WHO KNEW? Henry Kissinger Reveals That Failures of Vietnam War, "We Did To Ourselves"

After 37 years pondering the obvious, he reaches the obvious conclusion, "most of what went wrong in Vietnam we did to ourselves." Yet, what exactly do you mean by "we," pale face?

Related article

• Henry Kissinger: Vietnam Failures 'We Did To Ourselves' (huffingtonpost.com)

Midterm Elections 2010 - Democrats Need Spine Donors.

I Thought I'd Never Quote Her, but . . . Margaret Thatcher, the former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom said,

“Standing in the middle of the road is very dangerous;

you get knocked down by the traffic from both sides.”

About a year ago, Bill Moyers appeared on Bill Maher's show. Discussing health care reform, the usually imperturbable Moyers, had this to say about the Democrats, "too many Democrats have had their spines surgically removed."

He continued, "The problem is the Democratic Party. This is a party that has told its progressives — who are the most outspoken champions of health care reform — to sit down and shut up."

He had observations for President Obama as well, and the Democratic party as a whole needs to pay attention as it wimps - I mean limps - toward the November Midterms.

There's a fear that Barack Obama will become the Grover Cleveland of this era . . . Grover Cleveland was a good man, but he became a conservative Democratic president because he didn't fight the interests. ... I would much rather see Barack Obama be Theodore Roosevelt. Theodore Roosevelt loved to fight. He came into office and railed against the malefactors of great wealth, and he was glad to take them on.

Here's A Starting Point . . . In the video below Congressman Anthony Weiner pounds the "Republic party" like a punching bag while he "opines" about the 9/11 Health & Compensation Act, and the GOP's unprincipled obstruction of it.

Closing with Margaret Thatcher - the person I once thought I'd never quote . . .

"To me, consensus seems to be the process of abandoning all beliefs,

principles, values and policies.

So it is something in which no one believes and to which no one objects.

If you just set out to be liked, you would be prepared

to compromise on anything at any time,

and you would achieve nothing."

So, Dems . . . . . . . .

Say It Loud!!!

***** There is no "Read More" for this posting *****

"Mr. Davison, I prescribe decaf and electro-shock. . ."

Friends don't let friends give speeches . . .

If psychosis wasn't enough for Phil Davison to prevail in the GOP nomination to run for Stark County, Ohio Treasurer, then - even when accompanied by a Master's Degree in Communication - what good is psychosis?

Despite his obvious bonhomie, Davison, regrettably for Master's Degree in Communication hopefuls everywhere, lost his nomination bid. When asked for his reaction to the hundreds of thousands of YouTube hits his über-speech has garnered, he replied, "It’s shocking." followed by an honorably diffident, though somewhat hard to believe, "I don’t know what to say, I’m speechless. . ."

"You won't have Phil Davison to kick around anymore." Phooey! Hopefully, we'll see and hear Phil Davison again in a future election cycle. Meantime, being a helpful person extraordinaire, I emailed him the video below. Perhaps Mr. Schrute's 2008 campaign speech will help Mr. Davison find just the right combination of pure psychosis and Master's degree quality delivery for his next assault on Democrats everywhere, but particularly in Starke County, Ohio.

And note, Mr. Davison, Mr. Schrute won!

"It's up to you, New York, New York . . ." Uh Oh.

According to Pollster.com's metadata graphed below, New York Psychopublican, Carl Paladino, candidate for Governor (an office held by Presidents Grover Cleveland, Martin Van Buren, and both Teddy and Franklin Roosevelt)*, has made significant progress against Democratic opponent Andrew Cuomo, closing the gap from May's 67% (Cuomo) to 22% (Paladino) to today's 52% (Cuomo) to 40% (Paladino).

* N.Y. Governors also include John Jay, W. Averell Harriman, Mario Cuomo, Chief Justice Charles Evan Hughes, Nelson Rockefeller, Al Smith, Thomas Dewey, five Secretaries of State, and, ahem, Eliot Spitzer.

I think an EGADS! is in order, especially since the NY U.S. Senate race is also in the cat box - Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D) vs. Psychoservative Joe DioGuardi (R), whose House voting record (1985-1989) was among the top-rated by The American Conservative Union.) and, by courting New York's Tea Partiers, Mr DioGuardi clearly gotten worse.

Click on graph for more detail at Pollster.com

I Thought You Said, Here's the Good News. Because we live in a symmetrical and rational world, of course there's good news to counter the bad news above... (To answer your question, yes, I was born yesterday. Literally.)

Firstly, in voting data terms, it's early yet; most voters don't commit to a choice until the week before the election, the last week of October. So, despite the early post-primaries voter commitment these two candidates earned, surely, when these voters get to know Paladino and DioGuardi better, well, let us fervently pray for a change of heart. We're in "a wing and a prayer" status here. But still I cling to my childlike innocence, and hope - I mean, really, who would've thought in 2009 that both of these fringiest of fringe candidates would've earned anything by way of "commitment" except to a mental health spa?

Secondly, on the brighter side, many voters don't even decide to vote at all until the week before, and that may bring out more Democrats (or more Republicans, or more Psychotics), depending upon - coming full circle - the final polls. Thus far, the GOP, especially the Psychopublicans, have mobbed their primaries, and if this trend continues to the Midterms, Democrats are in trouble. Happily, though, Democrats may also show up in record numbers in November on voting day, if driven by nothing more than abject fear of a Paladino governorship (if not outright panic at the thought of something like this - Gingrich- Paladino in 2012*)

* AAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

Thirdly, and I believe this entirely possible, Paladino/DioGuardi voters will, alas, be unable to find their polling places, and will wind up voting in Connecticut, or New Jersey, in a van down by the river. One can hope.

Finally, in case you need a primer on Paladino, here's Rachel Maddow just a few days before the GOP primary. Does anyone really believe that New York will elect this guy? (Stop thinking about Eliot Spitzer!)

In conclusion.*

* AAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!

***** There is no "Read More" for this posting *****

Ask Lady Gaga, She'll Tell . . .

"When I was in the military they gave me a medal for killing two men

and a discharge for loving one."

Leonard Matlovich

******************************************************

Although she's written

"I'll never talk again,

Oh boy you've left me speechless

You've left me speechless, so speechless . . ."

last Monday in Maine, at a Don't Ask Don't Tell (DADT) rally, the formidable Lady Gaga discharged a torrent of verbal salvos aimed with telling accuracy at the foundations of DADT - blaming the victim, scapegoating, hysteria, bullying, and demonizing.

Dropping her poker face, she . . . tells . . .

Here's the entire speech:

******************************************************

"Be still when you have nothing to say;

when passion moves you,

say what you've got to say, and

say it hot."

D.H. Lawrence,

parody of Ben Franklin's Poor Richard

regarding "silence" . . .

"Pardon me, did you say something?"

After a long absence, I'm rolling up my sleeves, ready to get back to blog-work. So, here's a little brain teaser for starters . . .

Can you identify the owners of the voices below?

I'm sure you can . . . They share the political arena, have loyal, often rabid supporters, and the first "speaker" below is utterly and hopelessly i-n-s-a-n-e.

First, click on the icons below, and prepare for some nuclear level screaming.

Second, after listening and deciding who you believe is the screamer,

click on the icons again and the answer will magically appear!!

Who Dat? #1: The sublimely bat-sh*t crazy rant below belongs to a man about whom Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) has opined, "Only in America can you make that much money crying." Indeed, the cornucopia containing the verbal emanations of this mystery voice is packed full of the quotable, for example, "when I see a 9-11 victim family on television, or whatever, I'm just like, 'Oh, shut up!' I'm so sick of them because they're always complaining. And we did our best for them."

Click me, click me!!

Who Dat? #2:This enthusiastic verbal effort, apparently espresso and adrenaline fueled, lifts off like an ICBM - slowly at first, but quickly roaring to incredible speed before explosively leaving the Mother Earth. This individual once told an eighth grade class, "Now that we're on dog pee, we can have an interesting discussion about that. I do not recommend drinking urine . . ." About him, Craig Kilborn observed, "[He] reiterated that he never kowtowed to special interest groups like, say, voters."

Click me, click me!!