About his own people.

And by the way

You're not gonna get any argument form me.

using the same logic (vindictive mentality) we label others with, our founding Fathers were all the of above!

or how the English thought of us .....

Today's GOP base gets angry when conditioned to like a Republican version of Pavlov's dogs.

If any of the personalities they have been conditioned to listen to acted angry then it would be an issue for them.

These wingnuts keep talking about "American Values," but I fully suspect that if they were around in 1775, they would have been on the non-American side.

I seem to remember Obama being ridiculed for saying "you have to talk to your enemies".

That kind of neutralizes McCain using that "charge".

With all the utter crap being said by the McCain campaign, you don't really need to reach like you are doing here with the "thugs" quote.

McCain/Palin have lost all credibility by trying to peddle bullshit that's as tenuous as this. You lose credibility by writing headlines like this.

You gloss over the quote that is actually interesting (talking to the enemy).

Not in the Bizzaro World that the Republicans inhabit.

While the notion that one country’s thug is another’s revolutionary isn’t exactly new, it’s difficult to imagine who else could say such a thing to the Heritage crowd and avoid being crucified for cowardice and moral relativism.

A Republican favorite like Petraeus could say "Fuck the Constitution, death to the Bill of Rights, nuke Congress, all hail the Unitary Executive!" and be cheered by the Republican base as a true American hero, representing "real" American values.

Where did you get the troops reference from? In context, its fairly obvious that he's talking about the revolutionary Americans as a whole when he says, "Thugs like us."

I agree the bent of this article is a "reach," and one that embodies a harmful attitude.

America is not being hurt so much by Republicans as it is by the collapse of reason, and by extremist rhetoric. It is Republican elements who have done the worst with this rhetoric the past decade or so, no doubt, but there's an important distinction there.

Taking up arguments that are distorting, or nit-picking, or provocative just for the sake of it on behalf of the Democrats does not balance the scales. It only makes the polarized right feel more justified in its unnecessary enmity. It's part of the problem.

All I want to hear from Palin right now is, "So Sorry America. I'll be going back to Alaska now."

There is a whole lot General Petraeus has said that contradicts what the rank and file Republicans say. Petraeus says a lot that makes sense. It would behove those who disagree with the administration's handling of the war to read it.

rememberafghanistan.net

Admiral Howe went to New York in 1776 with full authority to pardon the leaders of the Revolution, and obviously with full authority and encouragement to negotiate with them. The stunning idiocy of the Bush administration in refusing to negotiate with Syria and Iran, even though both countries could become friends of the US, truly is fascinating. How much of this idiocy can be laid at the feet of the Israel Lobby?