The Goat Pen

House Speaker Jim Wright (D-TX). In 1984, 10 Democrats sent a letter to Daniel Ortega Saavedra, the head of the military dictatorship in Nicaragua, praising Saavedra for “taking steps to open up the political process in your country.” House Speaker Jim Wright signed the letter.

In 1987, Wright worked out a deal to bring Ortega to the United States to visit with lawmakers. As The New York Times reported:

There were times when the White House seemed left out of the peace process, uninformed, irritated. ”We don’t have any idea what’s going on,” an Administration official said Thursday. And there was a bizarre atmosphere to the motion and commotion: the leftist Mr. Ortega, one of President Reagan’s arch enemies, heads a Government that the Administration has been trying to overthrow by helping to finance a war that has killed thousands of Nicaraguans on both sides. Yet he was freely moving around Washington, visiting Mr. Wright in his Capitol Hill office, arguing his case in Congress and at heavily covered televised news conferences. He criticized President Reagan; he recalled that the United States, whose troops intervened in Nicaragua several times between 1909 and 1933, had supported the Somoza family dictatorship which lasted for 43 years until the Sandinistas overthrew it in 1979.

Ortega then sat next to Wright as he presented a “detailed cease-fire proposal.” The New York Times said, “Mr. Ortega seemed delighted to turn to Mr. Wright.”

Senator John Kerry (D-MA). Kerry jumped into the pro-Sandanista pool himself in 1985, when he traveled to Nicaragua to negotiate with the regime. He wasn’t alone; Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) joined him. The Christian Science Monitor reported that the two senators “brought back word that Mr. Ortega would be willing to accept a cease-fire if Congress rejected aid to the rebels…That week the House initially voted down aid to the contras, and Mr. Ortega made an immediate trip to Moscow.” Kerry then shilled on behalf of the Ortega government:

We are still trying to overthrow the politics of another country in contravention of international law, against the Organization of American States charter. We negotiated with North Vietnam. Why can we not negotiate with a country smaller than North Carolina and with half the population of Massachusetts? It’s beyond me. And the reason is that they just want to get rid of them [the Sandinistas], they want to throw them out, they don’t want to talk to them.

bluetick wrote:I'm sending emails to Tennessee's two republican senators, Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander, in praise of their decision to reject the treasonous letter authored by freshman senator Tom Cotton as addressed to "the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran," rejecting any nuclear deal our country makes with Iran in the future tense.

This latest attempt by the GOP to nullify and humiliate a sitting president has crossed a line that in all likelihood can't be uncrossed. For a couple of hundred years political division has stopped at the shoreline - now comes this outrage. All you mouthbreathers who made noises about gun confiscations and martial law need to pay attention...this shit is real. A cabal of U.S. rightwingers making an end-run assist to Iran's rightwingers happened.

Oh, and kudos to the other GOP senators who refused to sign as well.

bluetick wrote:I'm sending emails to Tennessee's two republican senators, Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander, in praise of their decision to reject the treasonous letter authored by freshman senator Tom Cotton as addressed to "the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran," rejecting any nuclear deal our country makes with Iran in the future tense.

This latest attempt by the GOP to nullify and humiliate a sitting president has crossed a line that in all likelihood can't be uncrossed. For a couple of hundred years political division has stopped at the shoreline - now comes this outrage. All you mouthbreathers who made noises about gun confiscations and martial law need to pay attention...this shit is real. A cabal of U.S. rightwingers making an end-run assist to Iran's rightwingers happened.

Oh, and kudos to the other GOP senators who refused to sign as well.

bluetick wrote:I'm sending emails to Tennessee's two republican senators, Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander, in praise of their decision to reject the treasonous letter authored by freshman senator Tom Cotton as addressed to "the leaders of the Islamic Republic of Iran," rejecting any nuclear deal our country makes with Iran in the future tense.

This latest attempt by the GOP to nullify and humiliate a sitting president has crossed a line that in all likelihood can't be uncrossed. For a couple of hundred years political division has stopped at the shoreline - now comes this outrage. All you mouthbreathers who made noises about gun confiscations and martial law need to pay attention...this shit is real. A cabal of U.S. rightwingers making an end-run assist to Iran's rightwingers happened.

Oh, and kudos to the other GOP senators who refused to sign as well.

Let us know how that works out for you because I don't think anybody gives a shit about what you think.

What Bluetick emails?

Professor Tiger wrote:Quote of the day:

"Half of America will vote for Hillary if there is an email where she says her favorite dish is roasted puppy on a stick."

hedge wrote:

Professor Tiger wrote:Quote of the day:

"Half of America will vote for Hillary if there is an email where she says her favorite dish is roasted puppy on a stick."

What's wrong with that?

Toemeesleather wrote:NYT.....