#politics

Ridding Iraq of weapons of mass destruction. That was the whole idea, right? That‘s why we went. I am reluctant to let that fact disappear down the memory hole, because if— as the war ends, or at least starts to end— if, at this time, the history of the war is written as us going there to topple the regime of a bad man when that frankly isn‘t why were told that we were going there— Aren‘t we still at risk of making this horrific mistake again? And, aren‘t we letting the people who foisted the WMD idea on us, not many years ago, aren‘t we sort of letting them get away with it? ↗

— Rachel Maddow

#memory-hole #mistake #politics #rachel-maddow #war

A president who is burdened with a failed and unpopular war, and who has lost the trust of the country, simply can no longer govern. He is destined to become as much a failure as his war. ↗

— Glenn Greenwald

#governance #iraq-war #lyndon-b-johnson #politics #united-states

Anti-Americanism may indeed have grown fiercer than it was during the cold war. It is a common phenomenon that when the angels fail to deliver, the demons become more fearsome. ↗

— Ian Buruma

#bigotry #cold-war #leftism #politics #united-states

Everything we see in the world is the creative work of women. ↗

— Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

#politics #turk #women #creativity

This story is the ultimate example of American’s biggest political problem. We no longer have the attention span to deal with any twenty-first century crisis. We live in an economy that is immensely complex and we are completely at the mercy of the small group of people who understand it – who incidentally often happen to be the same people who built these wildly complex economic systems. We have to trust these people to do the right thing, but we can’t, because, well, they’re scum. Which is kind of a big problem, when you think about it. ↗

— Matt Taibbi

#government #politics #thievery #united-states #economy

The real satanist is not quite so easily recognized as such ↗

— Anton Szandor LaVey

#politics #power #economy

It's August, which means Congress is on recess and Mitch McConnell has shimmied back into the ocean to seek a mate. ↗

— Stephen Colbert

#mitch-mcconnell #politics #twitter #united-states #united-states-congress

It might be a good idea if the various countries of the world would occasionally swap history books, just to see what other people are doing with the same set of facts. -Bill Vaughan, journalist (1915-1977) ↗

— Bill Vaughan

#international-relations #journalists #politics #journalist

I knew that a historian (or a journalist, or anyone telling a story) was forced to choose, out of an infinite number of facts, what to present, what to omit. And that decision inevitably would reflect, whether consciously or not, the interests of the historian. ↗

— Howard Zinn

#journalism #objectivity #politics #journalist

It is inaccurate to say I hate everything. I am strongly in favor of common sense, common honesty, and common decency. This makes me forever ineligible for any public office. ↗

— H.L. Mencken

#honesty