Wesley Clark's scathing commentary on * failures

[volstork]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_8aOiMmekGk

[Joe for Clark]

1. Ruth did a great job here.

Joe

[AX10]

2. K & R!

Clark for President!

[Zenlitened]

3. Absolutely awesome clip. Thank you for posting.

Clark lays it all on the table.

Bush's negligence prior to 9/11... the lies surrounding the decision to invade Iraq... the staggering incompetence... the sickness that Bush, Cheney and all the rest have injected into our society and political discourse...

And much, much more.

This should be considered required viewing for every American who plans to exercise their right to vote in November.

The responsibility that comes with the right to vote practically demands it, demands that everyone consider and weigh this information before casting a ballot.

It's that dire, it's that serious.

[mark414]

4. has clark said anything about running again in '08?

i didn't vote for him in '04 but i've been damn impressed by him since then...

[Tom Rinaldo]

5. Sort of, yes...

A year or so ago he was willing to talk about his interest in another possible run a little more openly, and said he would give it real consideration. Now however Clark is focused like a laser on helping Democrats across the country get elected to Congress. He thinks it would be a distraction from and a complication to that mission to have a personal political agenda being specualted about in public while he is working for a broad range of Democrats to get elected.

So over the last year he either says he'll think about it after the mid terms, or he says "I haven't said no". The closer November gets the more he says the former.

[tblue]

6. Right. I've seen him at a fundraiser and he said he hasn't decided yet

He's way to smart too open up that Pandora's box this early. That would be like blood in the water. He does have a PAC, though, and he stomps for the Fighting Dems especially. If they get elected, they better help him when & if he runs. He IS damned impressive in person. He can discuss any subject in depth. Kinda like George Bush (HA!). Actually, like Clinton in that respect. He has all the boxes checked, IMHO. Hunk factor, to boot.

[mark414]

14. i hope he does

or at least, if he runs again, he's got my vote this time

[high density]

7. Wonderful video

Thanks!!!

[pnorman]

8. Can anyone here provide a link to the text of that speech?

I'm going to spread that Youtube video clip around as far as I can. The text would be most helpful.

I am and will no doubt remain a "left-libertarian" --- ie: a Chomsky-type anarchist. But that's just a hope for a just and humane future. But right now, we may be looking at the EXTERMINATION of the future. Until I see a better candidate, I'm for Clark!

pnorman

[Tom Rinaldo]

9. There are several video edits of Clark speeches circulating now

I can't watch any of them unfortunately until I get home to my own machine from a work trip. Check out this link to Clark speaking in Iowa, it might be the long version of this one, I don't know, but it includes a full transcript of Clark's remarks:

http://securingamerica.com/node/1602

[FrenchieCat]

10. Well, there is a transcript

at this link: http://securingamerica.com/node/1602

The video starts midway on the transcript though...so when you find the italiced text below, you will have arrived where the video actually commences:

(applause)

By the way, at the same time, we attacked Saddam Hussein , we finished off the remnants of his weapons of mass destruction in 1998.

and here's shorter versions of the video....for those who don't have the time or inclination to watch 35 or even 15 minutes!

themartyred (1000+ posts) Wed Oct-11-06 10:08 PM
Response to Original message
38. JUST FINISHED IT! 7 MINUTE VIDEO HIGHLIGHTS FROM HALF 35 MINUTE SPEECH!
Edited on Wed Oct-11-06 11:00 PM by themartyred
For anyone who doesn't watch 15-30 MIN VIDEOS - you or friends/family you can send this to - Here Ya Go!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6A0dG9mtno It's not 7 minute abs - it's 7 minute honesty!


Also see "it's not WWIII unless we make it" another short video from that same speech
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_iG-IBG7h4

[pnorman]

11. Thank you both!

I had looked at that securingamerica website, but apparently I didn't look hard enough.

I don't know how I'd keep my sanity without this DU community!

pnorman

[frogcycle]

18. ahem

"those who don't have the time or inclination to watch 35 or even 15 minutes"

I respectfully submit that you owe it to yourself to watch the whole thing.

Find a time you won't be distracted, and just kick it off.

But brace yourself.

Here's what i posted on his blogsite the other night when he was chatting with folks while waiting for a plane 9ironically, I was watching the video when he was there, only found the thread after he'd left):

Well welcome to Chicago, sir.
Submitted by dbciii on October 12, 2006 - 12:03am.

I am out in the heavily Republican Chicago Western Suburbs in Henry Hyde's district, looking forward to a victory by Tammy Duckworth, and hoping for a big surprise by John Laesch in the neighboring district over "the coach" (there are Hastert signs on my block! eeeeewwww!)

Sir, I just watched the speech you gave to the Warren County Democrats.

I was stunned.

Stunned not just at the content, much of which was new to me at least in its detail, but none of which was surprising in the least.

But stunned at the delivery. I have been lamenting of late the fact we no longer seem to have orators. Lincoln, Douglas, Daniel Webster, John Kennedy, Martin Luther King - these were people who could inspire, could convince, through oratory. Not just the words, but through the stirring delivery. Of late I have started to think Keith Olbermann may be getting there.

But you, sir, are an orator.

[Donna Zen]

13. FYI about the Chomsky

On Wes Clark's bookshelf, I noticed books by Chomsky. It would be a very interesting if someone would ask Wes his opinions about Chomsky. I think Wes would surprise us all...or maybe just piss us off. But I appreciate the fact that the General is a thinker and a reader.

Last night as I watched "Iraq for Sale," I kept thinking about who could straighten this mess out. Who would take "them" on? Who could take on? It came down to Wes whose comment about the PMCs is: "put that Jack back in the box."

[pnorman]

15. I had no idea that he read Chomsky, even to criticize him!

Actualy, I thought I might end up getting accused of apostasy by some of my fellow Chomskyites. Here's my favorite Chomsky quote:

"Well, let me give an example. When I'm driving, I sometimes turn on the radio and I find very often that what I'm listening to is a discussion of sports. These are telephone conversations. People call in and have long and intricate discussions, and it's plain that quite a high degree of thought and analysis is going into that. People know a tremendous amount. They know all sorts of complicated details and enter into far-reaching discussion about whether the coach made the right decision yesterday and so on. These are ordinary people, not professionals, who are applying their intelligence and analytic skills in these areas and accumulating quite a lot of knowledge and, for all I know, understanding. On the other hand, when I hear people talk about, say, international affairs or domestic problems, it's at a level of superficiality that's beyond belief.

In part, this reaction may be due to my own areas of interest, but I think it's quite accurate, basically. And I think that this concentration on such topics as sports makes a certain degree of sense. The way the system is set up, there is virtually nothing people can do anyway, without a degree of organization that's far beyond anything that exists now, to influence the real world. They might as well live in a fantasy world, and that's in fact what they do. I'm sure they are using their common sense and intellectual skills, but in an area which has no meaning and probably thrives because it has no meaning, as a displacement from the serious problems which one cannot influence and affect because the power happens to lie elsewhere.

Now it seems to me that the same intellectual skill and capacity for understanding and for accumulating evidence and gaining information and thinking through problems could be used -- would be used -- under different systems of governance which involve popular participation in important decision-making, in areas that really matter to human life."

pnorman

[FrenchieCat]

16. Good one....and certainly evident, that most folks' passion does NOT

manifest itself in discussing politics are even global issues. In fact, we are socialized to stay away from such topics and they really have been labeled over time as somewhat taboo. The line I always hear is...."Oh, let's not 'talk' politics". That line is hard to argue and still end up with a seat at the dinner table. But yes, people would be able to understand the very complex issues of our governance and our world, if they so wished.

[Donna Zen]

17. Clark wrote about this the other night.

He was blogging from the airport and said that he had just returned from London. Anyway, he said:

I met a lot of good and very concerned Democrats in London. When you live abroad, the actions of the US are so clear, and are now seen to be so clearly counterproductive in the war against the extremists. So there's a lot of passion over there.
Perhaps more than Dems at home, those abroad clearly "get it" on national security...they know the lingo and are far more outspoken.


I would assume he would find this point of Chomsky quite interesting. I also noticed that there were books by Arundhati Roy. General Clark has a masters in philosophy and also taught the subject. He said once that when you think your open minded, you've just closed your mind. (that may not be accurate...but it's close.) He's a scholar; that one.

[wiley]

12. Wow.

again.

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

19. Who?

The lady who "prosecuted" OJ?

[FrenchieCat]

21. Kind of on a limb.....non?

:crazy:

[Texas_Kat]

22. I thiink he/she's sawing it off on the tree side.

nt

[Texas_Kat]

20. WKC was in Birmingham, Alabama today

Tooling around the web I found the post (partially reposted) below at Birmingham Blues.

(http://www.queervoice.net/kmcmullen/2006/10/13/gen-clark-speaks/)

I thought as I read this.... how many other Democrats of national stature would say these same things to an audience in Alabama. How many 'potential 08 candidates' would have the guts to campaign for Democrats there in the first place.

Enjoy.....

snip .....
This is a man who knows where Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Kosovo, Rwanda, etc., are without looking at a map (thanks to John Saxon for that line). When he says we need to do something in 2006, not in 2008, I believe he knows whereof he speaks. It’s time to start talking to the leaders in Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and North Korea. We can use the threat of force, but if we don’t do something to stop Bush from using our servicepeople like disposable commodities, we won’t be able to back it up. Clark says we’re not the only people in the world who love our country and our families and believe in our values. That’s true, and we need to have enough respect for the people in these other nations to recognize and acknowledge it. We can be strong without macho posturing and bullying.

Gen. Clark talked about good Democratic values — belief in the equality and value of all people (and he included LGBT people - yay!), education, opportunity, healthcare reform that would mean we wouldn’t have 47 million uninsured Americans, environmental protection, living wages, and economic growth that lifts us all. Right now, we’re doing a great job of further enriching the wealthy, transferring money to China and other foreign debt holders, and leaving a big mess for our children and grandchildren to clean up. It’s time to change that.