MalleusMaleficarum's Comments (41)

“Political poison provided by the powers-that-be in the Pentagon and behind-the-scenes in DC. The president should have refused to drink this particular poisoned chalice, but after talking about escalating Afghanistan since 2007 - he felt compelled to keep the one campaign promise that his supporters and the rest of the world hated - to escalate Afghanistan. Obama will announce his surge into an exit strategy - hoping to capture Bin Laden and Zawahiri in the process - at a massive cost of hundreds of billions of dollars - a drop of a dozen or more points in the polls over the next nine months - losses in both houses of Congress and a ball and chain controlled by the Pentagon. This is one promise he should not have kept. I can hear the sounds of protest mounting in DC and the halls of Congress. Dennis Kucinich will lead the chorus - and others will soon follow.”

“Agreed. Let's stop wasting American blood and treasure on the fantasies dreamed up by US military brass who were programmed at great expense at West Point, Annapolis and the Air Force Academy to satisfy the whims of the Military-Industrial Complex.”

“Agreed. The DLC and Blue Dogs are not Democrats. They are a Republican incursion into a party they would never support. This Congress would not pass the Civil Rights Act of 1965 nor the Voting Rights Act of 1965 - much less the ERA. The Clinton Era is a misnomer; it was a rebranding of the Reagan Era.”

“Hey, hey! Here's a prediction: Obama defeats cheney: 535 electoral votes to Zero.”

“Everyone deserves a shot at redemption.”

“Snowe can melt into oblivion from this point.”

“Fancy that! We are now approaching 2010, and some people in Wisconsin would have us eliminate racism, abortion and gay rights from informed discussion. What Wisconsin Dave must want is to roll back the centuries to the 18th when these topics were taboo.”

“A brilliant award for the Nobel Committee - they selected the single most powerful person on the planet and gave him an award for Peace -- impelling him to earn the award every day for the rest of his life -- and he has said as much.”

“The war in Afghanistan is counter-productive to America's interests in the area: it enflames terrorists and insurgents alike. It is a no-brainer: the US should remove its troops (and those of its allies) and rely instead on commando and special operations forces to conduct surgical combat against Al Qa'ida. Even if we were to stabilize Afghanistan, that would not guarantee that Al Qa'ida would not simply move to Africa, Somalia or Sudan or to a new roost in Asia: Indonesia; India or Pakistan. We are not accomplishing anything positive in Afghanistan in terms of US national security - quite the opposite. We should get out before the war becomes perpetual.”

“This column is deceptive, selective and literally nothing more than pro-war propaganda. In London, McChrystal ridiculed Joe Biden's counter-terrorism strategy with the pungent phrase, "Chaos-ist­an." That is not media pimping - that came straight from the horse's mouth. McChrystal is insubordinate. He should be fired.”

“Jimmy Carter is dead right -- as usual. The entire Tea Party movement is racist. The American right is going insane. This phenomenon is worse than a mass nervous breakdown -- it is massive anti-social behaviour fueled by paranoia wrapped in xenophobia and inserted into its core of rabid racism.”

“James Carville is a disgrace to his natilon, his Party and the people of the United States of America. Wealthy beyond the wildest dreams of most Americans, Carville is currently engaged in rigging elections in Afghanistan -- even after they have been held. Carville's comments on the public option can be taken with a grain of salt, like the rest of his commentary -- pure propaganda bought and paid for by the highest bidders.”

“The boycott was triggered by Mackey. He can end it any day he wishes -- by resigning. Whole Foods is bleeding millions, and one man's arrogance is killing the corporation. If he had any decency, he would go.”

“Thanks for unmasking a useless Democrat. Let's send him back to North Dakota.”

“Democrats do control majorities, but the leadership is not in control of every Democrat. If you voted in the last election, why didn't you vote in previous years when you were out in what you term, "The Cold?" Those elections were the ones when Reagan-Democrats (read Republicans infiltrating the Democratic Party) won elections, and they are now blocking single-payer and attempting to block the public option to keep their backers in Blue Cross+Blue Shield happy. Some leading Blue Dogs are Evan Bayh and Mary Landrieu, just to name two. If you really want change, you need to vote in every election -- every year without exception. Oh, yeah -- don't expect miracles just because you cast your magic ballot. American democracy is highly imperfect. I have been a progressive long enough to remember the ideological thrust of the New Deal and the New Frontier as well as the Great Society. America has been moving backward in time since Reagan. Obama has finally begun to move in a positive direction, but he has only been president for 200 days. That said, it is our job to keep the pressure rising for positive change.”

“Afghanistan is morphing ever more congruently into the Vietnam of the 21st century. Heaven help us in America: war in Iraq; war in Afghanistan; meltdown, burn-out and bailout with trillions evaporating from the national treasury and healthcare stalled in Congres -- when will the American people wake up and demand the change they believed in?”

“Emanuel was deeply destructive of the progressive tradition of the Democratic Party that lifted Obama to victory. Rahm did not make his support of Obama public until the day after the Montana primary when Clinton conceded. That said, he is now being demonized by the Israeli right -- so he is serving some purpose that is less hawkish than his usual schtick -- but that is not enough. Obama needs a progressive heavyweight like Howard Dean running the Oval Office. If Rahm cannot deliver a public option that retains the Kucinich Amendment that allows states like California, New York, Illinois, Florida and Pennsylvania to set up their own single-payer systems -- he should go.”

“Lou Dobbs is merely one major disgrace to CNN. Here are merely two more: Pat Buchanan and Wolf Blitzer. Sack them all and start over with new talent. The CNN alums can follow their true calling into hate speech on the radio ala Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage and Don Imus.”

“Sadly, Rusty DePass is a typical Columbia, South Carolina Republican operative, a fan of Rush Limbaugh, Don Imus and Michael Savage -- a Confederate flag-waving supporter of Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and their religious crusades -- ie. what is wrong with this nation.”

“There is absolutely nothing to substantiate the claims of neocon conspiracy theorists like Romney and Perle that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons. The IAEA and the NIE both refuted those rumors long ago, but Romney, Perle and Cheney still keep repeating their big lie.

If Romney had been elected POTUS, Ahmadinejad would have won with no serious opposition. The fact that he had to rig his own election and is now facing down violent street protests is directly attributable to Obama -- whose Cairo message got through to the Iranian people who want a rapprochement with America.

Romney is dangerous because he is so much more credible than Palin -- but he shares her flat earth view of the planet.”

“Feingold is dead right. Nobody should be above the law. To grant a general amnesty to the top civilian leaders who ordered and authorized war crimes and torture would be to transform America into a fascist military dictatorship. For most of the past eight years, America was under the control of a willful and reckless regime of military hardliners and fellow-travelers who deliberately engaged in suicidal statecraft. There is no conceivable reason in law or justice why they should be granted amnesty for their egregious crimes.”

“Nicholas Cage is finding the current economic situation challenging. That is not overly surprising nor newsworthy. Cage is not the world's most talented actor. He may have one of the world's most talented agents. Cage's performances are tortured but wooden. His acting in Leaving Las Vegas was apoplectic. Actually, Cage the actor is a caricature of Ben Stiller's portrayal of Tugg Speedman, an overblown egocentric prima donna whose most recent performance had been canned as, "the worst film ever."”

“Since when? Kitty Kelley published Jackie Oh! in 1978 in case you missed it. JFK's private secretary, Evelyn Lincoln, told authors that Jackie's affair with Onassis began before Dallas -- and that she had affairs with other men as well. All of this has been published in high profile books over the past 40 years. Jackie was not without her positive attributes, but she was unfaithful to JFK who was unfaithful to her. Jackie never had any intention of emulating Eleanor Roosevelt, and her image was like that of Carla Bruni's today rather than Hillary Clinton -- a stylish companion with a past, a present and a future after Camelot that consisted of hunting down wealthy and powerful men as if they were prey. In her childhood, her father -- the cad -- Black Jack Bouvier programmed her to go after wealthy lovers. Read some of the sources and cast aside your rose-colored glasses -- Jackie had feet of clay clad in solid gold sandals studded with diamonds, rubies, emeralds and pearls.”

“Thank goodness Michelle is no Jackie Kennedy! Jackie was elegant, but behind that veneer -- she was a total failure as First Lady. Jackie's greatest accomplishment was redecorating the White House, and she never attempted to build on the Eleanor Roosevelt model of a First Lady who cares about the poor, the underprivileged or the racial minorities. Neither was Jackie any saint as JFK's staff at the White House knew and wrote about in their memoires even before Kitty Kelley's piercing -- Jackie Oh! After JFK, Jackie pursued money and jewels in that order, and she got bags of both. No, Jackie Kennedy! Indeed, not! Michelle Obama is following in the footsteps of Eleanor Roosevelt and that other great First Lady: Hillary Clinton -- both of whom cared about helping people other than themselves.”

“While I am not Jason Linkins, I would like to express my view that Fareed Zakaria is the most intelligent presenter on US television and one of the boldest. Zakaria's program featuring the interview of Charles Freeman and focusing on the destructive role of Senator Charles Schumer should be compared to Edward R. Murrow's handling of Senator Joseph McCarthy. There can be little doubt that others at CNN - including Wolf Blitzer whose background includes stints with the Jerusalem Post and AIPAC - will go after Zakaria -- but the public is with him.”