Nice to see the anti-war left (Rosa) falling back into old habits and excusing the Russians/Soviets for any war they start.
Too bad Rosa could not do a diavlog with Matt Welch
The Thousand-Mile Doorstep

There is much one could say about this claim by L.A. Times columnist Rosa Brooks:

Th[e] U.S. also insisted this summer on the deployment of an almost certainly useless missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, virtually on Moscow's doorstep.

I'll just focus on this: How virtual is that doorstep? Here's how far the eastern-most big city of the Czech Republic is from the Russian capital:

In Soviet Russia, doorstep missiles you!

That's 1,000 miles. The Czechs aren't even neighbors of any of mainland Russia's neighbors. If 1,000 miles is the new "doorstep," then Russia's on the doorstep of the United States, more than half of Europe, much of Asia, and almost all of the Middle East. Run for your lives!

No wonder the LA Times is in such piss poor shape. They have got "useful idiots" writing for it.

Just to set history straight I believe that there was an island or two, that were invaded and occupied by the Japanese, in Alaska.

The report tracked donations of $200 or more. It found that 859 members of the military donated a total of $335,536 to Obama. McCain received $280,513 from 558 military donors.

Among soldiers serving overseas at the time of their donations, 134 gave a total of $60,642 to Obama while 26 gave a total of $10,665 to McCain. That was less than the amount received by Republican Ron Paul, who collected $45,512 from 99 soldiers serving abroad, the report said.

A grand total of 1417 contributions and 160 (259 with Ron Paul) from over seas. Does any one else see a problem with the size of those numbers and the total number of service personnel being anything more than random noise.

So disappointed in this diavlog - I advise both of you never to play chess with Putin - because heīd knock your socks off. Did it ever occur to either of you that Putin got a two-fer? Give a hand to McCain so McCain can do Putinīs dirty work in the future while intimidating his "near abroad" adversaries in the short term - I sure hope neither of your participate in an Obama administration....it is a scary thought!

Lotta false savviness in the early posts here.

Nobody's calling Obama "skinny", or talking about his consumption of MetRx bars, or what good shape he's in as some sort of super clever way of talking about how blackity black he is. It's not subtle at all: HEY EVERYONE OBAMA IS A BIG GIANT FAG! HA HA HA!

Quoting piscivorous: No wonder the LA Times is in such piss poor shape. They have got "useful idiots" writing for it.

Indeed. Although I might not go along with "useful."

Quoting piscivorous: Does any one else see a problem with the size of those numbers ...

Clearly, you do, which is why you immediately ran in to counterspin them.

Quoting PaulL: Nice to see the anti-war left (Rosa) falling back into old habits and excusing the Russians/Soviets for any war they start.

Hard to believe you're even claiming to have listened to this diavlog.

Quoting bjkeefe: Hard to believe you're even claiming to have listened to this diavlog.

Let me repeat what I got from the diavlog.
Russia is evil but they are not at fault because the US humiliated them at the end of the Cold war.
Putin is trying to restore the Russian national pride and US is undermining that by promoting missile defense agreements with Russia's former client states. But I guess that is not excusing Russia.

Quoting PaulL: Let me repeat what I got from the diavlog.
Russia is evil but they are not at fault because the US humiliated them at the end of the Cold war.
Putin is trying to restore the Russian national pride and US is undermining that by promoting missile defense agreements with Russia's former client states.

But I guess that is not excusing Russia.

Thanks for indicating that you did listen. I guess I just don't agree with your assessment. Even just looking at your own words, it's clear that what was said (by Rosa) was that the US contributed to the problems that we're now seeing. I don't at all think that she "excused" Russia. By your own admissions, she called them "evil." Is it so hard to accept that there is no single party to be blamed for a geopolitical problem? Is it so hard for you to hear criticism of the US without immediately hearing it as the complete opposite side of the coin? We're never going to get our asses back in the saddle until we start admitting where we screwed up. This is the mistake of all those people who are so

Meant to say before how good it was to see Tim Noah get a chance to come on to BH.tv. He's one of the bright spots of Slate. Let's have him back soon. Good for you, Tim, to call Corsi's usual piece of the Web by its proper name. Always good to see Rosa, too.

Dear My Georgian Friends, Here's some straight talk: Rosa Brooks and Timothy Noah are both Al Qaeda. Furthermore, there is no truth to the accusation that I am trying to race-bait B. HUSSEIN Osbama. The insinuation that I would play the race card on my Negro opponent is in itself the ace of spades from the race card deck. Obama is too skinny, but it's not from eating soul food or anything like that. It's because he's an effete (maybe not gay, but definitely girly) anorexic arugula addict. When I ran my Britney Spears and Paris Hilton ad, it was in NO WAY designed to suggest that Beanpole Hussein Obamoolimic was a sex fiend lusting after white sluts who might miscegenate and create a mixed-race nation in His Own Antichrist Image. It was just an ad to show that Obama is a superficial sissy. Fact: You've never seen him with a gun. You never will. I'm not saying he has to shoot his friend in the face to prove he's ready on Day One, but even John Kerry was photographed with a big piece. Even that other draft-dodging foreigner , Dukakis, had a tank. I don't need to go negative

You should probably learn something about the ever-expanding missle defense system slated for deployment in Eastern Europe before posting, it would make you seem less knee-jerk silly. The system was conceived and designed specifically as an attempt to defend against Soviet, now Russian, missles. The "rogue state/non-state actors with ICBM's in their pockets" rhetoric is transparent BS for domestic political consumption to keep the billions flowing, spread by many of the same folks who have been onboard since the beginning of the program under Regan. It has been shown by knowledgable experts that the Eastern European locations are suitable for use against Russian systems.

Although the Bear may be trying to recapture the Russian Empire, The safety concern for Russians in South Ossetia is not mere pretext. In 2004, the Chechens took over a school in Beslan, North Ossetia. During the ensuing seige, the Chechens killed hundreds of Russian schoolkids in the most barbaric, grisly fashion imaginable. Afterwards, the Russians needed to use North Ossetia to conduct operations against the the continuing threat (without help from anyone, including Georgians). To this day,those events evoke strong emotional reactions from all Russians.

What? There is no "thriving market economy" in Russia? There can be no excuse for such ill-informed nonsense on Bloggingheads.tv. Russia has now surpassed even Germany in car sales. Nearly every market segment from mobile phones to designer clothing is experiencing record revenues. Russia has become one of the fastest growing market economies in history.

Quoting EuropeHere: What? There is no "thriving market economy" in Russia? There can be no excuse for such ill-informed nonsense on Bloggingheads.tv. Russia has now surpassed even Germany in car sales. Nearly every market segment from mobile phones to designer clothing is experiencing record revenues. Russia has become one of the fastest growing market economies in history.

I would modify your final statement a bit: Russia has become one of the fastest growing corrupt market economies in history.

Allowing Georgia into NATO would be a disaster. Saakashvili has proven to be reckless. Let's face it, do you think France or Britain would have gone into Ossetia knowing what Russia's response would be? I personally doubt it. A NATO member starting silly wars is a liability the United States and NATO can not afford.

I have a quiz for a savy person such as yourself, Doctor Money - who does Dmitri Medvedev resemble, uncannily so? Time is up! The late Czar Nicolas II. Well then, who does that make Putin? No luck? --- Ras-Putin!

These young experts seem to miss the depth of our missed opportunity, or they fear making truly bold statements, perhaps out career anxiety, which is so common in those under 45. Best to listen to voices with more perspective, namely George Kennan, father of the containment strategy, who in February 1997, at age 93 wrote in the New York Times without any ambiguity or subtlety: "expanding NATO would be the most fateful error of American policy in the entire post-cold war era. Such a decision may be expected to inflame the nationalistic, anti-Western and militaristic tendencies in Russian opinion; to have an adverse effect on the development of Russian democracy; to restore the atmosphere of the cold war to East-West relations, and to impel Russian foreign policy in directions decidedly not to our liking," Those of us under 45 (which includes me, for another 21 days) will have to pay the price for the blithe, "costless" robot-like boomer continuation of Cold-War strategies well past their past-due date under the far from unbiased leadership of Madeline Albright. Let's hope that we can be more creative in our approach to international affairs than our boomer predecessors have been.

Quoting PaulL: Nice to see the anti-war left (Rosa) falling back into old habits and excusing the Russians/Soviets for any war they start.
Too bad Rosa could not do a diavlog with Matt Welch
The Thousand-Mile Doorstep

Th[e] U.S. also insisted this summer on the deployment of an almost certainly useless missile defense system in Poland and the Czech Republic, virtually on Moscow's doorstep.
I'll just focus on this: How virtual is that doorstep?

How virtual? Not very. Central Europe is only about 5 minutes away from Moscow by missile. Do we really want to move back to the days of 5-minutes-to-launch-warning for Moscow that we were in in the early and mid 80's? Are Iranians nukes so horrific that we're willing to risk that Moscow could make a terrible, hot-headed mistake? In the 70's and even (eventually) in the 80's we were more focused on mutual disarmament. There is no need to back the bear into a corner to enhance our superiority yet further. [And no, Virginia, Ronald Reagan did not defeat the Soviet Union - low oil prices did] Thankfully, Obama has more nuclear disarmament for all firmly on his agenda as the path towards a real increase in US national security. But then again, if the "strongest tribe," chooses

Quoting tom0063: But then again, if the "strongest tribe," chooses not to go down the path of compromise and reconciliation, maybe humanity is approaching a "fresh start" - one that start with a bang.

Wise words. Let's hope not.

Kudos to bhtv for its comprehensive coverage. No sooner does John McWhorter predict that an Obama defeat will unleash the howls of liberal poseurs eager to affirm their PC virtue, than Timothy Noah--proud author of the insight that "skinny" means "black"--appears on cue. I would encourage everyone to read his piece linked below: I believe it to be beyond parody, even knowing what "Reno 911" was able to do with "Cops." Thank you bhtv, and Tim: you can kiss my black ass. http://www.slate.com/id/2196756/