The American Spectator

GeneCar| 1.6.09 @ 9:18AM

The French conservative thinker Gustave Thibon had a perfect description for the Powellites: ". . . deserters posing as refugees . . ." I

Ammo Guy| 1.6.09 @ 9:47AM

I refuse to comment about this disgruntled, back-stabbing officer who is obviously bitter that he didn't make general until I read his defense from Interloper.

Anthony| 1.6.09 @ 10:47AM

And speaking of remaining silent about crimes, might the brave and conscientious Mr. Wilkerson wish to opine on his bosses complicity and involvment in the Richard Armitage coverup? What exactly did the Powell stooge, Wilkerson, know about Powell's & Armitage's dispicable behavior that allowed Scooter Libby to swing for a crime he didn't commit. Don't forget, the hack Fitzgerald, now in the process of blowing the Blago investigation, gave a press conference talking about the dangers of outing CIA operatives, although Libby was never charged with any such crime. I think God needs to renovate Hell and add a few extra cantos for the likes of Powell, Armitage, McClellan, and all these other ingrate turncoats. P.S. to finish your origional thought, Pettigrew hid himself in the form of a rat. Quite appropos for many of the same characters we are discussing here today. Or am I being a bit too extreme for Mr. Powell's taste?

Marc Jeric| 1.6.09 @ 10:48AM

That affirmative action general Powell used an army of 500,000 to liberate Kuwait where a single division of 12,000 American soldiers could have done the job in half the time it took. Now he is tryig to ingratiate himself with Abu Hussein in order to get a new job - but Hillary beat him to it!

J.C.Eaton| 1.6.09 @ 5:34PM

Actually Marc Jeric, America's poster boy for Armed Forces affirmative action had next to nothing to do with the Gulf War. In 1986 a law called the Goldwater-Nichols Act took the Cof Staff out of the decision-making and chain of command loops of warfighting and placed command and control in the hands of the SecDef and the CinC commanding generals. Gen. Scwartzkopf was the theatre guy along with Cheney and the president on the civilian side. Powell didn't have squat to do with it. He may have wanted to but he was freed up to testify in front of congress. Something he was always happy to do. Best, Judge E

Active Duty Guy| 1.6.09 @ 6:05PM

Man, I seem to remember a couple weeks ago some dude posted that most career officers are more politicians than warriors. Oh yeah and got lambasted for it.

This is exactly what I was talking about. This is par for he course for 99% of the O-6s I have ever dealt with.

J.C.Eaton| 1.6.09 @ 6:12PM

ADG, Still smokin' huh? You weren't lambasted because you don't like or respect 99% of O-6s. And you weren't lambasted because you think what you think about officer-politicians. You were lambasted because, well, you're you.

P. Aaron| 1.6.09 @ 6:25PM

Since the left is now coming into its zenith, they are all acting like a bunch of cocky bastards!

WendyG| 1.6.09 @ 7:25PM

Please. Vanity Fair is all hate-Bush ALL of the time. Graydon Carter has Bush Derangement Syndrome down to this DNA.

Bush leaves office a happy man, secure in his eventual legacy. Graydon Carter is bitter, as are all of the ungrateful wretches cashing in by biting the hand that fed them.

Interloper| 1.6.09 @ 8:09PM

Hmmm. Not only apologetics for W., and even Cheney, but apologetics for Nixon, too. 'Spiro Agnew' was really a cool cat, but misunderstood' comes next, eh, Jeffrey Lord?

Yes, many a former member of the Bush administration now has regrets. Those people should be saluted for having rediscovered their decency, not maligned.

There is no evidence whatsoever that Colin Powell was the source of leaks. There is plenty of evidence that he was purposely left out of the loop when the W. and Cheney chose to lie about their reasons for invading Iraq. They needed someone with 'deniability' and Powell was the mark.

And this:

"Governor Palin, after all, got where she is precisely by going public with charges of corruption against the Alaskan GOP establishment. She put herself, her family, and her reputation waaaaaaaaaaay out there on a limb when she went public with her charges when it counted."

Sarah Palin is guilty of violating just about every ethical standard imaginable, whether she is charging the state for living in her own home, stealing clothes paid for by campaign donors or lying to get her daughter's baby daddy a position with the state he does not qualify for. We will not even reach Troopergate, earmarks or interference in the drug investigation of Sherry Johnston. Palin is the gift that keeps on giving. Only a fool would want her to remain in the limelight.

I wasn't around during the presidential campaign, but am fairly certain that Jeffrey Lord was so delusional he thought the McCain/Palin ticket was winning instead of about to be soundly trounced. The GOP has become the party of embittered reactionary white people, largely from the South and Appalachia (with a colony in Alaska), mainly because of the incompetence of advisers like Lord. Apparently, they do not intend to stop until the party ceases to exist at all.

stmichrick| 1.6.09 @ 9:40PM

Powell and his subordinates are sour grapes; realizing that when Iraq is a cornerstone of a stable Middle East, they are are specks in the dustbin of history.

The Reagan/Bush legacy left him a future; he blew it because he wanted to be loved by contemporary Washington and it's media lackeys.

Ammo Guy| 1.6.09 @ 9:44PM

Interloper, geez I had to wait almost 12 hours for you to show up on this thread...yet now that you've arrived, I no longer feel the urge to do battle. So, for a poster who has the President and Congress he wanted, you sound strangely bitter when you should be delighted that we do not intend to stop until the party ceases to exist at all...unless you'll miss having us and W to blame for everything that goes wrong from now on, though I'm sure you'll flog that dead horse for as long as you can. Enjoy your impending paradise.

wnwhite| 1.6.09 @ 10:19PM

The comments by "interloper" represent, crystallize, encapsulate what is so egregiously wrong with political discourse these days. In particular his (or her) comments regarding Sarah Palin trot out the same unsubstantiated lies that the mainstream media is now using as their currency in attempting to undermine Gov. Palin. Indeed the media has attempted to present Obama as somehow pure and Palin as tainted. This Orwellian inversion would be amusing in its blatant disregard for the truth if it weren't so pathologically malicious. Speaking of pathologically malicious, I think this suitably describes Mr. Wilkerson as well. No doubt by cleverly achieving a double political hit (Bush is a Palin-like president) he should gain some serious air time with David Shuster or Rachel Maddow, media's version of the Dementors to carry on the Potter theme from Mr. Lord.

Interloper| 1.7.09 @ 12:06AM

I've said nothing about Sarah Palin that is not documentable. And, I am sure there is more to come.

The revealing aspect of this is just how out of touch with mainstream society most of the persons who blog here and their adherents are. Anyone who follows actual news instead of relying on these far Right sites knows that Palin was poison for the Republican ticket.

Yellowstone| 1.7.09 @ 1:43AM

Interloper, you're either a liar or stupid or both. The notion that you state only that which is "documented" is juvenile at best. Of course it's documented on the Palin hate sites. The latest despicable lies have already been revealed as lies, even by the Anchorage Daily rag. Let's see some real documentation you liar. Or shut your lying pie hole.

Dan Schwartz| 1.7.09 @ 8:06AM

Worth noting (and surprisingly overlooked by the author in this context is that in early 2004 Sarah Palin resigned as the Chairman and Ethics Supervisor from the Alaska Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, protesting what she called the "lack of ethics" of fellow Republican members. Members of the Commission were barred by Alaska statute from filing ethics complaints, so rather remaining silent (and collecting ~$120k per year for her middle-class family), she resigned at great cost to her family in order to go public with these complaints.

After resigning, Palin filed a formal complaint against Oil and Gas Conservation Commissioner Randy Ruedrich, also the chair of the state Republican Party, accusing him of doing work for the party on public time and of working closely with a company he was supposed to be regulating. She also joined with Democratic legislator Eric Croft to file a complaint against Gregg Renkes, a former Alaskan Attorney General, accusing him of having a financial conflict of interest in negotiating a coal exporting trade agreement, while Renkes was the subject of investigation and after records suggesting a possible conflict of interest had been released to the public. Ruedrich and Renkes both resigned and Ruedrich paid a record $12,000 fine.

If you put Palin's witnessing comparitively petty corruption and consequent resignation in the context of Wilkerson, his alleged witnessing of much more serious (like war & peace) illicit National Security activities, and his failure to resign, I would posit that Sarah Palin has much stronger ethics than Larry Wilkerson.

Jeffrey Lord wrote,

"Governor Palin, after all, got where she is precisely by going public with charges of corruption against the Alaskan GOP establishment. She put herself, her family, and her reputation waaaaaaaaaaay out there on a limb when she went public with her charges when it counted."

Felixcat| 1.7.09 @ 8:45AM

Funny how Interloper can recite all the garbage about Gov. Palin but not one mention of any of the taint surrounding Obama. Bush, Cheney, Republicans are evil, racsist,. stupid and mostly from the South - wow, what an original thought pattern. Tell me Interloper what one ignorant, stupid Republican could have survived as a candidate if known that he/she attended a church for 20 years in which the "preacher" spewed out hate like kill blacks? You go ahead and smail and stand tall now that Obama will be in the White House. This country hasn' tseen hate and rascism until now. I'm not sure if Interloper is some very guilty white person because Obama's white mother's family once owned slaves or a "person of color" who hates white people, especially successful white women like Gov Palin.

Interloper| 1.7.09 @ 9:09AM

Sarah Palin has a pattern of turning on people whose help she has sought to benefit herself. She did so in regard to her mentors in Wasila, and again against Ruedrich, Renkes and the public safety commissioner she fired in Troopergate. Even in the short campaign season, Palin went rogue on Sen. John McCain when she thought it would benefit her. Had there been more time, she would have done him more harm.

Furthermore, Palin is guilty of the same unethical behaviors she has accused others of, including using state (and later federal) funds for the personal benefit of herself, her kin and her friends.

Palin, who obviously lacks the mental capabilities to be a leader, instead uses manipulation to achieve her goals. She is a paradigmatic demagogue. However, it is doubtful that she can continue in her path to power under the sustained skeptical eye of the media and the public.

I have addressed the hypocrisy involved in attacking Rev. Jeremiah Wright for a couple of sound bytes taken out of context on another thread. As I said, it is much more troubling that both McCain and Mitt Romney belong to congregations that made racism part of their belief systems, i.e., the Southern Baptists and the Mormons.

I commend the reporters and bloggers who have investigated Palin and documented her pattern of manipulation and corruption. They have likely saved Alaskans and the nation from the damage she would do if she managed to achieve higher political office.

GeneCar| 1.7.09 @ 9:49AM

Far from Governor Palin 'turning' on her mentors, it was they who discovered that she could not be used for their own purposes. As far as watching the 'actual news' is concerned, I am reminded of the humorous reaction of the citizens of Eastern
Europe during the Stalinist era, when they opened their 'mainstream' newspapers: "what lies do they expect us to believe now?"

Interloper| 1.7.09 @ 4:42PM

Present company excluded, most Americans do get it. The presence of Sarah Palin on the Republican ticket is the main reason voters say they withdrew their support. Most Americans do not believe she is qualified to be vice-president, and, certainly not president.

Active Duty Guy| 1.7.09 @ 5:21PM

jc, I don't smoke. Its funny how now you can't even argue my point, which is to say that 99% of career officers are 99% politician and 1% (if that) warrior. I was lambasted because I am not a right-wing kool aid drinker. Don't get me wrong, I am so far right I prolly make Rush look a lib. However the original article was a contradiction: don't hero worship athletes, hero worship soldiers. I simply warned that hero worship of any kind is bad, but ESPECIALLY soldiers. If that is too hard for an old jackass retired O-6 career politician who still refers to himself as "colonel," as you did when signing off on some of your posts on the other thread, to hear, then so be it. I will leave you to your kool aid now.

For all my civilian friends, you can tell the relative jackassedness of a retired military member by how often they still refer to themselves by their military rank AFTER they leave the service. Just an FYI.

Always lookin' out---ADG

Marc Jeric| 1.8.09 @ 11:56AM

In comparing Governor Palin with our future Secretary of State Hillary - well, there is no comparison. Sarah Palin is a hugely successful governor with good ideas; "the politics of meaning" (that is the code word for socialism)Hillary had just one accomplishment in her life - and that was that cattle futures trading scam.

Limina| 3.30.10 @ 12:34PM

Ennen hampaiden vaalennusta on tärkeää tarkastaa potilaan hampaat ja puhdistaa kunnolla. Tämän jälkeen selvitetään tarvitaanko vaalennus sekä ylä- että alahampaisiin vai riittääkö pelkästään ylähampaiden vaalennus. Itse vaalentamiseen on tarjolla kaksi eri menetelmää, vastaanotolla tapahtuva hampaiden vaalennus sekä niin sanottu kotivaalennus. Kotivaalennus sopii käytettäväksi lievästi värjääntyneille hampaille ja se on erittäin suosittua sen helppouden ja edullisuuden vuoksi. Ensimmäisellä vastaanottoajalla otetaan kipsijäljennös potilaan vaalennettavasta leuasta. Mallille valmistetaan noin millin paksuisesta muovikalvosta kisko. Toisella käynnillä kisko sovitetaan potilaan hampaille. Potilas saa mukaansa ruiskuihin pakatun vaalennusgeelin, mikä levitetään kiskon sisään ja asetetaan suuhun. Valmisteesta riippuen kisko saa olla paikallaan 1-4- tuntia päivässä tai yön yli 8-12 tuntia. Tulos näkyy 1-2 viikossa riippuen käytön pituudesta.

Greg Zotta| 9.11.09 @ 2:39AM

Colin Powell/Republican?
Colin Powell said the Republican Party should be more inclusive to attract more people to the Party. He stated Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter are divisive and nasty, and that Sarah Palin was a polarizing figure.

Colin Powell claims to be a Moderate Republican, and his views were similar to John McCain yet he endorsed and voted for Barack Obama, which leads me to believe that he voted for Obama because he is black. So who is the racist/ racialist? Who is the hypocrite?

You should not compromise on your principles to try to attract others. I believe you should stand on your principles and I would like to see the Republican Party get back to conservative/common sense approach to governing teaching people to be self reliant with a smaller government and less taxes.

In his speech at the 1996 GOP Convention Colin Powell stated, “I became a Republican because I believe, like you that the federal government has become too large and too intrusive in our lives. We can no longer afford solutions to our problems that result in more entitlements, higher taxes to pay for them, more bureaucracy to run them and fewer results to show for them.” But now he is stating Americans do want to pay more taxes and want more government in their life

If Colin Powell wants to compromise on conservative principles, then I think he needs to go to the party that supports those beliefs and join the Democratic/Socialist Party.

Greg Zotta

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unless you'll miss having us and W to blame for everything that goes wrong from now on, though I'm sure you'll flog that dead horse for as long as you can.