Carter Blasts Israeli Oppression

[Michael Tee]

I caught this on Larry King last night.  MSM seems to have buried it pretty well.  What else is new?

from
http://paulmalouf.blogspot.com/2006/11/cnn-jimmy-carter-interview-on-larry.html

<< . . . the oppression of the Palestinians by Israeli forces in the occupied territories is horrendous. And it's not something that has been acknowledged or even discussed in this country. . .

<<KING: Why not?

<<CARTER: I don't know why not.

<<You never hear anything about what is happening to the Palestinians by the Israelis. As a matter of fact, it's one of the worst cases of oppression that I know of now in the world. The Palestinians' land has been taken away from them. They now have an encapsulating or an imprisonment wall being built around what's left of the little tiny part of the holy land that is in the West Bank. . . >>

[sirs]

Spoken like the true miserable failure of a President, history will always see him as

[Michael Tee]

What specifically did he fail at?

[Xavier_Onassis]

Carter is by far the best ex-president this country has ever had.

All Nixon did was write books full of lies and profit from selling real estate. Not much can be said about Reagan, Ford or Olebush, either.

His zero-based budgeting in the 1970's was the basis for the prosperity of the Reagan years.

He was set up by Kissinger and others fro a fall with the Iran Crisis. He should never have trusted Kissinger, and neither should anyone else. The Shah should never have been allowed in the US. The Embassy staff should have been brought home. The documents in the Embassy were shameful and should have been destroyed.

Carter is entirely right about the oppression of the Palestinians by the Israelis. I am pretty sure he knows why this is not made more public in the US. But he is too smart to utter the words "AIPAC" or "Zionist lobby"

[Michael Tee]

<<Carter is entirely right about the oppression of the Palestinians by the Israelis. I am pretty sure he knows why this is not made more public in the US. But he is too smart to utter the words "AIPAC" or "Zionist lobby">>

That was obvious.  I hope you watched the live interview or the tape.  It was hilarious how that ass-wipe Larry King tried to set him up and how deftly Carter slipped away.  "Why not?" came out really quick, and so did Carter's "I don't know why not."  He was totally prepared for it.  What a pro.  You knew it was a bullshit question by King's total failure to follow up.  Who knows, maybe the old time-server has a few shreds of decency left.

[sirs]

What specifically did he fail at?

Oh, where to start

- An economy so bad, unemployment so high, inflation rate thru the roof, that the "Misery Index" had its highest ever record applied to a President at 21.98%  (currently it's 5.71% as of October 2006, under Bush, just in case you were wondering)

- Facilitated the skyrocketing price of gas, with long gas lines and rationing gas as determined by your license plate #.

- Sent hundreds of millions of our taxpayer dollars to North Korea on the promise that they wouldn't build atomic weapons and missiles to deliver them.  And history has demonstrated how well that went

- He personally waged international financial war against South Africa and helped establish a regime with Nelson Mandela, a socialist who was a buddy of Libya's terrorist head of state, Muhmmar Quadafi, that has destroyed the economy there

- Forced young Olympian athletes to forget all their years of training in support of his political policy because the Olympics were to be held in the Soviet Union

- Pardoned all the draft dodgers from the Vietnam conflict and restored them to full US citizenship

- Responsible for the fall of the Shah of Iran to the Ayatoilet Cockamamie and the establishment of that insane Moslem dictatorship

- Did more to aid the cause of radical fundamentalist Islam than any other president, first by not helping the Shah of Iran when Khomeni deposed him; second by doing nothing during the hostage crisis, which perhaps was the epitome of his failure as a President.

I could go on, and on, and on, and on.  suffice to say, Bush has a hopelessly long way to go to ever reach the subteranean levels of failure, that Carter achieved as President

[Xavier_Onassis]

Total crap.

- Facilitated the skyrocketing price of gas, with long gas lines and rationing gas as determined by your license plate #.

This was not Carter's fault. Carter did not control the flow of oil.

- Sent hundreds of millions of our taxpayer dollars to North Korea on the promise that they wouldn't build atomic weapons and missiles to deliver them.  And history has demonstrated how well that went

Hundreds of millions?  Bullcrap!

- He personally waged international financial war against South Africa and helped establish a regime with Nelson Mandela, a socialist who was a buddy of Libya's terrorist head of state, Muhmmar Quadafi, that has destroyed the economy there

Oh yeah, the Apartheid regime was infinitely better. As if Mandela was not the only African figure who did not cause a total instant collapse of the economy when the majority took over.

- Forced young Olympian athletes to forget all their years of training in support of his political policy because the Olympics were to be held in the Soviet Union

And why was that? Because the Soviets invaded Afghanistan! I bet you'd blather even more stupidly if Carter had NOT boycotted the Moscow Olympics.

- Pardoned all the draft dodgers from the Vietnam conflict and restored them to full US citizenship

Hooray for that! It's not like they would have won in Vietnam if every one of these brave dissenters had gone to Vietnam and even died there. Unfortunately, the numbskull Republican'ts have given us a NEW Vietnam in Iraq.
 
- Responsible for the fall of the Shah of Iran to the Ayatoilet Cockamamie and the establishment of that insane Moslem dictatorship

The Shah was dying. The Iranians overthrew him There was not a goddamned thing that the US could have done to prevent this. The Shah was doomed by his own hubris: he was soooo powerful and sooo egotistical that not one doctor dared to suggest that the Imperial Iranian Ass was cancerous, and he died of colon cancer as a result. Note that Carter is not respoonsible for colon cancer. The Shah was  nasty little tyrant, and should never have been imposed on Iran in the first place. By the way, the man deposed by the CIA to install the Shah, Mossadegh, was elected by the people of Iran. No one ever elected the nasty little Shah.

- Did more to aid the cause of radical fundamentalist Islam than any other president, first by not helping the Shah of Iran when Khomeni deposed him; second by doing nothing during the hostage crisis, which perhaps was the epitome of his failure as a President.

Carter spent every waking moment dealking with the hostage crisis. Because of him, ever hostage returned home unharmed.

I suppose you think that Reagan did it all.
I could go on, and on, and on, and on.  suffice to say, Bush has a hopelessly long way to go to ever reach the subteranean levels of failure, that Carter achieved as President

[Michael Tee]

As I recall the price of gas went up due to OPEC actions independent of U.S. input.  The gas prices probably affected the economy and contributed to some of the effects that you noted.

North Korea is an insignificant blip on the world stage, with no possibility of attacking the U.S.A.   Any attempt to bring it out of isolation and into closer, more amicable relations with the rest of the world is admirable, regardless of whether it succeeds or fails.  North Korea "belongs" to China in the international scheme of things, can never be a U.S. satellite, and really has very little to do with anything.

Carter fucked up majorly in Iran, firstly by not building bridges to the rebels when there was still a solid, secular middle-class component to the Revolution, secondly - - incredibly - -by following the advice of that criminal ass-hole Kissinger and allowing the Shah into the U.S. on "compassionate" grounds.  You don't have to show compassion to a torturer and murderer just because he is being ravaged by cancer.  He's only getting what he deserves.

That Carter waged economic and political war against the murderous racist South African government and supported Nelson Mandela as the alternative should be a source of great pride to every American.  Because of that support, South Africa is no longer the racist state that it used to be.  My only beef with South Africa today is that instead of executing all of the former police and army torturers and murderers (including the killers of Steve Biko and tens of thousands of others) they put them through some bullshit "peace and reconciliation" proceedings where everybody is supposed to hug one another afterward and feel good.  How the fuck does anyone feel good watching the killers and torturers of their sons and daughters walking around free to enjoy the rest of their lives?

The only thing I fault Carter for in South Africa was that he failed to send U.S. ground troops to fight the bastards in the peripheral wars they were waging outside their own country against their black-ruled neighbours.  There you see the real difference between bullshit U.S. opposition to racism, based only on Carter's fine words and phrases, and Revolutionary Communism's opposition to racism, where Fidel Castro sent Cuban troops to Africa to fight racism not with words but with live ammunition.

Pardoned the draft dodgers?  He only went half way on that.  What he SHOULDA done was hold war-crimes trials for the bastards that went over there in the first place.  I'll  never forgive him for not doing so.  He set the example that permitted further atrocities in Iraq.

I think on the whole Carter did a reasonably good job.  He fell short on some things, his worst blunder was listening to Kissinger and allowing the Shah into America, triggering the hostage crisis, but he did a few good things and I don't think he can be held responsible for some of the bad things you brought up.

[Amianthus]

North Korea is an insignificant blip on the world stage, with no possibility of attacking the U.S.A.

Actually, that should be "with little possibility of attacking the U.S.A."

Some of their missles have the required range to hit the west coast of the US. They're not likely to do this, however. But it's still possible.

[sirs]

Tee & Xo can rationalize all they want as to why the things I posted happened under Carter.  And you both can opine how he did "reasonably good job".  The fact remains they DID happen under Carter, and largely due to HIS policies or decision making as President, and history is going to judge him on such.  Simple as that

[Xavier_Onassis]

history is going to judge him on such.  Simple as that

========================================
Exactly, and you and your twisted view of history is not history.

[sirs]

... you and your twisted view of history is not history.

Whatever you "Bush-stole-the election" say, Xo         

[Brassmask]

Tee & Xo can rationalize all they want as to why the things I posted happened under Carter.  And you both can opine how he did "reasonably good job".  The fact remains they DID happen under Carter, and largely due to HIS policies or decision making as President, and history is going to judge him on such.  Simple as that

I disagree, sirs, no surprise there.

I don't really remember much about Carter's administration but I know so much more about his work since leaving office.  As I said in my post yesterday, the guy is nearly a saint in my eyes.  For his work in making Habitat for Humanity a success alone, he should be for all intents and purposes deified by this nation.

He did more for peace than any president since, that's for sure.

Can you even imagine W standing in Carter's place in this photo?



I can't.

It is standard procedure for the right to hate the Nobel Peace Prize it seems but you would think they would honor it when noting this.

Since leaving the White House, Jimmy Carter's personal diplomacy has helped to defuse international crises in hot spots from North Korea to Haiti. In 2002, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his efforts. With Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, he is the third American president to have been so honored. The Nobel committee cited former President Carter "for his decades of untiring effort to find peaceful solutions to international conflicts, to advance democracy and human rights, and to promote economic and social development."


Why Carter is heaped with so much scorn really boggles my mind.  It is clear to most folks that he was simply too nice to cut the throats of those around him for what I understand.  Here is a guy who is more honest about and ensconced in his faith than any president in my lifetime and the people applaud that and defend it in Bush do nothing but razz Carter at every opportunity.

When the last book is writ on Jimmy Carter, it will be of praise and recognition.

[Amianthus]

When the last book is writ on Jimmy Carter, it will be of praise and recognition.

I've always said that while Carter did very little good while in office, he's done much good since leaving office. More so than any other President, I'd imagine.

And I agree with you - his Nobel Prize was richly deserved.

[Brassmask]

When the last book is writ on Jimmy Carter, it will be of praise and recognition.

I've always said that while Carter did very little good while in office, he's done much good since leaving office. More so than any other President, I'd imagine.

And I agree with you - his Nobel Prize was richly deserved.

Damn, I love consensus.  Thanks, Ami.