President Dumbass invokes Nazis as he attacks Obama in Israel

[Contrapuntal]

@Liberal

I’ll let Keith Olbermann speak for me. What he said yesterday, same same here.

That was some wicked shit, but what was the stuff about his golf game? I missed the reference.

[howye]

@Mr. Moto

C’mon. Let’s get real here. Nobody is saying there shouldn’t be channels of negotiation between countries and organizations we have a beef with. This is a pretty well established principle of diplomacy, and it employs everything from informal contacts to third-country protective powers, and even the UN General Assembly and its observers.

We talk to North Korea, Iran and Cuba all of the time, and they talk to us. It seems to me that the same could be said of Hezbollah, Hamas and other organizations as well, especially if we act through intermediaries.

What Obama was asked about was negotiating in person without preconditions and he said sure. That stance was such a break from the position of our government for as long as anyone could remember, and such a difference from whatever any other Republican or Democrat candidate was saying, that it was immediately treated as a gaffe by every single person who heard it. Every one. Even people sympathetic to Obama immediately started to explain the statement away until it was clear that he wasn’t disavowing it himself.

So let’s treat this as what it is - Obama advocating a huge break from our previous practices. If he’s serious about that, he ought to defend that stance. Personally, I’m of the view that a lot of diplomatic groundwork ought to be laid down before presidential summit meetings or the like. If you want to call these preconditions, then call them that - but in my mind they are essential.

Jesus, Karl! My washing machine doesn’t spin as much as you do. This is was not a carefully thought out statement about policy and diplomacy, it was yet another attempt by a failed president to scare everybody back under their beds. I am thinking of an example in which the current Commander in Chief did not work through diplomatic channels, can you guess which one? Rhymes with oven rack.

[Dinsdale]

@MaxTheVool

Didn’t the Bush administration itself do a fair amount of talking with both Iraq and Afghanistan before invading both of them? (Albeit talking that ended up accomplishing nothing?)

My recollection is that the admin’s efforts could be more accurately described as talking “AT” rather than “with.” Or even more accurately, issuing ultimatums with demands you know the other side is never going to accept.

[Euphonious_Polemic]

@Sophistry and Illusion

Basically, I think anyone who has been paying attention knows who Bush is talking about.

Ahh, so that would explain Shodan then…

[Santo_Rugger]

@Marley23

Senator calls Bush comments ‘bullshit’

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2008/05/15/biden-calls-bush-comments-bulls-t/ , in case anybody wants to see it in half an hour.

[Sophistry_and_Illusion]

@Mr. Moto

So let’s treat this as what it is - Obama advocating a huge break from our previous practices. If he’s serious about that, he ought to defend that stance.

He did defend it. From the Atlantic Monthly article I linked to above:

Obama’s team did not try to qualify (or, in political parlance, “clarify”) his remark, and no one said he misspoke. Instead, the campaign fought back, with memos to reporters and with a speech by the candidate himself, aimed squarely at the sort of “conventional wisdom” that had, in the words of his then-foreign-policy adviser, Samantha Power, “led us into the worst strategic blunder in the history of U.S. foreign policy.”

[Liberal]

@Contrapuntal

That was some wicked shit, but what was the stuff about his golf game? I missed the reference.

Dumbass said in an interview that he didn’t think the families of the injured and dead wanted to see their Commander in Chief on a golf course, and so he decided to give it up. Turns out he lied anyway.

[Euphonious_Polemic]

@Mr. Moto

C’mon. Let’s get real here. Nobody is saying there shouldn’t be channels of negotiation between countries and organizations we have a beef with.

Right. Nobody except idiot-boy Bush:

Bush administration “not serious” about dealing with Iran

“Asserting that the Bush administration rejected an invitation made by Iran in 2003 to open a strategic dialogue, Leverett says that Bush “is, on this issue, very, very resistant to the idea of doing a deal, even a deal that would solve the nuclear problem.””

[Contrapuntal]

@Liberal

Dumbass said in an interview that he didn’t think the families of the injured and dead wanted to see their Commander in Chief on a golf course, and so he decided to give it up. Turns out he lied anyway.

Good Lord! So he claimed to be giving up golf, for patriotic reasons, and then went on and played anyway?

What a fucking maroon. He must truly believe that he free to do whatever the fuck he wants without restraint or question. Next January cannot come to soon.

[Squink]

@Mr. Moto

We talk to North Korea, Iran and Cuba all of the time

All the time?
Fuckwit in chief blows N Korea problem by letting them stew for two years:

Before the crisis in 2002, the Bush administration was prepared to hold bilateral talks with North Korea, though it took nearly two years after Bush came into office to arrange them. Afterward, administration insiders argued over the best approach before settling on meeting with the North Koreans only in the presence of officials from other nations.

When was Condi’s last vist to Tehran, or Havana?

[Shodan]

So your contention, Squink, is that Bush “blew it” because he did not instantly run to Pyongyang to negotiate another agreement instantly upon finding that they were violating the old one?

Regards,
Shodan

[Squink]

@Shodan

So your contention, Squink, is that Bush “blew it” because he did not instantly run to Pyongyang to negotiate another agreement instantly upon finding that they were violating the old one?

Not at all, he blew it by being a self rightous prick who wouldn’t talk to anyone unwilling to suck his dick and sing his praises.

[Otto]

@Squink

Not at all, he blew it by being a self rightous prick who wouldn’t talk to anyone unwilling to suck his dick and sing his praises.

To be fair, one’s singing voice is rather muffled by a mouthful of cock.

Although considering the size of that codpiece built into Shrub’s flight suit, maybe it wouldn’t be that difficult.

off to the brain bleach store to cleanse the image of Shrub being orally serviced

[The_Tao_s_Revenge]

@howye

Rhymes with oven rack.

Maybe Bush should start calling it I-wreq (say it out loud).

[Slithy_Tove]

“WWRD?” (What Would Reagan Do?) Look how Reagan won the Cold War by ending that pussifed, French-word “Detente,” by marginalizing the Soviets.

Tha’s it - Marginalize them and they’ll just disappear! Stand firm, Mr. President, and you can kick terrorism the same way you kicked cocaine. Remember what they say in Naroctics Anonymous “your best thinking is what got you here.” So don’t think, just stand firm.

[The_Tao_s_Revenge]

@Omegaman

I hope no one is really surprised at the absolute depths that our fine leader will sink to in an attempt to make a point. I know I’m not, how ever disgusted I might be at his general displays of stupidity. Lets just say that I’m sure he has yet to reach his full potential and every single day affords him the opportunity to astound and amaze me with the ignorant ramblings that leave his mouth. Really the only question that remains is when the hell will he ever do something to attempt to make up for all the bullshit he has forced on his countrymen and the rest of the world, not through just his words, but through his idiotic attempts to stick our noses in where they have no business being. It’s like watching fucking Frankenstein stumbling around except that Frankenstein ended up having some redeeming qualities after all.

The freaking dunce.

He’s almost like performance art, isn’t he? If it wasn’t so tragic it’d be funny.

People wanted a bar friend for president apparently, and they got one.

Problem was they picked the “drunken idiot” bar friend.

Also too bad Godwin’s law wasn’t legally enforceable.

[Sophistry_and_Illusion]

@Shodan

So your contention, Squink, is that Bush “blew it” because he did not instantly run to Pyongyang to negotiate another agreement instantly upon finding that they were violating the old one?

Regards,
Shodan

You know, a lot of people think Bush blew it by not trying diplomacy. For example, two scholars from the Council on Foreign Relations. In Bush Doctrine Flunks Test on North Korea, they write:

The Bush Administration is learning the hard way that diplomacy is not merely the first refuge of scoundrels, but rather the first line of defense in a dangerous world of sovereign wills.

They might not be right, but your dismissive attitude toward the suggestion that we should engage in diplomacy doesn’t really advance your argument.

[Liberal]

Now the lying sack of shit is denying that he was talking about Obama at all.

Briefing Room | The White House

[Euphonious_Polemic]

@Shodan

So your contention, Squink, is that Bush “blew it” because he did not instantly run to Pyongyang to negotiate another agreement instantly upon finding that they were violating the old one?

Regards,
Shodan

Tweet! I’m gonna call Excluded Middle Fallacy on this one.

[Happy_Fun_Ball]

@Shodan

So your contention, Squink, is that Bush “blew it” because he did not instantly run to Pyongyang to negotiate another agreement instantly upon finding that they were violating the old one?

Regards,
Shodan

This has lots of spin by my read. Sure, Pyongyang started threatening to violate and then violated the framework, but only after the US dragged their feet on implementation. IIRC, the original framework was put into place shorltly before the Republicans took control of congress in 94, and once they had control, fulfilling the terms kind’ve went to the bottom of the national priority list for the US. This had nothing to do with Bush…

Bush, though, did blow it when he came into office is that he refused to negotiate with North Korea at all and his administration’s policy was to completly ignore the agreed framework and North Korea. During Clinton’s term as President, there was still work being done in spite of the Rebublican congress (I believe emergency funds were used without congressional oversight) to fund the framework, albeit at a less than agreed upon rate. When Bush became President, all of this stopped. Bush ignored the old agreement, refused to negotiate or work toward a new one, and as a result a country run by a mad man was able to develop nuclear weapons unhindered by the US. They trheatened they would do this, got no reponse from Bush (except for the axis of evil speech), and then followed through on their threat. This was a MAJOR failure of the the Bush administration’s foreign policy strategies any way you paint it.

And before you get all self righteous about Clinton getting a blow job or not taking out Osama when he had the chance: I am not sure the agreed framework was a good deal for our country. At least Clinton did something and kept Nuclear weapons out of North Korea for ~ 1 decade. Bush did shit for his first term and I hold his policies responsible for the fact that North Korea is a nuclear power…