If my father were alive today he would be kicking some ass

[randr]

Grand Father fought in WWI and Dad was in the Pacific Submarine service in WWII. Pop was a democrat and Dad was Republican due to Viet Nam. They taught me the value of Service and Patriotism.
If either one had heard an elected official, or worse a media whore, praise a Communist leader over our elected American President they would have gathered all their vet buddies and seriously kicked some ass.
How is it these traitors are not run out of town on a rail?

[freshwest]

1. Media brainwashing? n/t

[Squinch]

2. Remember when the Republicans claimed that all of us who marched agains the Iraq war were traitors?

Not only are THEY traitors, but they are traitors fawning over Vladimir Putin, the dumbasses!

[rdharma]

3. So ... which "elected official are you referring to that's "praising a Communist leader"? nt

[randr]

7. If I could only name them all

Top of my kick the shit out of list would be Ghouliani.

[rdharma]

8. I saw the clip...... he wasn't praising Putin...... he was attempting to slam President Obama!

Of course, you knew that....... I hope.

[randr]

12. I am sure I heard him call Putin a leader

And there are plenty of clips today with the dark side praising Putin.

[rdharma]

13. Yes, he called Putin "a leader"...... inferring that President Obama was not a leader.

Pretty simplistic.

[randr]

14. I take him at his word--not his inference

[rdharma]

16. Then you would be wrong..... nt

[randr]

17. I think others will be deciding who is wrong

about whether Ghouliani praised Putin or not.

[rdharma]

18. Yup! Because most folks can recognize "nuance"! nt

[Scootaloo]

20. Putin's a communist like I'm a sumo wrestler

[randr]

27. Are you implying that Putin was not a Communist as head of the KGB?

[NuclearDem]

30. You mean he was a member of the Party when only the Party was allowed?

Huh. Imagine that.

Putin is not a communist by any definition. He's a fascist.

[Scootaloo]

43. What NuclearDem said

Also, political affiliations from 20 years ago aren't exactly relevant...

[Skittles]

4. your dad was my kind of guy

yes INDEED

[Auntie Bush]

5. If my father were alive today ... I'd be kicking his BUTT!

He was a Nixon Republican. Yuk

[raven mad]

6. My dad and father-in-law, both gone now and missed -

would have joined your dad in a heartbeat.

[rdharma]

9. Did they see the end of the Cold War? nt

[raven mad]

11. Both did. I grew up on Merritt Island, Florida before KSC was built.

My father was a space junkie. My father-in-law was WWII Navy and served with distinction in the South Pacific. Dad hit both WWII and Korea.

Both thought the "Vietnam conflict" sucked. (Thanks, daddy!!)

When the Wall fell, dad cried; he died shortly thereafter. My sweetest of all possible folk in-law Dale lived until 2005. He was 86.

[rdharma]

15. Too bad that all they knew about the "other side" was the propaganda they heard. nt

[raven mad]

19. My dad and mom were both civil rights workers.

Their "other side" was based here in the US - and mom marched in Selma.

[rdharma]

22. They learned to stop fearing some of "the others". That's good! nt

[raven mad]

23. Yes - they were scared of stuff, and I still remember that.

Mom was pretty kick-butt, daddy not so much so, but we kids learned.

Dad never, ever was "scared" so much of Communism and the USSR (remember, I was a kid in south Florida, with the Cuban Missile Crisis) as he was of extremism in general. I think that was a pretty fair attitude for the times.

[rdharma]

25. I'm not old enough to remember the "duck and cover days" of the cold war........

....... but I got a very close and personal look into the "end" of the cold war.

For some..... the cold war never ended.

[iamthebandfanman]

36. is there a story

youd care sharing?

sounds like you have one , 'very close and personal look' ...

btw, lets not pretend that joseph stalin didn't play a role in the beginning of the cold war.. the feeling was mutual, even if not warranted

[rdharma]

40. I'd love to share my story....

I met Ambassador Shirley Temple Black in Prague, Czechoslovakia. True fact......

[TwilightGardener]

10. Anything for politics. All the old customs are out the window--

black Democratic President.

[blackspade]

21. Which Communist leader are you speaking about?

Putin? Ole pooty pute is no communist.

[randr]

29. Heading the KGB within the old USSR certainly qualifies him as a Communist

[blackspade]

32. No it doesn't.

It qualifies him as a authoritarian though.
And he is a capitalist oligarch now.

[randr]

34. He was a member of the Communist Party

I would agree that would not make him much different from a capitalist oligarch these days.
In fact our country is in many aspects the model of what we were taught of a "Communist" in the Cold War Era.
May I see your papers please?

[blackspade]

44. Any politician in the old Soviet Era was a member of the Communist Party.

That doesn't make them communists now.
Communism as practiced in the Soviet Era was just a form of state controlled capitalism anyway, so using 'communist' as a buzzword to gin up some sort of Cold War outrage is rather pointless.

Putin is an authoritarian with aspirations of empire.
Unfortunately Ukraine, both ethnic Russians and Ukrainians, will end up suffering for his delusions of grandeur.
What needs to happen is that the US, EU, and the Russians need to butt the fuck out and let the Ukrainians decide what they want to do. If we all have to be involved, it should be as facilitators for talks between the various parties.
No as enforcers for the IMF or the oligarchs.

[Cha]

24. So if Putin isn't a "communist".. what is he?

“He thinks that democracy stands in his way,” Mr. Gorbachev said. “I am afraid that they have been saddled with this idea that this unmanageable country needs authoritarianism,” Mr. Gorbachev said, referring to Mr. Putin and his close ally, President Dmitri A. Medvedev. “They think they cannot do without it.”

In an interview, Mr. Gorbachev even described Mr. Putin’s governing party, United Russia, as a “a bad copy of the Soviet Communist Party.” Mr. Gorbachev said party officials were concerned entirely with clinging to power and did not want Russians to take part in civic life.

Mr. Gorbachev was especially disparaging of Mr. Putin’s decision in 2004, when he was president, to eliminate elections for regional governors and the mayors of Moscow and St. Petersburg. Those positions are now filled by Kremlin appointees. The impact of this change was illustrated in Mr. Medvedev’s dismissal last month of Moscow’s longtime mayor, who was replaced with a Putin loyalist.

“Democracy begins with elections,” Mr. Gorbachev said. “Elections, accountability and turnover.” Mr. Gorbachev feels that he put Russia on the path toward being a functional democracy, only to have Mr. Putin block its progress. “Russia has a long way to go to usher in a new system of values, to create and provide for the proper functioning of the institutions and mechanisms of democracy — the institutions of civil society.”

More..
http://www.thenewamerican.com/world-news/europe/item/8703-former-soviet-boss-gorbachev-says-putin-is-more-communist-than-he-was

[GP6971]

26. +100

[fishwax]

39. I don't see anything in that quote to really show he's a communist

He's authoritarian, without a doubt, but authoritarians come in many stripes, so that hardly makes him a communist. When Gorbachev calls his party a bad copy of the Soviet Communist Party, he appears to be referring not to ideology but to corruption and the centralization of power. There is a communist party in Russia, but United Russia (Putin's party) opposes it.

Also: the new american is a super right-wing site.

[nikto]

41. IMO, Gorbachev is a great man.

I didn't say perfect.

Just great.

[Warpy]

28. Mine would be utterly disgusted

but he was a gent so no one would get an ass kicking.

He wouldn't like having a black president but I honestly think he'd hate the naked racism of the teabaggers even more. He'd be honest enough to find himself in agreement with OWS but would support efforts to crush them as brutally as possible because you know lawnorder.

Whether he'd still think the system works for anybody but the ultra rich and their pet bankers is another matter.

[okaawhatever]

31. Amen. I couldn't be more disgusted. You know, there's some things you just don't ever forget. EVER.

This is one of them. Both my dad and grandfather were career service, and there's some things you just don't do. This is one of them.

[spanone]

33. your Grandfather & Dad were real patriots.

[WillyT]

35. Mine Too...

http://www.vmb613.com

Top row, second from the left.

Died 12/18/75

I miss this man dearly...

[BeatleBoot]

37. GOP has Putin Envy!

My Dad was U.S. Navy WWII...he would be hissing at the TV set right now calling the GOP "LOUSES"...

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

38. EEEK! Commies!!

Patriotism is the most foolish of passions and the passion of fools. Schopenhauer

[jtuck004]

42. "How is it these traitors are not run out of town on a rail?" If no one has guessed yet, how about

"Because boot-licking toadyism has gone out of style"?

I was going to say "Because we don't want to be like the Neo-Nazi's that have the same belief on their side", but I thought I would go with the other one, since it helped bring about a cold war and the deaths of tens millions of people.

Did I win?