Apr 26 2009
To Investigate Bush Or Face Up To The Delayed Economic Recovery?
The liberal Democrats in Congress have no common sense. Absolutely none. They went out on a limb when it came to winning Iraq and let emotion drive them when a small modicum of common sense could have stopped them from betting the farm America would fail.
Right now they are in a similar predicament. They have put in place massive government spending to try and turn the economy around – which cannot stimulate the economy for months to come. That is because the government is slow, bumbling, bureaucracy clogged with processes and rules. It is not nimble like the free market. It moves like a glacier while the free market flows like a river. By putting their economic cures into the wrong basket, they have set themselves on a course where we have months of declining jobs, which will continue to drag down the economy as spending and revenues slow.
So the Dems have to find some kind of distraction to take the public’s mind off their mistake. Their current plan is a witch hunt against Bush administration people, as if the personal pain of economic strife can be replaced or numbed by some DC show trial. It is a really dumb idea, but it makes THEM feel better, so therefore they will continue to do dumb things.Â
Nearly 60% of the people don’t want a witch hunt, they don’t care about what has been done. What they do care about is their future. And the only thing that will change that is to have the Dems admit they screwed up and should have put more emphasis on tax breaks for small companies. And THAT is not going to ever happen.
First the new administration wants, maybe wants, to get to the bottom of EIT’s, to enforce that idea, Obama will release thousands of pictures of tortured prisoners by the CIA as well as the Military shortly. Surely, that will inflame all those who want to put Bush/Cheney on trial and in prison. I don’t think this will be the end of reviewing the past. I guess we will come to the conclusion that war is hell, people are heros as well as scumbags, just like they are in everyday life. But in the process Obama will be the holder of Americas “new morality”, even if we tear the country apart in the process, we will be above moral reproach. Never mind that the government sanctions the killing of babies for inconvenience. So as Donna Brizille says, let’s get it on. The Dems say this is all about the rule of law. Civil law is different then what goes on in war, even a dumb ass, with the littlest reading of history, understands that. Will anybody be surprised that the CIA asked to use EIT’s on high value prisoners because they had tried all other tools, then lawyers gave legal advice, then the executive signed off on methods with the congress’s consent. So really there is no way that the CIA can be exonerated, and the President prosecuted. Was it pretty, no, but head chopping isn’t pretty either, neither are the use of commercial airliners to kill Americans in their place of work.
Maybe many in the government and the people in general don’t know why the CIA was created. What it’s powers are and how they operate. When we find out what they do, are we going to be horrified that they are not sitting in a corner twiddling their fingers?
All this noise will put on the back pages, nationalized medical care and cap and trade. It will also obscure the fact that trillions of dollars will be taxed and held by the government, to fund these initiatives, money that could be productive in the private sector, create jobs and rebuild a free market. There will be real consequences to each and every life as a result of these programs, and it won’t be growth of the economy or jobs for many who have lost them. Secondly, demonizing the military will allow big cuts in our defense to fund the new social projects. Remember, defunding the military was the way Clinton balanced the budget. There is not a country that has a military, of any note, that has socialized medicine. If you look down the road, the Islamic populations of the world are growing, and so is the idea of the caliphate. Maybe the west doesn’t care or they don’t believe that the idea of a caliphate is real. Personally, I believe it is real and at the moment we, with a few others, cause the militants to think twice. To say that if America imposes on the Israel’s a solution to the two state idea, all will be well, is not dealing with reality. The only way to solve the Israel problem is to extinguish Israel.
I absolutely hate with a passion the idea of subjugating my individuality to the collective. The individual is the blessing of this country’s ideals. Everything about what is American, as opposed to almost every other country in the world, constitutionally promise that an individual is sacred, special, and has the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of fulfillment.
Kathie:
I heard there were 44 pictures that would be released and perhaps more that were supposed to show that the US investigated any situation in which there was a possibility of abuse.
I wonder if this will get Americans killed. I wonder if Obama cares if it does or not. He does his apology tour and then he comes home and releases pics from years ago, just to make the US military look bad.
The arrogant moralizing twit. Meanwhile his rendition program is going along just fine. And no one will see any pictures of anyone sent to Egypt or Jordan or anywhere else Obama wants to send them.
Meanwhile he says he will release the Chinese in Gitmo here in the US, because the Chinese want to try them. Yeah, what could go wrong?
The Democrats went along with the enhanced interrogation because they were afraid, and then when the fear passed they reversed themselves for political gain. The same in Iraq, once they drug Saddam out of that spider hole and the Democrats did not have to worry about him any more, they started trashing the military in earnest.
The whole thing is absurd. I think it just might turn on Obama. Peiople have more pressing concerns right now than watching a bunch of self serving pols dredge all this up for the sake of political gain.
This has more to do with the Obama people worrying about the Tea Party protests than it does with torture or abuse or anyhing else, they just want to change the subject.
A good read on IET’s at “FLOPPING ACES”, What the FBI thinks and what the CIA thinks.
The Coercive Interrogation of Abu Zubaydah to Prevent a Second Wave Attack
Next thing you know they will be using the swine flu “public health emergency” to ban tea party gatherings.
I love this. The Italians are smart!!!!!!!
Italian, Turkish ships escape attacks
ROME – An Italian cruise ship with 1,500 people on board has been able to fight off a pirate attack off the coast of Somalia.
An officer says the ship had private Israeli security forces aboard. They exchanged fire with the bandits and drove them away.
KSM Was Told He Would Not Die When Waterboarded
by: Bill Dupray posted: 2009-04-26 17:34:00
Viewed 8 times. 0 Comments.
And that, under U.S. law, means it was not torture.
From The Corner.
According to the International Red Cross documents that were recently released, which quote KSM and other detainees describing their interrogations, KSM says he told by his interrogators that he would not die. With the release of the OLC memos, we know why: one of the red lines that, if crossed, would have made the techniques torture under US law was whether the detainees thought they were in danger of death. That is why they were told specifically they would not die.
Hell, they tell you you might die when you go in to have your appendix taken out.
Doctors might want to brace themselves for coming Congressional Hearings on their torture practices.
First of all, this entire episode of releasing the photos is so patently transparent that a first grader could figure out what is truly going on.
And secondly, imho, there will be many who feel we were TOO NICE to these murdering thugs.
What kind of REAL TORTURE did those people on the top floors of the World Trade Center endure jumping off to end their lives so as not to be burned to death??
I ask FoxNews one thing: if you are going to show the photos of the ENHANCED INTERROGATIONS, then you MUST SHOW the photos of INNOCENT AMERICANS JUMPING TO THEIR DEATHS from the Towers on 9/11. I’m sorry, but I do NOT FEEL ONE BIT OF REMORSE for dunking those thugs heads into water. GET REAL.
And oh yes, don’t forget Danny Pearl…and so many others.
And I would also show our Military HELPING SO MANY IRAQI’S AND AFGHANI’S.
All you who are pushing for these photos are, imho, acting out of the height of hubris. So many in the past administration endured INCREDIBLE STRESS and incredible labor to KEEP YOU SAFE…So now….when you feel you are not in danger, you want to rip these same people to shreds.
So childish, to be kind. So pathological, to be precise.
Obama is pressured by the left; and, driven by polls. Hard to say what he will do. However, he seems to be getting a lot of bad advice these days.
If they do have hearings. I hope Liz Cheney is out there every day. That girl can cmmunicate.
Liz Cheney vs Norah Odonnell — the tactics are not torture
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/04/26/liz-cheney-vs-norah-odonnell-the-tactics-are-not-torture/
And, if they have hearings can they call Bill Clinton to the stand, and play the recordings about what he thought about these techniques and worse?
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“Clinton argued not just for a legal opening to authorize torture — not abuse, not coercive techniques, but the legal ability to “work over” terrorists — but also to allow the executive to cover itself with an ex post facto warrant from the FISA court. That would allow the President to conduct torture illegally but then cover him/herself afterwards by getting FISA judges to provide cover. ”
http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/008312.php
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Of course, Clinton was talking about the “ticking time bomb” scenerio. But, seems he would have taken it even a step further than Bush, maybe.
I keep going back in my mind to something Liz Cheney said in her Odonnnell interview. She wondered about Eric Holder saying that he never read the memos about the effectiveness of the techniques. Did that mean that Obama had also never read those memos? And, did Obama ban these techniques before he ever studied their effectiveness????
I know that the Dems think that Bush is some dumb guy who can hardly speak the English language, a shoot them up cowboy, not fit for anything. But if President Bush says we did not torture I think he knows something that the Dems do not, and he is not just playing with words. He is way to straight forward for that game. I referred readers of this blog to something written from the “corner blog” that said KSM was told that he would not die from waterboarding. Reports conclude then he was not tortured. Let’s say the other 2 terrorists were told the same. Then the International Red Cross says by law they were not tortured, just as President Bush said.
Okay – release the photos and release primetime viewings of beheadings. That seems fair to me. Let’s look at how ‘horrid’ we are. Then, let’s look at how horrid our enemies are. If I sound cranky, it is because I am terribly bummed.
The Liz Cheney vs Norah Odonnell episode exemplifies a major obstacle for those of us who desire anything to the right of a center-left government.
That is — she (Norah) typifies probably 8-9 out of 10 journalists/editors in the way she feels that it is her journalistic moral duty to defend and even advance the cause of ANYTHING the liberal/Democrat (in this case Obama) proclaims that cause to be.
We need more people, and more importantly candidates like Ms. Cheney who are informed enough and brave enough to unabashedly take on the Norahs in the media and in political office.
Great job, Liz. Hopefully, others are watching and learning how these obstacles can be so easily and effectively overcome.
Obama had better get his prioities straight. You know the old saying ” what goes around comes around”. If a president and his admnistration have to keep in mind they might be tried and imprisoned for any decisions they make, it will greatly hamper their ability to lead. And what he is trying to do to Bush could easily be done to him. As far as I am concerned he has already commietted high crimes and misdemeanors with the decisions he has made since Jan 20. The guy is a dunce.
Dear Mr. Strata,
Perhaps you can write some scientific thing about this new
swine flu (H1N1) variant that has started in Mexico.
I found this interesting coincidence in Bloomberg
The first case was seen in Mexico on April 13. The outbreak coincided with the President Barack Obama’s trip to Mexico City on April 16. Obama was received at Mexico’s anthropology museum in Mexico City by Felipe Solis, a distinguished archeologist who died the following day from symptoms similar to flu, Reforma newspaper reported. The newspaper didn’t confirm if Solis had swine flu or not.
—————————————————————————–
snip
That seems very strange.
Is this a bio-weapon accident?
What also seems strange is the early cases in the USA are
reported as mild but in Mexico City reports of 10% death toll
and panic are filtering out.
The BBC radio read an email (I presume) from a Mexican
doctor who wished to remain anonymous. He said the
staff were leaving the hospitals and the situation is very bad.
Why would it be very dangerous in Mexico but milder in the USA?
Thank you.
daniel ortega,
Do you have a link?
I have some thoughts on this, just have not decided to post them or not. One scenario is pure coincidence and it simply shows the robustness of the American population against viruses. The other scenario is someone attempted a bio attack, but the agent was very ‘pliable’ and quickly mutated to a less virulent form.
Not sure if either is true to be honest.
Daniel,
According to recent reports the report you quoted is factually inaccurate, at best.
http://www.prisonplanet.com/obama-host-died-from-swine-flu-story-apparently-fake.html
AJStrata
The CDC estimated in 2004 that about 36,000 Americans die from flu every year. So far this strain has killed zero. About 3500 would need to die from it in order to even make it statistically significant. So far the US death toll is pretty close to zero as far as we know. This is a lot of hysteria so far about something that isn’t killing anyone. Most of the additional cases in Mexico aren’t people who are dying now but are people who had died in the past and respiratory samples are now being tested to see if they had the H1N1 flu.
So far all cases in the US have been described as “mild” flu cases. As far as I know, no deaths have been reported from outside Mexico.
Kathie,
“According to the International Red Cross documents that were recently released, which quote KSM and other detainees describing their interrogations, KSM says he told by his interrogators that he would not die. With the release of the OLC memos, we know why: one of the red lines that, if crossed, would have made the techniques torture under US law was whether the detainees thought they were in danger of death. That is why they were told specifically they would not die.”
You are wrong about the definition of torture. The threat of imminent death is only one of the actions constituting torture. The United States Code definition of torture includes, among other things, the “the intentional infliction or threatened infliction of severe physical pain or suffering.” http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/2340.html The war crimes trials of the Japanese military officials convicted for waterboarding after WWII did not require proof that the American soldiers died or thought they were in danger of death. The act of waterboarding itself was considered torture and used as the basis for convicting these Japanese soldiers.
I wonder how Americans will start feeling about the EIT program when more information comes out about the fact that Cheney and Rumsfeld were pushing for its use to find a link between Al Qaida and Iraq – both before and after the Iraqi war started. http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/66622.html
I have a feeling Americans will feel a little differently about this issue once they discover that it was used in part to justify a political or policy related issue, rather than simply to thwart plots and save American lives.
Yep Conman……..we are going to feel awful us Bush supporters. Did you see how New Yorkers acted when Air Force One with jets following, flew over the city today for a photo op?
The Japanese didn’t water board, they used a hose and shot water down the throats and noses of prisoners.
We already had an investigation of what Rummy did or didn’t do and found they did not order the torture of prisoners.
I say, bring it on…….but duck for cover because if you think the CIA is going to protect us you are wanking.