"Joy and pleasure are as real as pain and sorrow and one must learn what they have to teach. . . ." -- Sean Russell, from Gatherer of Clouds

"If you're not having fun, you're not doing it right." -- Helyn D. Goldenberg

"I love you and I'm not afraid." -- Evanescence, "My Last Breath"

“If I hear ‘not allowed’ much oftener,” said Sam, “I’m going to get angry.” -- J.R.R. Tolkien, from Lord of the Rings

Sunday, January 17, 2016

Today In Disgusting People

On Fox News, of course. The Fox "experts'" reaction to Iran freeing 10 American sailors within 24 hours:

O’Reilly did, however, make the case for the negotiated release. He pointed out that Iran is already holding other Americans in prison. “If you demand and insult, maybe they hold the 10 sailors. So the Obama administration’s going to say, ‘Look, we got them out of there in 24 hours. …If we had insulted the mullahs, maybe we wouldn’t have.’ “

But Harmer would rather sacrifice American lives. “It’s better that they remain in prison forever as hostages than the United States apologize to Iran,” he told O’Reilly.
(Emphasis in original.)

You know, it's been a basic tenet of international relations pretty much forever that war is the last resort when diplomacy fails. What we have on the right is the idea that war is the first step, and diplomacy happens after you've won and can dictate terms. I guess the right never figured out Vietnam.

And there's something very, very wrong about anyone who would rather that Americans were held by a not-friendly regime in what we can confidently assume are horrible conditions rather than give any credit to the president and secretary of state for doing it right.

And we have a tie for first runner up today:

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio said Saturday morning he was not aware of the specifics of the release of four Americans held prisoner in Iran, but said it would be wrong to for their release to have come as part of a prisoner exchange, saying it creates an incentive for enemies of the United States to take U.S. nationals hostage.

How long have nations been making prisoner exchanges? A couple thousand years? And Marco Rubio thinks it's wrong. Okay.

Here's Ted Cruz trying to be positive on Twitter:

@tedcruz

Praise God! Surely bad parts of Obama's latest deal, but prayers of thanksgiving that Pastor Saeed is coming home. https://twitter.com/jaysekulow/status/688372688809766912 …
8:59 AM - 16 Jan 2016

The twitterverse isn't real happy with him, mostly because of the dig at the Iran nuke deal.

Donald Trump:

Now I have to see what the deal is for the four people, because someone said they were getting seven back. So essentially, they get 150 billion plus seven, and we get four. Doesn't sound too good. Doesn't sound too good," he said. "I am happy they are coming back, but it is a disgrace they have been there this long, a total disgrace.

The "150 billion" is Iran's money.

Jeb!"

I would say ... if you do not release them, that there's going to be military action, that that's an act of provocation, an act of war. What I would do in January is recognize that Iran is not an ally. That's how the Obama administration views this," Bush said.

And now you know why his candidacy is dead in the water.

What really strikes me about these presidential hopefuls is that we've somehow managed to get very small people thinking that they're leaders. They're not -- they're just vote whores, and they're not even very good at that.

2 comments:

Pieter said...

So characteristic that Cruz is happy for the release of one ultra-right-wing christianist preacher and ignores the others. Every time his mouth opens, what falls out sounds more and more like Joe McCarthy returned to life.

Hunter said...

Yeah, that struck me, too.

As for sounding like Joe McCarthy, pick a Republican presidential wannabe. Any one of them.