Waiting for Palin — Huckabee’s talking now — I got to thinking about the other side of the world. Have you read about the Russians’ lame attempt to pin the Georgian conflict on this guy Michael Lee White, who they claim is some sort of CIA master spy?
They base this on a passport White lost in 2005, and had replaced. They claim they found it at an outpost used by Georgian special forces.
From what I’ve read, if this guy’s a spy, he’s SO good, and so successful at NOT looking like a spy, that it seems unlikely he’d leave his passport lying around.
Look, if Putin wants to pin it on this guy, at the very least he could live up to the KGB tradition and make it look GOOD. They would have CAUGHT the guy, and turned him up at a press conference.
Why back in the day, the Rooskies could shoot down an ACTUAL U2 pilot, complete with a frickin’ poison needle hidden in a frickin’ silver dollar, and catch Ike lying about it.
Those were the days. Whatever happened to standards?
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The Obama campaign has been putting out the same line as the Kremlin, that, “George Bush provoked this war in Georgia.”
More rotten company for Obama.
The tanking Russian economy is an unintended consequence of Vlad’s wonderful Georgian adventure: hard currencies are moving out, the stock market is depressed, things are a little shaky at home. Of course that started earlier in the summer as his henchmen harassed several businesses prompting the abrupt departure of executives. Couple that with the decline in oil prices and commodity overall and Russia is feeling a little stressed. (Elsewhere I read that because of declining domestic production, Putin needs $150 per barrel oil and hurts when it goes below $140.)
What’s interesting is Putin’s apparent move to a cult of personality a la China’s Mao or the NorKs dad and son team. For the last year or so the Russian media have featured pix of their bare-chested leader doing macho things, then there’s his move from President to Prime Minister, and now the media are reporting his bravery when confronted by a Siberian tiger.
The passport claim is strange and worrisome. One has to wonder if them stinkin’ Rooskies will use it to justify some other action. The only good news is that the Georgia incursion showed those who watch closely that the Russian Navy and Air Force pose no significant threat, at least if conventional weapons and precision operations are employed. That probably upset Vlad a bit too.
It just struck me – if commodity prices fall much further, these kids may have to look for work.
bush didn’t provoke the invasion of Georgia he provided a model. find a pretext to invade a country you perceive to be a threat-on your border, not thousands of miles away-try and change the government and kill lots of civilians. declare victory and then withdraw-oops putin doesn’t have any spare aircraft carriers and isn’t waiting years. try and distract your own people from an economy in the tank. imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. also like the us, the number of billionaires is dramatically increasing while unemployment is rising.
george32 –
I think the big difference is that the Russian road to wealth is generally the kleptocratic model of finding wealth — natural resources or somebody else’s — and seizing it. They are not real big in the more difficult and time-consuming task of creating it.
You are correct about Pooty Poot following Bush’s lead. I really laughed out loud at the Russian Foreign Minister’s speech at the UN laying the groundwork for the Security Council vote authorizing military action against Georgia. And that vote was on top of all those other resolutions holding Georgia accountable.
Nope, the Putin = Bush formulation doesn’t work for me. Your case might have been a bit stronger if McCain had selected him for VP.
Delusional Democrats still make excuses for Saddam Hussein providing shelter, funding and training camps for Al Qaeda, Hamas and Hezbollah.
7 years without another attack on the USA.
2,000 plots foiled, 3,000 Muslims arrested.
Over 3000 Muslims arrested. How many received trials or even legal representation? In the mean time, 108,000 dead from alcohol related fatalities right here at home. But McCain and the Republicans like their money from beer sales too much. Over 4,000 dead in Iraq. Unknown number of wounded. Over $400 million per day for 6 years spent. And Lee, you also have the Al Qaeda in Iraq as correct as McCain. Hussein was Sunni, Al Qaeda is Shiite. There were no WMD and no terrorist training in Iraq. But let’s not confuse the facts. State the incorrect long enough and someone will believe it.
The only good news is that the Georgia incursion showed those who watch closely that the Russian Navy and Air Force pose no significant threat…
-Mike
Since they pose no significant threat and the incursion is damaging their economy why is everyone is such a lather over this? Seems like Putin is just damaging his own country and is really no threat to the U.S.
But this is typical of super power bluster. The U.S. didn’t help itself with it’s misguided adventures in Vietnam or Iraq. All both those events accomplished was death and deficit spending. Same for the old USSR. What did they accomplish in Afghanistan? So now they’re beating their head against a Georgian rock. I say let them have the place. As a Gamecock fan one Georgia to deal with is quite enough.
Tim C, you raised a fantastic point here. Good job. Doesn’t Cindy McCain own a beer distribution empire? Seems like her support of this is akin to domestic terrorism. Indeed with 10s of thousands of persons killed in DUI crashes a beer company has about the same negative impact as the worst of terrorist organizations.
bud, Tim C, and others:
Here’s a link-filled compendium about the run-up to Iraq. Please use it, try to refute it if you like, but it’s got a boatload of contemporaneous references for your reading enjoyment and enlightenment.
Don’t know if you were being funny or not, but Saddam was, like al Qaeda, Sunni, as is Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, and others. Iran and its agent Hezbollah are Shi’a.
The only candidate with known terrorist connections is Obama through his association and work with Bill Ayers.
no al qaeda camps in iraq under hussein. if they were already there, why the big us concern about keeping them out. 2000 plots avoided according to whom-the people who “proved” the wmd and need ever larger appropriations to justify their existemce. 3000 arrests and how many public trials/guilty pleas. have we invaded the source of al qaeda funds and 911 attackers, the model democratic country of saudi arabia. incidentally the russian wealth creation model of seizing and exploiting resources from people already living there can be found in the black hills, among other places. the excuse is the same, the resources were not being properly developed.
Mike, this Ayers business seems pretty thin to me. Obama and Ayers served on a board together which, by all accounts, was a genuinely charitable organization. And Ayers helped Obama raise some money for one of his political campaigns. This doesn’t seem like a close, long standing friendship and it certainly doesn’t suggest Obama in any way, shape or form condoned Ayers actions. But I guess this is the silly season and GOP supporters have to change the subject any way they can so they don’t have to actually defend their disasterous fiscal and foreign policies.
President Clinton made 32 speeches referencing the terrorist training camps in Iraq, received nearly-unanimous vote for war from Congress, and dropped 80,000 tons of bombs on Iraq.
When President G.W. Bush sent US ground troops into Iraq, they captured two hijacker training camps intact, just as intelligence had described.
Obama has been friends with Bill Ayers for over 12 years. They are neighbors. Their children play together. Obama announced his campaign for Illinois Senate at a party in Ayer’s home. Obama misdirected funds from the group he and Ayers “served on”, into other “community organizers” who could deliver the votes.
bud –
As a matter of principle most folks my age would never associate with a guy with Ayers’s background. The folks in the Hyde Park ‘hood where he thrived are a different story, and his entry to the Chicago elite and political establishment was through the philanthropy of his father. He remains a radical and has transferred his emphasis to infusing radical theories into public education.
By the time Obama came to town, Ayers was a fixture in the radical politics and education establishment. Obama served as president of the board of directors for the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a large education-related nonprofit organization Ayers was instrumental in starting. Obama, Ayers and crew got and spent over $110 million from 1995 – 2001 on educational projects that, according to an independent evaluation, had little or no impact on outcomes for students. Many details here.
What’s my beef? I want to know whether Obama is a radical wingnut or an ingénue who just goes along with whatever crowd he’s hanging with. How does one spend $110M without impacting the educational outcomes of the kids? Actually, CAC proved that it’s quite easy if one funds Maoists, wacky political theories masquerading as educational activities, and the like. Google around to read some of Ayers’ current educational theories. It was at that time that Obama began is association with the radical group ACORN, folks who often seem to be involved in voter fraud.
My bottom line? I really want to know if stuff like this means anything. Why won’t Obama talk about his past? That’s what I want to know.
Everything Obama touches has some sort of crime and radical politics associated with it, from his forged birth certificate, to terrorists like Bill Ayers, ACORN, Saul Alinsky, his swindler buddy Rezko…
I don’t want Obama anywhere near the U.S. Treasury.