Condi-ments No Longer Available, Upon Request

Kinda hard to get speaking gigs these days when you're a war criminal.

Former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has backed out of delivering the commencement address at Rutgers University following protests by some faculty and students over her role in the Iraq War.

Rice said in a statement Saturday that she informed Rutgers President Robert Barchi that she was declining the invitation to speak at the graduation.

"Commencement should be a time of joyous celebration for the graduates and their families," Rice said. "Rutgers' invitation to me to speak has become a distraction for the university community at this very special time."

The school's board of governors had voted to pay $35,000 to the former secretary of state under President George W. Bush and national security adviser for her appearance at the May 18 ceremony. Rutgers was also planning to bestow Rice with an honorary doctorate.

But some students and faculty at New Jersey's flagship university had protested, staging sit-ins and saying Rice bore some responsibility for the Iraq War as a member of the Bush administration. Barchi and other school leaders had resisted the calls to disinvite Rice, saying the university welcomes open discourse on controversial topics.

It's not "open discourse" over someone's place in history when you pay somebody $35,000 to speak at your commencement and plan to give them an honorary doctorate, it's complete acceptance of them as a hero and holding that person up as a living example of someone you want your students to be.

The students of Rutgers disagreed with that assessment of Condi Rice, as apparently unlike the school's board of governors, they still have a functioning moral center.  Frankly, the faculty and administration should be proud that the students told Condi to go screw herself.  It means that the students are smart kids who will more likely than not become better people that the board of governors.

And yes, Condi should be rotting in a cell along with Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Dubya.

Someone Please Show Condi Rice The Door

Because her failures as National Security Adviser and as Secretary of State got us and kept us in two ridiculous wars that we'll be paying for in several ways for decades, anything she has to say about foreign policy is automatically void and meaningless.

Speaking before a group of over 2,000 attendees at the National Republican Congressional Committee’s annual dinner in Washington D.C., former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice revived speculation in her future political prospects with a speech in which she took aim at America’s “weary” foreign policy under President Barack Obama.

“Right now, there’s a vacuum,” Rice said, according to a report via The Weekly Standard’s Stephen F. Hayes. “There’s a vacuum because we’ve decided to lower our voice. We’ve decided to step back. We’ve decided that if we step back and lower our voice, others will lead, other things will fill that vacuum.”

Rice sited the ongoing civil war in Syria, the return of Al Qaeda to Iraq, China’s antagonism toward Japan and the Philippines, and Russia’s aggression in Europe as examples of how the post-Cold War order is beginning to fray.

“I fully understand the sense of weariness,” she revealed. “I fully understand that we must think: ‘Us, again?’ I know that we’ve been through two wars. I know that we’ve been vigilant against terrorism.”

“I know that it’s hard,” Rice continued, “but leaders can’t afford to get tired. Leaders can’t afford to be weary.”

And leaders can't afford to lie us into two wars of aggression that killed hundreds of thousands.  But keep telling yourself that running Condi Rice in 2016 is going to somehow work out better than McCain or Romney.

Run the war criminal, Republicans.  Watch what happens.

PS, if four deaths in Benghazi disqualifies Hillary Clinton from the White House, then Condi Rice disqualified herself about a thousand times over again.

Last Call For Realpoli-Ticked Off

Condi Rice is mad about Crimea, you guys.

The notion that the United States could step back, lower its voice about democracy and human rights and let others lead assumed that the space we abandoned would be filled by democratic allies, friendly states and the amorphous “norms of the international community.” Instead, we have seen the vacuum being filled by extremists such as al-Qaeda reborn in Iraq and Syria; by dictators like Bashar al-Assad, who, with the support of Iran and Russia, murders his own people; by nationalist rhetoric and actions by Beijing that have prompted nationalist responses from our ally Japan; and by the likes of Vladimir Putin, who understands that hard power still matters.

These global developments have not happened in response to a muscular U.S. foreign policy: Countries are not trying to “balance” American power. They have come due to signals that we are exhausted and disinterested. The events in Ukraine should be a wake-up call to those on both sides of the aisle who believe that the United States should eschew the responsibilities of leadership. If it is not heeded, dictators and extremists across the globe will be emboldened. And we will pay a price as our interests and our values are trampled in their wake.

The funny part is the absolute entirety of Condoleezza Rice's credibility as a serious foreign policy expert is completely obliterated by the words "Iraq" or "Afghanistan", which ends up being about 2,498 words fewer words than she vomited out to the WaPo's opinion page.

Oh well.

Podcast Versus The Stupid!

Our special coverage of the national party conventions continues with today's bonus show, Million Dollar Boobie Part 2.  Bon and I discuss Condi Rice, peanut tossing jackasses, Romney in Cincy, Springfield's spineless city council, and more.

Listen to internet radio with Zandar Versus The Stupid on Blog Talk Radio

We'll have more for you on Monday's Labor Day special show too.  Give it a listen.

Mrs. Mojo Rice In (2016)

If the measure of the competition in 2016 is "Which speech at the GOP Convention was given by the the best liar" then Condi Rice is clearly the person to beat.

Rice began her speech by recalling the September 11 terrorist attacks, which lead to the invasion of Afghanistan.

“This young century has been a difficult one,” she said. “I will never forget the bright September day, standing at my desk in the White House, when my young assistant said that a plane had hit the World Trade Center — and then a second one — and a third, the Pentagon. And then the news of a fourth, driven into the ground by brave citizens that died so that many others would live. From that day on our sense of vulnerability and our understanding of security would be altered forever.”

Rice, who was deeply involved in the Iraq war, said that the world no longer had a clear idea of where America stood on international issues like nuclear weapons in Iran and the uprisings in Syria. She insisted the United States needed to reclaims its status as the custodian of world power.

“When our friends and our foes, alike, do not know the answer to that question — clearly and unambiguously — the world is a chaotic and dangerous place,” Rice continued. “The U.S. has since the end of World War II had an answer — we stand for free peoples and free markets, we are willing to support and defend them — we will sustain a balance of power that favors freedom.”

“And I know too that there is weariness — a sense that we have carried these burdens long enough,” she added. “But if we are not inspired to lead again, one of two things will happen — no one will lead and that will foster chaos — or others who do not share our values will fill the vacuum. My fellow Americans, we do not have a choice. We cannot be reluctant to lead — and one cannot lead from behind.”

Nowhere in the speech did she mention Osama Bin Laden.  But she quietly took the radical elements of the GOP to task towards the end, speaking to the "sensible center".  It really is too bad that the one sane Republican left in the GOP party hierarchy is a blood-drenched war criminal and inveterate liar.  Condi Rice is frightfully intelligent, which compounds all her many sins, denials, and oversights in allowing this country (if not actively leading us) into two bloody wars that never should have happened.  You can bet that if she's allowed anywhere near the halls of power again, tens of thousands will die and millions will suffer.  We're still paying for her "vision of leadership" more than a decade later.

Of the most dangerous people at the GOP Convention that I fear in 2016?  This dark-winged angel of death is at the top of the list.  For the GOP, she is a stark reminder that the Dubya era happened, something they've been pretending didn't.  There's a huge gap in US history for the GOP from the years 1790 to 1980 or so, and 8 years missing from 2000 to 2008.  All Republicans will ignore that first massive gap, but the second more recent one is something none of them can go near without being irradiated with Dubya's complete failures.  That's a huge anvil around her neck if she goes forward in 2016.

But there's no doubts she can never be allowed to be part of another President's administration again.  Hell, she should be rotting in The Hague if there were any justice on Earth.

Pretty clear that's not going to happen.