Another Day, Another Belated Roundup
Here we go again....
***Another warning of the impending entitlements crunch that the Democrats refuse to recognize (the better to blame it on the GOP when it happens) and the Republicans are too chickenhearted to touch (thus ensuring that they'll get the blame for it). Will ANYBODY listen before it's too late?
***The Bushies rightly refuse to appease the terrorists (well, okay, they're appeasing Iran, but work with me here...), so why can't they ever apply that hard-headed gumption to their domestic policy enemies? With energy prices plunging, producing reduced inflation pressures and skyrocketing consumer confidence and a renewed GOP momentum that reduces its dependence on the lunacy of its political opponents, the majority party should be going on the policy offensive, building that momentum toward a major market-based energy policy initiative in the next Congress instead of caving after so many years of stalwart resistance to the global warming zealots.
To employ a wholly uncharacteristic astrological metaphor, the stars are once again aligning behind another national Republican triumph; what a refreshing change it would be if, just this one time, the Pachyderms would take advantage of it.
***The McCain Mutiny is once again doing the Democrats' bidding by obstructing on their behalf the White House's military tribunal legislation, which seeks congressional approval of the constitutional authority the President already possesses under Article II to try illegal combatants pretty much any way he chooses and would be unnecessary but for the SCOTUS' unilateral, extraconstitutional expunging of Executive war-fighting authority by its wayward Hamden ruling.
What is the principle objection of the main RINO Sith Lords, Senators McCain (Darth Queeg), Graham (Darth Small), and Warner (Darth Hair)? That any "redefinition" of or apparent backsliding on the Geneva Conventions will put our own troops at risk. You know, the GIs who get shot, or beheaded, or shot AND beheaded, or shot AND beheaded after a long and invigorating sesson of REAL torture, or, if the jihadis are feeling particularly generous, just being set on fire and dragged through the streets by their tools, when captured by an enemy that is not a state, and therefore not a signatory of the Geneva Conventions, and would not abide by them in any case - not unlike pretty much every enemy we've fought going back to the Second World War.
It is not the President that is seeking to "redefine" the GC, but the McCainiacs and their Donk friends by lavishing its full protections upon terrorists who do not recognize any rules of war and do not qualify as POWs by the GC's own definition. It is wrong, and well, "grievous"ly so, on so many levels, foremost of which is that it will make effective interrogations of terrorists legally untenable, so much so that the White House has already said it will discontinue the effort altogether if "Sailor's" amorphous alternative legislation is passed instead rather than have U.S. personnel subjected to international "war crimes" tribunals. No interrogations means no intelligence, and no intelligence means a heightened risk of new terrorist attacks. It's logic so simple even a Dark Lord cannot fail to grasp it.
That's the practicality. The true insult is McCain's assertion, leveled Sunday on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, that if we don't treat terrorists like legitimate soldiers, if we don't stop coercively interrogating them (which is NOT "torture"), we're "no better than al Qaeda" - or what he calls "holding the moral high ground." Something his buddy Colin Powell - the backstabbing turncoat who was in on the whole Dick Armitage Plamegate sting, don't forget - insists is necessary to "keep the whole world from turning against us."
This is a truly breathtaking level of moral obtuseness that deserves a rant beyond what I can muster at this particular moment. Fortunately Rush Limbaugh handled that quite nicely yesterday:
The hell of it is, you've got to figure that the RINOs know all of this. Whatever else John McCain might be, he's not a dunce. So what could possibly explain this incomprehensible grandstanding?
How about (perceived) self-interest?
I think that if McCain's chances at the 2008 GOP presidential nomination were still on life support, this stunt would pull the plug. But the so-called "maverick outsider" is in fact a creature of the Beltway, immersed to his beady little eyeballs in all the "corruption" he preeningly and pharisiaclly decries, and cannot help but soak up all its faux "wisdom." And nothing is more appealing or irresistable to such a roaring moral narcissist than to use one "moralistic" crusade to engineer his own party's defeat in order to set himself up as its white-chargered savior. And if several thousand more American civilians have to die to get him to the White House? Well, I suppose they'll have "died for a worthy cause."
Looks like this bullet point ate itself into an entire post. Besides, I have to get to something else. More recapping later.
UPDATE: Can't believe I left out this link:
Read on. Then go back and re-read John McCain preaching to us about the "moral high ground" and how fighting this war effectively concedes it to the enemy and see if you can keep your lunch down.
Excuse me, I have to go find a mop and a bucket.
***Another warning of the impending entitlements crunch that the Democrats refuse to recognize (the better to blame it on the GOP when it happens) and the Republicans are too chickenhearted to touch (thus ensuring that they'll get the blame for it). Will ANYBODY listen before it's too late?
***The Bushies rightly refuse to appease the terrorists (well, okay, they're appeasing Iran, but work with me here...), so why can't they ever apply that hard-headed gumption to their domestic policy enemies? With energy prices plunging, producing reduced inflation pressures and skyrocketing consumer confidence and a renewed GOP momentum that reduces its dependence on the lunacy of its political opponents, the majority party should be going on the policy offensive, building that momentum toward a major market-based energy policy initiative in the next Congress instead of caving after so many years of stalwart resistance to the global warming zealots.
To employ a wholly uncharacteristic astrological metaphor, the stars are once again aligning behind another national Republican triumph; what a refreshing change it would be if, just this one time, the Pachyderms would take advantage of it.
***The McCain Mutiny is once again doing the Democrats' bidding by obstructing on their behalf the White House's military tribunal legislation, which seeks congressional approval of the constitutional authority the President already possesses under Article II to try illegal combatants pretty much any way he chooses and would be unnecessary but for the SCOTUS' unilateral, extraconstitutional expunging of Executive war-fighting authority by its wayward Hamden ruling.
What is the principle objection of the main RINO Sith Lords, Senators McCain (Darth Queeg), Graham (Darth Small), and Warner (Darth Hair)? That any "redefinition" of or apparent backsliding on the Geneva Conventions will put our own troops at risk. You know, the GIs who get shot, or beheaded, or shot AND beheaded, or shot AND beheaded after a long and invigorating sesson of REAL torture, or, if the jihadis are feeling particularly generous, just being set on fire and dragged through the streets by their tools, when captured by an enemy that is not a state, and therefore not a signatory of the Geneva Conventions, and would not abide by them in any case - not unlike pretty much every enemy we've fought going back to the Second World War.
It is not the President that is seeking to "redefine" the GC, but the McCainiacs and their Donk friends by lavishing its full protections upon terrorists who do not recognize any rules of war and do not qualify as POWs by the GC's own definition. It is wrong, and well, "grievous"ly so, on so many levels, foremost of which is that it will make effective interrogations of terrorists legally untenable, so much so that the White House has already said it will discontinue the effort altogether if "Sailor's" amorphous alternative legislation is passed instead rather than have U.S. personnel subjected to international "war crimes" tribunals. No interrogations means no intelligence, and no intelligence means a heightened risk of new terrorist attacks. It's logic so simple even a Dark Lord cannot fail to grasp it.
That's the practicality. The true insult is McCain's assertion, leveled Sunday on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos, that if we don't treat terrorists like legitimate soldiers, if we don't stop coercively interrogating them (which is NOT "torture"), we're "no better than al Qaeda" - or what he calls "holding the moral high ground." Something his buddy Colin Powell - the backstabbing turncoat who was in on the whole Dick Armitage Plamegate sting, don't forget - insists is necessary to "keep the whole world from turning against us."
This is a truly breathtaking level of moral obtuseness that deserves a rant beyond what I can muster at this particular moment. Fortunately Rush Limbaugh handled that quite nicely yesterday:
Senator McCain, Senator Graham, Senator Warner, Senator Collins, Senator Snowe, the issue is how do we protect America. The issue is how do we protect the citizens of our country. The issue is not how we protect the enemy. That is not the point of this war; it has never been the point of any war. How do we protect the citizens of this country is the focus. That's the objective. That's the purpose. The purpose is not to go out of our way to make sure we protect the enemy all the while worrying and hand-wringing that we are becoming like the enemy. No such thing could be further from the truth, Senator, and the humiliating thing is that you know it. It is shameful for you to even imply that we are headed in that direction. Where were you, Senator, back in World War II when we were interning Japanese Americans? FDR was criticized for it after the fact and a little bit during the fact but, we were at war and the Japanese attacked us.
Did we end up becoming like our enemy in World War II when we were bombing Dresden and firebombing ten Japanese cities using the atomic bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki? When have we ever become like the enemy? Did we become like the enemy in Vietnam? When have we ever become like an enemy we are fighting?....
The President is constantly talking about protecting our citizens. And the need for these interrogations toward that end. But McCain and Graham and Warner constantly talking about terrorist rights and how Europe will view us? Why, it sounds Clintonian. It sounds like it would be coming from Al Gore. Sounds like Howard Dean could say it. Sounds like any Democrat - sounds like Dick Durbin. Senator McCain and Dick Durbin are indistinguishable. Senator Graham and Dick Durbin are indistinguishable. And if you think our Supreme Court as currently constituted wouldn't allow our CIA to be held for war crimes, some of them like international law after all, I mean we gotta abide and care about what they're doing in other countries and their legal systems. McCain says he wants to keep the program. He says if we don't change it we'll be like the enemy. It's not about being nice to the enemy. It's not about protecting the enemy. In fact, no nation who ever sought to protect the enemy ever emerged victorious in a war. [emphasis added]
The hell of it is, you've got to figure that the RINOs know all of this. Whatever else John McCain might be, he's not a dunce. So what could possibly explain this incomprehensible grandstanding?
How about (perceived) self-interest?
Some have wondered whether the President’s proposal was not timed to help Republicans in the 2006. I asked that question in this very space last week. OK: now let me suggest we do the unthinkable and submit Senator McCain’s actions to the same suspicious scrutiny.
Most political observers agree that the worse Republicans do in 2006, the more likely they are to turn to McCain’s maverick candidacy in 2008. Republicans don’t like or trust McCain, but they want to win – and the more they are convinced that their party is otherwise in serious trouble, the more likely they are to believe that McCain’s anti-party candidacy is the solution.
McCain may have heard these theories too. If he has, and if he agrees, is it not in his interest to maximize Republican losses in 2006? If a vote on military commissions would embarrass Democrats, does it not help Democrats to prevent such a vote from occurring before November 7th? And what better way is there is to delay such a vote than for the ultra-hawkish McCain to raise an enormous ruckus against the President – and thus provide cover for Democratic stalling techniques?
I think that if McCain's chances at the 2008 GOP presidential nomination were still on life support, this stunt would pull the plug. But the so-called "maverick outsider" is in fact a creature of the Beltway, immersed to his beady little eyeballs in all the "corruption" he preeningly and pharisiaclly decries, and cannot help but soak up all its faux "wisdom." And nothing is more appealing or irresistable to such a roaring moral narcissist than to use one "moralistic" crusade to engineer his own party's defeat in order to set himself up as its white-chargered savior. And if several thousand more American civilians have to die to get him to the White House? Well, I suppose they'll have "died for a worthy cause."
Looks like this bullet point ate itself into an entire post. Besides, I have to get to something else. More recapping later.
UPDATE: Can't believe I left out this link:
The Pentagon seemed to be hoping to disarm its critics by showing them how well it cares for captured terrorists. The trip was more alarming than disarming....The high-minded critics who complain about torture are wrong. We are far too soft on these guys - and, as a result, aren't getting the valuable intelligence we need to save American lives.
Read on. Then go back and re-read John McCain preaching to us about the "moral high ground" and how fighting this war effectively concedes it to the enemy and see if you can keep your lunch down.
Excuse me, I have to go find a mop and a bucket.
posted by JASmius at 8:33 AM
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