Would Someone Please Tell Me

[phuloi]

Just what the hell the ole Goober Farmer is up to in Cuba?

[sn-e3]

N/t

[Andy]

Bush and his boys just finish telling the world that Cuba is making bio-weapons (or at least the components) and may be making them available to some of the crazy nations. Carter visits Cuba for one day, apparently searchs the entire island and then announces there are no bio-weapons. It seems like Carter is pouring sand in the machine of government just to hear the grinding noise it makes.

Jimmy is a very intelligent man. He is very well intentioned. However he is the guy who gave us 20% inflation and got rid of that nasty old Shaw of Iran. Whatever happened to Iran after that?

Of course once someone reaches 77, I don't think I'd trust him with my TV remote control. Maybe he's just "lusting in his heart" for for a little attention.

Stay healthy,
Andy
PS: By the way, around here the letter "R" does exist. Many words that end with the letter "A" fall into that catagory. For example, Carter is visiting "Cuber". Don't ask, I have no answer.

[phuloi]

It seems that almost wherever he goes and whatever positions he pushes, Jimmy Carter leaves a wake of devastation and disaster.

Carter, we should note, has been cozying up to North Korea for years. He helped the U.S. and the communist country come to agreement during the Clinton years to defuse a tense situation over North Korea?s nuclear weapons program.

Under the wacko deal Carter arranged, the U.S. would stop complaining about Korea's nuclear weapons program as long as the U.S. gave aid to North Korea and helped the communists build more modern nuclear reactors.

The U.S. was well on the path to doing this when the new Bush administration sounded the alarm and immediately stopped the cockamamy plan dead in its tracks.

North Korea was not cooperating with the U.S. to stop its weapons program, but we should continue helping them to build nuclear reactors. Make sense?

Of course not.

But that's Jimmy Carter for you.

It's also Jimmy Carter the hypocrite. Carter has always claimed to be the champion of human rights worldwide.

Yet North Korea is one of the most, if not the most, repressive regimes on the planet.

The Stalinist nation is headed by a young madman named Kim Jong-il. Kim likes to watch American movies like "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre" and then act out his fantasies on his own citizenry. Millions of North Koreans are starving at any given time.

Does Carter have much to say about this?

Of course not. North Korea is an enemy of the U.S., so Carter goes easy on them. When he met Kim, Carter didn't criticize him ? he kissed him!

But there is nothing new here.

The media would have us forget Jimmy Carter's presidential record.

But I won't.

Remember Carter's human rights program, where he demanded the Shah of Iran step down and turn over power to the Ayatollah Khomeini?

No matter that Khomeini was a madman. Carter had the U.S. Pentagon tell the Shah's top military commanders ? about 150 of them ? to acquiesce to the Ayatollah and not fight him.

The Shah's military listened to Carter. All of them were murdered in one of the Ayatollah's first acts.

By allowing the Shah to fall, Carter created one of the most militant anti-American dictatorships ever.

Soon the new Iranian government was ransacking our embassy and held hostage its staff for over a year. Only President Reagan's election gave Iran the impetus to release the hostages.

I believe Carter's decision to have the Shah fall is arguably the most egregious U.S. foreign policy mistake of the last 50 years. [Former President Bush's decision to allow Saddam Hussein to stay in power is a close second.]

With the Shah gone, the whole region was destabilized. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan; no doubt a direct link to the rise of the Taliban can be traced to this invasion. Iraq also took advantage of the Shah's departure to invade Iran. A long war followed that helped make Saddam's Iraq a great Middle Eastern power.

I plucked this from newsmax.com

[Packo]

I admit to Voting for him because I really believed and still do, that he is a nice guy, too nice to be President. Ol' Jimmy has basically a worse legacy than Clinton on issues, but was a God morally compared to the SleezeBoy. I think he's a butt-in-ski who is trying to have some sort of legacy other than his idiotic Presidency. He needs to stick to building homes for Habitat. It's the only place he's done any good. And all this from a man who really does like him but has been getting on my nerves the last few years. If he was such a great diplomat, that he thinks he is, we won't be having the problems in the world we have right now. He had his chance and blew it.

Billy Packo

[sfc_darrel]

He believes that if you are nice to people that they will be nice to you. Especially if they give money to your campaign/library/Foundation.

He gave away the Panama Canal and now it looks like China will "own" it.

Served during his administration. Didn't like him then, don't like him now.

Darrel

[exlrrp]

There certainly are some creative reads on history here.
there's lots to deal with up above here but lets start with the "Jimmy Carter gave away the Panama Canal" myth
it was actually a smart deal for the US and I hate to say it but the negotiations started in the Ford administration. getting rid of it should be a plus for the side that whines about paying too much taxes but nooooo, Whats really creative is how the dittoheaded right wing conspiracy uses it to make carter look bad. Did Rush say that?
What some less informed people never start to think is that the Panama Canal had become a White Elephant for the US with little strategical value.Huge maintenance, no income. yet you guys would rather keep vulnerable bases there than do what was the smartest thing--keep a 2 ocean Navy--even the govt did better than that.
The late 70s--early 80s found the US downsizing our military commitmenet--this was bipartisan, a goal thruout several administrations and I can't fault the idea--who needed it? Nowadays we use our naval forces to move around an be our vbases--better for us and safer for them out in the ocean JUUUST like we did in Afghanistan.
lets start with this fact--virtually none of our strategic material or military pass through the Panama Canal--not oil, for sure, nor containers nor bulk on anything but bananas. the greatest number of ships to pass through there were cruise ships last year. the income didn't cover them maintenance
if we REALLY needed to take it back, as in wartime, don't you think we would in a New York minute? of course we would but the panamanians would rather rent it to us anyway--there's about a third of them there who want us back. Let the Chinese run it--they like working for low wages.
If youre smart, write your congressman not to renege on carter's excellent deal!! or isn' it Jimmy carter's fault now

carter's doing a good thing in Cuba now, its good PR for boh sides. Its time we normalised relations with Cuba, we sure cozyed up to some regimes a lot more atrocious. All of his efforts are good, Ive worked for habitat For Humanity. its good to see exPresidents doing something good for humanity on their own time, instead of selling $2million dollar speeches like Ronald reagan before he lost it too much. Yes I know what Bill Clinton does--same as GHB, selling pardons and all

james

[exlrrp]

Why did, Bush, Cheney, Schwartskpf, Powell not take baghdad when they were knocking on the door, the Iraqi forces defeated, the city wide open?
I know all about the "we didn't have a mandate" excuse but this was one of the most shortsighted decisions on Modern history--now we're going to have to do it all over again and oh, thats right, with the same people who made the shortsighted decision. The good news is theyre doing it with Clinton's Army so that turned out all right.
they totally negated their excellent victory. I thought the main lesson of Vietnam was not to go to war unless you were going to win it. Thats what I learned, anyway.

james

[Packo]

During Jimmy's administration we had double digit inflation and 30 year mortgages at....ummm 18 to 20 %. All this and we lost Iran as an stragegic allie to a fanatical muslem leader that took over our embassy and didn't release the hostages until Reagan took control. We had a military on the verge of collapse, and the steel and coal industry in this country died. All this he was able to accoplish and more with a Democrat Congress and Senate. All presidents make money on the talk circuit so I don't take that away from clinton although I wouldn't take money from him to hear him speak. Had eight years of that compulsive liar. As I said, I give Jimmy credit for his efforts with Habitat.....but I question all the money he has and still recieves from Arabs, North Koreans, and the Chinese. Wonder if there are any other dictators he's not friendly with. Certainly glad Hitlers dead.

Packo

[exlrrp]

Well, we still have a $5 trillion dollar debt to pay off, , 90 % of it run up during the reagan and Bush adminstrations so I can't give the republicans much credit for fiscal responsibility--certainly the 32 quarterss under Clinton (plus the first 2 quarters of Bush)were the longest period of contiunous economic growth in the 20th Century. How did that set up a "Clinton Recession" anyway, I never got that
republicans think lowering taxes will make this go away but we saw the falsity of that in the 80s--and now we're getting another republican deficit after 3 years of democratic surplus--no wonder theyre stalling the Balanced Budget Amendment in the House--they used to want this very bad.
James