Ahmadinejad to speak at Columbia

[El Blanco]

And now he has footage of him being ambushed attacked and assaulted by Western Infidels. Which could have been avoided by not extending the invitation in the first place.

While I'm glad Columbia stuck it to him, it is somewhat pointless. So you told him he is a tyrant, petty dictator, and a whole other bunch of nasty and true things with all the tact of a Rosie O'Donnell ambush interview. For what? What was gained by it?

Does he see the light now?

Do you think this will change things one iota?

And just out of curiosity, is there somewhere I can see the video? Just because I think it was useless doesn't mean it doesn't sound like fun.

[Preechr]

Originally Posted by El Blanco

And now he has footage of him being ambushed attacked and assaulted by Western Infidels. Which could have been avoided by not extending the invitation in the first place.

While I'm glad Columbia stuck it to him, it is somewhat pointless. So you told him he is a tyrant, petty dictator, and a whole other bunch of nasty and true things with all the tact of a Rosie O'Donnell ambush interview. For what? What was gained by it?

Does he see the light now?

Do you think this will change things one iota?

And just out of curiosity, is there somewhere I can see the video? Just because I think it was useless doesn't mean it doesn't sound like fun.

From what I've heard, it was more tactful than a Rosie ambush. In fact, he said things I think any good liberal would say. When I hear politicians speaking about having talks with guys like him, I envision a bunch of protocol that comes off as ass-kissing if not downright fawning... maybe some back-room dealing in which everybody loses. What Bollinger said in his introduction was, in my opinion, quite simply great. Let him speak for the American Left. Our Democrat politicians were pissing their pants over Bush's "Axis of Evil." Bollinger went way farther than that. He got down and dirty and for fucking once actually spoke some truth to some power. Good for him.

The fact that doing so changed nothing is the best part, Blanco. I don't know Lee Bollinger personally, but if we can judge where he stands by his enemies, Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity surely see him as a veritable icon of the left's intelligensia/castrati. You guys on the right that begrudge even acknowledging Ahmadinejad can now point to this as the time the Left got to handle something just as they wished and nothing came of it. Talking to dictators now, officially, does not work, so the only option left is, of course, turning the whole place to glass.

[theapportioner]

In my opinion, the forum was more about our country than Iran's (sorry Canadians). I'm sure Ahmadinejad's appearance has already been heavily censored/spun, and it won't make much of a difference there, except to those who are able to break through media censorship.

This was, perhaps more importantly, a test of the values that this country supposedly holds dear. The comments by buffoons like Assembly Leader Sheldon Silver (who should be excoriated for what he did to Bloomberg's congestion pricing plan, and now drawn and quartered for his threats to cut off state funding for the school), and clowns like Christine Quinn and Andrew Weiner, both of whom have open mayoral ambitions (and who can only hope to be 1/4 the mayor Bloomberg currently is), are alarming and dangerous. Basically extorting the school for exercising the 1st Amendment. Bollinger was far more tactful about it than I would be.

As for the Minuteman thing, well Columbia did invite them, and punished the students who interfered. They cancelled a 2nd invitation, but I don't know if they ever revealed why. There were problems with how they handled the whole thing, but charges that they were biased in how they interpret free speech don't hold up.