The only thing left for John Kerry to do is lick his comb.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

http://worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/09/05/20345685-kerry-says-failing-to-strike-syria-will-feed-rebel-extremism?chromedomain=usnews

Kerry says failing to strike Syria will feed rebel extremism
By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News

Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday that if the United States fails to punish Syria for using chemical weapons, extremist rebels could hijack the opposition and turn the civil war into a brutal free-for-all.

In an exclusive interview with MSNBC's Chris Hayes, Kerry was asked about a disturbing video obtained by the New York Times that showed seven captured Syrian soldiers — all shirtless, some tied up — being executed at a rebel commander's order.

Kerry said that if the U.S. takes military action against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad, it would not mean fighters who use brutal tactics become American allies.

"In fact, I believe that those men in those videos are disadvantaged by an American response to the chemical weapons used because it, in fact, empowers the moderate opposition."

[Warren Stupidity]

1. He looks botoxed.

[Amerigo Vespucci]

6. Understatement of the year.

He looks like a muppet version of John Kerry.

[dflprincess]

12. Maybe it isn't John Kerry

but a Disney robotic Kerry - with a neocon's brain implanted in it.

I've reached an age where I sometimes look in the mirror think if I could afford it a little nip and tuck would be tempting. Then I see someone with a bad procedure and decide aging natually isn't all bad.

[madokie]

55. I look in the mirror and think I still see me looking back

its pictures of me that scares the bejeebus out of me.
I have COPD and the meds for it causes some facial changes and I wonder if that isn't what is going on with JK. I see some of the same in photos of myself.

[philosslayer]

15. I couldn't put my finger on it..

But I think you're right. He just doesn't look the same.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

19. I've said the exact same thing. I liked him better before.

[Scootaloo]

27. ...

While I worry far less about what a politician's head looks like than what's in it.. .I have to agree. Did he develop a shellfish allergy or something?Has he been rocking out so hard that his face swelled from all the headbanging?

I like that one, let's go with John Kerry, Metalhead

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

13. By a taxidermist.

[BOG PERSON]

16. ...

[backscatter712]

69. ROFL!

[morningfog]

20. His body is is rejecting itself due to lies for war.

[woo me with science]

79. Corporate pod people.

It happens when they get inside the Beltway.

[NightWatcher]

2. Holy shit, if you get the reference, join me in nerdy wonkiness

Political junkies check in.

[NuclearDem]

4. Yep, Wolfowitz.

Though the picture probably helped on that.

[NightWatcher]

8. Wolfowitz is German for "creepy comb licker"

I mean seriously who does that?

[PADemD]

35. Duzy!

[Skittles]

36. STOP IT NIGHTWATCHER

[Amerigo Vespucci]

5. Hi, my name is Mike, and I'm a political wonk.

[dflprincess]

10. Got it even before I saw the pictures. n/t

[NightWatcher]

14. My two fav nicknames: the comb kicker and prostitute toe sucker

That's right Dick 'the prostitute toe sucker' Morris.

[Brigid]

64. Of course I get the reference.

See "Fahrenheit 911" for further details.

[HardTimes99]

3. Jesus H. Christ. Kerry has no shame whatsoever. None. He needs to resign yesterday - nt

[wisteria]

32. Resign? Why, because he is trying to be proactive

and protect the security of the US and our allies?

[HardTimes99]

34. You can't be serious. Kerry has shifted from one rationale for a military strike to

A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT RATIONALE!!!!

wtf??????

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

37. "the security of the US and our allies"

Neither have been attacked, but if they had then you might have a point.


Reckless. Completely reckless.


Here, just focus on this for a while.

[Proud Liberal Dem]

58. Preventing the normalization of chemical warfare seems like a legitimate global security goal?

I'm not going to argue that it's essential to support strikes in Syria and that anybody who doesn't is wrong but some people need to get a grip and remember that George W. Bush is no longer POTUS.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

60. Except for when we or our allies use it...

namely white phosphorous.

[MyNameGoesHere]

42. What ally?

Are you writing that with a straight face?

[whatchamacallit]

7. Lol! Ouch!

[Little Star]

54. Ouch is right!

[Hoyt]

9. Hard to contain my laughter.

[wandy]

11. Are we sure this is John Kerry? And yes if he licks his comb I gonna scream. nt

[Scootaloo]

28. He does resemble a somewhat huskier man wearing a John kerry skinsuit.

If we find the zipper, what are the odds that Dick Cheney is inside? If he utters the line, "And I would have gotten away with it if it weren't for you meddling kids!" I might even forgive him.

[karynnj]

63. Actually, he resembles John Kerry each of the times that he put on any weight

[WilliamPitt]

17. The first sentence of that report is perfect gibberish.

"Secretary of State John Kerry said Thursday that if the United States fails to punish Syria for using chemical weapons, extremist rebels could hijack the opposition and turn the civil war into a brutal free-for-all. "

What?

[russspeakeasy]

23. He must have just listened to a Greenspan speech.

[Scootaloo]

29. Those do tend to induce nausea of the brain. n/t

[wisteria]

30. The extremists who are being supported by enemies of th US would be

emboldened an provided with more funds to pursue there carnage.
Oh? and you are an expert and know more than our SOS who has more than 25 years experience in foreign policy.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

39. "emboldened an provided with more funds..."

Oh? and you are an expert and know more than our SOS

Seriously. What are you, eight?

This fanzine crap is just too much.


Why the rush to war when the UN hasn't even had the chance to complete their inspection and report?

Something is really fekking wrong with this whole thing.

[WilliamPitt]

49. OK

The extremists will be emboldened if we don't bomb their enemy, which means they'll be cowed if we do bomb their enemy.

Because that makes perfect sense.

[liberalhistorian]

78. Will, I recall that you met him in person

once about ten years ago at a lunch. What did you think of him then? Has he seemed to change at all to you; would you have thought him capable of this kind of war-drums banging?

[WilliamPitt]

80. Several times

He was my Senator for years. I interviewed him three times during the '04 campaign, and was at the big confab at Al Franken's house. That was incredibly ballsy; Kerry called in the editors and political writers from Time, Newsweek, the NY Times, the Washington Post, CNN etc, and held a three-hour on-the-record bullshit session about why his campaign was shitting the bed, and why he voted for the Iraq war. Arthur Schlessinger was there, fa chrissake. He took every punch, gave great answers, and basically changed the momentum of his campaign in an afternoon.

He never dumped on his campaign staffers that I could see (but there is a Heisenberg Principle involved there; he probably wouldn't be a dick in front of a reporter), and was a genuinely affable and loose guy...but that side of him never came through on TV. He was, and remains, awful on TV. In the modern era, that's a lethal flaw.

This guy I've been seeing lately with the bedslat face and drooping eye trying to explain how war isn't war? Never met him.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

18. "it would not mean fighters who use brutal tactics become American allies..."

Just WTF is that supposed to mean?


So we are moving from "Assad is responsible for the chemical weapons" (UN still going over evidence) to we have to "bomb Assad so we don't have these rebels as allies?"

empowers the moderate opposition

Is there really any moderation in a civil war?

[wisteria]

31. No, you are the only one going there.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

33. You make about as much sense as the SoS.

And right now he's not doing so well.

[cali]

52. not hardly. It must be lonely supporting this proposed bombing. good.

[annm4peace]

21. THAT was a good one!

snap

[Brigid]

24. You get a rec just for the title!

[DeSwiss]

25. And you'd better check his socks for holes too!

The next time you see John Kerry on the teevee, ask yourself whether or not you think he has holes in his socks. I find that sort of thing makes it easier to listen to politicians.



- In fact, I find that it's always easier to listen to politicians when you don't listen to them......

K&R

[MissDeeds]

56. Oh gawd

I haven't had breakfast yet and now I have to barf on an empty stomach. What a nasty piece of work he is...licking his comb, holes in his socks, scuffed and dirty shoes...

[City Lights]

66. Ack. I'd forgotten about the socks. nt

[Politicalboi]

26. Yes but, does John Kerry have

Holes in his socks?

[libdem4life]

38. Botox? I suspect a facelift. Either way, just yuck.

[karynnj]

43. He has not been out of the public eye for more than 2 or 3 days in a row - if that

The fact is that Kerry has always looked different depending on the lighting in the room. This was obvious when he was a Senator when pictures of him taken in the SFRC room looked different from photos - on the same day at either other meetings or the floor of the Senate. I was surprised that in person, he looks different than in photos - I was surprised that his hair when seen "live" is completely white and his eyes are an intense hazel that looks blue greenish. (The funny thing is that I had seen him speak and it was not until he was at a book signing sitting at a table that I noticed that his eyes weren't a dark color which was how they usually looked.)

[bvar22]

59. OMG. John Kerry is a "two face" !!

[libdem4life]

67. Something is clearly different...puffy? Not lighting, and I feel bad for his untenable

political position. I have always admired him and his wife. But genuflecting does not suit his nature, I fear.

[karynnj]

71. I think he genuinely believes in what he is doing

As to his looks = some one in the JK group suggested that he might have a sinus infection that he is getting treatment for. As to his position, here is what he wrote - http://blogs.state.gov/stories/2013/09/06/yes-vote-conscience-worlds-red-line

He was in favor of a no fly zone in Libya to stop a massacre there. Here, I have no doubt that he is very troubled by the use of chemical weapons and he is convinced that Assad did it. One point that he has made is that he called the FM of Syria the day after and demanded that they immediately get the UN there -- and instead they shelled for 4 days. That has stayed with me, because though there is no way to construct a parallel here, thank goodness, I really can't understand a government shelling an area of its country that just suffered such an attack.

His view is that we can't look a way and ignore this.

I think for everyone, there are really 3 big pieces here:
- Was there a chemical attack
- Did Assad himself (or his inner circle who have not since been reprimanded) do it
- What - if anything - should the US do.

Most of the US Congress seem to agree with the administration on the first two - though Grayson is not convinced on the second. Those are the questions that make up the factual case that US intelligence has provided. On DU agreement even on the first two is not there - which might indicate either complete anti-government mindsets or possibly because accepting them and arguing to do nothing is hard for a people from a culture that has an underlying fix it mentality.

For the third question, although there are many things that need to be known to understand the consequences of any action, positions are not based entirely on US intelligence. It brings into question whether "humanitarian intervention" to stop bad things from happening is a valid use of US power. This is not an easy question - after the fact, there are always questions of why the world ignored the plight of the Jews in the 1930s, the Cambodians in the 1970s (until Communist Vietnam intervened), Rwanda or the various peoples of the former Yugoslavia (until the US with NATO intervened). However, any intervention can have real consequences and we just saw in two wars how bad it could be - and here, we are closer to some of the fault lines between various powers.

Additionally, the administration (taken at its words) is stuck between the people who have pushed for far greater intervention to oust Assad - like McCain and Graham, and people who want to do nothing at all. Not being able to get enough votes in the center, the SFRC was forced to take McCain's amendment that goes beyond what the administration wants - or have no resolution voted out. There are also the people on the right who argue both that a strong leader would have just done it -- and they would impeach Obama if he goes without Congress.

I an not sure where I come out at this point. I was against the US covertly helping the rebels - which the administration did with Clinton, Petraeous, Gates and Dempsey behind it. The US Congress, including Kerry did not question this to any real degree - and the foreign policy media had more criticism for Kerry trying to diplomatically move Assad than these actions. To me, this was not far from Reagan backing the Contras -- other than Congress had banned military aid to them. Obama supposedly slowed this down and they have in the last year supposedly given just humanitarian aid - not military aid. However, you then hear that they have trained rebels. This is mess - and we have some culpability. One of the most depressing things I read before this attack was a NYT oped where it was suggested that the civil war continuing, but contained is may the best for us - as they kill each other. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/25/opinion/sunday/in-syria-america-loses-if-either-side-wins.html?_r=0

The planned response is supposedly designed mostly to send a signal that there will be a cost to using chemical weapons. I can see that the various standard international diplomatic responses seem unlikely - the UN will not even approve a resolution that would say it is unacceptable and takes no action. We can't take it to the ICC - that we do not belong to. I don't buy that this is just Obama's fault for having said that CW was a red line. Had he said nothing, I assume that the response might have been the same. I wish there were some way for the international community to pressure Syria to turn its CW over to the UN to end this. However, I can't imagine where that pressure could come from - unless Russia wanted to end this crisis - which I doubt.

It is not just whether we take this "shot across the bow", it is what we do - or don't do on the bigger Syria issue. There have been talks to restart Geneva 2 to find a political solution - but the rebels did not agree to participate (or even decide who represents them) I assume that taking action will make this goal even harder -- and it was a long shot when Lavrov and Kerry revived the dormant process that had been ignored for about two years.

It is tempting to say that we should just leave them to fight it out - but failed states anywhere are a problem and Syria is at the crossroad of Middle East - which has long been a powder keg.

So, I respect - and will defend - Kerry's honesty, integrity and basic decency - and I respect his knowledge and insight into foreign policy, but I really am afraid that both acting and not acting have major - mostly negative consequences. I also think that by elevating the issue, the consequences of doing nothing will be higher than they would have been otherwise.

[libdem4life]

73. This is very insightful. Thank you for the time you put into it.

and the link.

[karynnj]

74. I thank you for triggering me to try to compose the confused conflicted opinions

I have here. Also thanks for the kind words.

[idwiyo]

40. K&R Snap!

[tofuandbeer]

41. I really don't understand the Botox humor here: it seems Fox News like to focus on that now.

[mimi85]

45. Seriously, what channel

is TMZ on? Who gives a flying fuck about his hair or botox?

[tofuandbeer]

68. ...and the last time I heard a big stink about John Kerry having face work was from...

Mitt Romney in 2003 or 2004 (the guy who dyed his face to look appealing on an Hispanic tv show), supporting that jackass Bush, by holding up a sign comparing Kerry to Michael Jackson (R.I.P.).

[mimi85]

46. Am I on the TMZ board? nt

[madrchsod]

44. really? the comb licking is`t in the original article

that`s not kerry in the second photo.

[Summer Hathaway]

47. Comb-licker?

Facelift? Botox? Taxidermy? Holes in his socks?

Glad to see DU is keepin' it classy, and discussing the pressing issues of the day with the same insight and eloquence we used to find only on sites like FreeRepublic.

[JoePhilly]

51. The speculative outrage machine is running out of widgets.

The invasion of Syria was supposed to start last Thursday.

Now, its a week later, and still no Iraq war in Syria.

The media and DU are running out of things to keep the outrage machine's pilot light lit.

[FSogol]

61. +1 n/t

[Raven]

50. Looks to me like Bell's Palsy. I

worked with someone who had that condition. The right side of Kerry's face looks like it has slid. The right eye looks very strange. This happens with Bell's when people with it get very tired.

[Little Star]

53. Hadn't thought of that but you could be right.

[woodsprite]

57. In that pic, all he'd need is a nose job to look like John Warner. n/t

[karynnj]

62. The lighting is awful in that photo

and the picture is not sharp. He looks like the same John Kerry that I have seen several times at book signings and speeches.

[malaise]

65. ROFL

at your Subject title - way too good

[backscatter712]

70. Actually, all you need is a pair of sunglasses to see the truth...

[Coyotl]

72. ROFLMAO

[treestar]

75. Talk about ad hominem

Useless thread.

[VanillaRhapsody]

76. Major difference...

Kerry and the rest of us KNOW without a doubt that Assad has these weapons (he also wouldn't sign the chemical weapons destruction treaty...only 2% of the world didn't sign).

They THOUGHT they knew....they were wrong.

[randome]

77. Funny, yes, but a wildly unwarranted comparison, too.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]Birds are territorial creatures.
The lyrics to the songbird's melodious trill go something like this:
"Stay out of my territory or I'll PECK YOUR GODDAMNED EYES OUT!"[/center][/font][hr]