In a comment on Booman’s recent post Hamid Karzai Says America Can Go, centerfielddj continued this site’s ongoing knee-jerk, leftiness, anti-Paulist meme. He/she made the following reply to a joke I made about how Booman’s take on the whole Afghan imbroglio (Booman: “We’ve been interfering for 13 years, and it hasn’t served our national interests. It’s time to break the habit.”) seemed oddly Paulist.
Here’s the post:
Oh, dear. Rand Paul made a sad joke of Arthur’s representations. And in Time Magazine, the dreaded MSM:
http://time.com/17648/sen-rand-paul-u-s-must-take-strong-action-against-putins-aggression/
That reads like it was written by a PermaGov empire-worshipping toad. Missle-defense shields? Shoving the world around to do our bidding? What happened to the MIC-defying, anti-imperialist hero?
It’s like he was an insincere GOP tool all this time. Shocked, I am not.
I totally disagree. Here are some lifts from the Rand paul statement referenced above followed by some necessary translations and expansions for the understanding-impaired leftinesses among us. Read on if your mind is not totally leftiness-closed by watching too much MSNBC, Bill Maher, Comedy Central’s news parodies and reading the Daily Kos, Booman Trib, etc.
Read on.
And…try to wake the fuck up if you have not done so already.
Please.
I dare ya.
You be bettah off if you do, as will the rest of the U.S.
Bet on it.
Rand Paul’s statements:
Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is a gross violation of that nation’s sovereignty and an affront to the international community.
His continuing occupation of Ukraine is completely unacceptable, and Russia’s President should be isolated for his actions.
Like say the U.S. taking over Toronto and a great deal of the Canadian land along the St. Lawrence River. Would that be acceptable? No, of course not.
It is America’s duty to condemn these actions in no uncertain terms. It is our role as a global leader to be the strongest nation in opposing Russia’s latest aggression.
Putin must be punished for violating the Budapest Memorandum, and Russia must learn that the U.S. will isolate it if it insists on acting like a rogue nation.
This does not and should not require military action. No one in the U.S. is calling for this. But it will require other actions and leadership, both of which President Obama unfortunately lacks.
If Russia does this, what is to stop it from taking (retaking, actually) other contiguous westward states as well? Say Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia? How about Georgia? How about Finland, fer chrissake?
Where would it end? There would be contiguous states to a new Russia that would then become prime for the plucking. To be replucked, actually. Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, etc.
UH oh!!! Europe be shrinking!!! Who’s gonna buy our petroleum products now?
An “insincere GOP tool?” Which GOP? The Bush/Cheney neocon version? The bellicose Rep. Peter (He makes me ashamed of being Irish) King’s GOP? Spooks in the closets, troops on the ground, drones and missiles in the air?
No…Senator Paul is quite clear. “This does not and should not require military action.”
What does he recommend?
Read on.
I recommend a number of specific and decisive measures to punish Putin for his ongoing aggression.
Economic sanctions and visa bans should be imposed and enforced without delay. I would urge our European allies to leverage their considerable weight with Russia and take the lead on imposing these penalties. I would do everything in my power to aggressively market and export America’s vast natural gas resources to Europe.
I would immediately remove every obstacle or current ban blocking the export of American oil and gas to Europe, and I would lift restrictions on new oil and gas development in order to ensure a steady energy supply at home and so we can supply Europe with oil if it is interrupted from Ukraine.
Because of so many of our current needless laws and regulations, President Obama has left Europe completely vulnerable because of its dependence on Russian oil and gas.
I would support immediate construction of the Keystone Pipeline.
It is important that Russia become economically isolated until all its forces are removed from Crimea and Putin pledges to act in accordance with the international standards of behavior that respect the rights of free people everywhere.
I repeat: “Respect the rights of free people everywhere.”
Like in the U.S? Not now. U.S. citizens are being surveilled on the fucking toilet!! How free is that? Who was it again who stood for 13 hours in the Senate and spoke against the whole PermaGov scam by opposing the nomination of yet another Deep State functionary to front for the CIA?
Yeah. Right.
It was this “crazy” Rand Paul fella.
Hmmmm…
And what was the reaction of the American public…across the political board…to this attempt at bringing some semblance of sanity to an insanely vicious government?
Although Sen. Rand Paul’s filibuster demanding answers about the U.S. drone program drew criticism, including from some in his own GOP, a new poll shows why his stand last week helped to make the Kentucky senator a hit at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday. According to a new HuffPost/YouGov survey, Americans — and Republicans in particular — are more likely to praise Paul’s filibuster than to disparage.
The poll found that 38 percent of respondents think the filibuster was a good way to make an important point about the drone program, while only 30 percent said it was a political stunt. Another 11 percent said it was neither, and 21 percent said they weren’t sure.
Republicans were far more likely than Democrats — 62 percent vs. 14 percent — to say the filibuster was a good means to Paul’s ends. Independents leaned more toward the Republicans’ take, with 44 percent in the good-way-to-make-a-point camp.
Again…”Independents leaned more toward the Republicans’ take, with 44 percent in the good-way-to-make-a-point camp.”
Hmmmm…
i have many times stated here that national elections results are mostly about capturing the 40% “undecideds,” because the combined 60% or so of DemRats and RatPubs vote the party line. Nearly half of the “undecideds” thought that he was making a valid set of points as well as he could de do so given the circumstances.
Hmmmm…
This Paul thing is heating up.
Bet on that as well.
More:
We should also suspend American loans and aid to Ukraine because currently these could have the counterproductive effect of rewarding Russia. Ukraine owes so much money to Russia that America would essentially be borrowing from China to give to Russia.
A nice point. A very nice point.
The U.S. should suspend its participation in this summer’s G-8 summit and take the lead in boycotting the event in Sochi. If Putin’s troops remain in Crimea at the time of the summit, Russia should be expelled from the group.
I would reinstitute the missile-defense shields President Obama abandoned in 2009 in Poland and the Czech Republic, only this time, I would make sure the Europeans pay for it. The problem with the foreign policies of both Democratic and Republican administrations is that they never give a second thought to how America can afford what they implement.
Mark this well. If these shields defend Europe, then it is Europe should pay for them. Have you been to Western Europe recently? I have. Lots. No Detroits or Newarks there, just overall massive prosperity. How? Why? At least in part because they have been using the U.S. as a rent-a-cop for decades. Have you been to Russia recently? I have, a couple of years ago. Under the outer layer of kleptocracy-produced glitz and prosperity there lurks the same old scuffling Russia I first saw when the U.S.S.R was disintegrating post-Gorbachev. A nasty, brutish place in many respects. Sorry, but there it is.
America is a world leader, but we should not be its policeman or ATM.
Precisely.
At the end of the day, I still agree with former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen — the greatest threat to America’s security is our national debt.
Precisely squared!!!
—snip—
The Budapest Memorandum said that Russia wouldn’t violate the integrity of Ukraine, but now it has. There is no realistic military option in this conflict, at least for the U.S. But this does not mean there aren’t options, many of which I’ve outlined here.
The real problem is that Russia’s President is not currently fearful or threatened in any way by America’s President, despite his country’s blatant aggression.
But let me be clear: If I were President, I wouldn’t let Vladimir Putin get away with it.
Me neither.
Nor would I let the Permanent Government of the U.S. get away with its various scams and boondoggles.
Physician, heal thyself. We’ve got enough problems of our own.
This is a great nation, blessed with untold resources. Not the least of those resources…in fact, the greatest of them in my opinion…is our broadly varied population. Almost all American families with the exception of the Native Americans and those brought here in the slave trade initially emigrated at great risk from places where they felt that they had no chance for a decent life. They…no matter of what ethnicity they may consider themselves…are descendants of the most courageous and intelligent (morally intelligent at the very least) people of their various nations, the ones who took a real chance to achieve a better life. Also courageous and intelligent in ways that defy understanding are the African-Americans who survived…and continue to survive…the centuries-long depredations of slavery and segregation. This country…this entire hemisphere…really is the “New World.” It is the first truly integrated area of the world. Not perfectly integrated yet, but getting there very quickly considering the length of time that segregation was the order of the day. “Segregation”…just another face of slavery, really…started in this hemisphere in 1492 with Columbus. Over 500 years of segregation were only cracked in the 1960s, and the cracking continues apace.
Rand Paul wants to end the U.S. military presences in the rest of the world and use American economic power and resources as the preferred weapon of choice. In a nuclear age, this is the only sane way to go. Everything else eventually leads to nuclear war. It is a testament to the possibility of a higher force that we have not already incinerated ourselves. Shall we continue to test the patience of that higher force with more and more military adventures? Shall we simply surrender to other forces that are bent on domination of the people of their own country and countries that touch their borders? Who else of real national prominence is even suggesting these things except Ron and Rand Paul? (Including Barack Obama, who is demonstrably all talk and no walk as far as freedom is concerned. Go here, here and particularly here for enough evidence to thoroughly back up that statement.)
So here we are, approaching a crossroads. More of the same UniParty bullshit or a crack in the bullshit wall?
It’s up to us to decide.
I know which way I’m headed.
You?
Think on it.
Please.
Later…
AG
