John Bolton On Hardball: "I'm Not A Neoconservative"
By Logan Murphy Tuesday Nov 20, 2007 8:30pm
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Download | play (h/t Heather for the vids)
On Wednesday's Hardball Chris Matthews talked with right wing warmonger and former U.N. Ambassador, John Bolton, and Middle East expert, Jo-Anne Hart, about a possible U.S. invasion of Iran. Matthews is normally all over the place, but in this segment he seemed to be focused and somewhat grounded in reality.
Bolton blathers on about the need to attack Iran before they achieve nuclear capability, even going so far as to say he didn't think the citizens of Iran would be angry at the U.S. if we started dropping bombs inside their country -- for which Matthews, thankfully, calls him out. When Matthews calls him a Neoconservative, Bolton points his finger at him and sternly denies it. No, Mr. Bolton isn't a Neocon -- he just thinks, talks and acts like one. It seems the term Neocon has finally become a dirty word in American society...
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These clowns all deserve one another. Thanks for keeping an eye on Matthews so I don't have to watch him. He is such an ass.
How many times did he mumble Hillary, Hillary, Hillary?
On the count of three folks: one, two, three, BULLSHIT!
I don't care about Neocon, no-neocon, nazi, fascist, pink, or yellow. He's a plain old fashioned asshole.
Neocon is the new Nazi. And Bolton knows it.
In 10 years there will be people hunting these guys down to get them safely locked away in prison. At the Hague.
NO!...He's a NAZI!....what now he want's to paint himself in a different light?....nope...ain't buyin it.
Just like Nixon wasn't a crook.
Just out, General Sanchez says we need to pull the troops out of Iraq.
I hate this whole talking over someone else no matter who it is. They all did it. Bolton probably did it less than the other two. This says--what I have to say is more important than what you have to say. I may be old fashioned but it's just rude. They all suck. Happy Thanksgiving. PEACE.
neocon is a dirty word and liberal isn't.and we didn't have to stoop to the same BS tactics to accomplish it...they did it for us..
Yeh, and I'm not an atheist.
Oh he of facial fungus
who says he walks among us,
I'm just like you
he'd not a clue
that idiot fungus among us.
What he is , is a Pathological Liar .
Yeah, he's just a piece of Cr@#
Again, Hart, the female, was trodden over by both Matthews and Bolton. He clearly favors male commentators and gives them much more air time than women. I've seen it too many freaking times. I don't even think he respects female commentators. Pure blatant sexism.
Leaving aside the content of the discourse, what really amazes me is why the news networks continue to bring guys like Bolton on their programs. What are they hoping to hear? Something new? Some unknown but interesting perspective that a guy like Bolton could offer? We all know what Bolton will say. So what's the point?
I conclude that these guys, like Bolton, Ollie North, Tom Delay, etc., that they are so far out on the fringe, that the networks only bring them on for show. It's the National Inquirer effect. You know, "and now ladies and gentlemen, the 500 lbs. lady; the Siamese twins, etc., etc."
Today, we have neo-conservative, John Bolton!! It's like, "Quick, get the gimp..."
“I’m Not A Neoconservative”
Yeah, i am not a biped and lack opposable thumbs...
This is one man that I despise even more than, umm, his former boss.
Not usually a fan of Matthews either, but thank CHRIST somebody in the media is pointing out the obvious. This notion that if we just drop a bunch of bombs on Iran, the Iranian people will blame their own leaders rather than the people bombing them, and proceed to foment a coup... I don't even have words for how demented, absurd, and just flat-out f*cking INSANE this is.
Hart put it succinctly: you'd be handing them their own 9/11. (And now we're the terrorists. Or should I say "Evil Doers.")
Funny, too, the question "Wouldn't that be blatantly illegal?" doesn't even come up.
Just imagine if Iran's leaders publicly and repeatedly announced plans to bomb the U.S. Now imagine the Iranian media politely discussing the pros and cons of this...
I have nothing more.
slippytoad @ 4:
pure fantasy. Aint gonna happen.
Mathews is a hard guy to figure...He seems to have a multiple personality disorder.
With this personality, he sure wasted Bolton.
Nice.
Both Matthews and Bolton claim that Iran is intent upon building a nuclear weapon, despite the fact that Iran has consistently stated that its intention is to build a nuclear facility in order to enhance its energy program. Unless I missed it, I do not believe that these so-called experts ever saw fit to mention that Israel itself has between 60 to 80 nuclear weapons. Has Matthews or Bolton or the U.S. government ever demanded that Israel begin disarming? But yet the political pundits are up in arms [pun intended] over Iran allegedly acquiring one nuclear weapon that, if built, would be used as a deterrent against Israel. So much for the hope that any kind of intelligent discourse will ever take place on the corporate airwaves, especially on a program whose title proclaims that they [supposedly] ask the hardball questions that other programs are hesitant to bring up.
The solution is simple.
Drop nuclear weapons on Iran's suspected nuclear facilities, drop Reese's Peanut Butter Cups on Tehran and all the other major cities. I know, there will be some collateral damage; from 10,000 feet a peanut butter cup can do a lot of damage. But the chocolate mixed with the peanut butter will melt the hearts of the Secularists in Iran and they will side with us.
Wait...Secularists...They hate Christamas.
Ok, how about...
Bolton: "I'm not a neoconservative."
Uhmm, BULLSHIT! Any member of the Project for a New American Century IS a neocon!
Proof: here
OK, look. The majority of Americans hate this current administration. So a foreign power comes in and bombs, say, Fort Dix. Are we going to sit around and say, well, we know the bombs were a statement against this asshole in the White House and we're OK with that? Me no think so.
Too mucking fuch.
Good clip C & L!
Bolton should read a book about Iran.
Or any book to start.
I hate to nitpick but Bolton is definitely not a neocon. He has always been a fascist asshole. He wasn't a recent convert and certainly not just because it was briefly fashionable. He was, is and will forever remain a giant dick.
slippytoad @ 4:
why should be wait 10yrs to hunt bolton down? he is a terrorist and if we even followed his idea, then we should regime change bush/cheney now and with the same lame tactics he proposes to use in iran...........
You know what they say -- if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, talks like a duck...
Bolton is a founding member.
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/charts/pnac-chart.php
he talks about the Iranians and how they would not mind us bombing their nuclear facilities because they are smart and know that it's in their interest but at the same time our own White House is dangerous, but if it were bombed the American people who haven't rallied behind Bush would still be disgusted.
Is that a fair analogy?
I'm sure they would not let Matthews in the door. There is an IQ requirement.
Bolton's own function seems to have been as a kind of hatchet man for the Straussian thinkers in the administration foreign-policy community. Crispin Sartwell
Crispin Sartwell teaches political philosophy at Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA
And that's what I know about Mr. Sartwell.
I was looking for relationship between Bolton and the neo-conservatives. Which to me means followers of Leo Strauss. I wanted to say that while Bolton wasn't a student of Stauss, making his claim to not being a neo-con technically true, he waddled along with the best of them: Wolfowitz, Perle, Abrams.
I'm still re-reading Mr. Sartwell's commentary. But so far I agree with it and think it provides good reason to see Mr. Bolton is a new-con.
I have heard over and over that if Bush bombs Iran... republicans will help impeach him. THIS IS OUTRAGEOUS. How many times can the pull this BS scenario on us.
"THEY WILL GREET US AS LIBERATORS."
i believe steve clemons and others make the point that bolton isn't a neo-con (he does not have their democratic idealism for starters). No, he's an authoritarian nationalist; his mentor was Sen. Helms and Helms certainly had no time for spreading democracy and other neocon delusions. From what i gather, Wolfowitz and Bolton were reluctant teammates. Bolton was more concerned with exercising power for America's short-term gain, and could not care less whether the world was remade in our image.
Have it your way, Plato's Walrus. Whatever you are, you're worse than a neocon.
Bolton is not a neocon, he is a neo nazi.
Well, I think Tweety did a pretty good job this time. Instead of folding right away he kept on point letting Bolton know he is a fascist NeoCon (or worse as many of you here have pointed out.).
Bolton, the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. The second step? Shaving off that ridiculous mustache.
From Stauss's wiki bio.
Strauss held the Robert Maynard Hutchins Distinguished Service Professorship there until 1969, when he moved to Claremont McKenna College (formerly Claremont Men's College), in California for a year, and then to St. John's College, Annapolis in 1970, where he was the Scott Buchanan Distinguished Scholar in Residence until his death in 1973
Low and behold old John studied PoliSci at Yale and did his post grad work while Leo Strauss was winding up his career Annapolis. Quite close to each other.
From Boltons wiki bio.
He then attended Yale University, where he was a member of the Yale Political Union, and where he ultimately earned a B.A. summa cum laude in 1970 and a J.D. in 1974. Though Bolton supported the Vietnam War, he enlisted in the Maryland Army National Guard and did not serve in Vietnam. He wrote in his Yale 25th reunion book "I confess I had no desire to die in a Southeast Asian rice paddy. I considered the war in Vietnam already lost."[4]
Dollars to doughnuts they at least met.
What guys like Bolton don't realize is that 4 years of Americans kicking down Iraqi doors have made nobody safer anywhere. Bolton is cementing himself a position in the Bush Administration loser's and quitters gallery--and the numbers continue to grow . . . Bolton knows very well that "Neocon" is synonomous with losers and quitters, and though he claims he's not a neocon, he is such nut he couldn't even get backing from his own people for the UN post. Guys like him are so out of it they are looking more and more fringe with every TV appearance.
When you sign in on the PNAC manifesto that pretty much makes you a NeoCon in most peoples opinion. I hope that NeoCon actually has become a dirty word. It should be. Lets not miss an opportunity to rub these criminals nose in the word at every chance. NeoCon = Fascist Authoritarian = Bolton.
who do you believe, me or your lying eyes and ears?
Bolton is more a rabid nationalist. He doesn't really count as a neocon as he isn't a former Trostskyite. That said the main belongs in a straitjacket.
Bolton can pound sand. His Vietnam allergy should disqualify him from getting bookings to be Mr. Hawk on cable news
Sapient @ 22:
BINGO!
He's PNAC, he's a NeoCon.
They love hangin' labels on others: Bolton should always be referred to as a neocon.
...
Marty @ 19:
Matthews is easy to figure. He's an anti-war progressive who craves access to the Washington power-brokers (regardless of political ideology) in order to further his TV career. He realizes that he would never get high profile Republicans to come on his show if he took the Olberman approach. How else is he to get these people to come on his show without sucking up to them from time to time? If you want to know what his politics are, just look at his mile long paper trail. Look at the anti-Bush, anti-Iraq War columns he wrote for the San Francisco Chronicle. Here's a guy who was one of Jimmy Carter's speech writers, worked for Tip O'Neal and made a campaign contribution only to Howard Dean in 2004.
He's a FUCKING PUTZ.
OK...he doesn't like to be called a "neoconservative"...then call the spade a spade. he is a fascist imperialist. Can this guy shut the f*ck up! I am so sick of listening to this hate filled pig be WRONG on everything.
Ship his ass over to the Middle East. I am tired of listening to these chicken hawks cry for more war, more war!
Chris Mathews is not doing America any favors as he promotes and features these criminals all over media that American people pay for.
I am so tired of paying these high ass cable fees when this is the only shit you get for the money these bastards are taking from us.
It is a dame shame that our democratic candidates have to deal with the humiliation of these bastards running our debates. They are never going to be able to give us the straight answers that we want for having to feign off all the bull shit these lunatics are shoving in their face to start shit and then get all over the TV, the next day laughing and playing games with it. They are making another joke out of something so very important and serious to the candidates as well as the American people.
People all over the world are watching this as they have been for the last seven plus years of these criminals making a complete ass out of what was once the greatest country in the world.
We need to blast our candidates and demand they not go on any of these networks for debates except C-Spain and demand they get the women's league or some independent bodies to present the questions to them. Make sure that democrats are the people conducting the debates.
If these right wing thugs want to run debates, let them run the republicans because they sure as hell are not allowing the democrats to present questions to those bastards.
After the debates is even more discouraging, when they set up their round table session of right wing idiots, to demonize, criticize and ignore our candidates as well as promote the one they are trying to push in our face. It is simply unfair and it is wrong and they know it.
This is just the beginning of what we have to look forward to in the 2008 election folks as our night mare is only just beginning, especially if they are somehow able to push their choice of a candidate through. It is going to be hell.
Not a neocon, just a conventional douchebag.
It's true! He's a neo-nutcase! Big time!
He's freaking liar, he's on PNAC he's a neocon. We've know this for years!
He's a snake-in-the-grass.
*
"John Bolton On Hardball: “I’m Not A Neoconservative”"
...
I am just a useful idiot to be used and discarded by the AIPAC and PNAC people.
Not a Neo-Con, but a warmonger chickenhawk bully dickhead!
Adrian Levy, co-author of "Deception: Pakistan, the United States and the Global Nuclear Weapons Conspiracy." He is also a senior staff correspondent for the Guardian.
AMY GOODMAN: Who were the top officials here reported on? Who did this? Who tipped Pakistan off?
ADRIAN LEVY: There’s only one name I can tell you officially, Bob Peck, who sadly, is no longer with us and was Assistant Secretary of State was one of the two. The second one I can tell you, is one of America's leading – continues to be one of America’s leading diplomats. But for legal reasons, we are not allowed to name him.
Who wants to bet this is our own
"Atticus Finch of the United Nations"
John Bolton? The Non-proliferation proliferator. So much for WMD's.
Who cares what little cubbyhole he claims he is, Neo-Nazi, Italian Fascist, American Fascist.. Since when did that ever stop a Right Winger from calling someone something?
He's on all the PNAC documents, he's a Neo-Con, and should always be remembered as such.
When American cities are cratered by the rest of the world for the kind of war he wants to start, I hope he survives long enough for us to execute him by death by dismemberment (but, I suggest we do it slowly, I want him to suffer for at least weeks).
Christians are the true enemy, I say we execute all the Christians, then turn all of our attention to dealing with the Muslims and Jews likewise.
Bolton is living proof of the kind of danger Christians pose to the world, and also proof positive that they are far worse than the other assholes.
"I don't think anyone wants to resort no military choices"
HA, that's rich. Here is a list of names. Tell me what they have in common and what they don't:
George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, Henry Paulson, Robert Gates, Stephen Hadley, Adm. Michael Mullen, John McConnell, Josh Bolten, Fred Fielding, Allan Hubbard
If you guessed they are all attendees to the National Security Council and they are all PRO Iran War, then you guessed right. What they don't have in common, nothing. They are all of the same mindset and chosen because they will tell the president exactly what Darth Cheney wants him to hear.
"Usually I'm the one being accused of being excessively nationalistic, so I think I know what nationalism is"
Yes, you know what it mean to wrap yourself in chicken-shit-hawk red-white-and-blue. You act like you don't have enough brain power to project that rabid foment of yours onto other nationalities. You pretend you can't imagine why any of the the other 6.3 billion people on the planet don't want to whistle Yankee-doodle and die for the corporacrats. John Bolton may be a repugnant piece of shit, but he's not that stupid. He's just willing to say anything to lie us into yet another "forever war".
Chances that Iran attacks the US if the US doesn't preemptively invade: 0. Chances that in an invasion of Iran, they kill tens of thousands of our already thinly stretched military resources and then plan a counter attack on the US: 99.999%. You do the math.
Bolton is absolutely correct. After all, the term neo-conservative has only been around a few years. How about fascist piece of scum?
This was ridiculous, when Matthews asked him about how the Iranian public would react if the US attacked them, Bolton moronically answered to the effect - oh the Iranian people know it's the regime in Teheran we're attacking, not them. How arrogent and stupid, when we were attacked on 9/11, Al Qaeda claimed they attacked our government, not an individual American. It's not rocket science; if we attack Iran, they will retaliate - and who can blame them, it's their country, their homeland and they should defend it. November, '08 can't come fast enough - no wonder we are so hated.
If he's not a neo-con, I have 4 heads.
Sorry, but I REALLY have to reiterate:
Bolton is living proof of the kind of danger Christians pose to the world, and also proof positive that they are far worse than the other assholes. Christians are the true enemy, I say we execute all the Christians, then turn all of our attention to dealing with the Muslims and Jews likewise.
It's the Christians that PRAY for the end of EVERYTHING. It's the Christians that want all of us dead. Bolton is just another Christian willing to suici9de America, indeed the entire planet, in order to make his storybook fairy come back from never-never-land.
REPEAT AFTER ME: CHRISTIANS ARE THE TRUE ENEMY.
I've been for regime change or four years too Mr. Bolton--here. I hate the present administration of Crooks and Liars more than the Iranians do. In fact if the Iranians could, I'd like them to liberate us from your crazy NeoCON cohorts. I'll be out there with my basket of rose pedals to greet them.
You shit for brains. See you in the International War Crimes Court in a few years.
Whew! Clicked on the file and almost watched the clip... until I realized I would be watching both Matthews and Bolton. Waaaaaay too scary.
If John Bolton isn't a Neoconservative; then my name is Peppermint Patty.
And it ain't.
I am not a neocon!
I dont wear a toupee!
and my mustache is black!!
Bolton factoids:
- During the Vietnam War era, he declined combat duty, enlisted in the National Guard, and immediately enrolled in law school upon graduation from his undergraduate studies at Yale. In his Yale 25th-reunion book, he wrote, "I confess I had no desire to die in a Southeast Asian rice paddy. I considered the war in Vietnam already lost."
- In his office, he once kept a bronzed hand grenade–inscribed to "the truest Reaganaut"–a gift from former colleagues during his tenure at the U.S. Agency for International Development.
- A lifelong conservative, Bolton was a student organizer for Barry Goldwater's presidential campaign, was a White House intern for Spiro Agnew, and worked for then Sen. Jesse Helms, the North Carolina Republican.
- Bolton is one of the signers of a 1998 letter to President Clinton from the Project for the New American Century that called for the removal of Saddam Hussein, using, if necessary, armed intervention.
And Larry Craig ain't a closeted gay either.
Do you think Bolton is wearing a rug? My hairdresser could sure improve the look of it. And, what's with the enormous moustache? Is that compensation for something else he's lacking? Besides brains, of course...
What a nincowpoop! What an ultramaroon!
slippytoad @ 4:
The problem is it will probably be in an apocalyptic bombed out wasteland.
He's not a neoconservative, he's a neoconservative puppet.
slippytoad @ 4:
We can only hope: I'm sold on the idea NOW. Bolton is such an ass. "I am not a neo-con," uh, (cough-cough) yeah, ...right. Any internvention by a foreign power (especially the USA!) in Iran is an act of aggression, and will be seen as such, even if it is "for their own good." You don't go "straightening out" other country's business for them: it's never welcomed.
insane!
If we're going to label people, let's at least attempt accuracy.
Bolton is a NeoNutZionistAIPAC/IsraelAgent.
If this nut ain't a neocon then I am Betty Crocker.
"Bolton is involved with a broad assortment of conservative think tanks and policy institutes, including the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (JINSA), Project for the New American Century (PNAC), Institute of East-West Dynamics, National Rifle Association, US Commission on International Religious Freedom, and the Council for National Policy (CNP).
Bolton was formerly involved with Committee for Peace and Security in the Gulf (CPSG), Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), Federalist Society, National Policy Forum, National Advisory Board, Manhattan Institute for Policy Research, New Atlantic Initiative, Project on Transitional Democracies, and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_R._Bolton
Oh, okay, so Captain Kangaroo repeats the PNAC manifesto verbatum, and recited it so well that I could swear I saw Paul Wolfowitz's hand up his backside, but that doesn't make him a neo-conservative. Since it's a simplistic philosophy that's been so discredited by factual evidence that even WOLFOWITZ and KRYSTOL can't mouth it with a straight face anymore, I guess he CAN'T claim to be a neo-conservative. How about a 'TRUE neo-conservative,' or a 'Nuveau-Conservative?' (No, that sounds too French.) 'Conservative-neo?' 'Neo-libertarian?' 'Neo-peloponesian?' 'Neo-bolshevik!?' 'Neo-manifest-destineous?!" Yeah, that might do it! 'Neo-Roseveltian!'
These douchebags better think up a new name for their whack-job, Realpolitic philosophy double quick, so they don't look like such idiots when people accuse them of being neo-conservatives.
he is right!
nothin conservative at all! neocon was a catchy word for the sound bite idiots who felt "conservative" was their fathers oldsmobile.
these swine are DE$TRUCTICON$.
leaving your empire in ruin.
Bush+Chaney+LIE-berman+Bolton+Woltwitz+Krystol and the CORP:., MAIN STREAM MEDIA will have the U.S.A in a war with Iran befor the Bush leves office if it is any way possable. And I left out John McCAIN and the rest of the REPUBLICANS that are Running FOR President (P.S. I am not sure about H. Clinton she is a sock-puppet for LIE-berman).
Bolton interupts Jo-Anne Hart but when she tries to get back in he tells her to Hold on.
Bolton not a neocon . . . and the Pope's not Catholic.
What a putz ... he doesn't understand that going after those nuclear facilities when they are the only country there besides Israel who has them, will insight and galvanize people against us. It may even cause the sunni and shia to come together. because they believe that it the ONLY leveling of the playing field
if we take that away, they will not welcome us … they will look at what we did not do to N/Korea and all their views that this IS a theocratic war, a crusade will be confirmed.
Bolton is dangerously wrong and stupid.
Mother fucker looks like old used up broom. Lord give me patience! Lots of it!
Too bad Bolton didn't start chasing Matthews down the hall screaming epithets ... oh, wait, he only does that to women in hotels.
Bolton is (not has - is) an ego gone beserk. Someone needs to hold him down and inject him with a dose of reality so that he finally understands who and what he really is, a mere mortal more often wrong than right.
Nice. One of the few times I've seen Bolton uncomfortable with his talking points. I give Matthews a little credit but Jo-Anne Hart really leads the charge.
It's the only way to get something heard - when one of the automatons goes on automatic pilot, be loud and CUT THEM OFF stating there's no point in going forward when you're basing your premise on falsehoods. Stop them from getting their message out with what works best - facts.
Da Spyda @ 48:
chrissie or bolt-on?
How about "dangerous fool", Johnny boy... does that sound better?
Even Time magazine agrees:
http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1685063,00.html?xid=rss-n...
Tweety is a sexist, a misogynist.
Marty @ 19:
Marty, you've got no idea what I'll be doing in ten years.
The fantastic thing about America and I'm saying this as a European is that I'll bet that somewhere beavering away in a dimly lit college library there's some amazingly bright kid and he or she is going to make it their life mission to haul before a court or a war crimes tribunal all of those responsible for the absolute shambles America has been reduced to by these neo cons and their supporters and that gives me great comfort.Because the game is up.Even if they bomb Iran ,their game is up...its as clear to everyone but them that theyre completely and utterly incompetent and they've been the absolute worst thing to infect America in centuries.They have destroyed a sovereign nation, killed hundreds of thousands of its people,dispersed 4 million more . Theyve done more damage to what America stood for and represented in 6 short years than a thousand Bin Ladens could ever have done in decades.What a dark dark period of American history.But America is nothing if not resilient. Happy thanksgiving America.You might be battered and bruised but as happens in any abusive relationship there always comes a turning point, one way or the other.Muslim fundamentalism is a serious threat to freedom but so too are these lunatic neocons ,theyre as bad and as evil as each other and the world is shit sick and tired of both of them.They both belong on the trashheap of history.
"It seems the term Neocon has finally become a dirty word in American society… "
Just now? Where have you been, man?
Bolton's just avoiding labels. Neocon's an abused epithet, and slur designed to discredit any firmness in American foreign policy. We need more Boltons, neocon or not.
But...but...but....aren't we "allll Neocons now"???? ::sniffle:: Master John has bolted from the Flock.
"I don't think anyone wants to use military force against Iran, but life is about choices."
This is what it sounds like inside a broken mind.
Bolten isn't a true neo-con because they fucked the recipe up a little, instead of the usual mix of bat shit, crows blood, snake venom & Barb's crusty toenails, I think a boar somehow fell into his vat. So that makes him some sort of half breed.
Americaneocon @ 91:
"firmness"??? Is that what you guys call it? Okeydokey.
Amazing. John Bolton is such an over-the-top sicko that I expect him to be President one day.
Americaneocon @ 91:
Children, this is why you shouldn't do Meth and PCP, it turns you into an extremist Christian with zero judgement.
Although nobody will argue that whomever this guy is s