Well, they did it.
The Senate voted in their "old boy" way and made fellow Senator John F. Kerry the next Secretary of State.
I am disgusted beyond words.
This is a man who openly consorted with the enemies of the United States, openly gave comfort and support to those enemies while fellow Americans were on the battlefield fighting those enemies, lied about his service in SE Asia, and, to top it off, has shown no particular knowledge about or understanding of the role of the United States in the world. With Jane Fonda, he was our generation's version of Lord Haw-Haw, Tokyo Rose, and Ezra Pound all rolled into one; unlike those other traitors, and along with Jane Fonda not only did he pay no penalty for supporting the enemy in a time of war, he prospered financially and politically.
He is now to be our Secretary of State.
One could expect no less of today's Democratic Party.
Where, however, were the Republicans? Except for a tiny grouping of three--Cruz, Cornyn, and Inhofe--the Republicans went along with this travesty. Even Tea Party darling Marco Rubio voted "Yea."
I guess loyalty is to membership in the Senate club, not to the country and our dead.
H.L. Mencken: [edited]
ReplyDelete• Every election is a sort of advance auction of stolen goods.
• All government is essentially organized exploitation, and almost always is the implacable enemy of every industrious man.
• A professional politician is a professionally dishonorable man. To get anywhere near high office he makes so many compromises and submits to so many humiliations that he becomes indistinguishable from a streetwalker.
• Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under.
...closer and closer comes the revolution. These senators have no shame.
ReplyDeleteBeasts, not men. Ravenous beasts, snapping at the heels of the herd - driving the herd and picking out the faltering and confused. Oppose the will of the beasts and they attack you. Agree with the beasts and you become one of them - surrendering honor, hearth and home for a race to gain useless power, power that evaporates as the breath leaves the body. Liars, every one - shuffling words like a magician shuffles cards. Now you see it and now you don't. Dazzling and bedazzeled, nasty spineless creatures - bags of skin, full of slime.
ReplyDeleteOops... Sorry about that, I'm as bad as George Bush forgetting who the enemy was. I was speaking of our elected officials in Washington DC.
DeleteI wish I could say I was surprised by this, but I'm not. The Senate has been a boy's club for decades...McCain's respect for this schmuck is hard to fathom, given what he went through during the Vietnam war.
ReplyDeleteYeats seems more and more relevant these days:
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,
The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
Yeats must have been watching the Fox News Channel.
DeleteAt least Kerry won't be getting us into endless wars, in a futile and costly effort to turn theocracies into democracies.
Full up in the winter of our discontent....but Spring is just around the corner. I believe that the best laid plans will be all history's note, and that other situations will intervene to change the direction of a well established dictatorship.
DeleteO lives in a a world of his own creation. That will be his great undoing when history is finally written.
East Texas Rancher
DEN...Yeats was more likely watching MSNBC, CNN, NBC, etc. etc. or any Democratic Party speech.
DeleteWe are already in a war the Obamas and Kerrys are dangerous because they refuse to see the reality that stares them in the face.
You, too, apparently belong to that faction.
Yes, I am probably dangerously ignorant, because I can see the futility of mindless partisanship ranting on both extremes. And a student of poetry as well. Perhaps you also read:
Delete“My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away.
I blame the 50% of Americans who insist on ignoring the behaviour and history of those they vote for each time.
DeleteWe've got the same problem here.
Some people even though citizens shouldn't have the vote and we can start with those on benefit or don't pay any tax.
MikeNZ
ETR's pretty close I think:
DeleteMithridates...
Arkie
And how many did Ozymandias cause to perish or to suffer in building his monument?
DeleteEric
Well they were probably happy that he was leaving the Senate. It also gives them a chance to win his Senate seat. With Obama's foreign policy what can Kerry actually accomplish that some other schmuck wouldn't accomplish?
ReplyDeleteWhy is anyone surprised? To carry out Obama's foreign policy aims which are to damage US strategic interests as much as possible, who could be better qualified for the job than John Kerry?
DeleteAgree with everything you wrote, Diplomad. Another point is that this guy will have zero ability to deal with any of the complex internal administration issues the State Dept. faces.
ReplyDeleteDip, unfortunately, you nailed it. Wish we could say it isn't so. How much worse, more humiliating will it get?
ReplyDeleteJack
much worse
Delete"loyalty is to membership in the Senate club, not to the country and our dead."
ReplyDeleteSays it all.
Sandra C
Well, at least my two senators did the right thing as did my already-hero senator from just a bit up the road. Sigh.
ReplyDeleteI despise Kerry. I also look at this in a different way:
ReplyDelete1. He is out of the Senate and the Democrats lose his seniority
2. We were never going to get someone acceptable (or especially qualified) to us, not with Obama as President
3. With Kerry as Sec of State, Obama is going to spend the next 4 years cleaning up after and making excuses for him.
4. Now the rest of the country will get to see what a moron Kerry is, not just the residents of MA and those of us who actually pay attenntion.
Obama is really good at picking 2nd string morons to fill his administration posts. I can hardly wait to see this potential Alzheimer candidate in action against the press. People will start considering Obama's use of TOTUS as soaring rhetoric fit for Mt. Olympus!
DeleteHillary, on the other hand, is free as a bird....I'm thinking seagull - the kind that bombs you with bird shit while your walking the beach minding your own business.
Not surprised but I think this suits Obama's aims quite well. Keep in mind that his goals are not the goals of some of the rest of us.
ReplyDeleteMy Senator is Rubio. As one of his earliest supporters in Florida(against Charlie Crist) I watch him like a hawk. He voted for Kerry's nomination. I conveyed my disgust with that vote. The Kerry, Hagel, Brennan trio is a nightmare for the country. And since on his own Kerry will be a disaster, then I can only hope to take some petty satisfaction when Miss Theresa grows bored and mouths off.
ReplyDeleteReply to myself. Ah, it did not take the lovely little tomato long to present herself.
DeleteFrom Twitchy:
michael viqueira @mikeviqueira
Kerry emerges after swearing in. Reporter: what's the 1st (world) hot spot? Teresa (raising hand and walking away): "Me"
Contraryan I suppose I probably am, but I'm thinking this Administration is giving us a pretty good chance for the future.
ReplyDelete"Most of" the Country knows Massachushits politicians haven't a clue where "most of the Country's" sentiments are embedded - for reference see the last Presidential bid of a Massachusetts (cough cough) "Conservative" [the DC Party Panjandrums & FOX' small 'p' panjandrums aside]...
Thing to consider is ... looks to be "O" seems really focused on getting a bunch of stuff "done" in the next four years.
I don't see it happening.
Immigration reform maybe - crass vote-buying attempt by the Rs that it is for the mid-term prospects - but maybe that bloc will have forgotten when 2016 rolls around.
"O" for the most part it seems to me, has goals which seem extremely short-sighted.
But "short-term-fixes" pretty much everybody agrees aren't gonna be fixing much in the long-term.
However - our schisms aren't working well either. We need to "accommodate" (sinful as that might seem to some - but what we're doing presently doesn't seem to be working so hot). Of course I'm mad about the Boy Scouts panjandrums though.
Seems to me the Religious Wing of the Conservatives needs to join up with the Anti-TARP crowd - however different the goals. But the fact is, given the "inclusiveness" the GOP is talking on C-Span, it appears to me - the GOP (at least the entrenched DC manifestation) looks to be about to veer LEFT!
Arkie
Excuse me dude can I pick your attention and turn your head around what you & other who support GW Bush about Iraq?
ReplyDeleteThose bunch of those other traitors who were fighting Iraqis with their enemy Iranian for 8 years in addition to planting bombs inside Iraq killing just innocents Iraqi did not hard and B* from the regime? Who are “not only did he pay no penalty for supporting the enemy in a time of war, he prospered financially and politically”. You and your administration backed them helped them protect them to set what it called Green Zone Democratic regime! Isn’t same as you stating, “One could expect no less of today's Democratic Party.””
Err... Hmm ...
DeleteETR, Jib? Please stop reading > NOW!
Anonymous?
You got any idea how dumbfuck your comment reads?
"Excuse me dude can I pick your attention and turn your head around what you & other who support GW Bush about Iraq?
Ordinarily I wouldn't enthusiastically advise anybody going to a MD and asking for a prescription for Prozac.
I'll make an exception in your case.
Arkie
Whiskey - Tango - Foxtrot > Over! || Do you read? > Over! || Earth calling Anonymous.> Come IN - Over!||
DeleteAnonymous @ January 30, 2013 at 10:43 PM -- Your comments make absolutely no sense whatsoever. Are you drunk or need your medication tweaked?
looks the civility very distance from both of you when speaking uncivilised, taken personal attack far from the subject and run to attacking, poor looser..
DeleteOnly sick, deaf and blind can’t see the truth, supporting traitors over the world (best example in Iraq with Da’awa, Saddar, Galabi, Maliki, Ja’afari, Iranin proxy & others all bunch of F* traitors ) . Forgetting all that, Talking now & trying cleaning their house from traitors, what and obscenity.
Only one thing I would say to those who are sick & who are “Are you drunk or need your medication tweaked.....”
The Truth hard to Swallow by your Deafness & Blindness
I wouldn't be too hard on Rubio and republicans; they have to pick their battles these days. Andrew mentioned Mencken. For one, I am ready to raise the black flag and start slitting throats. Oh,and I agree with arkie regarding anonymous "excuse me dude". You are incoherent and an embarrassment to side you represent. Hope that diplomad attracts a better class of troll in the future. You know- the kind that can string a couple of cogent thoughts together.
ReplyDeleteCloward-Piven recommend overloading the system to make it crash. Kerry's nomination as Secretary of State is another example of this policy, accomplished in a different manner. Destroy the system by putting incompetents in charge will work too.
ReplyDeleteBefore I joined the FS I had visions of it as being a selfless institution led by competent people. Kerry's nomination makes me realize, even more than the nominations of people like Madeline Albright or Hillary Clinton, that contempt for this amazing experiment in self-government can be expressed across the board, even in time-honored institutions with a rich and impressive history. Ben Franklin and Thomas Jefferson must be spinning in their grave.
I used to think concluding my comments with "alas" expressed my exasperation with the stupid decisions our political leaders made. Alas, the word no longer suffices. The only thing I can conclude about this nomination is "WTF".
I, like you, am disgusted at how this individual is going to run State. I am sure we will see a higher budget for artwork than security at our foreign outposts.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it nice to know the average Wal-Mart has more protection with anti-vehicle barriers and dozens of video cameras pointed at ingress and egress points than Benghazi?
I am shocked Rubio voted for this clown. Kerry will no doubt blame Bushmaster the next time one of our foreign missions gets take down, and that WILL happen.
To the Anonymous posters here,tell us who you voted for and clear up any lingering doubts we may have on your sympathies. Moi? Straight ticket repub.
I am the other anonymous. Word press does not work here for me. Conservative. As I said disappointed in Rubio' vote for Kerry. I do watch Rubio carefully. Today Kerry supports release of American pastor in Iran. What is relevant to me is that it was done in answer to a written question from Rubio. Doesn't change my position on Kerry or Theresa. SidVic yes to choosing battles - reading Rubio a No on Hagel.
DeleteIf you vote to confirm a traitor to high office, what does that make you?
ReplyDeleteThanks a lot Republicans for going along with it.
Just a tad off topic, but not by much:
ReplyDelete"State Dept. Recruits Muslim Foreign Service Officers at Jihadist Conf."
http://www.judicialwatch.org/blog/2013/01/state-dept-recruits-muslim-foreign-service-officers-at-jihadist-conf/
May not be off topic at all, considering Kerry orientation and qualifications, (not). No doubt he would get along well with Alinsky, which would make sense for the following development, to which one can only exclaim, OMG, followed quickly by Whiskey, Tango, Foxtrot, and as one here had answered me earlier on how much worse can it get, with "much worse", apparently with complete islamification of America, full speed ahead, is how it sounds to me (which I believe is the goal of the MIC):
ReplyDeletehttp://weaselzippers.us/2013/01/31/obama-state-department-recruits-muslim-foreign-service-officers-at-islamist-conference/ read the comments, less restrained than here, if you dare
I'm Jack, conservative, clean slate Rep., and ride in a Patriot Blue, of Liberty lineage, parenthetically!!!
For additional comments, and revelation, and perspective, this helps and illuminates:
Deletehttp://www.jihadwatch.org/2013/01/state-department-recruits-muslim-foreign-service-officers-at-conference-of-muslim-brotherhood-groups.html#comments
Jack
Dip, I hear your rage, and share -
ReplyDeleteKerry's confirmation makes my eyes bleed red.
McCain has lost my respect for his support to this traitor.
Obama seems to be choosing those who make him look good by comparison, and you really have to dredge the bottom of the barrel to do so.
God forbid Hagel is confirmed, but I put nothing past the Senate, after this.
"God forbid Hagel is confirmed, but I put nothing past the Senate, after this."
DeleteProbably a good thing the confirmation hearings were held in the Senate as opposed to the House then.
Yeah, I watched alot of the questionings (when the Senators weren't causing me to nod off - just an aside but I think the FDA might take Ambien off the market then, if a person is unable to get to sleep, make the poor insomniac watch C-Span).
Anyway, as I typed, "good thing the hearings weren't in the House" - too much of the Righteous Indignation would've been unavailable to Representatives. Those guys after-all are responsible for authoring legislation granting waivers on Iranian sanctions. And that's the mainest problem [in my humble opinion re 'unilateral sanctions'] I seem to recall Iran's been under unilateral sanctions since 1979.
Except as waived:
http://blogs.jta.org/politics/article/2011/10/27/3090006/first-gop-responses-to-arizona-mine-iran-controversy
Just personally speaking - but when it comes to our pols posturing over this or that ... well, I find myself suffering "Righteous Indignation Fatigue!"
Arkie
Dip, this is at least tangential, since it's about or old shop and its current practices.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.jihadwatch.org/2013/01/state-department-recruits-muslim-foreign-service-officers-at-conference-of-muslim-brotherhood-groups.html
I wonder if you heard anything about this, and if you have any comments.
This isn't really all that new. From what I can recall Congressman Keith Ellison (D-Minn) was tasked back in 2007, '08 or '09 by the White House to search out acceptable Muslim candidates to work within the Obama Administration.
DeleteThe same thing appears to have happened within the American military officer corps, although those Muslim adherents would still be junior in rank.
With Affirmative Action our country stepped away from being a meritocracy long ago. We never really were 100% a meritocracy in our past - but that procedural concept appears much diminished.
McCain should have gracefully retired prior to his last election. With due respect for his Vietnam POW trials, he's ridden the coattails of his POW experiences his entire career, while exhibiting but little of conservative political thought.
ReplyDeletePreeminent amongst his Senatorial accomplishments: McCain Feingold. ...that says it all. Right there. Bogus conservative.
No wonder his presidential campaign came to naught: he doesn't have the core principles that instinctively drive conservative stances on issues. Palin beat him on political instinct by a country mile.
Every time I see a group of Senators on the screen I think, term limits. Their age and decrepitude in itself prove that DC is corrupt. Congress is not a country for old men, if it ever was. There is real work to do in the area of oversight in our enormous country with its out of control executive branch.
ReplyDelete"Every time I see a group of Senators on the screen I think, term limits. Their age and decrepitude in itself prove that DC is corrupt."
DeleteA hearty SECONDED!
Last night I found myself flicking through the channels and caught a snippet which caused me to gag on my beer - the housekeeper will not be amused. Thankfully my pretzel'd been long in my stomach.
"Congressman So-and-So from Someplace now serving his 16th consecutive term!"
Instantly the thought crossed my mind, "Wha! Don't tell me somebody went and dug up Strom (or Byrd)?!!"
Incidentally - is it just me or has anybody else noticed - doesn't it seem McCain's TV makeup of late, appears to have been applied by a mortician's apprentice?
Arkie
http://adinakutnicki.com/2012/08/29/republican-national-convention-heralds-arab-spring-in-its-platform-oblivious-to-the-unfolding-arabmuslim-nightmare-commentary-by-adina-kutnicki/
ReplyDeleteArkie
(h/t "Jack" - I think)
Probably anyone that reads this blog could have had a more informed discussion with the Senate than Chuck Hagel did. I was literally wincing watching him try to put a coherent sentence together.
ReplyDeleteHow old is that guy? Does anyone actually expect him to run the DoD?
Everything has become so pathetic that it is hard for me to even keep up.