Yes, Yes, Yes
President Jimmy Carter speaking at the University of California, Irvine campus in Irvine, Calif., May 3, 2007. In a newspaper interview Mr. Carter rated the Bush administration "the worst in history" for its "overt reversal of America's basic values."Sometimes people slip and speak what they really think. I love it when this happens. Of course, some of us almost always speak what we really think. That's why we're not elected officials and don't remain in politically sensitive positions for extended periods of time.
posted by x4mr at 8:36 AM
7 Comments:
OK, x4mr, I don't remember which time you spoke about things seeming surreal and wondering if you were in a dream, but the "surreality" if what you are doing is unbelievable.
I have just learned that after your last day, Thursday, 5/17, the very next day Friday the 18th, you had the ENTIRE SALC group IN YOUR SAIAT BUILDING!!!
Steve Lynn, Joe Snell, Ron Shoopman, your successor Carol Somers, Stephanie, Lee Smith, and that Britton "got it" about how incredible SAIAT was.
This was the day after you quit, and your office was shut and dark with your name tag removed.
Your 5/17 board meeting was scheduled last year. How did you get the SALC into your building the VERY NEXT DAY?!
Jimmy Carter is certainly spot on about George W. Bush. However, here's the first paragraph of a recent article by Michael Schwartz entitled "The Struggle Over Iraqi Oil: Eyes Eternally on the Prize."
"The struggle over Iraqi oil has been going on for a long, long time. One could date it back to 1980 when President Jimmy Carter - before his Habitat for Humanity days - declared that Persian Gulf oil was "vital" to American national interests. So vital was it, he announced, that the U.S. would use "any means necessary, including military force" to sustain access to it. Soon afterwards, he announced the creation of a Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force, a new military command structure that would eventually develop into United States Central Command (Centcom) and give future presidents the ability to intervene relatively quickly and massively in the region."
It seems there was a time when ex-President Jimmy Carter would have been in complete agreement that invading a Mideastern nation for their oil was sound foreign policy. I guess that's the problem with being a former politician reinvented as a statesman. There's always some killjoy out there digging up things you said in your past lives.
The Schwartz article has made the rounds just about everywhere in the last month, but if you haven't seen it yet, here it is on Truthout.org. It's very comprehensive and includes most of what I've read about the Oil Law that Bush/Cheney wants to ram down the Iraqi Parliament's collective throat.
Very interesting link, Liza.
However, I am responding to the anonymous remarks. The more I think about this, the stranger it gets.
I have a question about who knows about this blog. Is x4mr willing to shed some light? He has posted his real name and refers to real people. He listed the entire participant list of the town hall, and the SALC doesn't know about this blog?
The SALC met in the SAIAT building the day after x4mr left, and his successor, a former state rep and republican operative, doesn't know about this blog either?
I do not recall where, but somewhere x4mr posted about "Elvis has left the tree."
He's left the tree again.
Come on, x4mr, Who knows about this blog?
Fabulous link, Liza, and thanks for including it. Very interesting. I need to read again and more carefully.
Anon, you are too dramatic. What's the big deal? Yes, SALC had a meeting at SAIAT the day after I left. So what?
Now, regarding who knows about this place, the initial math is pretty easy. Clearly, certain bloggers do like , Tedski, Stacy, and Michael. Yes, our Congresswoman knows about this place as does Francine Shacter.
Who else? How should I know? Oh, there's Framer.
Now, silence does not mean ignorance. When I posted the town hall attendees, I got hits from all of the press, and traffic tripled.
Perhaps they all came, they saw, and they forgot. Let's face it, I am not important enough for the drama Anon suggests, although it is rather surprising how few people I interact with appear to know I do this.
To be very specific, I have discussed this blog with the following real people face to face:
Art Jacobson
Gabrielle Giffords
Ted Prezelski
Francine Shacter
Kralamajales (yes, know him and won't tell)
I think Framer and I will be shaking hands before too long here. I don't think he's been here in awhile, and that's ok for obvious reasons.
When we meet I hope to have a large Hillary 2008 pin for him.
Well, I did something wrong, and no offense Art, but for reasons unknown you appear in the prior comment as a comma. Art's "The Data Port" is a link to the right.
LIza,
Carter's comments were most certainly _not_ voiced in favor of "invading a Mideastern nation for their oil", nor, I suspect, would he ever have regarded such behavior as "sound foreign policy".
Carter expressed those views in response to the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan, as a warning the US would not accept Russian (or anyone else) attempting to establish sufficient influence in the region to endanger US interests there.
The reaction force he authorized would not have been sufficient to invade one of the major Mideastern nations in and of itself, but it was sufficient to help set up an initial defense of any threatened nation in the area -- a capability initially put to use in Saudi Arabia in Gulf War I.
sirocco,
Well, yes, the Carter presidency occurred in the waning years of the Cold War and we're now talking about events over 20 years after he left the Whitehouse. A lot has changed, obviously, with the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the primary focus of US foreign policy shifting to "rogue" oil-rich Mideastern nations.
My point is that Carter might not be the best person to call Bush on his foreign policy. Every presidential administration since WWII has been concerned about the free flow of oil from the Mideast to the West. It has been a major factor in US foreign policy for decades and right now it is the dominant factor and will remain so for quite some time.
And, perhaps my memory fails me, but I do not recall Carter being much of a visionary with respect to decreasing US dependence on foreign oil. It's interesting that his presidency occurred in years when there was an all too brief ye heightened awareness that this was going to be a really big problem someday.
However, if Carter wants to be a statesman, more power to him.
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