In the clip below, listen to South Carolina State Senator Lee Bright describe his role models while calling out his party leaders for not being more like dictators Bashar al-Assad and Vladimir Putin, when it comes to opposing our democratically elected president, Barack Obama.
Lee “Bright” is currently running for the US Senate. His opponent is another Republican wingnut, Lindsay Graham. In the audio, “Bright” said;
Republicans need to learn to start playing offense and quit playing so much defense. You look at, of course I hate to use examples, you look at Assad and you look at Putin, when people stand up to Obama, you see that he backs up and his lines in the sand become erased.
If Boehner had the courage that Putin and Assad had, we’d be living in a different America, but we don’t have the leadership and we’ve got to continue to try to get folks to Washington that are going to take the fight to the liberal agenda.
George Bush once said that he looked into Putin’s eyes and saw his soul. This painting by the former president is probably what Putin’s soul looks like.
I knew there was a reason Republicans love the Russian dictator president so much.
With Vladimir Putin back in the news so prominently, now may be a good time to look back at a photo that got some attention in 2009: a photo of Ronald Reagan in Russia, a photo taken by the man who currently fills the same official role for President Obama, and a photo that appears to feature Putin himself dressed up like a tourist.
Pete Souza is the White House photographer for President Obama, but he also worked in the same capacity under Reagan, and he snapped that photo in 1988 of Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev greeting tourists. And Souza claimed back in 2009 (and said this information was confirmed to him) that the man on the very left, the tourist-y looking fellow with the camera around his neck, is in fact Vladimir Putin, who was a KGB agent at the time and was undercover.
Moscow officials, however, very much doubt it’s actually Putin, though it does look quite like the Russian leader…
It’s amazing how quickly Republicans pranced on President Obama to cast blame on him for Putin’s decision to invade Ukraine. From Lindsey Graham, to John McCain to Rudolph Guiliana, they are all having a field day, criticizing Mr. Obama as a weak, spineless, Muslim infidel who is the reason why the world is apparently walking all over this nation. But Rachel Maddow asked a question on her show last night. Where were all these Republicans when Putin did his last invasion?
Bush was in power, remember?
In 2008, Putin invaded Georgia and a war began. The man in the White House at that time was George W. Bush and the noise machine we’re hearing now fom the right was apparently broken, as the present warmongers were mysteriously silent and even supportive of Bush just 7 years ago.
Remember to saying, “politics stops at the water’s edge?” Well that saying only applies when theres a Republican sitting in the White House. It’s open season on the president if he’s a Democrat.
On Sunday, Lindsey Graham went on CNN’s State of the Union with Sandy Crowley and he did what Republicans are known for these days – Attacking Obama for things Obama can’t control.
CROWLEY: The president has come out and said very forcefully on Friday about consequences. The U.S. has made it clear that is disapproves of what Russia has done. You’ve been Tweeting about strong statements. What more do you want from President Obama at this point?
GRAHAM: Well, number one, stop going on television and trying to threaten thugs and dictators. It is not your strong suit. Every time the president goes on national television and threatens Putin or anyone like Putin, everybody’s eyes roll, including mine. We have a weak and indecisive president that invites aggression.
President Obama needs to do something. How about this — suspend Russian membership in the G-8 and the G-20 at least for a year starting right now. And for every day that they stay in Crimea, add to the suspension. Do something.
Someone should remind Lindsey that Osama bin Laden is not around to roll his eyes anymore, neither are the record number of terrorists killed on Obama’s orders.
You can’t say we weren’t warned that Vladimir Putin might try to flex some muscles in Ukraine. After all, the Olympics are over, there were no terrorist attacks, Russia won the most medals, and Viktor Yanukovych turned out to be better suited for the summer games, beating a hasty vamoose from Kiev all the way to Moscow. Perhaps we could have a Dictator’s Marathon in Rio come 2016. I’d watch “Baby Doc” Duvalier run from shouting crowds. And you would too. After all, you watched Curling, right?
Let’s move on.
The latest is that Russian security forces are now in the Crimea and are asking Ukrainian forces to defect. They’re also trying to neutralize and reverse the events of last week when crowds in Kiev forced the President from his post. Putin is painted as the bad guy here, but the West has a problem on its hand that is similar to what happened in Egypt last year. A democratically elected government has been overthrown in a decidedly non-democratic manner, but since the people who have taken over are seen as a better alternative, the western powers are accepting the change. This is dangerous.
Of course, Yanukovych made this problem worse by leaving. Had he stayed and honored the agreement he made with the opposition, then the system would not be under such strain. And I suppose he could be invited to come back as part of a Putin-sponsored deal that restores the legitimately elected government and keeps Yulia Tymoshenko out of jail. I don’t expect this, but I didn’t expect the Crimea to become a world headline and another part of the world that most Americans can’t find on a map.
President Obama and John Kerry will need to finesse this so that we don’t look weak, but that we also don’t get involved in a shooting war. I trust that they’ll hold off the Republicans who want us to refight the Cold War with hot weapons and show Vlad the Invader what a real country does with its taxpayer-bought arsenal.
Maybe we can use Governor Christie’s expertise and cause a traffic jam that bottles up the Russian forces until we can get the UN to negotiate an exit.
This one bears watching, and is a reminder that we need to be thankful that we have a level-headed team in the White House to see us through.
The fact that Russian President Vladimir Putin thinks he has the moral compass to talk about diplomacy is in itself laughable. The fact that he sees himself capable of teaching the idea of Diplomacy to Americans is Rolling On The Floor Laughing Out Loud.
Putin and the Syrian leader Bashar Assad jumped on an off the cuff remark by Secretary of State John Kerry, where Kerry suggested a total surrender of Syria’s chemical weapons as the only way to avoid military action. The here’s our weapons ball began rolling almost immediately with Putin leading the way and here at home, the Republicans – who haven’t yet met a war they didn’t like – suddenly became peace makers, lovers of diplomacy. They began praising Putin The Savior yesterday, as if he was Christ getting ready for the second coming.
All this love going his way from the Republicans in the United States Congress and the exaltation from a right winged media blitz on all this week, must have went straight to Putin’s head, prompting him to pen an op ed in the New York Times. A Plea for Caution From Russia was written well, made some good points. But the message was totally corrupted by the messenger.
Ordinarily this part of the message I would agree with. In this passage, Putin explains how much of the world view America and our military power, and the irony of using the military to protect innocent people who sometimes end up being inadvertently killed by military action.
Putin, take it away!
It is alarming that military intervention in internal conflicts in foreign countries has become commonplace for the United States. Is it in America’s long-term interest? I doubt it. Millions around the world increasingly see America not as a model of democracy but as relying solely on brute force, cobbling coalitions together under the slogan “you’re either with us or against us.”
But force has proved ineffective and pointless. Afghanistan is reeling, and no one can say what will happen after international forces withdraw. Libya is divided into tribes and clans. In Iraq the civil war continues, with dozens killed each day. In the United States, many draw an analogy between Iraq and Syria, and ask why their government would want to repeat recent mistakes.
No matter how targeted the strikes or how sophisticated the weapons, civilian casualties are inevitable, including the elderly and children, whom the strikes are meant to protect.
If that was all Putin had to say, then his message would be more acceptable, more believable in spite of the messenger. But then Putin went where he clearly had no right going.
At this point in his article, Putin was probably admiring the masculinity of his shirtless physique in the mirror, when decided to tell Americans that we are not exceptional and shouldn’t even feel like we are.
Brace yourself.
My working and personal relationship with President Obama is marked by growing trust. I appreciate this. I carefully studied his address to the nation on Tuesday. And I would rather disagree with a case he made on American exceptionalism, stating that the United States’ policy is “what makes America different. It’s what makes us exceptional.” It is extremely dangerous to encourage people to see themselves as exceptional, whatever the motivation.
And the part of Putin’s message that showed us just how broken his moral compass really is, and why the message was totally corrupted was when he talked about everyone being equally created by God… Yes, Putin really said that. Yes, the same Putin who is persecuting people in Russia because of their sexual orientation. That same Putin said this:
We are all different, but when we ask for the Lord’s blessings, we must not forget that God created us equal.
Putin, put your shirt back on. You are not muscular and you are no saint, despite what the Republicans say.
Things aren’t exactly warming up between the Obama administration and Vladimir Putin, even as President Obama arrived in St. Petersburg for the G-20 summit.
Putin called Obama Secretary of State John Kerry a liar over Kerry’s testimony this week before Congress.
The question may be al-Qaeda’s influence on the Syrian rebels, an issue Kerry has downplayed.
Speaking to his human rights council Wednesday, Putin said, “This was very unpleasant and surprising for me. We talk to them (the Americans), and we assume they are decent people, but he is lying and he knows that he is lying. This is sad.”
Putin has criticized Obama administration claims that Bashar Assad’s government attacked the rebels with chemical weapons.
Last month, Obama canceled a summit meeting with Putin after a series of U.S.-Russian disputes, including Russia’s decision to grant asylum to National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden.
As for the new flap over Kerry’s testimony, the Associated Press reported:
“It was unclear exactly what Putin was referencing, but Kerry was asked Tuesday while testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee if the Syrian opposition had become more infiltrated by al-Qaeda.
“Kerry responded that that was ‘basically incorrect’ and that the opposition has ‘increasingly become more defined by its moderation.’ …
“In testimony Wednesday, Kerry said he didn’t agree that ‘a majority (of the opposition) are al-Qaeda and the bad guys.’ Extremists amount to 15 to 25% of the opposition, he said, including al-Nusra and many other groups that are ‘fighting each other, even now.'”
Asked about Putin’s comments, National Security Council spokesman Ben Rhodes said, “Well, we certainly would side with Secretary Kerry in that back-and-forth.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin greeted American President Barack Obama today as Russia plays host to the G 20 Summit. Unlike past impressions of what seemed to be a rocky relationship between the two leaders, this meeting brought smiles, handshakes and brief pleasantries.
Small gestures indeed, but considering that the two leaders are on opposite sides of the spectrum on any possible bombing of Syria, these gestures speak volume.
All eyes will be on these two as the Summit proceeds.
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