"I'm not going to solely blame all of man's activities on changes in climate." b,121b,121Uhm, you got that the wrong way around there. b,121b,121img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/581.gif" alt="" /1
b,121katie couric is going to need therapy after these converations
b,121
b,121
h,121
font class="post"1b,121b,121Dude - this is like her finest hour. At cocktail parties, 20 years from now, she's going to be telling people in a drunken slur, "you know - I helped get President Obama elected back in '08".
Couric should win an Pulitzer for her calm and contained presence. She is a genius, a fox gently coaxing a foolish bunny out of a hole with the promise of leading it into a gentle carrot patch, and then trapping it. I mean she doesn't flinch and she continues to get the interview of a lifetime, revealing Palin as a total idiot.b,121True genius
b,121To be fair though, revealing Palin as a total idiot doesn't require much.
b,121
b,121
h,121
font class="post"1b,121b,121Absolutely. But Palin won't interview with anyone because they are all too scary. So Katie Couric is doing well as a seemingly non-threatening journalist who is leading her down the river. b,121b,121 img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/yaoming.gif" alt="" /1
My favorite Katie move is "everybody's been talking aboutb,121some really dumb shit you said last time - can you say it again?"b,121b,121 img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/badassbuddy_com-koolaid.gif" alt="" /1
b,121although "what magazines do you read?" is kind of a corny/useless question.
b,121
b,121
h,121
font class="post"1b,121b,121She should have scored a slam dunk. Just name some reputable mid-brow publications and be done with it. b,121b,121SHE WAS A JOURNALISM MAJOR!
b,121although "what magazines do you read?" is kind of a corny/useless question.
b,121
b,121
h,121
font class="post"1
b,121
b,121She should have scored a slam dunk. Just name some reputable mid-brow publications and be done with it.
b,121
b,121SHE WAS A JOURNALISM MAJOR!
b,121
b,121
h,121
font class="post"1b,121b,121b,121Maybe she has a subscription to The New Criterion, but didn't want to say it because it would make her lose her "everyday woman/hockey mom" image amongst her fans by coming off as elitist...?b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121b,121Ha, don't worry, that was a joke.
b,121I am really glad to see Vitamin back on the board. I agree with others that he is one of the few conservatives here who has actually read a book and been out in the world. That being said I think he is just plain wrong about Iran and the entire Middle Eastern conflict (from what I can remember in his older posts). His essential argument in as that Israel and American are victims of an organized, ruthless attack by Islamist Supremacists who will stop at nothing but the destruction of our two countries. Poppycock. b,121b,121 b1This is the greatest and most dangerous misunderstanding of fact one can image.[/b] b,121b,121 There is a vast difference between Al Qaeda (who do really want to drive us into the sea) and Iran at almost every level. To conflate the Iranian mullahs and their allies such as Hamas (a traditional terrorist liberation organization in the vein of the IRA and the ANC, that is, an organization with a very broad base of popular appeal in an occupied country) with someone like Osama Bin Laden is stupid. Iranians have beef with us (the western world) going back decades before the fall of the shah. We totally dominated their society for our benefit. 1979 was payback time in many Iranian's minds. To simply ignore these exigencies is patronizing and fool hearty.b,121b,121b,121Most of all demonizing these players is just plain bad politics. Our own experience in the cold war teaches us that extremist regimes (far more dangerous than the current Iranian one) can and do wind up evolving into relatively stable and friendly nations that, while highly imperfect, pose little or no threat to our security. The smart strategy in the cold war was to isolate and blunt the force of the bad actors while supporting our allies and ideology throughout the world. For us to wage a constant and unending unilateral military conflict against regimes like Iran (or say Cuba) would be/is a huge waste of time and misses the point. The Iranian mullahs want to dominate their own countrymen and have influence in their sphere in order to maintain their internal hegemony. While this makes life miserable for untold millions, we must take a long-term approach to moving them into our sphere. The long-term approach is to carrot and stick them into working toward a more acceptable international stance. This includes all kinds of low and mid level contacts to lay the groundwork for possible top level negotiations. Short term solutions like invading a sovereign nation are largely high risk, low reward endeavors.b,121b,121Of course, we have only strengthened the Iranians hand by invading Iraq. We removed the one military counterbalance in the region. We'll be reaping the winds of that folly for a generation. b,121b,121You may be asking yourself, when or where did Vitamin propose military conflict against Iran. He hasn't, per se. But I wonder what he thinks we ought to be doing with Iran. Sanctions are in place, we already back some of the opposition (even when we have been told by some of them it is counterproductive) and rattle sabres all day long. My suspicion is that he believes we must prepare for an eventual military conflict. I hope that I am wrong.
b,121 To conflate the Iranian mullahs and their allies such as Hamas (a traditional terrorist liberation organization in the vein of the IRA and the ANC, that is, an organization with a very broad base of popular appeal in an occupied country) with someone like Osama Bin Laden is stupid.
b,121
b,121
h,121
font class="post"1b,121b,121Broad base of support, sure. b,121b,121"in the vein of the IRA and the ANC" hardly.b,121b,121the Palestinians support Hamas for lots of reasons, but, despite that they are, by-and-large, rather a conservative group of people (esp. Gazans), only a minority of them actually agree with the a href="http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/mideast/hamas.htm" target="_blank"1end, stated goal of Hamas/a1 , i.e. the establishment of an Islamic polity in Palestine.b,121b,121support for Hamas is tied primarily to dissatisfaction with Fatah, their web of social services, and their relative effectiveness at killing Israeli Jews.b,121b,121the ANC and IRA on the other hand championed end goals that most of their supporters also actually wanted to see implemented.b,121b,121it's convenient for argument's sake to link Hamas to other liberation movements, but it's not really accurate.
font class="post"1b,121b,121dude sounds really shook and really defensive. he does not seem convinced at all of what he himself is saying re: her "experience."
b,121 To conflate the Iranian mullahs and their allies such as Hamas (a traditional terrorist liberation organization in the vein of the IRA and the ANC, that is, an organization with a very broad base of popular appeal in an occupied country) with someone like Osama Bin Laden is stupid.
b,121
b,121
h,121
font class="post"1
b,121
b,121Broad base of support, sure.
b,121
b,121"in the vein of the IRA and the ANC" hardly.
b,121
b,121the Palestinians support Hamas for lots of reasons, but, despite that they are, by-and-large, rather a conservative group of people (esp. Gazans), only a minority of them actually agree with the
/a1 , i.e. the establishment of an Islamic polity in Palestine.
b,121
b,121support for Hamas is tied primarily to dissatisfaction with Fatah, their web of social services, and their relative effectiveness at killing Israeli Jews.
b,121
b,121the ANC and IRA on the other hand championed end goals that most of their supporters also actually wanted to see implemented.
b,121
b,121it's convenient for argument's sake to link Hamas to other liberation movements, but it's not really accurate.
b,121
b,121
h,121
font class="post"1b,121b,121b,121As you are well aware Hamas has moderated its stance on Israel over time. The PLO had a similar unyielding stance toward to Israel until very recently. You may not like them and they may end up being tyrants but Hamas is a real political player in a widespread movement to end occupation.
b,121 To conflate the Iranian mullahs and their allies such as Hamas (a traditional terrorist liberation organization in the vein of the IRA and the ANC, that is, an organization with a very broad base of popular appeal in an occupied country) with someone like Osama Bin Laden is stupid.
b,121
b,121
h,121
font class="post"1
b,121
b,121Broad base of support, sure.
b,121
b,121"in the vein of the IRA and the ANC" hardly.
b,121
b,121the Palestinians support Hamas for lots of reasons, but, despite that they are, by-and-large, rather a conservative group of people (esp. Gazans), only a minority of them actually agree with the
/a1 , i.e. the establishment of an Islamic polity in Palestine.
b,121
b,121support for Hamas is tied primarily to dissatisfaction with Fatah, their web of social services, and their relative effectiveness at killing Israeli Jews.
b,121
b,121the ANC and IRA on the other hand championed end goals that most of their supporters also actually wanted to see implemented.
b,121
b,121it's convenient for argument's sake to link Hamas to other liberation movements, but it's not really accurate.
b,121
b,121
h,121
font class="post"1
b,121
b,121
b,121As you are well aware Hamas has moderated its stance on Israel over time. The PLO had a similar unyielding stance toward to Israel until very recently. You may not like them and they may end up being tyrants but Hamas is a real political player in a widespread movement to end occupation.
b,121
b,121
h,121
font class="post"1b,121b,121Where did I say they were not a "real political player"?b,121b,121I took issue with your lumping them with the ANC and IRA. A convenient but ultimately inaccurate and misleading comparison.b,121b,121Their only "moderation" has been to agree to participate in the Oslo-creatd electoral process and to talk directly to the Israelis on a limited number of issues. They have never modified their charter and never expressed a departure from their end goals, which is what I was talking about.
Comments