Sep 19 2006
Now It’s About Nothing?
John McCain ran into a buzzsaw of common sense over the Geneva Coventions’ General Article 3 and its vague langauge which leaves interrogators with “please” and “pretty” please so we do not hurt someone’s dignity when trying to find out where they planned to kill thousands of innocent people. The media is playing this up as Bush against McCain in a lame attempt to save McCain from himself. But McCain and Graham screwed themselves by being more concerned about terrorists’ feelings than American lives.
And having Powell come out and stab Bush in the back in public, after spending three years twisting the knife in quiet regarding Armitage’s leak to Novak about Plame, is not goin to do anything but further sink low Powell’s standing in the public eye. Powell is more worried about the US being called names overseas than our protection. I’ll take the idiots calling us names over losing my friends or family in a terrorist attack.
And was all this self destruction worth it? Apparently not. It seems, all of a sudden, a ‘compromise’ is in the offing! Just like Specter’s solution to the NSA Terrorists Surveillance Program was to codify what Bush was doing in the first place, McCain and Graham are learning that taking useless high ground with terrorists who will kill some of us why we sit on that high land is not an answer. I am against torture and anyone who commits torture should go to jail for a long, long time. Being declothed, made uncomfortable, playing loud music – not a problem. But no matter what, Congress better tell our people who have to do this, and those in the world who may have one of our soldiers in their grasp, what is and is not acceptable. If waterboarding is out for our folks then it is out. But do something politically brave. These men and women are in harm’s way and these Pols are worried about some socialist in the EU calling us names. Remember folks, all of this was about making ANY changes or interpretations of the conventions. That was the reason these myopic Senators stood up – no changes, no interpretations. If they fold on these ‘principles’ we will know for sure what kind of people they truly are.
First Cup 09.19.06…
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Rebound…
Job approval mai così alto nel 2006 per George W. Bush (44%: +5 rispetto all’inizio di settembre) secondo l’ultimo sondaggio Gallup per USA Today. E…
But McCain and Graham screwed themselves by being more concerned about terrorists’ feelings than American lives.
Thanks for calling a spade a spade, AJ. I was in the car when I first heard Graham’s analogy about a CIA agent being arrested by Iran. I almost wrecked the car I was laughing so hard. Graham has no business being a United States Senator if he is that ignorant and naive. And any aspirations that McCain had for occupying the Oval Office just went down the crapper.
O’Reilly was a buzzsaw last night. He was almost shouting into the camera and said they were all hiding under their desks. Said he could not get any of them to come on the show. Good. Repeat it Mr O.
I also heard one other interesting thing reported yesterday but they did not give the names. Jim (FOX) said McCain had 10 (TEN) Pug Senators. Now I can guess 4 more but does anyone know these names? Do not let them escape capture. This is the reason we have ended up having to fight for this election…….they absolutely refused.
AJ, if you get a chance to look at the Corner….McCarthy (11:36am) has interesting post on McCain’s Miranda.
“Attention class: THANKS TO THE McCAIN AMENDMENT, WE ARE ALREADY OBLIGATED TO PROVIDE MIRANDA WARNINGS IF WE HAVE ANY HOPE OF USING CONFESSION EVIDENCE IN EVENTUAL TERRORIST TRIALS.
This is very frustrating because people like yours truly implored Congress not to pass, and the president not to sign, the McCain Amendment for just this reason. The McCain Amendment vested alien enemy combatants held outside the jurisdiction of the U.S. courts with Fifth Amendment rights”.
Not being a lawyer…..but he seems to be almost having one of my rants with his caps. But the crime against Americans by McCain/Graham has that effect. These are the 2 men that have allowed the world to paint us as ‘torturers’. They did not stop it by standing up……….they INSISTED in feeding the MSM trolls by waging 3 campaigns labeled Torture on Bush. Three. You think someone is not vindictive? It seems to include us all though.
Do you realize that Humane treatment includes the terrorists in Gitmo having the right to another cup of tea., having new eyeglasses, having a new prostetic device, having the correct toilet paper. And that means that if you are one of the guards at gitmo and one of the terrorists believe you are personally treating him inhumanely because you won’t provide him a different grade of toilet paper that he can sue you in a court and you would be held liable. He could own your house. That’s what the McCain, Graham crowd has done for you.
Truly admirable, how can we thank them enough?
By voting AGAINST them, that’s how.
Makes my damn head spin.
Powell’s standing couldn’t get any lower. Not after the public saw him lie to the UN 4 years ago.
Let’s throw the book at terrorists.
Charge them under the Geneva conventions, give them the ability to hear the charges against them, allow them to defend themselves in a court of law, etc.
Once their found guilty of being terrorists, revoke the Geneva conventions for them and put them to death (or whatever we’re doing to Armitage).
BTW, I’d love to hear the word “alleged” more in these discussions.
You know, for “honesty” reasons.
Finally heard a couple of Senators today that defined the problem. Either the American Congress will do their jobs FOR Americans…..or some International Court will do this.
I do not understand this love affair with International Courts. I am sure they will be looking out for us…..like ole Le Worm Chirac.
Well said. What a non-surprise: Powell and McCain turning up on the same sorry side. And talking about “moral authority,” no less.
In addition to thanking AJ the other day for hosting my comment, I’d like to point out another debt. The other day on another forum, another commenter here, topsecretk9, quoted a Time article. That was an article I used extensively for my own comment, but there was a name in it that I had failed to take into account. So, another hat tip, if TSK9 stops by here.
The key here is to figure out McCains true motive in all of this. He does nothing unless he perceives some benefit to himself and his upcomming run for the White House. So what is it? Why side with the terrorists here? How does it help him in 2008? Doese anyone have any ideas? One politico has put forth the notion that McCain is working to defeat republicans in 2006, believing that loss of the House and perhaps the Senate would force even the most determined conservatives and McCain haters to support him in 2008. Sort of a “we have to get a republican in the White House, even if it’s McCain” type of sentiment. In other words, desperation. Given McCains character, this doesn’t sound impossible.
Here’s a Democrat agog at these arguments. What are McCain’s motives? Partly political, partly emotional, driven by keen memories of what he went through. He has some moral authority on this issue. I would listen to him. As for “interpreting” the Geneva Convention as we see fit: there’s not a person on this board, despite all your posturing who, if arrested in one country and then spirited off to Iran, and then tied to a board and dunked under water until you thought you were going to drown because of a identity mistake who would not be: outraged, and convinced they were tortured.
Come on guys. Knock it off. Remember you’re the good guys. Good guys don’t pull this torture stuff on people. Really. They don’t. For a party full of moral clarity, it is absolutely astounding that you have lost your way on this issue. Waterboarding is torture. And so are the other techniques. We should never be doing it. Period.
I’m constantly amazed at the vitriol and hysterics from the red state crowd (and for the record I am a registered republican who voted for Bush). If you question the maximum leader’s policies you are an appeaser. If you suggest the war was a mistake and that we need not to pull out but to re-evaluate our mission and adjust accordingly you’re a coward and a traitor. And this treatment is just for the civilian dissentors. John McCain spent 5 1/2 years as a POW in Vietnam and never took the easy out that might have been afforded to him as the son of an admiral but now his courage and resolve are being questioned? Seriously? Perhaps some of you Bush cheerleaders are servicemen and veterans yourselves, could you have survived the torture he experienced? Is it possible that he might have a singular view of torture that you do not? As for Colin Powell, you impugn a man with an impeccable service record through two wars and a man that the maximum leader saw fit to appoint his secretary of state. Have you lost all sense of reality? I see blog posts from shrieking hysterical “conservatives” talking about the omnipresent terrorist threat and how ONLY Bush and his loyalists can protect the country from the greatest threat ever posed since the dawn of recorded history. Are we living in the same universe? I grew up during the cold war and I remember the fear of nuclear holocaust vividly. Thousands of warheads pointed in each direction, our fates hung by a thread. My father grew up during the second world war and then fought as a marine in Korea and Vietnam. He knows personally the dangers we as a nation faced and survived. It cheapens his sacrifice and the sacrifice of the greatest generation before him to conflate the threats they faced to those posed by an elective war and a hyper exaggerated threat from a numerically small band of thugs and killers.
McCain hopes to draw some of the leftists into his camp. And his issue is torture. He brings it up every chance he gets. He wants to be the authority on torture and the last word on same. This way he’ss get sympathy from the ignorant who don’t know about his other policies. And I haven’t ruled out a joint ticket with Hillary. The dems toyed with this idea and 2004. I wouldn’t put it past McCain to do this and I put nothing past the dems at any time.
“But McCain and Graham screwed themselves by being more concerned about terrorists’ feelings than American lives.”
McCain and Graham are concerned with the Anglo-American traditions of protection of the innocent who get arrested – like the Canadian guy whom we arrested, and sent off to Syria to be tortured. Gotta say – those who say anyone caught up in a wide, indiscriminate net must be a”terrorist”, and so undeserving of basic rights, is profoundly un-American. You should be ashamed.