Political quotes of the moment

[Telarus]

 

[Chairman Risus]

[Cain]

I scan the political horizon, and I don't see anyone remotely like George Marshall, Dwight Eisenhower, or even Dean Acheson. We are in the midst of the biggest strategic challenge since the end of World War II, but where is our Kennan or Kissinger? Neither of them were infallible, but each had a genuine strategic vision for the United States, its position in the world, and the actions that needed to be taken to preserve vital interests. And make no mistake: what is needed now is a foreign policy that is based on a clear and hard-headed strategy, one that identifies key priorities, writes off liabilities, and marshals the relevant elements of power to preserve what is vital first and foremost. Instead, we get a foreign policy based on wishful thinking, lofty ideals, or an endless list of global projects offered up by policy wonks and special interest groups, along with more bad advice from the people who got us into our present circumstances. And the latest GOP presidential aspirant -- Governor Rick Perry of Texas -- seems to think that all our problems can be solved if we just pray hard enough. I don't want to tread on anyone's beliefs, but if that isn't a sign of desperation and policy bankruptcy, I don't know what is.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

[Luna]

It is amazing how Fox discover and then discard precise, analytical debate.

2003:  "Anti-war protestors are, by protesting the war, booing the troops!"

2011: "They're not booing a soldier, they're booing a gay guy who happens to be soldier!"

2016:  "Anti-war protestors are, by protesting the war, booing the troops!"

Obama responded to this.

Barack Obama last night hit out at his Republican rivals for staying silent when a GOP debate crowd booed a homosexual soldier who asked a question.
During a highly combative speech to an audience of 3,000 gay rights activists, the president said: 'You want to be commander in chief?
'You can start by standing up for the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States, even when it's not politically convenient,'
Recalling the boos soldiers Steven Hill received on September 22 during his videotaped question, which was filmed in Iraq, Mr Obama said: 'We don't believe in standing silent when that happens.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2044249/Obama-says-stand-sex-marriage-evolving-headlines-gay-rights-dinner.html#ixzz1ZcWyq742

[Luna]

Herman Cain has apparently decided to, very carefully, state a position on a soldier being booed:

"In retrospect, because of the controversy it has created and because of the different interpretations that it could have had, yes, that probably — that would have been appropriate," Cain said, when asked if he should have asked the audience to respect the soldier.

McCain also spoke out:

Separately, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said that the GOP candidates at the debate should have defended the soldier. "The fact is we should honor every man and woman who is serving in the military and should in no way treat them with anything but the highest regard," he told CBS' "Face the Nation."

McCain added that the GOP candidates may have been thinking about how to respond to the soldier's question rather than paying attention to the booing. "I would bet that every Republican on that stage did not agree with that kind of behavior," he said.

http://news.yahoo.com/cain-says-spoken-gay-soldier-151321869.html

In my book, "because it caused controversy" is a lame-ass reason to decide, after the fact, "hey, I should have said something," but, maybe that's just me.

[Cain]

Actually, I think the worst part is that no-one is making the argument "a gay person shouldn't be booed for their sexuality" but instead everyone is making the argument "the GOP shouldn't boo a gay soldier, because they claim to support the military".

Yes, it highlights their hypocrisy, but in the long run, it plays into Republican framing of the issues.

[Precious Moments Zalgo]

Actually, I think the worst part is that no-one is making the argument "a gay person shouldn't be booed for their sexuality" but instead everyone is making the argument "the GOP shouldn't boo a gay soldier, because they claim to support the military".

Yes, it highlights their hypocrisy, but in the long run, it plays into Republican framing of the issues.

A Republican audience would boo anyone making that argument.

[Doktor Howl]

THAT'S BETTER.

[Cain]

Actually, I think the worst part is that no-one is making the argument "a gay person shouldn't be booed for their sexuality" but instead everyone is making the argument "the GOP shouldn't boo a gay soldier, because they claim to support the military".

Yes, it highlights their hypocrisy, but in the long run, it plays into Republican framing of the issues.

A Republican audience would boo anyone making that argument.

And is any other argument swaying Republicans?

No, exactly, so why bother pandering to their framing of events?

[Scribbly]

From the FT coverage of the riots in Greece.

The youths who clashed with police were throwing chunks of marble prised off building facades but compared with last June's riots the mood among protesters outside parliament seemed almost relaxed.

[Cain]

Charlie Brooker, today's Guardian

Archer writes vividly and from the heart and, if his byline photo is anything to go by, appears to be a perfectly reasonable man (specifically, Ross Kemp). He deserves the benefit of the doubt. But I fear in his rush to reprimand the "Modern Left", he has overlooked one key fact: David Cameron is a lizard.

Yes, David Cameron is a lizard. A lizard that devours live foals in its lair. And as far as Archer is concerned, it's perfectly fine for this limbless, non-human, Cameron-reptile-beast-thing to squirm across the stone floor of its den merrily excreting the bones of its victims, yet I'm "depraved" simply for writing about it. This is the tragedy of the Modern Right. They're idiots.

Well, let me spell it out: You cannot dehumanise a lizard. Not without humanising it first, by giving it a little top hat, say, or a monocle. Maybe put some lipstick on it. And a wig. Teach it to walk sexy. That's the way. Now confess: you already feel like getting to base three with the thing. But don't! It's still just a creature.

But that's a standard lizard we're talking about. Sadly Cameron is no standard lizard. He can't even be classified as a conventional reptile, because that would require him to have some kind of quantifiable earthly form – which, as a malevolent paranormal entity continually shifting between dimensions, he simply doesn't have.

I know this sounds crazy. But don't take my word for it. Last week I asked the online community if it had further proof of Cameron's true nature. I was immediately inundated with terrifying eyewitness accounts.

Twitter enthusiast @djamesc wrote: "I went to school with Cameron. He used to curl up next to the radiator during lunch. He only ate once a week."

Steve Hogarty said: "I once saw him behind a branch of Waitrose using both hands to squeeze a swollen pulsating neck gland (or 'sac') into a dustbin."

Pianist Stephen Frizzle "witnessed Cameron slice off his finger whilst preparing vegetables, and it just grew back. No word of a lie."

Rob Carmier from Brighton recalled that on the day the lift wasn't working at the G8 summit, Cameron "merely climbed the glass exterior with flattened palms".

Gareth James explained the recent hot weather was caused when Cameron "surrounded the UK with glass walls because he needs to live in a vivarium".

While a few of Cameron's lizard properties sound almost charming – as Betsy Martian pointed out: "if ever he thinks his backbenchers are conspiring against him, he can turn his head a full 180 degrees to check" – others are less attractive.

For instance Paul Yates recalled: "I went to a business lunch with Cameron once and he ordered spiders. We all laughed, but he just stared at us."

This chilling behaviour was merely the tip of a deeply unsettling iceberg. Pete Strover encountered "a pack of feral dogs gathered in an underpass" which "barked Cameron's name in unison", Dave Probert "once saw Cameron vomit up his entire skeleton to avoid having to admit he doesn't know where Wales is", Tom Bain "saw Cameron put his entire hand through the hole in the middle of a CD", while perhaps most damningly of all, Darren Smith said: "I heard he strips completely naked to have a shit."

Hundreds of similar reports flooded in. I did my best throughout the week to alert everyone on Twitter to Cameron's reptilian ways, but after several hours of unrelenting lizard warnings from me, they grew bored. Some begged me to "be funny again". Others asked me to "drop the lizard shit" or "change the record" or "STFU". Undeterred, I bravely persisted, all week long, repeatedly tweeting that Cameron was a lizard. Or maybe two lizards. Or some sort of ghost. But definitely evil and definitely not human. Yet still, thousands unfollowed me. It was almost as if they simply didn't want to be told that David Cameron is a reptilian daemon that enters our realm each morning by slithering through a haunted mirror in order to feast on human souls.

No one wants to know. They're in denial, or maybe hypnotised by the sulphurous mind-control gas Cameron emits from a series of gummy, puckering apertures along his underbelly. At least here you get the truth. Which is that he is a lizard. And by "he", I mean Cameron. David Cameron. Who is a lizard. David Cameron is a lizard.

[LMNO]

Wow.  That's seven kinds of awesome.

[Doktor Howl]

HST lives! 

[Eater of Clowns]

That's god damned hysterical.