Brendan Slattery

And what a poor show you put on, at that. The quality was very lacking. Owen, Mommy needs the computer. Off to bed you go.

Since serving in the military is not a right, it stands to reason that it is a privilege--whether you want to join or not. I never had any interest in a military career, hence the college route. BTW, I also support professions such as engineering, carpentry, and lawn maintenance, even though I perform none of them. Does that make me a hypocrite too? Military recruiters typically stake out high schools when looking for soldiers, not colleges. The intelligence agencies are more interested in the college crowd, as are the civil service departments. Do you even live in the States? This stuff is common knowledge. I see, so anybody who supports a war should sign up for said war. Do I read you right? Talk about a cluttered battlefield. Methinks this only applies to wars you object to. Why not start smaller? I support police protection, so naturally I should be walking a beat, right? I'm also in favor of garbage collection, so I shouldn't be wasting my time doing PR, correct? I like drivable roads, so naturally I should be laying tar with the orange vest guys, right? Ever used fossil fuels like coal? Sure you have. Coal mining has claimed a lot of lives recently. And yet consumers like you sit back and reap the benefits of their sacrifice and hard work. Get down in that coal mine, Len! Get down in that coal mine! Ever put a diamond on your wife's finger? Diamond mining can be positively lethal. Get your ass in that diamond mine, Len! Ever pumped gasoline into your car? Of course you have. Drilling for (and later refining) that oil can be pretty hazardous, no? Get your ass on that oil rig, Len! Pronto! Or are you too "chicken"? You wanna play games? Fine, let's play games. Probably because you're a pacifist, which is objectively pro-insurgent. It is if dissent is all you bring to the table. I think you're misquoting him. Wow. Once upon a time Barry was the "extremist" in these circles. Guess he's moving up in the world.

Bill, the man called me a little xxxx and a dummard. From that I'm supposed to infer "seriousness"? Not true. I posted a long reply to Simkin yesterday and cast a cold eye towards Putin's Russia in several different posts. Look harder. BTW, not all of these threads require bloated dissertations on my part. Quality, not quantity.

That's because everything's suspicious in Buff Land. Ken Lay? Suspicious! Gary Webb? Suspicious! Head snap? Suspicious! Motorcade route? Suspicious! Slattery? Brilliant! You get the picture.

People, we are officially beyond parody.

That means sooo much coming from a country blighted by urban crime, hooded yobs, empty churches, skyrocketing abortions/STDs, and general bad dentistry. Does your NHS insurance cover mental illness? Oh, I'm fairly intelligent (undergrad and grad, UW-Madison). Fought hard for continued CIA recruitment on campus in 1985--and won. Ah, the good ol' days. So much for the special relationship ...

Never had the privilege. Another neo-con chickenhawk...Never had the guts to fight the battles you advocate? Another self-hating Western appeaser...Never had the guts to volunteer for "human shield" duty?

Never had the privilege.

Terry, you really need to work on your comebacks. The one above is so oooollldddd. Do you have no other weapons in your arsenal? ************************************************* "Terry, you really need to work on your comebacks. The one above is so oooollldddd. Do you have no other weapons in your arsenal?" But, of course I do, my child. Except in chronic cases of "hoof 'n' mouth" disease, of which you seem to be exhibiting of late. THE CLYDE AWARD seems to be the antidote for that malady. If, for serving no other purpose than that of reminding one of the graveness of their condition. Unfortunately, there are those of us who find your case of it to be one of extreme toxicity, as well as malodorous in content, having seemingly progressed to its terminal stages. Pity, for someone so young as yourself to have been so negatively afflicted. P*R*E*T*E*N*T*I*O*U*S. Try again.

Terry, you really need to work on your comebacks. The one above is so oooollldddd. Do you have no other weapons in your arsenal?

There is no doubt in my mind that it wasn't a CIA plot, but implying that it was does make for a more interesting story. Besides, why would the CIA want Jack gone ... he has been their best asset at making CT's look incompetent! Bill Miller Post of the Day.

Nostalgic for the good ol' days of centralized Politburo planning, eh? Your ex-KGB buddy's autocratic ways didn't escape the notice of today's Wash Post opinion section: Putin's 'Sovereign Democracy' By Masha Lipman Saturday, July 15, 2006; Page A21 MOSCOW -- In the weeks before the Group of Eight summit in St. Petersburg, two things went on at once: There was an intense public relations effort to improve Russia's image and, along with it, a widening crackdown on democracy and individual freedoms. The reality, not obscured by the PR, is that the Russian government has resorted recently to police practices strongly reminiscent of those used some three decades ago in the Soviet Union. On the public relations side, one of the most influential Kremlin aides, Vladislav Surkov, met with Western journalists to explain that Russian "sovereign democracy" is not much different from democratic practices of the Western countries. "Sovereign democracy" is a Kremlin coinage that conveys two messages: first, that Russia's regime is democratic and, second, that this claim must be accepted, period. Any attempt at verification will be regarded as unfriendly and as meddling in Russia's domestic affairs. About a week after Surkov's media session, President Vladimir Putin attended the "civil G-8," an international conference of human rights and nongovernmental organizations. For two hours he listened politely to the participants' concerns and told them that he was pleased to be among like-minded people and glad to talk about human rights in Russia. He then spent three more hours at dinner with a group of conference members representing international public organizations. But the performance wasn't entirely convincing. The day after their meeting with the president, representatives of many leading Russian and foreign human rights organizations issued a statement in which they expressed "deep concern about the situation with human rights in Russia" and cited a "systemic crisis in the field of human rights and democratic institutions." "Concealment of these issues," the statement says, "will promote further degradation of the situation with human rights and the erosion of democracy in Russia." These concerns are fully justified by the government's consistent effort to clog up every channel for public participation in politics and to block every opening for the emergence of an autonomous force on the Russian political scene. In the course of Putin's presidency, such fundamental elements of democracy as separation of powers, an independent judiciary, the rule of law and press freedom have been gravely undermined. Over the past year and a half the Kremlin has conducted an ongoing electoral reform aimed at consolidating the dominance of the pro-Kremlin party United Russia. The most recent legislative initiatives further broaden the administrative and legal authority to exclude candidates from party slates and to bar or remove parties from the race altogether. According to a Communist deputy in the Duma, the Russian legislation provides more than 60 pretexts for eliminating the unwanted. In one of the most notorious recent innovations, the practice of early voting has been reintroduced after being removed from Russian law just a few years ago. The practice, in which ballot boxes are brought to voters prior to the election so they can vote outside regular polling stations, where no public observer can watch them, provides an easy way to rig the election results. During the Belarusan presidential elections in March, the "early vote" accounted for at least 20 percent of the turnout, with President Alexander Lukashenko winning over 80 percent of it. A new alarming development is the use of police-state practices. Much as they did when President Richard Nixon visited Moscow in 1974, authorities are arresting and detaining public activists, with no legal basis for doing so. Three decades ago Communist authorities prevented dissidents and refuseniks from contacting the members of Nixon's delegation. This month, in the days before the G-8 summit, more than 100 people were intimidated, harassed or beaten by the police in various Russian cities. In some cases their passports were taken away from them for no legal reason. Some were young radicals headed for St. Petersburg to rally against the summit; others were on their way to Moscow to attend "The Other Russia," a meeting of Kremlin political opponents and human rights NGOs held Tuesday and Wednesday. "The Other Russia" was attended by a few prominent foreign diplomats as well as U.S. administration officials who had been warned by the Russian authorities that they should stay away from the event: A high-ranking Kremlin official said that attendance would be treated as an "unfriendly gesture." Foreign officials ignored the Kremlin message and attended the event, at which four young activists were arbitrarily arrested and a German journalist beaten when he tried to photograph the arrests. Thus it's likely that Putin's PR effort was lost on the foreign dignitaries who attended "The Other Russia" -- just as it is lost on anyone who has been paying heed to actual developments in Russia rather than to the official pre-summit rhetoric. Increasingly, the work of improving Russia's image seems a ritual gesture rather than a serious objective of the government. The country's abundant energy assets have freed it to practice "sovereign democracy" and act with little or no regard for the judgments of outsiders. By no means does Russia or its wealthy elite want to be isolated. Putin wants recognition of Russia's leading position on the world scene and respect for its economic and geopolitical interests. But he demands that it be recognized as is, not at the cost of softening his increasingly authoritarian policies. Masha Lipman, editor of the Carnegie Moscow Center's Pro et Contra journal, writes a monthly column for The Post.

No, you lose. Mark didn't use the word "crazy." He used the word "scary" (quite appropriately, IMO) to describe people holding political views much like your own who are currently on the rise in my country. The McKinney picture didn't address anything he said. I covered the "scary" part in post #25. I have moved on to crazy. Please try to keep up. Sounds like you'd be much happier in Putin's Russia, although I can't vouch for the radio reception over there. Bon voyage. Jack, I think that alleged ice pick did more damage than you realize. Were you a normal person before the attack?

Yeah, but the discussion was at no point about Cynthia McKinney. This is just a diversionary on your part to avoid serious discussion and scrutiny. Not true. Mark invoked "crazy" leaders in DC, and she's certainly one of them. I win.

Because we all know W hasn't been attacked, lampooned, maligned, or satirised on this forum. You can dish it out ...

You're right. It's pretty damn scary. Please stay away.

I'd like it just fine because I'd still have the power to, you know, NOT LISTEN. Don't you think the Russian people deserve that same CHOICE? And please don't tell me you're so naive as to think the licensing issue is anything more than a ruse to suppress opinions they don't like. BTW, Beeb World Service is state-sponsored radio. Are they propagandists too?

Yes, I'm sure you'd be just as cavalier if Bush tried to shut down CNN, NPR, or the Wash Post. Riiiight.

John unconvincingly wrote: Wanna be a lefty? Do it on your own time. You have zero right to proselytize or indoctrinate a captive audience. Spartacus is not "education"; it's a laughably biased, one-sided stroll through the darkest recesses of your mind. Sorry, wasn't alive yet. It this some sort of veiled allusion to so-called McCarthyism, another of your pet obsessions? Far-left classroom radicals like John tend to invoke phrases like "witch-hunt" to remind their charges that witches never actually existed. While that may have been true in 17th century America, that was hardly the case in the 1950s. I hate to break this to you, but Communists in the State Department, Pentagon, and Hollywood did exist, except that McCarthy never found them. The witches were there (ever read the Venona papers?), but the hunt was incompetent and spectacularly flawed. And no, you had no right to a classroom or the airwaves if you were Communist at the height of the Cold War, just as unrepentant Al Qaeda/terrorist sympathizers (hello, Ward Churchill) have no such rights today. It's not that complicated. Please take off your dunce cap. Every state has a department of education that works closely with local leaders to determine the best resources for each school district. Furthermore, each local board of education has to conduct monthly, on-the-record meetings/q&a sessions with the public. Then there are the bi-annual parent-teacher conferences. It's democracy at its finest, which makes your Soviet analogy all the more bizarre and repugnant. BTW, some people have accused Texas textbooks of being too liberal: http://www.eagleforum.org/educate/2003/jun...textbooks.shtml Yep, 50 different dictatorships, from Maine to Hawaii. God I love living in this totalitarian hellhole. Aren't you the guy who's supposedly concerned about corruption everywhere, and not just the US? Then I look forward to your voluminous, critical posts addressing Saudi Arabian textbooks: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6051901769.html Oh? Who was the last self-identified, proud liberal to win the White House? I'd say I'm in total control of the situation. Gid forbid they wash up on Spartacus' shores. Because it's a jaundiced, hate-filled clearinghouse of crap with zero redeeming academic value. Obsessed with the Klan, eh? How many trains and buildings have they blown up recently? How many kidnappings and beheadings? When was their last lynching? Why oh why did I accuse you of being fixated on American shortcomings? You should sue me for defamation. Good for him. I like people who show initiative, like the former KKK Grand Wizard who is now a US Senator. Of course, he's a Dem, so that means we have to sweep it under the rug. Actually, I'm much more concerned by anti-democratic events unfolding on your home turf, where lefties are attempting to make the expression of unpopular political opinions in the context of voting punishable by law: From the Independent: A branch of one of the world's biggest banks has been found guilty of racism after a senior member of staff told a colleague she would be voting for Robert Kilroy-Silk [head of the United Kingdom Independence Party] at the last general election because she said he promised to "get rid of the foreigners". The remark was overheard by another employee, who sued the bank, HSBC, for race discrimination. Ruby Schembri, 35, a Maltese national, reported the remark. This week an employment tribunal ruled the remark could be construed as racist and ordered HSBC and the supervisor to pay compensation. The case is one of the first to find that a comment not directly made to another person can constitute racism. This is an expansion of Britain's pernicious "hate" speech codes because now one can be sued for having been overheard. Please remember this travesty of justice the next time you itch to accuse Bush of curtailing civil liberties. Otherwise, I'll just have to throw it in your face. Cheers.

And just how is Putin especially anti-democratic and corrupt? Is it because he's Russian? It seems that for some people (including you apparently) the Cold War never ended. Undoubtedly Russia is on the hit list of some very important people; just witness the recent spate of "democratic pro-Western revolutions" (courtesy of the CIA) in eastern European countries backed by Russia and the campaign against Russia coming from certain think-tanks and Soros-funded "non-governmental organizations." Seriously, try reading a newspaper or surfing the Net sometime: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/5167784.stm http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial...-+Op-ed+columns http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories....4857&EDATE=

So why did you use the word "assassin"? Are you so conceited that you think you're worthy of being bumped off? LOL. Happy b-day.

Dawn's ad hominem didn't deserve a serious response. She imperiously declared Dale's efforts to be worthless and left it at that. On the other hand, she positively adores TMWKK. That speaks volumes.

It was no more disgusting, silly, or misleading than your average Dawn Meredith post, which is saying something. You sure you're a lawyer? Your grammatical mistakes are routine and plentiful.

I see. So the key to being taken seriously here is to make the most outlandish claims in a clear, civilized tone. I'm not trying to win you over. Why would I? You're incorrigible. Nor do you deserve any form of deference. Socialists in 2006. What a tragedy.

Simkin, you're a disgrace. The fact that you're allowed anywhere near a classroom is terrifying. You're not an "educator" of any kind; you're a left-wing radical socialist who long ago dispensed with any of notion of fairness or objectivity. Your hate-fueled anti-Americanism has reached OCD levels. There are 193 countries in the world, but you're fixated on just one. Incredibly, every negative event in the last 75 years has somehow been traced back to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. America can never be a victim; only an aggressor. The stupefying, murderous crimes of the Communist world and the growing threat of Islamic fundamentalism elicit nary a mention. Why worry about Bin Laden when you can rehash a bogeyman like Joe McCarthy for the umpteenth time, right? Why despair about the lack of civil liberties and human rights in the Arab world when you can kick around a dead horse like Watergate, right? Why scrutinize the anti-democratic and corrupt reigns of Castro, Assad, Putin and the Palestinian Authority when you can ascribe crazy, sinister motivations to an innocent collegiate group like YAF? Why recognize a demonstrably guilty man like Lee Harvey Oswald when you can make all sorts of reckless, fact-free accusations instead. You don't know a goddamn thing about this country, other than you wish it and its leaders ill will. Bush isn't dangerous; you're dangerous. Men like Henry Ford, Charles Lindbergh, and Joe Kennedy were wrong in the early 1940s and you're just as clueless today. I believe the Soviets coined a term for Western apologists seduced by tyrannical regimes: "useful idiots." Try making yourself a little less "useful" to democracy's enemies before entering your twilight years.