I think all Americans can be a little bit proud that Allen West was able to get himself elected to Congress and to serve there for one term:
Former Congressman Allen West (R-Florida) thinks President Barack Obama “indirectly responsible” for Thursday’s Malaysian Airlines plane crash in Ukraine, which U.S. officials say could have been caused by an anti-aircraft missile from pro-Russian separatists.
“The blood on Vladimir Putin’s hands was poured by Barack Obama, who is indirectly responsible, accountable and no different than Neville Chamberlain’s weakness in the face of the 20th Century maniacal dictator Adolf Hitler,” West, who maintains a relatively large following among conservative activists, wrote in a new post on his blog Friday.
“So much for no drama Obama,” West added. “He is purposefully creating drama globally.”
I’m not sure if Allen West is technically insane in the same way that, say, Louie Gohmert and Steve King are, but he’s figured out how to make a buck by saying insane stuff.
Thanks, Obama.
They are not insane, they are of low character, and they prove it every time they open their pie hole.
preclude the conclusion, “they are both”.
The insanity defense lets them off the hook. They are not mentally ill, they are mean, low-down and dirty.
and dirty” does not preclude that they are also mentally ill, insane.
In fact, given that
it doesn’t even seem hyperbolic to call them the Insane Party.
And yes, also too, “mean, low-down and dirty”, etc.
this. Assholishness is not a disease it is a moral failing.
All you need to know about Allen West, the “Guardian of the Republic”:
Unlike Chelsea Manning, he drew no jail time.
He’s selling books using the Ann Coulter Method.
Is there any way in the world that this formula would work for a one term Democrat who also got unceremoniously booted out of the only other job they ever held?
I very much doubt it. Only in the conservative world can grifting pay such handsome rewards.
And here I was thinking that Obama was responsible for being too strong, for all-but-invading Ukraine and deposing their freely elected government and replacing it with a puppet selected precisely because he knew it would turn away Putin’s outstretched hand of fraternal cooperation.
It’s a strange old world.
…and, over at TPM there’s reports coming out from a Ukrainian rebel leader that the MH plane was “filled with already dead bodies”.
Yep, “false flag” cranking right up to speed. Perhaps we can send over some Sandy Hook Trufers to help show them how it’s done.
I’d keep the work in-house.
Bob in Portland will oblige.
I’m not an expert on how long dead bodies take to decompose.
The Ukrainian army has 27 surface-to-air batteries in the war zone. The rebels have no planes. Wouldn’t it make sense not to have weapons systems that can’t be used against the enemy out of the war zone, especially if the SAMs they have could be used against their aircraft? What was Ukraine planning on doing, shooting down Russian planes over Russian territory?
Russian planes over Ukraine territory if they could get Putin or the Russian military to take the bait. Might explain why there was so much action on the Russian border last Monday through Wednesday. Kiev claims to have lost three planes — one shot down by a Russian rocket, one at a lower altitude downed by the “rebels,” and one downed by a missile from a Russian jet.
Otherwise Kiev was dropping bombs on Donestk and residents there were fleeing to Russia for safety.
Just maken stuff up.
How many non-blog-readers these days even know who Neville Chamberlain was or what he did? The Republicans seem to think that they’re still scoring big points with that analogy. I think they’re wrong.
Putin is doing an excellent job of screwing himself up in the Ukraine so why should Obama interrupt him?
innocent, murdered, 300 dead people.
Which gets a bit beyond Putin merely shooting himself in the foot (though he’s certainly accomplishing that with spectacular efficiency).
Jus’ sayin’.
Not sure exactly what the US was supposed to do to prevent that, since the US doesn’t have any particular authority over Malaysian Airlines, over flight paths from Europe to Southeast Asia, or over Ukraine or Russia.
ANYTHING to prevent that.
My comment was more analogous to the objection I have to condemnations of the War Crime of invading Iraq that emphasize the few thousand U.S. dead, while ignoring the million (give or take a few 100k) Iraqis prematurely dead as a result.
More to do with moral weight. Putin’s self-inflicted political discomfort relative to 300 innocent dead people. Just doesn’t sit right with me to emphasize the former while ignoring the latter.
Perhaps the US should have encouraged the Ukrainians to extend the ceasefire last week and have them engage in peace talks. Or is that something the US shouldn’t have done?
We are approaching three hundred civilian deaths from the Ukrainian army shelling of Lugansk. Perhaps you can share with us the moral difference between people falling from the sky and people being crushed from artillery fire.
I don’t know. How many civilian deaths were there during the sieges of Petersburg and Vicksburg?
pretty weird of you to suggest I “share” same.
I see in the NY Times that Ukraine claims to have evidence that the rebels shot down the plane. What is it? Do we get to see it? Higgs, unlike you I actually like to see evidence before I claim to know something.
The Ukrainian forces have 27 BUKs in the war zone, ready to shoot down the rebels’ air force which doesn’t exist. The Ukrainians have a capable radar system required to use BUKs, but the rebels don’t. They have trained crews to operate them, but the rebels don’t. What were they planning to shoot down?
Actually you have been claiming to know something in every thread here.
You are quite correct about “Steadfast and Loyal” Allen B. West. There is no, vicious, fact-free slur that he won’t hurl against Obama.
In his case, I am pretty confident that there is a huge, “self-hating black” element in his bile. I can’t help but think that part of West’s batshit-craziness is racial, in that we have a supposed black “leftist” in the White House. I’m sure West feels that everything that Obama does tarnishes his own “loyalty” to the kind of white-America that Sean Hannity and Rush want. Sadly, unless West goes all Michael Jackson on us, he can never be that kind of “Merkin.”
“…figured out how to make a buck by saying insane stuff.”
Never look at the storyteller. Always look at the audience.
Boo, you apparently don’t like Russia, so why not have another thread about the biggest news story of the day? Almost two comments on yesterday’s thread. Don’t you want comments on it?
200 comments.
Bob, I urge you to check out the new Governor of Dnipropetrovsk. There’s an excellent profile of him in the WSJ-online: “Ukraine’s Secret Weapon: Feisty Oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky” It doesn’t link properly, but if you Google Ihor Kolomoisky the article appears and loads if clicked.
This guy had the means, motive (at least three), and quite likely the opportunity.
Ah, so now court martialed and booted ex-Col. West (Jeesus, what an army…) is the rightwing militarists’ new Grand Strategist and Chief of the Armchair General Staff, likening Putin to Hitler, and demanding NO MORE Chamberlainian “Appeasement!”—of the other nuclear superpower. Highly responsible, I’m sure Clausewitz would have approved…
I’m not sure that fomenting increasing public hatred of Putin (and Russia) is the best tack to take, it’s not exactly an argument that the US really needs to be working overtime to overheat. The dead are mostly EU citizens, killed at the edge of Europe (very broadly speaking), perhaps they should take the lead in the investigation (and denunciation) departments. But there is no prudence or restraint on the American Right and its crazed Noise Machine, that’s for sure.
One might have thought that the US immediately pointing the finger at Putin and (speculated) Russian “assistance” would have been enough to stop the “conservative” mad dogs from snarling their tiresome and stale “appeasement” skit, but no. It just never gets old (to them). The last roundup I read seemed to indicate that the Ukrainian rebels had earlier announced capture of a BUK unit (which was reported in Russian news before the latest catastrophe) and had already shot down a Ukrainian military transport at high altitude.
But of course there’s so many stories and nuggets very few can keep up. Perhaps some of the more plugged-in can explain why we think Putin gave the suspected equipment to the rebels when there were prior reports they had already captured Ukrainian s-to-a missiles. Thanks kindly. What did Russia gain by reporting this event? Also, why ever was this commercial airliner flying in this dangerous airspace? Who the hell set up this flight plan?
As for Monsieur West, he is a vicious dead-end crackpot and psychotic, who has been delighted to find he can be well remunerated for his extremist rantings; whether he is “insane”, who knows? As we know from today’s headlines, anything’s possible!
Clasuswitz would have laughed himself silly at these armchair generals, if that is your spin.
The Putin-phobia is just a marketing campaign to keep military spending at abnormally high levels as we come to a budget showdown again in September.
Not much left but the military to cut this time around–unless the GOP wants to talk seriously about raising taxes on corporations and the wealthy. Obamacare has taken some of the air out of cutting Medicare and everything else is cut discretionary spending. VA has been hollowed. Highway Trust Fund is broke. Farm bill screwed Food Stamps. What’s left to cut but the military bloat?
I can answer this:
It is a standard flight path. Kiev set 0-320 as a no fly zone for commercial airlines. Malaysia Air was flying at 330. There’s a report that MH17 requested to fly at 350 but Kiev ATC declined the request. Kiev has impounded ATC records for now. Malaysia Air wasn’t the only airline using that flight path that day and had used it several times that week.
MH17 was a bit north of the flight path it had used the day before but pilots seem to think that was to avoid a weather condition.
In approving overflights, Kiev has responsibility for the safe condition of the flight paths. One they could dodge if the missile were fired from a Russian jet or from a Russian SAM. Or maybe not since Kiev was claiming that on Monday, a Russian SAM took out one of Ukraine’s military planes and on Wednesday evening a Russian jet fired a missile at another Ukrainian military plane.