UC to host famed television psychic Bill Kristol

Bill Kristol, son of conservative leader Irving Kristol, is coming to the University of Charleston.

From a press release:

Bill Kristol, Editor of the influential Washington-based political magazine, The Weekly Standard, will appear at the University of Charleston as part of UC’s Speaker Series sponsored by Dow Chemical at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 16, in Riggleman Hall’s Geary Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.

Kristol's Miss Cleo-like powers have given him the ability to make such amazing observations as these:

Kristol on April 4, 2003:

“There’s been a certain amount of pop sociology in America … that the Shia can’t get along with the Sunni and the Shia in Iraq just want to establish some kind of Islamic fundamentalist regime. There’s almost no evidence of that at all. Iraq’s always been very secular.”

Kristol on April 28, 2003:

The United States committed itself to defeating terror around the world. We committed ourselves to reshaping the Middle East, so the region would no longer be a hotbed of terrorism, extremism, anti-Americanism, and weapons of mass destruction. The first two battles of this new era are now over. The battles of Afghanistan and Iraq have been won decisively and honorably.

Kristol on Sept. 18, 2002:

A war with Iraq “could have terrifically good effects throughout the Middle East.”

Courtesy of William K. Wolfrum, whose piece, " If Bill Kristol can get a job at Time Magazine, so should a bad golf prognosticator," at worldgolf.com is a must-read.

Kristol is also one of the heads of Project for a new America Century, a conservative group who pushed for war with Iraq long before 9-11. The group said the process of transforming America into the foreign policy player they dreamed of would be a long process, "absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event—like a new Pearl Harbor.”

So they had no problem linking Iraq to 9-11 in their push for war. When crisis struck, they saw opportunity.

Bill Maher had a good take on Kristol:

And now Mr. Kristol proposes immediate action against Iran predicting the Iranians will thank us for it. Hey, you know what, Nostradamus, why don’t you sit this one out? We’ll get by using the magic 8-ball for a while, because you guys have been so wrong about so much for so long that people are actually turning to the Democrats.

Surely UC and Dow Chemical can provide students with intellectual stimulation from a better source than a guy with such a dishonest track record. Or is a man who's had to run retractions to his NY Times column twice in the first six months their idea of someone students should look up to?

Will UC also book someone who actually got it right on the war like Scott Ritter or Hans Blix? You know, those guys who had this crazy notion that there were no WMDs and that the inspectors had destroyed the stockpiles?

Or what about the commentators who knew what they were talking about prior to invasion like Amy Goodman or Phil Donahue?

And lest I forget, the man Kristol's been wanting for president since before 2000? John McCain.

Kind of makes McCain's sabre-rattling against Iran look a bit more ominous, doesn't it?