Comments (37)

EH wrote on June 27, 2007 1:26 PM:

The administration's entire strategy is to link any distaste for American policies to terrorism so they can use 9/11 as a political lever. This is why it's Al Qaeda, all the time.

Michael Lafferty wrote on June 27, 2007 1:33 PM:

That would be Representative Dan 'Bill Clinton is a scumbag' Burton who fathered a child of his own out of wedlock while simultaneously criticizing the former President for his own marital indiscretions?

Uh, huh… Enough said. Does anyone actually listen to anything this idiot says? Even his constituents?

OCPatriot wrote on June 27, 2007 1:35 PM:

Make no mistake about it, the Administration and its supporters will try to destroy John Batiste. They will also try to frighten everybody by making Al Qaeda into an indefinite monster instead of carefully analyzing what it is and how we can minimize any harm it can do to us as a country. Dan Burton is following the Republican Party Line by questioning Batiste's motives; he is also one of those who contribute to the current problems we're having; he (dare I say it?) is a traitor because he wants to continue to use our American resources in an ineffective way that will destroy our country.

Michael Lafferty wrote on June 27, 2007 1:35 PM:

That would be Representative Dan 'Bill Clinton is a scumbag' Burton who fathered a child of his own out of wedlock while simultaneously criticizing the former President for his own marital indiscretions?

Uh, huh… Enough said. Does anyone actually listen to anything this idiot says? Even his constituents?

Michael Lafferty wrote on June 27, 2007 1:37 PM:

That would be Representative Dan 'Bill Clinton is a scumbag' Burton who fathered a child of his own out of wedlock while simultaneously criticizing the former President for his own marital indiscretions?

Uh, huh… Enough said. Does anyone actually listen to anything this idiot says? Even his constituents?

draftedin68 wrote on June 27, 2007 1:44 PM:

Dan Burton wouldn't recognize "credibility" if it jumped up and chomped onto his cod sack.

General Batiste is a true patriot who puts the good of America ahead of his personal politics.

That concept obviously swooshes right over Dan Burton's head.

parrot wrote on June 27, 2007 1:51 PM:

When the generals call your bluff, it's over. But don't let that stop the shellacking. No. Stay on board as long as possible and hope you don't get sucked into the propellers of the SS GOP?! Yeah, that's the ticket...a strategy sure to work...

spork_incident wrote on June 27, 2007 2:05 PM:

So is Burton going to shoot a cantaloupe in his back yard to prove that Batiste is a Democrat?

.

FRP wrote on June 27, 2007 2:07 PM:

The Brits have a similar problem of identifying the right wing with military and covert legitimacy's . This has led to destabilizing actions to elected governments by the invisible hand . By telling us that he is 'legitimate' or a 'republican' cooly demonstrates this . It may be time to cooly examine the vote of people we arm who don't like constitutional government .

FRP wrote on June 27, 2007 2:11 PM:

The Brits have a similar problem of identifying the right wing with military and covert legitimacy's . This has led to destabilizing actions to elected governments by the invisible hand . By telling us that he is 'legitimate' or a 'republican' cooly demonstrates this . It may be time to cooly examine the vote of people we arm who don't like constitutional government .

Dana Kincaid wrote on June 27, 2007 2:32 PM:

"Make no mistake about it, the Administration and its supporters will try to destroy John Batiste. They will also try to frighten everybody by making Al Qaeda into an indefinite monster instead of carefully analyzing what it is and how we can minimize any harm it can do to us as a country. Dan Burton is following the Republican Party Line by questioning Batiste's motives; he is also one of those who contribute to the current problems we're having; he (dare I say it?) is a traitor because he wants to continue to use our American resources in an ineffective way that will destroy our country."

For the past two days, the Right Wing attack puppy Greg Garrison (WIBC AM) has been hitting on Senator Lugar for various things, ethanol, alternative fuels, and of course, his speech on the floor of the Senate saying that we need a new course in Iraq (better late than never). I heard one caller say that Lugar isn't a "real" Republican this past Tuesday 6-26-07.

If they'll attack Senator Lugar, do you think they'll have any problem attacking the General?

Of course not.

The truth of the matter is though, no one gives a rats ass about old Danny Burton here in Indy, except maybe Bush's last 20%. He's a joke. He's an embarrassment to Indiana. What do you expect from a bigoted, anti-gay Rethug though?

-Dana Curtis Kincaid, Indianapolis

David Dobson wrote on June 27, 2007 3:15 PM:

When will conservative take back their party?

Gandhi wrote on June 27, 2007 3:16 PM:

And we can attribute all the attacks on our rights, our constitution on al_Qaeda in DC and their leader George Wahib al-Crawfordi.
How come he never tells us how his friends in the bin Laden and the Saud families are doing?

donviti wrote on June 27, 2007 3:27 PM:

no doubt this guy hates america and is giving comfort to the enemy!

he must be dealt with....

"Scooter! Get my shotgun!"

dash wrote on June 27, 2007 3:34 PM:

I agree with all of the above and find it truly sad, pathetic and infuriating that someone like Burton is regarded as a credible public official who is championed by many in his attacks on a brave individual who has answered the call of duty to country.

On a different note, I wish I could rate some of these comments because they are so great.

Get Back wrote on June 27, 2007 3:38 PM:

"Rep. Dan Burton (R-IN) questioned Batiste's credibility, attacking commercials he made for VoteVets, an antiwar military PAC, calling it an effort to "elect Democrats." Batiste replied that he is a "die-hard Republican," and made VoteVets "bipartisan" by joining it".

Beautiful rejoinder. If possible, Ackerman, would you please post Burton's response. I bet he changed the subject.

jeffgee wrote on June 27, 2007 3:45 PM:

Dan Burton, ever the partisan projecting his partisanship on everyone who doesn't agree with him. So much for listening to the Generals, eh, Dan? Only if they are sufficiently Republican does their opinion count. What about fellow Hoosier Richard Lugar and his recent statements about Iraq? Apparently the Bushies have started to discredit him too.

SeeDee wrote on June 27, 2007 3:53 PM:

David Dobson asks, "When will conservatives take back their party?"

I wish they would 'take back' their party..as a matter of fact, I wish they'd take it all the way to Kuwait so they would then exist comfortably with their own kind.

The Emirs, the Sheiks, the Saudi's, all those shining examples of real CONSERVATIVE politics in that corner of the world make them feel like they belonged.

...CONSERVATIVES...Will someone list ANYTHING GOOD FOR AMERICAN CITIZENS that Conservatives have done over the last 100 years?

Topey wrote on June 27, 2007 4:52 PM:

I agree with General Batiste's concern that the White House is still conflating all insurgencies with Al Quaeda. Also, include in this camp New York Times reporter John Burns, who has recently been using "Al Quaeda" in every instance of his reporting. One would think that it's all Al Quaeda now in Baghdad, according to Burns.

Has anybody else noticed this in the reporting coming from Iraq? Has America learned nothing in five years?

Ric Gerace wrote on June 27, 2007 5:21 PM:

The press is following along with this Bush foolery just like a bunch of puppy dogs.

http://grumpylion.wordpress.com/2007/06/25/insurgents-morph-like-smurfs/

Hardheaded Liberal wrote on June 27, 2007 5:35 PM:

"Will someone list ANYTHING GOOD FOR AMERICAN CITIZENS that Conservatives have done over the last 100 years?" SeeDee

It just depends WHICH American citizens....if you were one of the small percentage of citizens in the US who got the income tax cuts under both Reagan and Dubya, there are lots of good things that Conservatives have done for you.

And if you were a CEO of a major defense contractor with contracts to create the missles for the anti-missle defenses, you, citizen CEO, got contracts renewed and extended even though there was precious little evidence that you were making any progress toward the goal -- and what supportive evidence there was was faked. (I.e., the only targets that the anti-missles ever hit had guidance beacon equipment that the test missle could and did hone in on.

If you are a big business CEO, you find it quite good that Reagan and Dubya appointed so many Conservative judges to the US Supreme Court, which is now rendering 5-4 opinion after 5-4 opinion upholding business interests.

A similar result, tho not quite as clear-cut, if your view of religion is that abortion is murder. In the many states where Victorian public values continue to control the public's view of sexual morality, this Supreme Court will be sure that the scope for regulating abortions gets broader and broader, until we will be back to 1971, when middle class girls had to go to New York or California (etc.) to get abortions, and poor girls had to go to back alleys.... Abortions will not be illegal, perhaps, but jumping through the hoops to get a safe abortion (Justice O'Conner really should have let Al Gore claim his victory in 2000, if she cared at all about a woman's right to choose).

Of course, citizen CEO was probably also in the citizen "less tax" category. The list can be extended almost ad infinitum, but it stays within two pretty narrow strata of American citizenry -- the rich and the fundamentalist.

freepatriot wrote on June 27, 2007 5:37 PM:

Richard Lugar, George Voinovich, William F Buckley

who knew these so-called staunch conservatives were actually Liberal Secret Agents

pretty soon we're gonna be a two party country divided by support or hatred of george bush

99% of Americans will join together to toss the remaining bushpuglicans out of the country

luckily, the International Criminal Court will take these War Criminals off out hands

so what are we waiting for, let's deprt anybody who claims to be a repuglican NOW

the Hague will accept them with open arms

Hardheaded Liberal wrote on June 27, 2007 5:38 PM:

"Will someone list ANYTHING GOOD FOR AMERICAN CITIZENS that Conservatives have done over the last 100 years?" SeeDee

It just depends WHICH American citizens....if you were one of the small percentage of citizens in the US who got the income tax cuts under both Reagan and Dubya, there are lots of good things that Conservatives have done for you.

And if you were a CEO of a major defense contractor with contracts to create the missles for the anti-missle defenses, you, citizen CEO, got contracts renewed and extended even though there was precious little evidence that you were making any progress toward the goal -- and what supportive evidence there was was faked. (I.e., the only targets that the anti-missles ever hit had guidance beacon equipment that the test missle could and did hone in on.

If you are a big business CEO, you find it quite good that Reagan and Dubya appointed so many Conservative judges to the US Supreme Court, which is now rendering 5-4 opinion after 5-4 opinion upholding business interests.

A similar result, tho not quite as clear-cut, if your view of religion is that abortion is murder. In the many states where Victorian public values continue to control the public's view of sexual morality, this Supreme Court will be sure that the scope for regulating abortions gets broader and broader, until we will be back to 1971, when middle class girls had to go to New York or California (etc.) to get abortions, and poor girls had to go to back alleys.... Abortions will not be illegal, perhaps, but jumping through the hoops to get a safe abortion (Justice O'Conner really should have let Al Gore claim his victory in 2000, if she cared at all about a woman's right to choose).

Of course, citizen CEO was probably also in the citizen "less tax" category. The list can be extended almost ad infinitum, but it stays within two pretty narrow strata of American citizenry -- the rich and the fundamentalist.

Hardheaded Liberal wrote on June 27, 2007 5:40 PM:

"Will someone list ANYTHING GOOD FOR AMERICAN CITIZENS that Conservatives have done over the last 100 years?" SeeDee

It just depends WHICH American citizens....if you were one of the small percentage of citizens in the US who got the income tax cuts under both Reagan and Dubya, there are lots of good things that Conservatives have done for you.

And if you were a CEO of a major defense contractor with contracts to create the missles for the anti-missle defenses, you, citizen CEO, got contracts renewed and extended even though there was precious little evidence that you were making any progress toward the goal -- and what supportive evidence there was was faked. (I.e., the only targets that the anti-missles ever hit had guidance beacon equipment that the test missle could and did hone in on.

If you are a big business CEO, you find it quite good that Reagan and Dubya appointed so many Conservative judges to the US Supreme Court, which is now rendering 5-4 opinion after 5-4 opinion upholding business interests.

A similar result, tho not quite as clear-cut, if your view of religion is that abortion is murder. In the many states where Victorian public values continue to control the public's view of sexual morality, this Supreme Court will be sure that the scope for regulating abortions gets broader and broader, until we will be back to 1971, when middle class girls had to go to New York or California (etc.) to get abortions, and poor girls had to go to back alleys.... Abortions will not be illegal, perhaps, but jumping through the hoops to get a safe abortion (Justice O'Conner really should have let Al Gore claim his victory in 2000, if she cared at all about a woman's right to choose).

Of course, citizen CEO was probably also in the citizen "less tax" category. The list can be extended almost ad infinitum, but it stays within two pretty narrow strata of American citizenry -- the rich and the fundamentalist.

Paul Fuchs wrote on June 27, 2007 6:32 PM:

If you would like to hear in detail where Batiste is coming from, without idiot interjections, Amy Goodman conducted a long interview ith him on May 25.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=07/05/25/1456251&mode=thread&tid=25

Bill in Chicago wrote on June 27, 2007 6:42 PM:

Al Qaeda is not a worldwide organization. It is fundamentally a Saudi Arabian organization. They may very well aspire to become a global movement, but follow the bread crumbs, and they all lead back to the same place.

www.asecondlookatthesaudis.com

SeeDee wrote on June 27, 2007 7:29 PM:

Thank you, hardheaded liberal, for providing a re-cap of what 'good' Conservatives have done for America over the past 100 years.

Your list is exactly what I had hoped for as a response to my question.

TTC wrote on June 27, 2007 9:15 PM:

Funny, I remember MG Batiste telling me the opposite just days before I went into Iraq under him -- that the more terrorists we lure and kill in Iraq, the fewer can make it to America.

BARTLEBEE wrote on June 27, 2007 10:18 PM:

Batiste is the very model of a modern Major General.

JNagarya wrote on June 27, 2007 10:30 PM:

General Batiste is a true patriot who puts the good of America ahead of his personal politics.

That concept obviously swooshes right over Dan Burton's head.

Posted by: draftedin68
Date: June 27, 2007 1:44 PM

The invasion and occupation of Iraq were and are illegal. That Batiste went along with that instead of standing up and telling the truth when it mattered makes him the opposite of "patriot".

The same goes for Powell and all the other military "leaders" who only told the truth after having supported and helped assemble the disaster.

JNagarya wrote on June 27, 2007 10:39 PM:

I agree with all of the above and find it truly sad, pathetic and infuriating that someone like Burton is regarded as a credible public official who is championed by many in his attacks on a brave individual who has answered the call of duty to country.

On a different note, I wish I could rate some of these comments because they are so great.

Posted by: dash
Date: June 27, 2007 3:34 PM

". . . . brave individual who has answered the call of duty to country."

Bullshit. The invasion and occupation of Iraq was and is illegal. It is cowardly, not brave, to go along with that instead of answering the requirement of one's country that one not support and advance war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Go back and read the Hersh article on Gen. Taguba on the "values" held by the military "leadership," including such as Batiste.

Only cowardly sheep would follow the Bushit, et al., dictat that one be politically correct by "support[ing] the troops" even when they are in the wrong.

JNagarya wrote on June 27, 2007 10:45 PM:

...CONSERVATIVES...Will someone list ANYTHING GOOD FOR AMERICAN CITIZENS that Conservatives have done over the last 100 years?

Posted by: SeeDee
Date: June 27, 2007 3:53 PM

Eisenhower could have invaded the Middle East in effort to drive the English, French, and Israelis out of Egypt after they illegally invaded it. Instead, he simply told them he would withdraw the US's nuclear umbrella from Europe. England, France, and Israel withdrew.

The current "conservatives" are not conservatives; they are extreme right-wing lunatic fringe authoritarians hiding behind the label.

The original meaning of the term "conservative" was "to conserve". Got it? Stop playing their game by calling them that they falsely claim to be.

Fred C. Dobbs wrote on June 28, 2007 4:13 AM:

"Will someone list ANYTHING GOOD FOR AMERICAN CITIZENS that Conservatives have done over the last 100 years?"

Sure. They kept Our Boys out of Northern Ireland!

Edmund Benti wrote on June 28, 2007 4:20 PM:

Ric Gerace writes above"The press is following along with this Bush foolery just like a bunch of puppy dogs."
Actually it is the "press" and their Neo- conservative Zionist oligarch owners who are leading George Bush along like a puppy dog. Let us not forget the lesson learned by William Randolph Hearst who arguably started the Spanish American War single handedly when he told his reporter Frederick Remington, who had gone to Cuba and found nothing happening "You provide the pictures, and I will furnish the war."
The NYT and other major American newspapers are leading the administration just as Hearst led an unwilling McKinley into the Spanish slaughter. The difference here is Bush is a psychopath and VERY willing. McKinley, of course, was later murdered, an unwilling accomplice in an illegal war, foreshadowing another unwilling accomplice in an illegal war who also ended up dead, John Kennedy.

Edmund Benti wrote on June 28, 2007 4:20 PM:

Ric Gerace writes above"The press is following along with this Bush foolery just like a bunch of puppy dogs."
Actually it is the "press" and their Neo- conservative Zionist oligarch owners who are leading George Bush along like a puppy dog. Let us not forget the lesson learned by William Randolph Hearst who arguably started the Spanish American War single handedly when he told his reporter Frederick Remington, who had gone to Cuba and found nothing happening "You provide the pictures, and I will furnish the war."
The NYT and other major American newspapers are leading the administration just as Hearst led an unwilling McKinley into the Spanish slaughter. The difference here is Bush is a psychopath and VERY willing. McKinley, of course, was later murdered, an unwilling accomplice in an illegal war, foreshadowing another unwilling accomplice in an illegal war who also ended up dead, John Kennedy.

` wrote on July 6, 2007 3:15 PM:

Fuck you peopel and your FUCKING politics.

I dont care what this post is about, but I'm damn tired of seeing insurgent this, insurgent that.

FUCKING KILL THEM if your so goddamned worried about them.

` wrote on July 6, 2007 3:17 PM:

pussies.