

“Thank you, Max Blumenthal! You have unmasked the victims of the American media and education culture of disinformation. The people who assembled as the 9/12 movement are not normal demonstrators, they are the emotionally challenged and the mentally ill. They need health care as long as it covers group therapy, the talking cure and in appropriate cases -- medication and assisted recuperation. The opinions they hold are typical of the Republican benches in Congress -- where many of them need care, therapy and medication as well. Sadly, the condition is not restricted to the Republicans -- the Blue Dogs are sad mental cases as well.”

“The Republican performance during the presidential address was abominable. Sitting in their chairs, gawking, gesticulating, frowning, waving bits of paper -- they were exactly like "unruly school children" listening to a lecture about discipline in the school yard. But, they just don't get it. These people are not worthy of the nation they serve, and neither are the people who elected them -- and continue to support them. Whose responsibility is this travesty of justice? Our's -- those of us lucky enough to have been educated and nurtured competently. The cluster of imbecility nestled in the South -- surrounding New Orleans in an arc extending for 500 miles as well as sweeping across through Texas and northward up into the Great Plains to the Dakotas with branches into the Western lands: Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Arizona, Montana -- we have a nation within a nation saturated with olde tyme religion and its accompanying cant: creationism; anti-abortionism; anti-communism; racism; sexism and every other form of xenophobia; paranoia and schizophrenia. This very dangerous mass hysteria defies logic -- and it is the responsibility of every sane American to alleviate it -- and the pain it causes to its victims and their victims who are the rest of us who live with people so fundamentally challenged by modernity that they would prefer to pay their escalating insurance premiums until they die as a result of a lack of coverage rather than to adopt the real world solutions of every other advanced industrialized nation on”

“Dead right and bang on the money. David Sirota is always readable and righteous, but he has improved markedly after returning from China last month. The case of Van Jones is tragic. Yes, he was ousted because of the braying of a gang of racists. Yes, he was ousted because of a loss of courage by Obama's staff in the White House. But, the worst facet of this tragedy -- is he was ousted largely because of his mild association with the 9/11 truth movement -- and that means that that Van Jones was ousted for a thought crime. This is simply intolerable and unacceptable in a progressive administration. No wonder Obama is losing political traction. His administration is doing everything in its power to appease the far-right, tea-baggers toting guns to protest the expansion of health care, while throwing Van Jones and his ilk under the bus. Obama is taking a hugely important IQ test this week with his speech to Congress, and another soon enough on McChrystal's demand for more troops in AfPak -- then a third when he goes to the UN to present his vision of the post-Bush Era. The world is watching, and we will know much more about this still nascent presidency soon, very soon.”

“Numbers cannot lie, but they can be misinterpreted. Zogby is right. Obama needs to redefine his message. Obama has been too weak on health care -- sending too many signals in hopes of a bipartisan bill. If Obama does ditch the public option, he will be pressing the delete button on a whole host of supporters -- especially young people who are fickle and idealistic -- but realistic about the health care insurance premiums they do not want to pay for the next 45 years. And, Tom Hayden is right as rain: Obama has acquiesced to the military-industrial complex, the Republicans, the DLC and the Blue Dogs on Afghanistan. McChrystal's latest plea for tens of thousands more American troops he can insert between the Taliban and the Afghani people should be rejected as intervention in what is unmistakably a civil war. It is time to pull the plug on a war that has no upside for US national security whatsoever.”

“The handwriting has been on the wall for a long time: Afghanistan is irrelevant to US security. No Afghans were involved in 9/11. McChrystal's 'report' is a thinly disguised piece of propaganda for mission creep that would insert thousands more American troops between the people of Afghanistan and the Taliban in what has become a savage civil war. In 8 years, the mission has morphed from 'mission improbable' to 'mission impossible.' For once, George Will is right -- it is time to pull out.”