Juan Cole.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juan_Cole#Appointments_and_awards

I don’t read him often but when I do It’s usually objective.

Well Ardee, one person, Kramer who doesn’t like Juan Cole is utterly convincing. I’ll just drop him as a viable source because of it! Jeese, I didn’t know it took only one for you. Everyone has at least one person who attacks them but this isn’t a convincing way to declaim Cole by any means. I am a regular reader of HNN and this is the only one I have seen where someone considered him lacking. I am not as easily convinced as you seem predisposed to be. Got anything better?

I say that political campaigns can come off as marital spats for divorce considering the rancor and epileptic fits it brings on in some. Ahmadinejad‘s ridiculous expostulations wouldn’t look out of place in a divorce court for all of its bottom-of-the-barrel hysteria.

By ardee, August 27 at 5:30 pm #

Cole, like you stated, reflects you in your opinion and condemnation, like him (in your own words) you are deemed an idiot by your peers here at Truthdig.

You posess the innate ability to talk out both sides of your mouth and at the same time insert your foot.

And yes that is comming from my beautiful home on the outskits of Washington DC where I have become acustom to the same type of people that you portray.

Night-Gaunt, August 27 at 11:56 am #

Which peers do you mean Ardee? I don’t know of any and he is considered an authority on the Middle East.

Dig a bit Night-Gaunt and you will find much more like this, from one who is certainly not Daniel Pipes:

http://hnn.us/articles/1148.html#3-17-04
     

Martin Kramer on Juan Cole (posted 3-17-04)

Martin Kramer, commenting on his blog about HR 3077, a bill that proposes the creation of an advisory board to monitor the recipients of federal subsidies for Middle East studies (March 16, 2004):

You talkin’ to me? Juan Cole, the Oliver Stone of Middle Eastern studies, sends me a warning over HR3077. “[Kramer] has messed with the wrong person,” Cole announces. “We may lose this one. But he should be in no doubt about the public relations damage he will have done to his own weird causes over the long term by picking on me.” The weird thing is that I haven’t been picking on Cole. In fact, I haven’t mentioned him in over a year. (Drop his name in my search engine.) Sorry to have ignored you, Juan, but your stuff is just a bit too flakey to warrant comment. Cole’s emergence as poster boy for the contribution of Middle Eastern studies to the national debate is… well, unfortunate for Middle Eastern studies. He’s right about one thing: if HR3077 passes, I won’t have won this one. He (and his friends) will have lost it.
.......................

Cole has been accused repeatedly of ignorance of Arab custom and even history. His repute is slipping like a meteor, and in academia that is doubly remarkable as things progress there with glacier-like slowness….

PatrickHenry, August 27 at 5:17 pm #

By ardee, August 27 at 11:11 am #

You obviously live under a rock or are so pro-Israel that you are blind to the reality of media, perception and politics.

You, apparently, continue in the same vein that engendered my initial response.

Firstly, I live in a very nice two story three bedroom brick home with two car garage. The home has fruit trees and an abundance of roses, no rocks however.

My history of posting here is replete with condemnations of the actions of Israeli policies towards the Palestinian people as well as acerbic responses to idiots like you. I stand by the former and sometimes regret the latter.

I guess those rocks to which you refer must all be in your head for posting such an absurd link making an even more absurd contention. Do you really, truly expect sane people to believe such as you link?

By ardee, August 27 at 11:11 am #

You obviously live under a rock or are so pro-Israel that you are blind to the reality of media, perception and politics.  I know you are not blind but willfully fail to acknowlege the elephant in the room.

For your reading enjoyment:

http://pakalert.wordpress.com/2009/03/16/six-jewish-companies-own-96-of-the-worlds-media/

Which peers do you mean Ardee? I don’t know of any and he is considered an authority on the Middle East. If it is Daniel Pipes then he can be dismissed because he is a right winger who can find no wrong with whatever Israel does to the Palestinians or anyone else. That is ideologically driven over being non partisan like Cole.

PatrickHenry, June 16 at 9:42 pm #

It is fitting that you cite an “authority”, one Juan Cole, who is considered by his peers to be an idiot.

The statement from your original link, “Olmert claims to control US policy” is so absurd, not only in fact but in the belief that he would actually admit such if indeed it were truth as to be worthless.

Probably no one is still reading this, but want to add a recent encounter on a street corner in San Francisco with an Iranian-American woman I’ve known for years but hadn’t seen lately. Soraya said that her relatives still in Iran are furious that the U.S. didn’t “do something” when it became apparent that the elections were rigged, largely decided by the Revolutionary Guard causing dissent among that powerful body. But when she asked them what they expected America could possibly do without possibly starting another war, they told her “Nothing. But would another war be so unthinkable?” (This was all on the telephone; I hope no one was listening.) She said that she agreed with me, that even if there was a compelling cause the U.S. is in no position to get into yet another war, even if the government thought it was a good idea, which is highly unlikely. It seemed very odd to me that anyone in any Moslem country would ever wish for the U.S. to invade, and I asked her about this. She said her family is only lipservice religious, but they seem to think the U.S. can do anything we want to do, and if we once jumped into Bosnia why wouldn’t we do it on the same basis in Iran? Asked her if she would, the next time she was able to talk to them, tell them that America has lost more blood, minds and treasure than we can tolerate already, and are not interested in throwing our soldiers into a region where they would be facing another fanatical religious government whose religion loves death more than life. She said she hadn’t thought of it that way, and I guess it is a selfish perspective, influenced by our son-in-law being one of those soldiers, who was in Iraq quite a while and is now training his men for the kind of fighting they can expect in Afghanistan. He’s a colonel and could choose to sit it out or retire (as I, mother-in-law-from-hell, have been begging him to do with no apparent success so far).

By ardee, June 16 at 10:26 am #

From that silly link:

Unsubstantiated rant, linked to no provable source, containing a quite probably made up boast that no real politician would ever publicly state.

Can you say willfully ignorant? you should work at the SEC, with your investigative ability and dismissive attitude you would fit right in.

http://www.juancole.com/2009/01/israeli-pm-ehud-olmert-claims-to-be.html

Yes all silly posts to the closed minded.

http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0321/dailyUpdate.html

“Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds as a wise man once noted, and I have and will continue to judge each issue on its own merits and each poster on his own statements. Try it, you might like it.”—Ardee

Such a “wise man” must have been schizophrenic or have some other disassociative disorder. And yes I already do that, you would have known if you would have read all of my comments. But the the obvious is sometimes the most difficult to see. I have much to learn and will make mistakes.

Your original comment I was responding to in the first place was so vague and sweeping that it scooped everyone who ever made a critical comment of Israel in it. So how about tightening up your speech in that area so the ambivalence will be gone? Just as a point of clarification, not a criticism. We are what we write in these forums.

From that silly link:

Olmert Claims to Control US Foreign Policy

condoleezza_rice_1.jpg

Ehud Olmert, harcore anti-Zionist, Israeli Prime Minister, and Jew-hating bigot seems to feel he has a lot of political clout in the United States:

  In an unusually public rebuke, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel said Monday that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had been forced to abstain from a United Nations resolution on Gaza that she helped draft, after Mr. Olmert placed a phone call to President Bush.

  “I said, ‘Get me President Bush on the phone,’ ” Mr. Olmert said in a speech in the southern Israeli city of Ashkelon, according to The Associated Press. “They said he was in the middle of giving a speech in Philadelphia. I said I didn’t care: ‘I need to talk to him now,’ ” Mr. Olmert continued. “He got off the podium and spoke to me.”
................................

Unsubstantiated rant, linked to no provable source, containing a quite probably made up boast that no real politician would ever publicly state.

Here is but one example of U.S. foreign policy being hijacked by Israel.  There are a plethora of other examples, one only has to pay attention.

http://yglesias.thinkprogress.org/archives/2009/01/olmert_claims_to_control_us_foreign_policy.php

ardee, the Ayatollah also said the election was settled and rivals should settle down and accept it. His call for an investigation at this point seems more of a pr gambit, but we’ll see how real and deep the investigation turns out to be. If he were embarrassed by Ahmadinejad he wouldn’t be backing him, wouldn’t tell the rivals to put it all behind them. Could be wrong, but my best guess is that he is embarrassed by the protests and criticisms—not by Ahmadinejad’s policies—and is just trying to offer something that will dampen protests and assuage outside criticism until the world is no longer focused on a stolen election but on whatever the next crisis is, real or puffed up.

Sepharad
His supporters are the kind of Iranians Ayatollah Khameini wishes there were more of. The Ayatollah is not concerned with how the West views Iran, Ahmadinejad even less so.
................

Yet this morning Khomeini (sic)said that an investigation into the election would be forthcoming. I believe that Amadinajhad embarrasses Khomeini as much as he does many of the people of Iran. Further, those rants of his ( Amadinajhad) keep Iran on the brink of war, an unhealthy situation for Khomeini I would guess. We will have see how this plays out.

Night-Gaunt, June 11 at 2:20 pm #

“Oddly, Mr. Amadinajhad’s rants mirror some found here when the subject turns to Israel…..I guess small minds are everywhere.”—Ardee

Well I must confess Ardee, use of simplistic parallels to make a combined point is simple. Simple minds make simple thoughts that produce simple conclusions. Iran criticizes Israel=Anyone else who criticizes Israel. Simplicity itself! And as simply wrong.
...........

Speaking of simplistic, NG, I think you fail to grasp the obvious. My posts have condemned Israeli actions with marked consistency. They have also criticised those who hint at world wide Jewry controlling American foreign policy and other such nutjob BS.

Consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds as a wise man once noted, and I have and will continue to judge each issue on its own merits and each poster on his own statements. Try it, you might like it.

So…he’s bitchin’ because he’s going to lose and blames it on Jews and Hitler.

Then he wins by a landslide when even HE expected to lose and you don’t think the election was fixed???????

Short of diebold, the people of Iran have spoken.

Now we have to find some common ground on which to work with that country.

Democracy, like in poker has a habit of not dealing you the card you want or would like.

ardee, Moussavi does have great support in Iran, among the intellectuals, moderates, students, many women, but it is mostly in Tehran and a few other cities. Ahmadinejad is strong with the rural poor and religious conservatives, and these people tend to be more reticent, out of the public eye and media, and there are probably more of them than Westerners would guess. But there isn’t much doubt that Ahmadinejad stole the election.

His supporters are the kind of Iranians Ayatollah Khameini wishes there were more of. The Ayatollah is not concerned with how the West views Iran, Ahmadinejad even less so. As for whether the immense dissent we’re seeing as a result of the election verdict leads to change, there’s always a possibility. Many people involved in or observing th street demonstrations say there haven’t been protests like this since the ‘79 revolution. The government has cut off texting and other forms of connecting with each other and the rest of the world, young men are setting trashbins on fire all over Tehran, fighting the police who in turn are beating the demonstraters with metal rods, and high-decibel shouting. If this goes on for more than a few days, I think the government will complete its so-far Tienamen Squarish-style crackdown. Most likely some new incident somewhere in the world will distract the media and even life in Tehran will go on as usual. But maybe not.

What puzzles me is why the Supreme Ayatolla Kamini would want someone like Acmadenajad being the mouth and face of Iran? He garners no friends and makes it easy for others like Israel and USA to condemn them. Even if they are not justified in doing so.

Sepharad, June 13 at 6:46 pm #

ardee, if it’s any consolation, Ahmadinejad’s probably-stolen election (he runs the Interior Ministry) would not be the first election to be stolen.
.................................

True enough, but there did seem to be great support for Moussavi within that nation. Thus I wonder if, even though President Amadinajhad does not run that country, his increasing unpopularity opens the door for great and disruptive dissent within, even leading to a lessening of tension with the West?

Night-Gaunt, June 13 at 2:11 pm

In a word…no.

ardee, if it’s any consolation, Ahmadinejad’s probably-stolen election (he runs the Interior Ministry) would not be the first election to be stolen. We did survive Bush, barely, though on every front our reality continues to be shaped by his atrocious decision-making. In the case of Iran, Ahmadinejad’s difference from Moussavi is probably basically one of style (though as a woman, I think Moussavi would have heralded a new era, more like ‘79 Iranian revolutionary mentality where gender is concerned). Ahmadinejad is confrontational, but the West just has to be grown-up enough to translate what he says into what he means and what he is empowered to do, and deal with that. It would be easier if Moussavi were President, and I hope that if they can prove vote fraud he still will become the president because it would be easier to talk with him, but bearing in mind that in substance he probably can’t be completely different than Ahmadinejad because they both answer to the same old mullah. (I think it’s easier for Obama to act like a grownup than it is, alas, for Netanyahu.)

By Night-Gaunt, June 13 at 6:11 pm #

Point taken.

PatrickHenry & Ardee please take your pointless squabbling elsewhere. However you two echo Ahmadenijad in the general tone of your conflict. Do both of you wish to be like him in this? What does it do to benefit either of you to continue this? For starting it? Ideas are what are important, not in attacking those who proclaim them. It is better just to get on with the subject and leave out the personal attacks. Just apologize to each other and end it. Or else the inanity will go on & no one will profit. Zero sum gain for all.

Or think of it this way, if the insult bothers you then maybe it is true? The last refuge of the mind empty of ideas is personal attacks. When you have nothing else intellectually to give then maybe no comment is in order. Barrel scrapings we get otherwise. Please do better to uplift the conversation not let gravity take its course and hit the bottom. Your minds have the capacity to give so much more to the conversation if you let it.

By ardee, June 13 at 3:53 pm #

Oh no RD, it’s beyond you to insult anyone.  I find your smug little slights immature and condesending, but I guess it’s all you got as your opinions are often vague and contradict each other.  So much for your claimed intelligencia. 

Before you complain about the splinter in my eye, you had better address the timber in yours, or so the saying goes.

PatrickHenry, June 13 at 11:31 am #

By ardee, June 13 at 8:23 am #

Just as you keep your insults to yourself as well.
....

While you seem to think this forum a personal email site, wherein you can post any crap you wish sans consequence or loss of status, I do not. Therefore this is my last word to the likes of you on this or any other subject.

Your opinions on questions at hand are the purpose of the forum, your ego is rather large and with little seeming reason for such being apparent.

Put some thought into responses, pretend that you are actually a grown up and perhaps you wont have any problems with those who view you as a distraction from intelligent conversation.

By ardee, June 13 at 8:23 am #

Just as you keep your insults to yourself as well.

PatrickHenry, June 12 at 9:37 pm #

Why yes ardee, I do.
.................................

My goodness, a quite refreshing change of style. I trust that your reflections on politics will become more common and your insulting of other posters because of (mostly misunderstood) positions become more rare.

By the by, I find nothing in your post with which I disagree….Sadly, early election results show Amadinajhad coasting to an oddly overwhelming victory. Nothing comes easily apparently.

Inherit the Wind—Whoever wins will probably be OK with the religious who run Iran, because no one is allowed to run who is not first approved by the mullahs. That being said, I kind of look at the candidate’s supporters to see who I’d personally like to win. Moussavi campaigns with his wife, there are thousands of women and students to be seen during his rallies, so if they’re OK with him I guess I’d be too. However, have to realize the mullahs can jerk his chain if they want to. Ahmadinejad is popular with many among the rural poor because he occasionally makes gestures of solidarity with them—e.g., distributing potatos—and they also share his religious conservatism, but you never know. Being poor per se never made anyone stupid, and if they don’t think his policies are in their longterm good they may not support him. Lebanon’s elections also may affect peoples’ voting, assuming it’s published in Iranian newspapers.

Why yes ardee, I do.

Mousavi’s grass roots support would be in my humble opinion a positive step in removing the roadblock in relations with Iran.  I still believe that Iran is justified in pursuing nuclear power as a signatory of the NPT irregardless of how that country is percieved and portrayed by western media especially by an irresponsible and provocative Israeli media. 

When Israel stops its sabre rattling towards Iran and actually signs the NPT, will they have any moral standing to criticise what they themselves have surrepitiously accomplished.

PatrickHenry, June 12 at 4:49 pm

Do you have anything of interest, politically speaking, you wish to share?

By ardee, June 12 at 3:10 pm #
By ardee, June 11 at 8:59 pm #

When you attain a certain maturity ( if ever) you might understand that many folks judge each by its own merit or lack thereof. Thus, to a person with an actual brain one can easily find things to agree and disagree with and not become a didact or a formulaic poster allowing kneejerk phrases like ‘Israel’, ‘Zionists’, ‘Jews’ et al to force stupidly inappropriate postings which show you to be childish at best or simply ignorant at worst.

Whatever that rant meant.

It is obvious you spent many hours asleep with the TV stuck on gameshow channels and somehow think yourself a moderator of some sort.  Your laughable condesending remarks lack the merit you speak of.

Live in a glass house?

PatrickHenry, June 11 at 9:09 pm #

By ardee, June 11 at 8:59 pm #

No need for thanks, one moment your a critic of Israel and its policies (which I applaud) next your a critic of those who criticise Israel.

My Maytag isn’t as wishy washy as you are.

...............

When you attain a certain maturity ( if ever) you might understand that many folks judge each by its own merit or lack thereof. Thus, to a person with an actual brain one can easily find things to agree and disagree with and not become a didact or a formulaic poster allowing kneejerk phrases like ‘Israel’, ‘Zionists’, ‘Jews’ et al to force stupidly inappropriate postings which show you to be childish at best or simply ignorant at worst.

“Ahmadinejad Blames Hitler and Israelis for Rivals’ Success”

Well, DUH!  Of COURSE he does.  What he doesn’t see is that to most of the world he’s an unpleasant clown who must be dealt with politely.  Hopefully a majority of his fellow citizens will see the same and vote him out—if the Religious Supreme Court there says it’s OK.

I am fine for having tripped over nothing so how was I hurt metaphorically? Maybe if you were more forthcoming in what you were saying I wouldn’t have missed it. Too much brevity equals an empty cubbard of ideas, not enough for even one intellectual meal. Please fill it to its proper capacity. To have a point you must make it first. What was that point again, Ardee?

Was it that anyone who criticizes Israel is no different than Achmadinajad in content and meaning? If so then read my previous post for you have missed my point and I did not mince words.

By ardee, June 11 at 8:59 pm #

No need for thanks, one moment your a critic of Israel and its policies (which I applaud) next your a critic of those who criticise Israel.

My Maytag isn’t as wishy washy as you are.

Night-Gaunt, June 11 at 2:20 pm

Did you hurt yourself missing my point so badly? I trust you are well.

PatrickHenry, June 11 at 7:06 pm

Thanks for proving, yet again, your utter inability to make rational or even sane commentary.

Did you have anything to say on the subject at hand?

By ardee, June 11 at 6:21 am #

“Oddly, Mr. Amadinajhad’s rants mirror some found here when the subject turns to Israel…..I guess small minds are everywhere.”

You should know, yours is one of them.

“Oddly, Mr. Amadinajhad’s rants mirror some found here when the subject turns to Israel…..I guess small minds are everywhere.”—Ardee

Well I must confess Ardee, use of simplistic parallels to make a combined point is simple. Simple minds make simple thoughts that produce simple conclusions. Iran criticizes Israel=Anyone else who criticizes Israel. Simplicity itself! And as simply wrong. Wow, you find tangential intersections on some of what one side says and another side says in their criticisms of Israel and so they are on the same side. Ever heard of false reasoning? Improper analogies? Slovenly thinking? You should.

However you did modify it by adding “some” in your general attack. Barely saved but I could have liked one or more of those you do not identify, just a blanket condemnation. Expertly done!

I criticize Israel the same way I do with Iran or the USA or any other group or individual who act like barbarians and not Humanists. Don’t you Ardee or is it strictly partisan? I play no favorites as do many but not all. Easy enough to separate the Humanists from those who have an ax to grind against any of the participants they attack for those they support.

In Iran their elections are tempests in teapots for all of the political clout they have. Namely it is a titular position. One of a bully pulpit with little in the way of actual political power. It is the Supreme Aytolla who runs the country. It is a theocracy after all.

If Iranians find plausible the claim that US and Israeli agents are meddling in Iran’s elections, the US and Israel have only themselves to blame. The US and Israel have a track record, for example, of supporting the violent MEK terrorist group.

Oddly, Mr. Amadinajhad’s rants mirror some found here when the subject turns to Israel…..I guess small minds are everywhere.

Too soon to call, but obviously Ahmadinejad feels threatened by moderate opponent who seems to reflect moderate and more educated Iranians. As for Lebanon, it was close but Hezbollah must think it lost because Nasrallah didn’t pound his chest and gloat, which is his normal style. I don’t think America’s preferences counted for much here: Lebanon just wants to be its own country again. Assassinating Hariri apparently was a game-changer than the Syria/Iranian wing must occasionally regret.

An example like Lebanon of the candidate the U.S. wants to win benefiting from a lack of meddling in the election—so the guy doesn’t look like an American stooge.