Petraeus: Sen. Kerry - 'There is No Military Solution, To Quote You'

[Hissyspit]

Run time: 10:38 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6coHvQkYgY8   Posted on YouTube: April 08, 2008 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: April 08, 2008 By DU Member: Hissyspit Views on DU: 3168

 
April 08, 2008 - C-SPAN General Petraeus Iraq Hearing

[gateley]

1. Thanks, Hissy --

I really enjoyed watching the SFRC hearing. Especially Biden (natch), Kerry, Boxer, Webb and Menendez.

I'll enjoy these highlights! :hi:

[ginnyinWI]

8. tell you what I decided today--

Jim Webb should definitely be our next Secretary of Defense! He's tailor-made for the job. :)

[NJSecularist]

2. Sigh... how much better would it have been if he was president instead of the chimp? n/t

[jgraz]

3. How much better would it have been if my left buttcheek was president instead of the chimp?

Though Kerry would probably have been a better choice.

[nichomachus]

4. I wonder if the Saudi King would still have kissed it n/t

[Plucketeer]

7. We've missed out on a NUMBER

of prospects that would have been worlds apart better than the kiniving thieves we're stuck with and have been for 7 long, agonizing years! There were the recent jokes about bringing Reagan's cadaver back to serve. Certainly THAT would've been less ruinsome to this nation than the Dick & dick show. :grr:

Of course, "missed" is not the right word for the title of this post. "Swindled" is what tells the truth.

[Harry Monroe]

16. I nominate my left nut for President of the US

[hisownpetard]

21. Really? I was always partial to your *right* butt cheek. Go figger!

[Harry Monroe]

22. Yeah, but my left nut was under sniper fire in Bosnia

The "right" nut "cut and ran" from the sniper fire.

Oh excuse me. My nuts are now saying they "misspoke"!! Damn lying numbnuts!!

[Olney Blue]

6. Sigh. We needed Kerry.

[fedupinBushcountry]

5. K&R

:kick:

[pauldg0]

10. Don't support your man any further.......

...probably deserved swiftboating...maybe he did stretch the truth, eh?

[karynnj]

17. Deserved swiftboating? Are you out of your mind?

By the way, Kerry absolutely did not stretch the truth - not at all.

First of all, do you remember what Kerry actually said? In his stump speeches, he simply said that "as a young man, he served his country in Vietnam", he then immediately spoke of returning to protest. Ok - all Kerry claims is that he went to Vietnam - and he did. This was also the comment he said in his acceptance speech. Pretty modest for someone with the medals he had.

The time he spoke more of it was when he challenged the SBVT before the firefighters. What he did then was to say that the truth was what it was 35 years when the Navy gave him his medals. He then simply listed the medals and said that he still had shrapnel in his leg. (The latter was in his 2004 medical report as well.) Do you question that those were his medals - the Navy doesn't.

Where else did Kerry say anything on his service?

There was an ad where his crew spoke of him - but it was more in terms of their view of him - which matched what they had told Brinkley a few years earlier when he wrote his book that Kerry had no editorial control over. (The ones who changed were many of the SBVT - most had good things to say 2 years before.)

There was an ad where Rassmann spoke of being rescued by Kerry. That is his story and the Navy's story.

You are despicable in suggesting, possibly because Kerry endorsed Obama over Edwards, that the SBVT were correct. Find me one Kerry quote on Vietnam where he claims having done something courageous or of merit that he didn't. The facts are that Kerry was and is a highly decorated veteran of Vietnam. It is sad the RW was unwilling to accept that - it is pathetic that a Democrat can't. I bet Edwards would not be very proud of you saying that.

[pauldg0]

28. He's a chicken shit....

...he did not even want to count Ohio votes....

what an ass!!

[karynnj]

29. The Ohio votes were ALL counted - just as he said they would be

The problem was that the way most "votes" were lost is that Blackwell prevented them from being cast. Though RFKjr can count an esimate of them in his analysis, you can count them in a court of law, especially not in a Republican dominated state. To this day, there is NO documented proof that Kerry won Ohio. Nor, as John Edwards ever said what he would have based an appeal on - in fact, he NEVER said in public that he would have fought it.

Neither Edwards spoke out in all of 2006 - when both Kerrys did OFTEN about the various voting problems and voter suppression. The first time Kerry did was on MLK day in January 2005.
From the Senate floor. This is a very strong, public, on the record statement of the problems in the election process. I challenge you to find ON THE RECORD statements - in the Senate, a transcript from a speech, or an on the record interview from Edwards that is this strong - before 2007 when he and Elizabeth thought it would be a good issue with teh far left.

From Thomas, the online Congressional record:

Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, I thank the Senator from Oregon for his discussion of an important way of having accountability in voting . I must say that I saw how that works out in Oregon. It works well. It works brilliantly, as a matter of fact. People have a lot of time to be able to vote. They don't have to struggle with work issues or being sick or other things. They have plenty of time to be able to have the kind of transparency and accountability that makes the system work. There are other States where you are allowed to start voting early--in New Mexico and elsewhere.
It is amazing that in the United States we have this patchwork of the way our citizens work in Federal elections. It is different almost everywhere. I had the privilege of giving the graduation address this year at Kenyan College in Ohio, and there the kids at Kenyan College wound up being the last people to vote in America in the Presidential race in 2004 in Gambier, at 4:30 in the morning. We had to go to court to get permission for them to keep the polls open so they could vote at 4:30 in the morning.

Why did it take until 4:30 in the morning for people to be able to vote? They didn't have enough voting machines in America. These people were lined up not just there but in all of Ohio and in other parts of the country. An honest appraisal requires one to point out that where there were Republican secretaries of state, the lines were invariably longer in Democratic precincts, sometimes with as many as one machine only in the Democratic precinct and several in the Republican precinct; so it would take 5 or 10 minutes for someone of the other party to be able to vote, and it would take literally hours for the people in the longer lines. If that is not a form of intimidation and suppression, I don't know what is.

So I thank the Senator from Oregon for talking about the larger issue here. He is absolutely correct. The example of his State is one that the rest of the country ought to take serious and think seriously about embracing.
This is part of a larger issue, obviously, Mr. President. All over the world, our country has always stood out as the great exporter of democratic values. In the years that I have been privileged to serve in the Senate, I have had some extraordinary opportunities to see that happen in a firsthand way.

Back in 1986, I was part of a delegation that went to the Philippines. We took part in the peaceful revolution that took place at the ballot box when the dictator, President Marcos, was kicked out and ``Cory'' Aquino became President. I will never forget flying in on a helicopter to the island of Mindanao and landing where some people have literally not seen a helicopter before, and 5,000 people would surround it as you swooped out of the sky, to go to a polling place where the entire community turned out waiting in the hot sun in long lines to have their thumbs stamped in ink and to walk out having exercised their right to vote.

I could not help but think how much more energy and commitment people were showing for the privilege of voting in this far-off place than a lot of Americans show on too many occasions. The fact is that in South Africa we fought for years--we did--through the boycotts and other efforts, in order to break the back of apartheid and empower all citizens to vote. Most recently, obviously, in Afghanistan and Iraq, notwithstanding the disagreement of many of us about the management of the war and the evidence and other issues that we have all debated here. This has never been debated about the desire for democracy and the thrill that everyone in the Senate felt in watching citizens be able to exercise those rights .

In the Ukraine, the world turned to the United States to monitor elections and ensure that the right to vote was protected. All of us have been proud of what President Carter has done in traveling the world to guarantee that fair elections take place. But the truth is, all of our attempts to spread freedom around the world will be hollow and lose impact over the years in the future if we don't deliver at home. The fact is that we are having this debate today in the Senate about the bedrock right to vote, with the understanding that this is not a right that was afforded to everyone in our country automatically or at the very beginning. For a long time, a century or more, women were not allowed to vote in America. We all know the record with respect to African Americans. The fact is that the right to vote in our country was earned in blood in many cases and in civic sweat in a whole bunch of cases. Courageous citizens literally risked their lives. I remember in the course of the campaign 2 years ago, traveling to Alabama--Montgomery--and visiting the Southern Poverty Law Center, the memorial to Martin Luther King, and the fountain. There is a round stone fountain with water spilling out over the sides. From the center of the fountain there is a compass rose coming back and it marks the full circle. At the end of every one of those lines is the name of an American with the description, ``killed trying to register to vote,'' or ``murdered trying to register.'' Time after time, that entire compass rose is filled with people who lost their lives in order to exercise a fundamental right in our country.

None of us will forget the courage of people who marched and faced Bull Connor's police dogs and faced the threat of lynchings, some being dragged out of their homes in the dark of night to be hung. The fact is that we are having this debate today because their work and that effort is not over yet. Too many Americans in too many parts of our country still face serious obstacles when they are trying to vote in our own country.
By reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act, we are taking an important step, but, Mr. President, it is only a step. Nobody should pretend that reauthorizing the Voting Rights Act solves the problems of being able to vote in our own country. It doesn't. In recent elections, we have seen too many times how outcomes change when votes that have been cast are not counted or when voters themselves are prevented from voting or intimidated from even registering or when they register, as we found in a couple of States, their registration forms are put in the wastebasket instead of into the computers.

This has to end. Every eligible voter in the United States ought to be able to cast his or her ballot without fear, without intimidation, and with the knowledge that their voice will be heard. These are the foundations of our democracy, and we have to pay more attention to it.

For a lot of folks in the Congress, this is a very personal fight. Some of our colleagues in the House and Senate were here when this fight first took place or they took part in this fight out in the streets. Without the courage of someone such as Congressman JOHN LEWIS who almost lost his life marching across that bridge in Selma, whose actions are seared in our minds, who remembers what it was like to march to move a nation to a better place, who knows what it meant to put his life on the line for voting rights , this is personal.
For somebody like my colleague, Senator TED KENNEDY, the senior Senator from Massachusetts, who was here in the great fight on this Senate floor in 1965 when they broke the back of resistance, this is personal.
We wouldn't even have this landmark legislation today if it weren't for their efforts to try to make certain that it passed.

But despite the great strides we have taken since this bill was originally enacted, we have a lot of work to do.
Mr. President, I ask for an additional 5 minutes.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
Mr. KERRY. Mr. President, on this particular component of the bill, there is agreement. Republicans and Democrats can agree. I was really pleased that every attempt in the House of Representatives to weaken the Voting Rights Act was rejected.
We need to reauthorize these three critical components especially: The section 5 preclearance provisions that get the Justice Department to oversee an area that has a historical pattern of discrimination that they can't change how people vote without clearance. That seems reasonable.
There are bilingual assistance requirements. Why? Because people need it and it makes sense. They are American citizens, but they still may have difficulties in understanding the ballot, and we ought to provide that assistance so they have a fully informed vote. This is supposed to be an informed democracy, a democracy based on the real consent of the American people.
And finally, authorization for poll watching. Regrettably, we have seen in place after place in America why we need to have poll watching.
A simple question could be asked: Where would the citizens of Georgia be, particularly low-income and minority citizens, if they were required to produce a government-issued identification or pay $20 every 5 years in order to vote? That is what would have happened without section 5 of the Voting Rights Act. Georgia would have successfully imposed what the judge in the case called ``a Jim Crow-era like poll tax.'' I don't think anybody here
wants to go back and flirt with the possibility of returning to a time when States charged people money to exercise their right to vote. That is not our America.
This morning, President Bush addressed the 97th Annual Convention of the NAACP after a 5-year absence. I am pleased that the President, as we all are, ended his boycott of the NAACP and announced his intention to sign the Voting Rights Act into law.

But we need to complete the job. There are too many stories all across this country of people who say they registered duly, they reported to vote, and they were made to stand in one line or another line and get an excuse why, when they get to the end of the line, they can't vote. So they take out a provisional ballot, and then there are fights over provisional ballots. There are ways for us to avoid that. Some States allow same-day registration. In some parts of America, you can just walk up the day of an election, register, and vote, as long as you can prove your residence.
We have this incredible patchwork of laws and rules, and in the process, it is even more confusing for Americans. We need to fully fund the Help America Vote Act so that we have the machines in place, so that people are informed, so that there is no one in America who waits an undue amount of time in order to be able to cast a vote.
We have to pass the Count Every Vote Act that Senator Clinton, Senator Boxer, and I have introduced which ensures exactly what the Senator from Oregon was talking about: that every voter in America has a verifiable paper trail for their vote.
How can we have a system where you can touch a screen and even after you touch the name of one candidate on the screen, the other candidate's name comes up, and if you are not attentive to what you have done and you just go in, touch the screen, push ``select,'' you voted for someone else and didn't intend to? How can we have a system like that?
How can we have a system where the voting machines are proprietary to a private business so that the public sector has no way of verifying what the computer code is and whether or not it is accountable and fair? Just accounting for it.

Congress has to ensure that every vote cast in America is counted, that every precinct in America has a fair distribution of voting machines, that voter suppression and intimidation are un-American and must cease.
We had examples in the last election of people who were sent notices--obviously fake, but they were sent them and they confused them enough. They were told that if you have an outstanding parking ticket, you can't vote. They were told: Democrats vote on Wednesday and Republicans vote on Tuesday and various different things.
It is important for us to guarantee that in the United States of America, this right that was fought for so hard through so much of the difficult history of our country, we finally make real the full measure of that right.
I yield the floor. I thank the Chair and I thank my colleague for her forbearance.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from California is recognized.

[pauldg0]

33. Your hearing what you want to here........

....you blab to much.
Why don't you talk to John Edwards about that!!

[pauldg0]

35. You talked the talk, just like your candidate....

...Here hotshot, I can copy something over to you too....

Let's face it, our party is fractured, and your candidate is a big part of it along with Mr. Kerry who I voted for in 2004.


Failed Again: Widely-Used Diebold Touch-Screens Systems Dropped Votes in Recent Ohio Primary
Vote Totals from Memory Cards in Butler County Not Tallied by Central Tabulator, Despite System Reporting Otherwise
Letter to Company from County Officials Also Reveals New Admission Concerning Another Potential Serious Problem for November...

A failure in Diebold touch-screen voting systems in Butler County, OH resulted in votes not being included properly in Election Night results, even though the system had reported that all votes were uploaded and recorded correctly. Once the error was discovered, a subsequent upload of all of the county's 1599 touch-screen memory cards to the Diebold central election tabulator after the election, also resulted in the failure to record the results of one of the memory cards, despite the system having reported that all results were "uploaded properly."

The failure of Diebold's widely-used AccuVote TSx machines during the state's March 4th primary election resulted in the initial loss of at least 150 votes, and has prompted a letter of concern to the company (posted in full at the end of this article) from Butler County's Election Director, Betty L. McGary and Deputy Director, Lynn Edward Kinkaid.

In the letter to David Byrd, President of Diebold's recently-renamed election division, "Premier Election Solutions," the officials point out that two different memory cards failed to upload vote tallies to the central tabulator.

"It may appear that every vote has been counted when cards indicate they are being properly uploaded, when in fact votes cast on a memory card(s) are not tabulated in the results," the officials wrote after having discovered the matter. "It is unimaginable how serious this situation could have been should the problem be undetected, or ignored," they concluded.

The letter also details yet another previously-unknown problem with Diebold's central tabulator --- one that could well-effect this November's general election --- as revealed to the officials by a company employee during the initial trouble-shooting of the problem...

FULL STORY: http://www.bradblog.com/?p=5879

[karynnj]

36. What does this have to do with either Kerry or Obama - or even the price of tea in Sri Lanka?

[ginnyinWI]

19. despicable

On what authority do you challenge the truth of Kerry's military record?

[Dr Fate]

24. By the authority of such trusted names as Wolf, Rush, Sean, etc, no doubt.

If the people who swore up and down that Saddam caused 9/11 and had WMDs say that Kerry faked his record, it MUST be true!!!!

[karynnj]

30. Pretty good for a 27 year old junior officer to

trick the Navy - not just once, but twice to give him very prestigious medals - awarded and pinned onto young Kerry in front of the very peers, some of whom became SBVT. They however, spoke up neither the first time or the second - in fact, they had no problem with Kerry's service even in 2002 when they spoke to Brinkley - and academic historian.

Not to mention, no one guessed that hearing of his lack of heroism would have been highly desired by a Nixon, who feared only one anti-war person - John Kerry. Nixon and his administration went to the trouble of creating O'Neil's group only after investigating Kerry and finding him clean.

No this is a genius who is willing to say anything because Kerry did not endorse a man who was not even speaking to him.

[Dr Fate]

25. So you take the word of proven liars over Kerry's? Not me. n/t

n/t

[texastoast]

27. Where is your sarcasm smiley, hmm? n/t

[blm]

32. Nope - what makes YOU wish to pretend he did?

/

[wisteria]

9. Excellent questioning from Senator Kerry.

I particularly like this comment/question from Senator Kerry,

"If You Can't Get Reconciliation With More Troops, How Can You Get Them With Less?"

[balantz]

11. Interesting info on Kerry and wartime investments.

From an article at "Common Dreams":

"US Lawmakers Invested in Iraq, Afghanistan Wars"

-snip-

Senator John Kerry, the Democrat from Massachusetts who staked his 2004 presidential bid in part on his opposition to the war, tops the list of investors. His holdings in firms with Pentagon contracts of at least five million dollars stood at between 28.9 million dollars and 38.2 million dollars as of Dec. 31, 2006. Kerry sits on the Senate foreign relations panel.

-snip-

http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2008/04/08/8155/

[JI7]

12. these include companies that "do business with the defense dept"

that includes companies that provide things such as food and drink. those companies include things like Pepsi, Heinz, Johnson and Johnson.

[bluerum]

14. No one ever accused him of being stupid.

[karynnj]

18. Can you say - agenda of the writer?

Lower in the article it says:
"Not all the firms deal in arms or military equipment. Some make soft drinks or medical supplies and military contracts represent a small fraction of their revenues. Many are leaders in their industries and, as such, feature in the investment portfolios of millions of ordinary people who invest at least a portion of their savings in mutual funds, which in turn hold stocks in up to hundreds of companies.

“Giant corporations outside of the defence sector, such as Pepsico, IBM, Microsoft and Johnson & Johnson, have received defence contracts and are all popular investments for both members of Congress and the general public,” says CRP.

“So common are these companies, both as personal investments and as defence contractors, it would appear difficult to build a diverse blue-chip stock portfolio without at least some of them,” the group acknowledges.

If some of the stocks appear innocent, aides say legislators also are. Some did not buy the stocks in question but inherited them. Many hold them in blind trusts, so called because the investments are handled by independent entities, at least theoretically without the politicians’ knowledge of how their assets are being managed."

There are two other facts;
1) Most of the assets listed by Senator Kerry are his wife's that he has no access to. Kerry's total personal holding are less than that. The full lists of their holdings were out in 2004 - here is a summary I found: http://www.political-news.org/breaking/11937/senate-financial-disclosure-statements.html

2) Since the death of his mom, Kerry gets money from Forbes funds that he doesn't control.

Kerry has been a leader in moving to get the US out of Iraq - even in 2004, he was speaking of some withdrawals in summer 2005. He has spent a lifetime working against things like funding the Contras and other actions like that. He spoke against invading at a point where your hero was a cheerleader.

Your action in linking to this obvious hit piece is pathetic. Maybe you think that he should have get Teresa's accountants to move money out of companies like Microsoft and IBM to Edwards' hedge fund with its subprime mortgage contracts.

[karynnj]

20. From 2004 - Teresa had a lot of Microsoft and IBM

" Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., ranking Democrat, Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship.

Earned income: $158,100.

Honoraria, all donated to charity: None.

Major assets: Four trusts, $430,000-$2.56 million.

Major sources of unearned income: Dividends and interest from trusts, $10,800-$29,600.

Major liabilities: Credit card debt, $15,000-$50,000.

Gifts: None.

Narrative: Kerry inherited three of his four trusts in 2002, after the death of his mother, Rosemary Kerry. His wife, Teresa Heinz, is heir to the Heinz food fortune and her wealth is estimated at more than $500 million. Her holdings include millions of dollars in stocks in companies like H.J. Heinz Co., Microsoft, Anheuser Busch Co., General Electric Co., Proctor & Gamble and IBM. She also is an owner of the Thyme Square Restaurant and the Flying Squirrel charter airline. "

http://www.political-news.org/breaking/11937/senate-financial-disclosure-statements.html

[bluerum]

13. Ahh,,, provincial elections in October, they will do better this time.

The war people are delusional.

[happygoluckytoyou]

15. yes...general.... we really respect....the way you kill people.... well done,now how about the truth

[YvonneCa]

23. Thank you for this...

...video. It clearly shows 'my President', still working hard for us. :)

[whistle]

26. As I watched all the video posts of the hearings with General Petraeus and Amb. Crocker

...and the questioning by the Democratic Senators, I remembered the play Shakespeare "Julius Caesar" and in particular the 1953 movie version of the play where a youthful Marlon Brando received I believe an Oscar for his portrayal or Marc Anotony and in particular the famous speech scene after Caesar's assassination before the Roman Citizens. It is becoming clear how much that play and the movie applies to what we are now experiencing here at this time where honorable men in the military and congress have assassinated the U.S. Constitution and thus our legacy to our children.

Watch the video excerpt here and follow the transcript as Brando's character Marc Antony moves the citizens to understand the truth of what has happened:

<snip>

Julius Caesar" (1953)
<link to video> http://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechjuliuscaesarantony.html

Marc Antony Addresses Roman Citizenry on the Death of Julius Caesar
Marc Antony: Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears. I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them. The good is oft interred with their bones. So let it be with Caesar. The noble Brutus hath told you Caesar was ambitious. If it were so, it was a grievous fault, and grievously hath Caesar answered it.
Here, under leave of Brutus and the rest -- for Brutus is an honourable man; so are they all, all honourable men -- come I to speak in Caesar's funeral. He was my friend, faithful and just to me.
But Brutus says he was ambitious, and Brutus is an honourable man.
He hath brought many captives home to Rome whose ransoms did the general coffers fill. Did this in Caesar seem ambitious? When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept. Ambition should be made of sterner stuff.
Yet, Brutus says he was ambitious, and Brutus is an honourable man.
You all did see that on the Lupercal I thrice presented him a kingly crown -- which he did thrice refuse. Was this ambition?
Yet, Brutus says he was ambitious, and sure he is an honourable man.
I speak not to disprove what Brutus spoke. But here I am to speak what I do know. You all did love him once, not without cause. What cause withholds you, then, to mourn for him? Oh, Judgment, thou art fled to brutish beasts, and men have lost their reason.
(Bear with me: My heart is in the coffin there with Caesar, and I must pause till it come back to me.

Roman Citizen I: Methinks there is much reason in his saying.
Roman Citizen II: If thou consider rightly of the matter, Caesar has had great wrong.
Roman Citizen III: Has he, masters? I fear there will a worse come in his place.
Roman Citizen IV: Marked ye his words? He would not take the crown. Therefore 'tis certain he was not ambitious.
Roman Citizen V: If it be found so, some will dear abide it.

Roman Citizen III: There's not a nobler man in Rome than Antony.

Roman Citizen IV: Now mark him. He begins again to speak.
Roman Citizen VI: Poor soul. His eyes are red as fire with weeping.

Marc Antony: But yesterday the word of Caesar might have stood against the world. Now lies he there and none so poor to do him reverence. Oh masters, if I were disposed to stir your hearts and minds to mutiny and rage, I should do Brutus wrong, and Cassius wrong -- who, you all know, are honourable men. I will not do them wrong. I rather choose to wrong the dead, to wrong myself and you, than I will wrong such honourable men. But here's a parchment with the seal of Caesar. I found it in his closet. 'Tis his will. Let but the commons hear this testament which, pardon me, I do not mean to read -- and they would go and kiss dead Caesar's wounds, and dip their napkins in his sacred blood, yea, beg a hair of him for memory, and, dying, mention it within their wills, bequeathing it as a rich legacy unto their issue.

Roman Citizen IV: We'll hear the will. Read it, Mark Antony.
Roman Citizen I: We will hear Caesar's will.
Roman Citizens: The will, the will! We will hear Caesar's will.

Marc Antony: Have patience, gentle friends. I must not read it. It is not meet you know how Caesar loved you. You are not wood; you are not stones, but men; and, being men, hearing the will of Caesar, it will inflame you; it will make you mad. 'Tis good you know not that you are his heirs. For, if you should, oh, what would come of it!

Roman Citizen IV: Read the will; we'll hear it, Antony. You shall read us the will, Caesar's will.

Marc Antony: Will you be patient? Will you stay awhile? I have overshot myself to tell you of it. I fear I wrong the honourable men whose daggers have stabbed Caesar.

Roman Citizen IV: They were traitors: honourable men!
Roman Citizen VI: Traitor! Murderers!

Marc Antony: You will compel me, then, to read the will? Then make a ring around the corpse of Caesar, and let me show you him that made the will. Shall I descend? And will you give me leave?

Roman Citizens: Come down.

Roman Citizen II: Descend.

Roman Citizen III: You shall have leave.

<Marc Antony descends>


Marc Antony: If you have tears, prepare to shed them now. You all do know this mantle. I remember the first time ever Caesar put it on. 'Twas on a summer's evening in his tent, that day he overcame the Nervii. Look, in this place ran Cassius' dagger through. See what a rent the envious Casca made. Through this the well-beloved Brutus stabbed, and as he plucked his cursed steel away, mark how the blood of Caesar followed it, as rushing out of doors, to be resolved if Brutus so unkindly knocked, or no. For Brutus, as you know, was Caesar's angel. Judge, oh ye gods, how dearly Caesar loved him. This was the most unkindest cut of all. For when the noble Caesar saw him stab, ingratitude, more strong than traitors' arms, quite vanquished him. Then burst his mighty heart. And in his mantle muffling up his face, even at the base of Pompey's statue, which all the while ran blood, great Caesar fell. Oh, what a fall was there, my countrymen. Then I, and you, and all of us fell down, whilst bloody treason flourished over us.
Now you weep. And I perceive you feel the dint of pity. These are gracious drops. Kind souls, what weep you when you but behold our Caesar's vesture wounded? Look you here. Here is himself, marred, as you see, with traitors.

Roman Citizen II: Oh, noble Caesar!
Roman Citizen VI: Oh, most bloody sight!
Roman Citizen II: Traitors. Villains.
Roman Citizen III: We will be revenged!
Roman Citizen IV: Let not a traitor live!

Marc Antony: Stay, countrymen. Good friends, sweet friends, let me not stir you up to such a sudden flood of mutiny. They that have done this deed are honourable. What private griefs they have, alas, I know not that made them do it. They are wise and honourable, and will, no doubt, with reasons answer you. I come not, friends, to steal away your hearts. I am no orator, as Brutus is; but, as you know me all, a plain blunt man that love my friend. And that they know full well that gave me public leave to speak of him. For I have neither wit, nor words, nor worth, action, nor utterance, nor the power of speech to stir men's blood. I only speak right on. I tell you that which you yourselves do know. Show you sweet Caesar's wounds, poor poor dumb mouths, and bid them speak for me. But were I Brutus, and Brutus Antony, there were an Antony would ruffle up your spirits and put a tongue in every wound of Caesar that should move the stones of Rome to rise and mutiny.

All Roman Citizens: Mutiny!

Marc Antony: Yet hear me, countrymen. Yet hear me speak. Why, friends, you go to do you know not what. Wherein hath Caesar thus deserved your loves? Alas, you know not. I must tell you then, you've forgot the will I told you of. Here is the will, and under Caesar's seal. To every Roman citizen he gives, to every several man, seventy-five drachmas.
Moreover, he hath left you all his walks, his private arbors and new-planted orchards on this side Tiber. He hath left them you, and to your heirs forever, common pleasures to walk abroad and recreate yourselves. Here was a Caesar. When comes such another?!

Lady Citizen: Never! Never!

[AlbertCat]

31. Uuuugh!

Did Patreus just say "I'm familiar with that argumentation"...


or something like that?

I can't stand polite politics around complete incompetent, illegal, murderous fiascoes like Iraq. They don't even use English words it's so tortured. It's like listening to Condie Rice! I can't get thru it! The nonsense is just too thick!

[ryanmuegge]

34. You tell 'em, Count Dracula.

Good to see that he came out of his coffin to rap with Political Operative in Uniform Petraeus.

I like Kerry (liked Dean better, of course). I wish he could be our president now.