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| quote: | Originally posted by Q5echo
sure. were these judges ever given the benefit of an up or down vote?
Chaffee's gone.
Voinavich has flipped his script on Bolton.
give him a vote. what are you afraid of? |
I dunno. I guess my Democratic bones "shudder" the same way your GOP brethren "shuddered" when they deliberately blocked some 60 of Clinton's judicial appointees in the 90's for absolutely no reason thereby blocking a full up or down vote for his appointees.
Gee, something tells me your argument here has been debunked in the past, right here in this forum no less........
| quote: | if Bolton truly is the loser you and your party believe him to be then put it to a vote just like we've done from day one.
Bolton is a no-brainer for this job and you should know it.
you got the majority. give him a vote, or get the f**k out of the way. |
Ahh yes, he really is a terrific diplomat:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,93633,00.html
A terrific record of true diplomacy skills:
One who seems perfect for the job:
| quote: | | "The (U.N.) Secretariat building in New York has 38 stories. If it lost ten stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference," |
Always seeming to be one who runs with strong evidence presented to him:
| quote: | In spring 2002…Using evidence described by three knowledgeable intelligence officials as ambiguous, Bolton planned to announce the existence of a secret bioweapons program in Cuba during a speech that May to the Heritage Foundation.
But he was blocked by Christian Westermann, the chief bioweapons analyst at the State Department, who refused to clear the speech unless the language more accurately reflected the intelligence assessments. Bolton summoned Westermann to his office and berated him, officials with knowledge of the encounter said, and then tried to have him fired….When [Carl] Ford backed up Westermann, Bolton refused to speak with him again.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...-2005Apr10.html |
One who never has pre-conceived beliefs and deems it necessary to have the evidence support such pre-conceived conclusions. No sir, he runs with the evidence presented to him and has a terrific ear for any evidence that may run counter to his beliefs:
Moderate minds loved him all around:
| quote: | "Do I think John Bolton would make a good ambassador to the United Nations? Absolutely not.… He is incapable of listening to people and taking into account their views. He would be an abysmal ambassador."
-Colin Powell
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/19/p...print&position= |
Even the guy pulling on Bush's heart strings for Iraq seemingly loved him in all aspects:
He really was a shiny beacon of light in the intelligence community:
| quote: | " For example, on multiple occasions, Bolton refused to forward information vital to U.S. strategies on Iran to Powell, delaying intelligence from getting through for weeks or, in some instances, at all. Career officials at the State Department report Bolton's decisions often left Powell "uninformed and fed the long-running struggles inside the agency."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...-2005Apr17.html |
But enough about the past. Let's look at his lovely record and some people's thoughts about him now:
| quote: | Greece’s U.N. Ambassador Adamantios Vassilakis: “He is not an easy man to get close to. … Some people have the possibility to build consensus. Others operate in other ways.”
Algeria’s U.N. Ambassador Abdullah Baali, after a disagreement with Bolton: “The U.S. stand that ‘you take it or you leave it is not helping the Security Council, and is not helping the cause of peace in the Middle East.’”
Peru’s U.N. Ambassador Oswaldo de Rivero: “He lives in another world, with this belief that he is morally superior and the U.S. is more moral than all the countries around the world. It is a pity.”
Michael Doyle, former special adviser to Kofi Annan: “Sometimes he [states U.S. policy] in a manner that is grating. But it is the policy that is most of the problem, even though the personality doesn’t help.”
An ambassador with close ties to the Bush administration: “My initial feeling was, let’s see if we can work with him, and I have done some things to push for consensus on issues that were not easy for my country. … But all he gives us in return is, ‘It doesn’t matter, whatever you do is insufficient.’ … He’s lost me as an ally now, and that’s what many other ambassadors who consider themselves friends of the U.S. are saying.”
A European diplomat: “A lot of us wonder what his real agenda is. First, we think maybe he wants things to fail because then he can say, ‘We cannot reform this place.’ The other question is, does he really reflect the position in Washington? That is always the question: Is it Bolton or is it Washington?”
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/07/24/bolton-report/ |
Now that's not right? Surely there's more love for the guy? I guess a closer look at his record should change their minds:
| quote: | • Bolton isolated the U.S. from its allies on the Human Rights Council. Because Bolton was unable to negotiate favorable terms on the creation of a new Human Rights Council, the U.S. was one of four nations to oppose the creation of the Council, while 170 nations voted for it. Out of 30 or so negotiating sessions over the creation of the Council, Bolton attended just one.
• Bolton blocked the Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide from briefing the Security Council on Darfur. “Bolton said he had objected to the briefing to make the point the council should be ‘talking more about the steps it can take to do something about the deteriorating security situation’ in Darfur. [But] he gave no new proposals.”
• Bolton unable to build consensus on U.N. reform. Kofi Annan’s deputy Mark Malloch Brown said that there is global consensus on the need for U.N. reform, but that international perception of U.S. motives are hindering those efforts. “There is currently a perception among many otherwise quite moderate countries that anything the U.S. supports must have a secret agenda aimed at either subordinating multilateral processes to Washington’s ends or weakening the institutions, and therefore, put crudely, should be opposed without any real discussion of whether they make sense or not,” he said. Bolton has not been able to breakthrough the deadlock, but has instead reinforced the perception.
• Bolton blocked and delayed approval of funding for U.N. renovation plan. The United States was the lone holdout on a U.N. committee that tried to approve an estimated $1.6 billion renovation plan for the U.N. The U.N. building violates New York safety and fire codes; it is packed with asbestos, has no sprinkler system, and leaks about a quarter of its heating. Bolton’s position provoked “an America-versus-the-world standoff.” Ultimately, Bolton’s obstruction caused Louis Frederick Reuter, the official in charge of the renovation, to quit his post.
• Bolton sought to undermine the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The MDGs aimed to convert rhetoric into hard numbers on such issues as reducing poverty and hunger, enrolling children in primary school, etc. Just days after he arrived in New York after a recess appointment, Bolton released over 700 edits to the draft document for the summit, excising all mentions of the MDGs. Bush and Rice later had to backtrack from Bolton, reassuring the U.N. of its commitment to the agreed upon goals.
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/07/27/bolton-failure/ |
And is efforts on Darfur had really been stellar:
http://thinkprogress.org/2006/07/27/bolton-sudan/
I'm sorry, you were saying something about this douchebag being a no-brainer?
You're right, it is a no-brainer indeed.
| quote: | | these are the fundamentals of democracy. nothing new here. |
Hmm, perhaps you can tell me where the Congressional right to block judicial nominees via Committee or filibuster is not a fundamental of democracy defined by our Constitution? Then when you're finished with that, perhaps you should point that hypocritical finger at your own GOP for blocking Clinton's appointees (more than 10x as many blocked versus Bush's appointees, by the way). And then when you're finished with that, you might want to tell my Senator Brownback to stop being such a librul obstructionist:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...5060601740.html
Same fucking argument by Q, different day.
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Whence September dusk grows crisper still,
with leaves all crimson conquered,
I yearn to shout,
and dance about,
and stick pickles in my honker...
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