There are no words..

We had the NRA and many right-wingers come up with their solution to the horror at Sandy Hook mass shooting by coming up with a BS answer to preventing this.

But here I go debunking the right wing response to Sandy Hook:

Right wing Response? Arming teachers/school guards would prevent this from happening.

Destro’s counterargument:

A) Beyond the fact that this means the right wing is actually conceding to the idea that school shootings will happen again and is in fact a way of American life (how fucked up a view of America is that?) what does that do to solve the shootings at fast food restaurants, movie theaters? Also, I recall 2 kids in Arkansas shot up their school outside in an ambush. How will teachers deal with long distance snipers? We make them go through SEAL training?

B) Right wingers are against raising taxes, especially for public schools. How will teachers be funded to be armed? Shooting instructions? Not to mention the cost for maintaining an armed police/guard at every school in America. Is the limited govt party going to fund that by raising taxes on the rich?

The right wing loves to show Israeli teachers armed as they take their kids to field trips, etc (and getting the details of Israel’s gun laws wrong, including why and where teachers are armed), but I am pretty sure Israel does all it can to deny the potential terrorists the ability to be armed in the first place as well as arm those specific teachers.

Standard Digital News - Kenya : Kenya : Impunity and Thirst for Blood Fuelling Clashes

At least 150 people have been butchered this year in the ethnic violence in Tana River County pitting the pastoralist Orma and against Pokomo farmers.

The killing of 31 people at Kipao village yesterday in the Tana River County is a sign of continued trouble in the delta where the River Tana snakes through.

The clashes intensified in August and September when more than 100 people were killed, among them nine police officers.

More than 2,000 houses were burnt and about 30,000 people displaced in the clashes. On August 14, six houses were burnt and a woman lynched at Kau village in Kipini division. On August 16, 180 mutilated cattle were discovered at Ozi and Chara villages and forcing Coast PC Samuel Kilele to tour villages following heightening tensions. On August 21, 52 people were hacked to death with some being burnt alive among them 11 children and 31 women. One hundred houses were reduced to ashes, 300 head of cattle killed, and about 1,000 displaced in the Pokomo retaliation attack against the Orma.

On September 8, 13 people were killed at Chamwanamuma village in Tana Delta. The Provincial Administration reported that about 300 raiders armed with guns and believed to be from the Orma community struck at dawn.

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WAYNE LAPIERRE, EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT, NRA:

Good morning.

The National Rifle Association — 4 million mothers, fathers, sons and daughters — join the nation in horror, outrage, grief, and earnest prayer for the families of Newtown, Connecticut, who have suffered such an incomprehensible loss as a result of this unspeakable crime.

Out of respect for the families and until the facts are known, the NRA has refrained from comment.

While some have tried to exploit tragedy for political gain, we have remained respectably silent. Now, we must speak for the safety of our nation’s children.

An Organization with only four million members, a tiny 1.3% of the total U.S. population, controls the discussion of gun policy and the creation of gun regulations and laws in this country. We have allowed perhaps the most fervently pro-gun fringe group within our nation the power to give direction to our elected representatives. Why is that?

Because for all the noise and anger directed at us over the past week, no one, nobody has addressed the most important, pressing and immediate question we face: How do we protect our children right now, starting today, in a way that we know works?

The only way to answer that question is to face the truth. Politicians pass laws for gun free school zones, they issue press releases bragging about them. They post signs advertising them. And, in doing so, they tell every insane killer in America that schools are the safest place to inflict maximum mayhem with minimum risk.

The gun free zones that he is complaining about do not in any way effect members of law enforcement or licensed security staff, only private citizens. Many schools around the country are already staffed with a police officer during operational hours. Not just in the big cities where many schools already have controlled entry points and metal detectors but in more rural areas too.

It was not a mandated “Gun Free Zone” that prevented Newtown from having an armed security officer, rather it was considerations of cost and the mistaken belief that “It probably wont ever happen here.” Wayne ignores all of this to phrase his argument so that it implies that no armed security is allowed on school property, something that is far from true.

How have our nation’s priorities gotten so far out of order. Think about it. We care about our money, so we protect our banks with armed guards. American airports, office buildings, power plants, court houses, even sports stadiums are all protected by armed security.

We care about our president, so we protect him with armed Secret Service agents. Members of Congress work in offices surrounded by Capitol Police officers. Yet, when it comes to our most beloved, innocent, and vulnerable members of the American family, our children, we as a society leave them every day utterly defenseless, and the monsters and the predators of the world know it, and exploit it.

Again Wayne completely ignores the fact that many schools already have “School Resource Officers” (SROs) and argues that armed murderers only attack schools because they know that no armed resistance will be found there. This flies in the face of reality where the perpetrators of these crimes have attacked both schools and colleges that did in fact have an armed police presence.

The truth is, that our society is populated by an unknown number of genuine monsters. People that are so deranged, so evil, so possessed by voices and driven by demons, that no sane person can every possibly comprehend them. They walk among us every single day, and does anybody really believe that the next Adam Lanza isn’t planning his attack on a school, he’s already identified at this very moment?

Here comes the fear! That’s right folks, monsters and demons are everywhere, they are so prevalent in our society that you meet them every single day! You should quit reading this right now and go out and buy a gun because that is the only thing that will help to make you feel secure again!

Luckily for you in most states you will be able to buy a gun today, with no waiting period, thanks to the efforts of the NRA to defeat the 5 day waiting period that was originally included in the Brady Act. Only a handful of states have enacted their own state waiting/cool down periods for the purchase of firearms and only six include rifles of any type in those regulations.

How many more copycats are waiting in the wings for their moment of fame from a national media machine that rewards them with wall-to-wall attention and a sense of identity that they crave, while provoking others to try to make their mark.

What solution does he propose to this, and is it really an overriding factual consideration? I have yet to see any real evidence that shows that posthumous fame is the primary goal for these shooters. Still, let us assume that he is correct and that media attention is a strong motivating factor, how does he intend to limit this attention?

A dozen more killers, a hundred more? How can we possibly even guess how many, given our nation’s refusal to create an active national database of the mentally ill? The fact is this: That wouldn’t even begin to address the much larger, more lethal criminal class — killers, robbers, rapists, gang members who have spread like cancer in every community across our nation.

The NRA has actively fought against the creation of such a database claiming that it would deny millions of legitimate gun owners their rights based on earlier juvenile mental health records. It has campaigned to restrict the types of information that could be included in such a database. It has also either directly or indirectly supported the appeals of more than 30,000 people who have successfully contested being denied a gun purchase due to background checks.

Judges have repeatedly shown themselves to be loath to hold juvenile records of instability against adults in regards to gun ownership. Even though the truth is that adults almost never encounter the mental health system involuntarily unless through the criminal court system.

But never mind all that, now they want to know why it has not been done yet, obviously it is the fault of the clueless federal government!

Meanwhile, while that happens, federal gun prosecutions have decreased by 40 percent, to the lowest levels in a decade. So now, due to a declined willingness to prosecute dangerous criminals, violent crime is increasing again for the first time in 19 years. Add another hurricane, terrorist attack, or some other natural of manmade disaster, and you’ve got a recipe for a national nightmare of violence and victimization.

Sneaky use of statistics alert: Federal gun prosecutions have decreased by 40% compared to when exactly?

Overall gun crime is down, probably due in no small part to the mandatory long prison sentences now imposed for gun related crimes by most states. Federal prosecutions for gun related offenses only occur in less than 1% all gun related crimes and primarily deal with non-licensed and illegal gun sales or possession of illegal weapon types. How is this at all relevant to the level of violent gun crime within this country?

Oh, and fear II then makes an appearance, just one more hurricane, just one more terrorist attack, or one more “manmade” (Government false flag attack!!!) disaster is going to result in the total breakdown of society. Boy will you be wishing you had bought a gun then, how else are you going to shoot your neighbors when they come to take your stuff?

And here’s another dirty little truth that the media try their best to conceal. There exists in this country, sadly, a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells and stows violence against its own people. Through vicious, violent video games with names like ‘Bullet Storm,’ ‘Grand Theft Auto,’ ‘Mortal Combat,’ and ‘Splatterhouse.’

And here’s one, it’s called ‘Kindergarten Killers.’ It’s been online for 10 years. How come my research staff can find it, and all of yours couldn’t? Or didn’t want anyone to know you had found it? Add another hurricane, add another natural disaster. I mean we have blood-soaked films out there, like ‘American Psycho,’ ‘Natural Born Killers.’ They’re aired like propaganda loops on Splatterdays and every single day.

Fear III rears its ugly head, it is the prevalence of violent video games titles and movies that is responsible for the decreasing violence in America!

Wait a second, violent crimes are decreasing even as movies and games have become increasingly more violent? How can that be? Perhaps the vast majority of people in this country are too grounded in reality to use fictional movies and games to motivate them to actually kill people in real life instead of as escapist entertainment as intended?

1,000 music videos, and you all know this, portray life as a joke and they play murder — portray murder as a way of life. And then they all have the nerve to call it entertainment. But is that what it really is? Isn’t fantasizing about killing people as a way to get your kicks really the filthiest form of pornography? In a race to the bottom, many conglomerates compete with one another to shock, violate, and offend every standard of civilized society, by bringing an even more toxic mix of reckless behavior, and criminal cruelty right into our homes. Every minute, every day, every hour of every single year.

Once again Wayne, this is escapist fantasy and is recognized as such by 99.9999% of those who are exposed to it. Show me some clinical studies that prove that this type of entertainment actually has an effect on peoples decisions in real life and I’ll start taking you seriously.

A child growing up in America today witnesses 16,000 murders, and 200,000 acts of violence by the time he or she reaches the ripe old age of 18. And, throughout it all, too many in the national media, their corporate owners, and their stockholders act as silent enablers, if not complicit co-conspirators.

Rather than face their own moral failings, the media demonize gun owners.

Gee Wayne, did you ever stop to consider that if guns didn’t permeate our society and that if real gun assaults did not constantly happen around us in this country, that maybe they would not be so prevalent in the fictional accounts either?

See part II here: littlegreenfootballs.com

See part I here: littlegreenfootballs.com

Rather than face — rather than face their own moral failings the media demonize lawful gun owners, amplify their cries for more laws, and fill the national media with misinformation and dishonest thinking that only delay meaningful action, and all but guarantee that the next atrocity is only a news cycle away.

The media calls semi-automatic fire arms, machine guns. They claim these civilian semi-automatic fire arms are used by the military. They tell us that the .223 is one of the most powerful rifle calibers, when all of these claims are factually untrue, they don’t know what they’re talking about.

That was Rupert Murdoch who immediately after the shooting tweeted that “automatic” weapons should be banned. Looking back on it now I’m no longer very sure that it was a mistake on his part either. How many people just like you Wayne have now used what he said to deride the arguments of those that do know what they are talking about?

Rather than address the legitimate calls for discussion about better gun regulation you instead simply point to the writings of a tiny handful of misinformed people and laugh. Those few apparently “prove” to you that you would be wasting your time and that no one on the gun control side of the argument even has any idea what it is they are talking about. Or at least it makes a convenient excuse to tell the public for why you wont, doesn’t it?

BTW: Many of the weapons people are talking about are in fact slightly modified military weapons. The SKS was the main Soviet issue rifle before the AK-47 came along. The Ak-47 and its variants are of course military rifles. The AR-15 and Bushmaster are of course the civilian version of the military M-16 and M-4. Are you trying to say that this isn’t true?

Worse, they perpetuate the dangerous notion that one more gun ban or one more law imposed on peaceable, lawful people will protect us where 20,000 other laws have failed.

As brave and heroic and as self-sacrificing as those teachers were in those classrooms and as prompt and professional and well- trained as those police were when they responded, they were unable — through no fault of their own, unable to stop it.

The armed police force at Virginia Tech didn’t stop the massacre at that school either, so what is your point? The inarguable fact is that it only takes a matter of minutes with military style semi-automatic weapons to shoot dozens. This has sadly been proven over and over again, armed guards at schools will not and can not prevent these shootings from occurring.

As parents we do everything we can to keep our children safe. It’s now time for us to assume responsibility for our schools. The only way — the only way to stop a monster from killing our kids is to be personally involved and invested in a plan of absolute protection.

The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun is a good guy with a gun.

Would you rather have your 911 call bring a good guy with a gun from a mile away or from a minute away?

No, actually the bad guys usually stop themselves by committing suicide once they have released their angst by shooting people, not one of them has ever been shot by a civilian.

Also, a mile is only a minute away a sixty miles per hour and police responding to dire emergency calls drive much faster than that. But go right ahead, tell us more about how we can all get more personally involved Wayne.

Now, I can imagine the headlines, the shocking headlines you’ll print tomorrow. ‘More guns,’ you’ll claim, ‘are the NRA’s answer to everything.’ Your implication will be that guns are evil and have no place in society, much less in our schools.

Uhh, it is a true and factual statement isn’t it? I mean the “more guns” part, not the ridiculous “guns are evil” part. No one I know with the exception of the Religious Right talks about “evil” as being an actual noun worthy “thing” or of it being somehow invested into material objects.

But since when did ‘gun’ automatically become a bad word? A gun in the hands of a Secret Service agent protecting our president isn’t a bad word. A gun in the hands of a soldier protecting the United States of America isn’t a bad word. And when you hear your glass breaking at three a.m. and you call 9/11, you won’t be able to pray hard enough for a gun in the hands of a good guy to get there fast enough to protect you.

So, why is the idea of a gun good when it’s used to protect the president of our country or our police, but bad when it’s used to protect our children in our schools? They’re our kids. They’re our responsibility. And it’s not just our duty to protect them, it’s our right to protect them.

Are you having fun beating up that strawman argument you just created? Show me where anyone has advocated against law enforcement being able to use guns if necessary to protect our children?

You know, five years ago after the Virginia Tech tragedy, when I said we should put armed security in every school, the media called me crazy. But what if — what if when Adam Lanza started shooting his way into Sandy Hook Elementary School last Friday, he’d been confronted by qualified armed security? Will you at least admit it’s possible that 26 little kids, that 26 innocent lives might have been spared that day? Is it so important to you (inaudible) would rather continue to risk the alternative? Is the press and the political class here in Washington D.C. so consumed by fear and hatred of the NRA and American gun owners, that you’re willing to accept the world, where real resistance to evil monsters is alone, unarmed school principal left to surrender her life, her life, to shield those children in her care.

No one. No one, regardless of personal, political prejudice has the right to impose that sacrifice.

Firstly: Virginia Tech has its own campus police force and they are armed with guns, that did not stop the shooting. Secondly: The reason you were mocked is because you were calling for students to be allowed to carry weapons into classes. Once again your only knee-jerk reflexive solution to gun violence was to call for “more guns.”

Even after a week to prepare for this statement and to get your facts straight you still can’t do it? “26 little kids” were not shot. 20 children and also the six adults who tried to protect them and paid for it with their lives were shot. Of course none of the adults went down in a blaze of glory while trying to shoot it out with the body armored killer, so I can see why you completely dismiss their existence.

Ladies and gentlemen, there’s no national one size fits all solution to protecting our children. But do know that this president zeroed out school emergency planning grants in last year’s budget and scrapped Secure Our Schools policing grants in next year’s budget.

With all the foreign aid the United States does, with all the money in the federal budget, can’t we afford to put a police officer in every single school? Even if they did that, politicians have no business and no authority denying us the right, the ability, and the moral imperative to protect ourselves and our loved ones from harm.

Simple, seemingly even more simple for the less government Right wing/Libertarian crowd to take in, this is not an issue that should belong to the Federal government. School security should be and currently is up to the individual school districts and the states in which they reside. There is no “Federal School Security Agency” yet and let us all hope that the fear mongers that make a good living by creating panic amongst the Right Wing never stampede us into creating one.

Now, the National Rifle Association knows there are millions of qualified and active retired police, active, Reserve, and retired military, security professionals, certified firefighters, security professionals, rescue personnel, an extraordinary corps of patriotic, trained, qualified citizens to join with local school officials and police in devising a protection plan for every single school.

We could deploy them to protect our kids now. We can immediately make America’s schools safer, relying on the brave men and women in America’s police forces. The budgets — and you all know this, everyone in the country knows this — of our local police departments are strained, and the resources are severely limited, but their dedication and courage is second to none. And, they can be deployed right now.

I notice that only a miniscule percentage of the people you mention as being “ready today” to take on school security duties may have ever had any training for it. Or do you contend that dealing with a civilian shooter, in a crowded school environment, is something that just naturally comes to ex-firefighters and ex-military people?

Sure we could deploy people now, but we have to first acknowledge that they have never trained for such an occurrence, are not prepared for it, and that their only likely contribution would be to add to the confusion at the scene when actual law enforcement does show up. Besides all of that, who is paying for the school districts liability insurance with untrained retirees wandering the halls with loaded assault rifles dangling from their right hands?

I call on Congress today, to act immediately to appropriate whatever is necessary to put armed police officers in every single school in this nation. And, to do it now to make sure that blanket safety is in place when our kids return to school in January.

Before Congress reconvenes, before we engage in any lengthy debate over legislation, regulation, or anything else, as soon as our kids return to school after the holiday break, we need to have every single school in America immediately deploy a protection program proven to work and by that I mean armed security.

So instead of any increased regulation to decrease the availability of military grade armaments to civilians he instead advocates turning our schools into armed fortresses? To accomplish this he wants the Federal government rather than the states to take over school security and to pay for local police/state law enforcement agents to be in our schools?

This is especially funny considering how many times Wayne himself has said in writing that the federal government itself is actually just an agent for the New World order. Wayne is a conspiracy theorist who has repeatedly claimed that the ultimate goal of the United States government is to seize all guns from it’s citizens and then allow a foreign U.N. dictatorship to takeover and rule America.

Right now today every school in the United States should plan meetings with parents, school administrators, teachers, local authorities and draw upon every resource that’s out there and available to erect a cordon of protection around our kids right now.

Every school is gonna have a different solution based on its own unique situation. Every school in America needs to immediately identify, dedicate and deploy the resources necessary to put these security forces in place, though, right now.

And the National Rifle Association, as America’s preeminent trainer of law enforcement and security personnel for the past 50 years — we have 11,000 police training instructors in the NRA — is ready, willing and uniquely qualified to help.

Translation: I’m hoping to use this exactly the way Bush used 9/11 to stampede you into making stupid decisions and demanding actions from your local government that have nothing to do with the actual threat.

The NRA stands ready to help by teaching your children how essential our paranoid version of gun rights are to the eventual overthrow of this Socialistic and Muslim based national government. By putting our armed volunteers in schools you will give us tremendous nationwide credibility and also give us access to indoctrinate your children daily.

Come on you idiots just do it, please, please, please…

Our training programs are the most advanced in the world. That expertise must be brought to bear to protect our schools and our children now.

We did it through (ph) our nation’s defense industries and military installations during World War II. We did it for very young kids with our Eddie Eagle child safety program that is throughout the country in schools right now, and we’ll do it again today.

Come on, let us into your schools as the official security, we only want to protect your children, we aren’t even thinking about how much it could increase our membership, we swear!

The NRA is gonna bring all its knowledge, all its dedication and all its resources to develop a model national schools shield emergency response program for every single school in America that wants it. From armed security to building design and access control, to information technology, to student and teacher training, this multifaceted program will be developed by the very best experts in the field. Former Congressman Asa Hutchinson will lead the effort as national director of the National Model School Shield Program, with a budget provided by the NRA of whatever scope the task requires. His experience as United States attorney, director of the Drug Enforcement Agency, and undersecretary of the Department of Homeland Security will give him the knowledge and expertise to hire the most knowledgeable and credentialed experts that are available in the United States of America to get this program up and running from the first day forward.

Come on, let us in, all we are asking for is a few measly billions in funding, think of how much safer your children will be with armed NRA members wandering the hallways!

If we truly cherish our kids, more than our money, more than our celebrities, more than our sports stadiums, we must give them the greatest level of protection possible. And that security is only available with properly trained, armed good guys. Under Asa’s leadership, our team of security experts will make this program available to the world for protecting our children in school. And we’ll make the program available to every single school in America, free of charge. That’s a plan of action that can, and will make a real positive, indisputable difference in the safety of our children, and it will start right now.

If you don’t let us into your schools then you must want more kids to die! What kind of sick evil bastard are you?

There’s going to be a lot of time for talk, and debate later. This is a time this is a day for decisive action. We can’t wait for the next unspeakable crime to happen before we act. We can’t lose precious time debating legislation that won’t work. We mustn’t allow politics or personal prejudice to divide us. We must act now for the sake of every child in America.

Later people can stop and think about this, later people can try to come up with reasonable solutions. Right now however is the time to advocate for insane ideas like putting armed civilians into schools! We must not stop and think, we must not waste precious time by debating it, we simply must do it and then wait and see what happens!

Who cares about all the reality based things that argue against this? There is no need to stop and consider death liability, humongously increased insurance, or the lack of psychological fitness tests that even rookie police officers have to pass before getting training. America needs all the untrained elderly gun toting volunteers in the schools it can get right now to protect them!

I call on every parent. I call on every teacher. I call on every school administrator, every law enforcement officer in this country, to join with us and help create a national schools shield safety program to protect our children with the only positive line of defense that’s tested and proven to work.

And now, to tell you more about the program, I’d like to introduce the head of the effort, former U.S. congressman, former U.S. attorney for the western district of Arkansas, and former administrator of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, the Honorable Congressman Asa Hutchinson.

Asa?

Damn it! I told you not to think, I can tell by looking at your eyes that your thinking about this! Why do you hate America? Why do you hate the Constitution? Why can’t you just accept that we at the NRA only have your best interests at heart?

Doubting the NRA is just the same as doubting the bible, worse even, because without the NRA America would cease to exist as a Christian nation! Do you want the UN One World Muslim Creeping Sharia Order to take over, is that what you want? If you call yourself an American then you will support the NRA in its efforts to take over protect American schools.

See part I here: littlegreenfootballs.com

The night after Sandy Hook, a gunman pulled behind a car in Kansas City’s east side and opened fire, striking 4-year-old Aydan Perea in the head. The boy had just gotten into his father’s car.

‘He was innocent and he was just lifeless,’ said the first bystander to reach Aydan. ‘All my life I’ve never seen nothing so devastating. I’m unable to eat, I’m unable to sleep because I see this baby in my head.”

It was not the pre-schooler’s first brush with gun violence. A year earlier, a gunman fired a shotgun at the house where Aydan had been staying. No one was injured, but bullets shattered a front window and riddled a parked car. This week, days after the drive-by shooting, doctors declared the boy brain dead.

Aydan’s mother said her world has “stopped.”

In the week following the Sandy Hook massacre, a body was found inside a vacant house, at a car wash, in a bodega. They were discovered on a bike trail, in a backyard, inside the front office of a motel, in an idling Chevy pickup. They were the 67th murder in their city and the 88th and the 124th.

All had one thing in common: the murder weapon. All died from gunshots. Shots to the head. Multiples to the chest. And so on.

Link

Trouble Ahead « Sigmund, Carl and Alfred

Susan Rice Isn’t Going Quietly

BY THE TIME Susan Rice withdrew her name from the running for secretary of state earlier this month, she had emerged in the media as one of Washington’s most nefarious personalities. After Republican Senators John McCain and Lindsey Graham denounced the American ambassador to the United Nations for “misleading” the American people over the September 11 attack on the consulate in Benghazi, Libya, she was accused of, among other things, having a “personality ‘disorder,’” of harboring a “breathless” confidence in African strongmen, of being a “headmistress,” of having “sharp elbows,” of having a voice “always right on the edge of a screech,” of being an interventionist, of not intervening when it mattered.

“Was she also responsible for the drop in temperature between Tuesday and today?” snapped Gayle Smith, a senior director on the National Security Council (NSC). Smith belongs to an army of Rice loyalists who sprang to her defense, in lieu of a nominee’s war room. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton privately made supportive sojourns to Capitol Hill; Special Assistant to the President Samantha Power became such a fervent advocate that New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof asked a mutual friend to tell her to tone it down. “It’s having the opposite effect,” he reportedly complained. (Kristof denies he gave Power “private advice on how to do her job.”) Although President Barack Obama initially defended Rice, by the time she decided to withdraw, he did not attempt to change her mind. “I’m not saying it was a nudge,” says one Rice ally. “I’m also not saying anyone begged her to stay.”

Still, there’s no reason to think that Rice’s career is over. Administration sources are not ruling out the possibility that she could be tapped to serve as national security advisor, a post that does not require Senate confirmation. And regardless of her title, Rice will remain one of Obama’s most trusted advisers. She was instrumental in the formation of his foreign policy before he came to the White House—an experience she describes as “a meeting of the minds”—and her family and his are now friends.

In her quick ascent through the foreign policy establishment—Rhodes scholar, Oxford Ph.D., one of the youngest assistant secretaries of state at age 33, veteran of many a Democratic presidential campaign—Rice has a public persona that is somehow both forceful and elusive. The many critiques leveled at her tend to distill into a contradictory assessment—that she is too political and not political enough.

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