• Menu
  • Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Before Header

  • About Us
  • Lexicon
  • Contact Us
  • Our Store
  • ↑
  • ↓
  • ←
  • →

Balloon Juice

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

Their freedom requires your slavery.

The lights are all blinking red.

Hell hath no fury like a farmer bankrupted.

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Not so fun when the rabbit gets the gun, is it?

The desire to stay informed is directly at odds with the need to not be constantly enraged.

Republican speaker of the house Mike Johnson is the bland and smiling face of evil.

GOP baffled that ‘we don’t care if you die’ is not a winning slogan.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

A sufficient plurality of insane, greedy people can tank any democratic system ever devised, apparently.

Democracy cannot function without a free press.

Damn right I heard that as a threat.

“Until such time as the world ends, we will act as though it intends to spin on.”

75% of people clapping liked the show!

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

Never give a known liar the benefit of the doubt.

The arc of history bends toward the same old fuckery.

We can’t confuse what’s necessary to win elections with the policies that we want to implement when we do.

Never entrust democracy to any process that requires Republicans to act in good faith.

Baby steps, because the Republican Party is full of angry babies.

The poor and middle-class pay taxes, the rich pay accountants, the wealthy pay politicians.

Someone should tell Republicans that violence is the last refuge of the incompetent, or possibly the first.

Mobile Menu

  • Seattle Meet-up Post
  • 2025 Activism
  • Targeted Political Fundraising
  • Donate with Venmo, Zelle & PayPal
  • Site Feedback
  • War in Ukraine
  • Submit Photos to On the Road
  • Politics
  • On The Road
  • Open Threads
  • Topics
  • COVID-19
  • Authors
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • Lexicon
  • Our Store
  • Politics
  • Open Threads
  • 2025 Activism
  • Garden Chats
  • On The Road
  • Targeted Fundraising!
You are here: Home / Over the Top Rhetoric

Over the Top Rhetoric

by John Cole|  July 9, 20031:22 pm| 11 Comments

This post is in: Democratic Stupidity

FacebookTweetEmail

What do Saddam Hussein’s Ba’ath party officals who sat in on UN Weapons Inspection interviews with Iraqi scientitsts to intimidate the scientists have in common with Justice Department officials who sit in on interviews conducted with the 9/11 commission?

Everything, because clearly they are the exact same thing! No one doubts that should the interviewee say the wrong thing, the Justice department will quickly issue agents to go to the interviewee’s house, grab his family, send them through a wood chipper, and then put their remains in plastic bags on the porch of the interviewee’s house. George Bush and John Ashcroft are just like Saddam!

Look- I am not happy with the slow pace of the investigation, but ANY comparison between the Justice Department sitting in on interviews and the behavior of Saddam’s Baa’ath regime is simply over the top and disgusting (although Kevin’s commenters seem to not know the difference).

FacebookTweetEmail
Previous Post: « Doh!
Next Post: The Sky is Falling »

Reader Interactions

11Comments

  1. 1.

    Jonas

    July 9, 2003 at 1:33 pm

    You did notice that the claim of intimidation came from the chair of the commission- Thomas Kean, didn’t you? This isn’t about a slow pace of investigation, this is about access to information, and why the Bush administration is trying to prevent access to information.

  2. 2.

    ME

    July 9, 2003 at 1:53 pm

    Moreover, Thomas Kean is a Republican.

  3. 3.

    Kevin Drum

    July 9, 2003 at 2:36 pm

    OK, rhetoric aside, John, do you think Ashcroft should insist on having monitors present? Or not?

    Intimidation is intimidation. *Of course* Ashcroft isn’t Saddam, but that’s all the more reason he shouldn’t use Saddam’s methods. Right?

  4. 4.

    John Cole

    July 9, 2003 at 2:55 pm

    MY gut response is that I do not like having monitors there, but we do not know why they are there.

    Right now, it is merely an assertion that they are there is to intimidate. It may be that they are there for completely valid and legitimate reasons, like to keep people from accidentally releasing confidential information that is being used to build a case against terrorism suspects. There are a list of reasons that might warrant having the monitor (who may be a lawyer there for the interviewees protection- most of the time people are deposed, their lawyer is present) in place.

    Instead of researching it and looking into it, the first thing we see all over the blogosphere are comparisons to the murderous thugs of the Hussein regime. That is over the top.

  5. 5.

    John Cole

    July 9, 2003 at 2:57 pm

    And by the way, I reject this basic premise, which seems to be the root of the problem:

    but that’s all the more reason he shouldn’t use Saddam’s methods. Right?

    He isn’t using Saddam’s methods, unless you are stating on the record that he is going to have interviewees and their families murdered if they say something to the commission that Ashcroft doesn’t like. Surely you do not mean that, do you? Any comparison to Saddam is, IMHO, illegitimate.

  6. 6.

    Jonas

    July 9, 2003 at 3:37 pm

    John

    Once again, it’s the commisioners who are upset about the monitors intimidating people. I think we both agree that the people on the commission understand the difference between leaking sensitive information and intimidation. It’s silly to even use that as an excuse. And anyway, if the commissioners don’t have clearance to hear classified info, then what is the point of this investigation?

  7. 7.

    John Cole

    July 9, 2003 at 3:48 pm

    Jonas- I understand who is upset. Now, one more time for posterity- I am upset about the comparison between ANYONE from the Justice department and Hussein’s thugs. Do you get the issue, now?

  8. 8.

    ME

    July 9, 2003 at 6:17 pm

    So John, why is this filed under “Democrat Stupidity”? If Kean, a Republican, is the one concerned about monitors, why are you picking on this as an example of Democrats in action? Frankly, this is a perfect example of your moral obtuseness — refusing to call a spade a spade.

  9. 9.

    Kevin Drum

    July 9, 2003 at 7:20 pm

    Nah, he’s probably referring to me. I’m a Democrat.

    BTW, why weren’t you offended by my “Stalin-esque” description? If any comparison of our methods with Saddam’s methods is bad, surely a comparison with Stalin’s methods is worse?

    Or are you secretly a Stalin lover?

    (Just kidding there….)

  10. 10.

    John Cole

    July 9, 2003 at 9:41 pm

    Actually- I was referring to the fact that it was predominantly Democrats who were acting as if this was an issue. You see- I respect Kevin, just as I respect Gary Farber, Yglesias, Ted Barlow, Jesse, TalkLeft, and many others etc.

    When they criticize me, I check my perceptions- because, after all, they have credibility in my eyes.

    BTW- I ignored the Stalin comments because that seemed to me to be pretty much like Godwin…

  11. 11.

    Jonas

    July 10, 2003 at 5:05 pm

    http://www.nytimes.com/2003/07/10/nyregion/10CLIN.html

    Tucker Carlson compares Hillary Clinton to Pol Pot. He must think they are exactly the same. Are you outraged?

Comments are closed.

Primary Sidebar

On The Road - Christopher Mathews - Iceland: Season's Fleeting 3
Image by Christopher Mathews (6/13/25)

PA Supreme Court At Risk

We did it!

We raised the 25,000 for The Civics Center, and with the external matches, that gives them $60,000 for this Spring effort!

You guys rock!

Recent Comments

  • Almost Retired on Saturday Morning Open Thread: No Kings (Jun 14, 2025 @ 9:59am)
  • prostratedragon on Saturday Morning Open Thread: No Kings (Jun 14, 2025 @ 9:56am)
  • Professor Bigfoot on Saturday Morning Open Thread: No Kings (Jun 14, 2025 @ 9:55am)
  • NotMax on Saturday Morning Open Thread: No Kings (Jun 14, 2025 @ 9:55am)
  • WereBear on Saturday Morning Open Thread: No Kings (Jun 14, 2025 @ 9:53am)

Balloon Juice Posts

View by Topic
View by Author
View by Month & Year
View by Past Author

Featuring

Medium Cool
Artists in Our Midst
Authors in Our Midst
War in Ukraine
Donate to Razom for Ukraine

🎈Keep Balloon Juice Ad Free

Become a Balloon Juice Patreon
Donate with Venmo, Zelle or PayPal

Calling All Jackals

Site Feedback
Nominate a Rotating Tag
Submit Photos to On the Road
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Links)
Balloon Juice Anniversary (All Posts)
Fix Nyms with Apostrophes

Social Media

Balloon Juice
WaterGirl
TaMara
John Cole
DougJ (aka NYT Pitchbot)
Betty Cracker
Tom Levenson
David Anderson
Major Major Major Major
DougJ NYT Pitchbot
mistermix

Keeping Track

Legal Challenges (Lawfare)
Republicans Fleeing Town Halls (TPM)
21 Letters (to Borrow or Steal)
Search Donations from a Brand

Site Footer

Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Comment Policy
  • Our Authors
  • Blogroll
  • Our Artists
  • Privacy Policy

Copyright © 2025 Dev Balloon Juice · All Rights Reserved · Powered by BizBudding Inc

Share this ArticleLike this article? Email it to a friend!

Email sent!