Man tells Cheney "Your policies in Iraq are reprehensible." SS arrests him.

[BobLibDem]

For this administration, par for the course. I wonder what they’d do if you stood by his motorcade route and gave a two handed arm pumping one finger salute?

[cosmosdan]

@Diogenes the Cynic

Lest anyone be taken in by this attempted tu quoque (I’m getting tired of that phrase too but the’re flying around like mosquitos these days), that woman was arrested by the local police, not by the SS and not by the request of Bill Clinton. She was not arrested for criticizing Clinton but for violating a local ordinance banning profanity in public (she was shouting obscenities in the presence of children).

Someonme tell Sean Hannity. You know dam well he’ll be talking about Clinton if the Cheny incident comes up. No Wait…even if he knows he’ll ignore the facts and lie through his teeth. Tell Colmes! No wait…he won’t be allowed to bring it up. Tell Oberman.

[Evil_Captor]

@initech

Context might be the key. There probably would have been more if Clinton had:

That doesn’t even include Katrina or the energy companies, because in fairness that’s more of a Senator Palpatine thing, and we didn’t really know who he was yet.

Of course, Clinton was frequently accused of wagging the dog, lying about an affair with an intern and getting an expensive haircut. So, yeah, Clinton was a really bad guy, too.

C’mon, you left our war profiteering via Halliburton, and that’s MAJOR!

[Evil_Captor]

How does that guy Colmes look himself in the mirror in the morning? He’s being used like a prison bitch being swapped around for cigarettes.

[Jakonovski]

They were probably worried that the guy had gotten his hands on Cheney’s phylactery.

[MrDibble]

@Jakonovski

They were probably worried that the guy had gotten his hands on Cheney’s phylactery.

I commend your subtle RPGgeek reference, Sir (or Ma’am).

[Triskadecamus]

@Carol Stream

I found the lack of contemporary criticism of Mr. Clinton’s nearly identical actions from leftists/liberals/progressives to be remarkable by its absence.

Where were the references to Nazi Stormtroopers and Senator Palpatine (heh) then?

The article itself refers to the court case, and it is obvious that the arrest was made by police authorities of The City of Chicago, not the Secret Service. Belive me, we leftists have been using the word “stormtrooper” with respect to the police of Chicago for many years. I am surprised you never heard it. Or perhaps it is your own selective memory working.

It was still wrong, of course, as the courts pointed out.

Tris

[BrainGlutton]

@Carol Stream

Where were the references to Nazi Stormtroopers and Senator Palpatine (heh) then?

:smack: You’re talking about a story from 1996, dumbshit! Senator Palpatine wasn’t even introduced as a character until 1999! Try to keep up!

[John_Mace]

This is just one of those “what were they thinking” events. I mean, seriously, how on earth could they have thought this was the right thing to do or that any “good” could possibly come from arresting this guy? It just makes no sense. It’ll be interesting to follow this story and see what the Secret Service offers up for a defense-- I can’t even imagine what that could be.

[Revenant_Threshold]

@BrainGlutton

:smack: You’re talking about a story from 1996, dumbshit! Senator Palpatine wasn’t even introduced as a character until 1999! Try to keep up!

As a matter of course, I refuse to listen to anyone’s political opinions until they demonstrate a working knowledge of Star Wars.

[Guinastasia]

@BrainGlutton

:smack: You’re talking about a story from 1996, dumbshit! Senator Palpatine wasn’t even introduced as a character until 1999! Try to keep up!

Uh, no, he was a character in the originals as the Emperor, and anyone who read the backstory knew he used to be a Senator, and then Chancellor.

However, IIRC, mostly back then you were supposed to compare Clinton to Nixon. Duh.

[RickJay]

@BrainGlutton

:smack: You’re talking about a story from 1996, dumbshit! Senator Palpatine wasn’t even introduced as a character until 1999! Try to keep up!

“Star Wars” was released in 1977, and introduced the Emperor by name. He then appears in “The Empire Strikes Back” in 1980, and appears again, played by the same guy as the Episode I-II-III guy, in 1983. In case you were not closely following the movies, the “Emperor” is Senator Palpatine. He gets promoted. It’s the same character.

1983 was before 1999. The way years are numbered, the larger numbered years come after the smaller numbered ones; so, in this case, 1983 comes before 1999. So, the character was introduced for the first time in 1977 by reference, and actually appears for the first time in 1980.

Dumbshit.

[BrainGlutton]

@silenus

Somehow, BrainGlutton’s abbreviation for the Secret Service is starting to fit…

I merely used that abbreviation because of the space limitations in a thread title. Of course, if the guy had been arrested by the German SS he would never have been heard from again. Still, it does make you think . . .

[BrainGlutton]

@RickJay

“Star Wars” was released in 1977, and introduced the Emperor by name.

NOVELS DON’T COUNT!

So there.

[Steve_MB]

@initech

There probably would have been more if Clinton had… used confusion and fear resulting from massive terrorist attack to consolidate political power and push through legislation curtailing civil liberties

Like this?

The administration’s response to the Oklahoma City bombing was to impose sweeping new powers, such as restricting the right of habeas corpus and expanding the use of wiretaps, for itself, even though the president was unable to point to a single example where civil liberties protections had hampered efforts to combat terrorism.

The administration, the most wiretap-friendly in U.S. history, has sought to eliminate Fourth Amendment protections against government searches. The president claims to possess “inherent authority to conduct warrantless searches for foreign intelligence purposes.” The administration requires public housing residents to sign away their constitutional rights. The Justice Department backed warrantless (indeed, suspicionless) drug tests for high school athletes. The administration has requested greater FBI authority to conduct “moving wiretaps” without a court order. President Clinton pushed the Communications Assistance Act, which requires telephone companies to retrofit their systems to ease police surveillance, supported restrictions on the sale of Internet encryption technology, and requested legislation forcing firms to give the government the “keys” to such technology.

[Revenant_Threshold]

@RickJay

“Star Wars” was released in 1977, and introduced the Emperor by name. He then appears in “The Empire Strikes Back” in 1980, and appears again, played by the same guy as the Episode I-II-III guy, in 1983. In case you were not closely following the movies, the “Emperor” is Senator Palpatine. He gets promoted. It’s the same character.

1983 was before 1999. The way years are numbered, the larger numbered years come after the smaller numbered ones; so, in this case, 1983 comes before 1999. So, the character was introduced for the first time in 1977 by reference, and actually appears for the first time in 1980.

Dumbshit.

However, Palpatine, up until Phantom Menace, is portrayed as your basic, evil, take-over-the-world villain. We know nothing of how he got into that position. He has nothing to do with politics. Calling someone an “Palpatine” would be basically calling them evil.

When we get to Phantom Menace, though, and through the next two films, we see another side to Palpatine’s character; a wily politician who consolidates his power by manipulating others and by claiming a war as an excuse to grant himself “emergency powers”. It is this facet of his character which is being compared to with regards politicians nowadays.

To sum up; you couldn’t call Clinton a “Senator Palapatine” because to do so would be to just call him an evil guy; unlike nowadays, when a reference to Palpatine brings to mind evil as well as dodgy politics. It’s the same character, but there are different attributes associated with him now than there were then.

Wow, that was geeky.

[John_Mace]

@Revenant Threshold

Wow, that was geeky.

Very!

[BrainGlutton]

But the first three SW movies released never gave the emperor a name. AFAIK. (I have never seen and refuse to acknowledge the “Greedo shoots first” cut of A New Hope.)

[want2know]

@BrainGlutton

But the first three SW movies released never gave the emperor a name. AFAIK. (I have never seen and refuse to acknowledge the “Greedo shoots first” cut of A New Hope.)

Why do you hate the Empire?

[glee]

@Zebra

gee, um, sorry 'bout that. Kind of the ultimate ‘white elephant’ gift from us to uk.

No need for you to apologise. I know regular Americans are jolly decent chaps*, as I had a wonderful time with 25,000 of you at a roleplaying convention in Wisconsin a few years back.

It’s just a few politicians that are dragging the US name into the mud. :rolleyes:
*this English slang includes both male and female chaps.