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Obama’s Presidency on the Brink
Wed, 07/15/2009 - 2:04pm | mal contends
And so is our country.
How President Obama reacts to three catastrophes will define his presidency.
And none is the health care crisis, as critical as that is, and as annoying as are the Republican lies about public health care.
The catastrophes are Afghanistan, Goldman Sachs, and Veterans Affairs, none of which show a clear path to an acceptable humanitarian and political resolution.
Afghanistan
“Fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders. The most famous is 'Never get involved in a land war in Asia!’” said Vizzini in The Princess Bride, a brilliant film my girlfriend talked me into watching.
Or as Gregory Feifer puts it in The Great Gamble, The Soviet War in Afghanistan (HarperCollins, 2009), “The Soviet war in Afghanistan again confirmed that no power ever successfully conquered that land … [From] Cyrus the Great [to] Alexander the Great … [to] the British … foreign forces have often moved into Afghanistan with relative ease, they’ve never been able to maintain control.”
Feifer and Vizzini might have added that the difficulties of the invaders paled in comparison to the devastation wreaked upon the invaders’ Afghan victims who after all were slaughtered and maimed on a level surpassing the American imagination.
And none is the health care crisis, as critical as that is, and as annoying as are the Republican lies about public health care.
The catastrophes are Afghanistan, Goldman Sachs, and Veterans Affairs, none of which show a clear path to an acceptable humanitarian and political resolution.
Afghanistan
“Fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders. The most famous is 'Never get involved in a land war in Asia!’” said Vizzini in The Princess Bride, a brilliant film my girlfriend talked me into watching.
Or as Gregory Feifer puts it in The Great Gamble, The Soviet War in Afghanistan (HarperCollins, 2009), “The Soviet war in Afghanistan again confirmed that no power ever successfully conquered that land … [From] Cyrus the Great [to] Alexander the Great … [to] the British … foreign forces have often moved into Afghanistan with relative ease, they’ve never been able to maintain control.”
Feifer and Vizzini might have added that the difficulties of the invaders paled in comparison to the devastation wreaked upon the invaders’ Afghan victims who after all were slaughtered and maimed on a level surpassing the American imagination.
mal contends's blog | 
2 comments | 
Tags: Politics, Afghanistan, Barack Obama presidency, Eric Shensiki, Global Economic Crisis, Goldman Sachs, Gordon Duff, Gregory Feifer, MATT TAIBBI, Robert Scheer, The Princess Bride, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), Vietnam Veterans, Vietnam Veterans of America
Matt Taibbi on John McCain's Problem with the Religious Right
Tue, 07/29/2008 - 4:28am | mal contends
Matt Taibbi in Rolling Stone discusses the failure of John McCain to consolidate his position as GOP nominee with the religious right, asking: Is this the end of the GOP's unholy alliance?
As written here before, though I happen to disagree with their descriptive facts of the world, those of the religious right whom I have met personally (here in Wisconsin) are earnest and well-intentioned, disdainful of cynicism and involved in the concept of community. And they do not respect liars.
And that's why McCain is not playing well.
(H)is basic stump speech doesn't contain a single line about God or religion. McCain is probably the first Republican in modern history to talk more about 'green technology' than about his personal relationship with Jesus Christ. ...
As written here before, though I happen to disagree with their descriptive facts of the world, those of the religious right whom I have met personally (here in Wisconsin) are earnest and well-intentioned, disdainful of cynicism and involved in the concept of community. And they do not respect liars.
And that's why McCain is not playing well.
(H)is basic stump speech doesn't contain a single line about God or religion. McCain is probably the first Republican in modern history to talk more about 'green technology' than about his personal relationship with Jesus Christ. ...