I mean, isn't that the official line given by the Powers That Be in Washington? America don't negotiate. It's our way, or the highway. You can talk about a 'roadmap' to peace in the Middle East, but it ain't gonna happen as long as there are folks who are going to stand up to aggressive powers that demand conditions even before negotiations begin.

So, WTF is Mr. Conescendation himself (Electro Robot) riffing on about when he sniffs, "Petraeus is telling the Iranians that frontal assault won't work, that overt action is something no one wants and that if they want to talk to the US, and they do you know, they're going to have to do it by meeting the US partway and not by dictating terms." Huh?

This is NOT going to happen as long as the U.S. carries the big stick and believes it has the right to use it on anyone who disagrees with America, stands up to America's divine right (it seems) to be el supremo, or tries to take a piece of the action.

So after that pearl of wisdom from on high, he continues, "I really wish sometimes people who wrote about the mideast and SW Asia knew something of the mideast, SW Asia and the cultures and people there."

Ah-yup. Keep the day job, Electro. Seems you don't know diddly about things even closer to home.

Poor Megan pens: "Obviously, I know who John Yoo was, and what he did. From the point of view of the American public, however, he is a minor government functionary, much like--oh, say, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development."

A minor government functionary??

She sticks her foot in a bit deeper: "To the great American public, these are, yes, minor government functionaries--minor functionaries whose rounding errors probably result in more lives saved or lost than could ever plausibly be attributed to John Yoo. I do not like this fact, but I do acknowledge it."

Ah, the banality.

Wikipedia: "Little Eichmanns is a phrase coined by anarcho-primitivist John Zerzan to describe the complicity of those who participate in destructive and immoral systems in a way that, although on an individual scale may seem indirect, when taken collectively have an effect comparable to Nazi official Adolf Eichmann's role in The Holocaust. Zerzan used the phrase in his essay Whose Unabomber? in 1995.

Ward Churchill used the phrase in his essay Some People Push Back to describe the technocrats working in the Twin Towers on the morning of the September 11th attacks, because in his opinion their status as drivers of the American empire, participating in sweatshop exploitation, the devastating Iraq sanctions, US support for dictators and attacks against other countries etc. shared similarities with Adolf Eichmann's bureaucratic participation in the Nazi system.

Eichmann as a stand-in comes from Hannah Arendt's notion of the banality of evil. Arendt wrote in her 1963 book Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on The Banality of Evil that aside from a desire for improving his career, Eichmann showed no trace of anti-Semitism or psychological damage. She called him the embodiment of the "banality of evil" as he appeared at his trial to have an ordinary and common personality and displayed neither guilt nor hatred. She suggested that this most strikingly discredits the idea that the Nazi criminals were manifestly psychopathic and fundamentally different from ordinary people.Little Eichmanns is a phrase coined by anarcho-primitivist John Zerzan[1] to describe the complicity of those who participate in destructive and immoral systems in a way that, although on an individual scale may seem indirect, when taken collectively have an effect comparable to Nazi official Adolf Eichmann's role in The Holocaust. Zerzan used the phrase in his essay Whose Unabomber? in 1995.

Ward Churchill used the phrase in his essay Some People Push Back to describe the technocrats working in the Twin Towers on the morning of the September 11th attacks, because in his opinion their status as drivers of the American empire, participating in sweatshop exploitation, the devastating Iraq sanctions, US support for dictators and attacks against other countries etc. shared similarities with Adolf Eichmann's bureaucratic participation in the Nazi system.

Eichmann as a stand-in comes from Hannah Arendt's notion of the banality of evil. Arendt wrote in her 1963 book Eichmann in Jerusalem: A Report on The Banality of Evil that aside from a desire for improving his career, Eichmann showed no trace of anti-Semitism or psychological damage. She called him the embodiment of the "banality of evil" as he appeared at his trial to have an ordinary and common personality and displayed neither guilt nor hatred. She suggested that this most strikingly discredits the idea that the Nazi criminals were manifestly psychopathic and fundamentally different from ordinary people."

Poor old Ward, he got canned. Megan just got exasperated . . .

I will never, never, never stay in a fu7cking Marriott Hotel. And no, the Republicans haven't given up on anything. Rust never sleeps. Insects do not have a sense of humour. Bush is still a two-bit vicious little punk, and Condi Rice is definitely one very twisted human. And stop patting yourselves on the back. H'okay??

nabalzbbfr aka anonymoose (he was a whiny little fellatiator under that label as well) sniffs in another of his pathetic drive-bys: "This will change soon .. When al-Qaeda succeeds in 9/11 part II (perhaps even on 9/11/08), due to Democrats' aid and comfort." Sigh. You gotta be sorry for the guy. It's tough when you live under your bed and have to recite Big Daddy Dicks's dire prediction as you click your heels three times: "The danger is that we'll get hit again and we'll be hit in a way that will be devastating."I used to think your average American male was made of a bit firmer stuff . . .