Feb 16 2008
Now Is Not The Time For Dems To Blind America
The FISA wars have become surreal as paranoid and delusional liberals panic about non-existent risks to civil liberties (all surveillance activities are reviewed by many organizations and the courts to ensure there is no abuse). Their made-for-TV juvenile fears of being listened in on have caused them to demand all surveillance, even that surveillance focused solely overseas. Why? Because much of the world digital communications flows through US owned assets. And technology neophytes don’t understand that foreign and domestic traffic is easily differentiated and therefore does not require judicial review to ensure separation. I don’t know a single judge who is technically savvy enough to know if communications are being separated or not – so judicial review is a joke.
Mike McConnell, head of National Intelligence, has this to say about the dangers the democrats have put us in by allowing all the changes we have made to FISA since 9-11, which have kept us safe, to lapse and be undone in one sad day of political opportunism:
Some have claimed that expiration of the Protect America Act would not significantly affect our operations. Such claims are not supported by the facts. We are already losing capability due to the failure to address liability protection. Without the act in place, vital programs would be plunged into uncertainty and delay, and capabilities would continue to decline. Under the Protect America Act, we obtained valuable insight and understanding, leading to the disruption of planned terrorist attacks. Expiration would lead to the loss of important tools our workforce relies on to discover the locations, intentions and capabilities of terrorists and other foreign intelligence targets abroad. Some critical operations, including our ability to adjust to dynamic terrorist threats that exploit new methods of communication, which sometimes requires assistance from private parties, would probably become impossible. And the difficulties we face in obtaining this essential help from private parties would worsen significantly if the act expires or is merely extended without addressing this issue. Without long-term legislation that includes liability protection, we will be delayed in gathering — or may simply miss — intelligence needed to protect the nation.
These circumstances can be avoided. The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, after an in-depth review of our operations, recognized on a bipartisan basis the importance of providing liability protection to those who assisted our nation in a time of great need. The committee’s report stated that “without retroactive immunity, the private sector might be unwilling to cooperate with lawful government requests in the future without unnecessary court involvement and protracted litigation. The possible reduction in intelligence that might result from this delay is simply unacceptable for the safety of our Nation.”
Emphasis mine, but the statement comes from a Democrat led Senate committee and had overwhelming support from both Dems and Reps. Clearly there is concern that we just had a blindfold put over our eyes by a shrill and politically paranoid House Leadership who spend more time and energy fighting George Bush than al-Qaeda and terrorists. My previous thoughts on this debacle are here and here.
But right now is a really bad time to be blinded or delayed in getting our eye (or ears) on targets. That is because something is brewing in the ME with the assassination of a Hezbollah leader who is touted as the original Bin Laden. I discussed this horrific nexus of events in a previous post which showed why having the Democrat led House impair our defenses was putting our forces in Iraq and around the world at grave risk.
The news surrounding the result of this assassination are disturbing. First off we see Syria meeting with terrorists groups right after the assassination – why would they meet with all these groups which were reported to be preparing attacks on neighboring Arab states? One target could be Iraq and our forces there.
We see Jews around the world on high alert for an attack, which could set the ME back into conflict.
And Hizbollah forces are now on high alert preparing for a war with Israel.
Given all these threats to our forces overseas and our allies in the ME one would think the Democrats could put aside their Bush Derangement Syndrome and wake from their silly delusional paranoia that the entire US military complex is focused on defeating liberals here in the US. But somehow they cannot wake up from their little fantasy world were the US is at war with them and not with al-Qaeda. If they can pull themselves together and focus on the real enemy overseas then America will relegate them to the dustbin of history – gladly.
America is at war. And the question of the hour is simply how to win this war. This war is unusual, it is often said, because of the nature of this enemy. But I think not. I think it is unusual because it can only be won if every American can find within themselves a level of critical thinking and reflective discernment that our educational system has failed to inculcate. Today, we must think critically for ourselves, without blind reliance on government or the press, if we are to win this war. After all, it was our Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld that was looking over the horizon for an intercontinental missile when the terrorist struck the twin towers. What country in the world is going to attack America with an ICBM… a weapon that can easily be traced to its point of origin? Not even North Korea.
I was in Europe a month after 911 with a group of educated professionals that I had know for years. Everyone under 40 years of age sincerely believed that the strongest military in the world could not be attacked without prior knowledge. It had to be a conspiracy. The Pentagon had to have known what was about to happen. Now if you believe this one, you can stop reading right now. The point is that these folks are the professional class of Europe and they are just as ignorant as the rest of America.
Now, Rumsfeld was right about reforming the military and give him credit for that one. But as Secretary of Defense, he’s also had to have a realistic and accurate worldview. The danger of the war de jour is a suitcase nuclear attack on American soil. It will happen in my lifetime and it will be done by the terrorist we are currently fighting. They will have bought the essential parts from North Korea, the Russia mafia, or the Iranians. When it happens, every American will look to the government and ask why we didn’t do everything… and I mean everything… possible to avoid it. It is inconceivable that we do not take this seriously. And we don’t. As we fight the first war of the 21st Century, we are led by cold-war warriors of the 20th Century. Almost as bad, their foot soldiers in the congress and press… as are the loyal opposition… are condemned to mere rhetorical excess. Where is rational, measured thinking in America? The answer to wining the war is our ability to reason… with all the benefits of hindsight that history brings… and to start having real “faith†in authentic American values. Start with words.
Listen to the language and words of our times.
Words do have meaning. When pundits talk about approaching the “slippery slope†ask yourself who lives on the flat plains of moral certitude. The neighbors down the street? There is no perfect answer to anything. Murder is wrong. If left with no other means, would I kill to protect my family? You betcha. We all live on the slippery slope of compromise. In fact, the art of living well is the ability to make good compromises by “seeing†that which is most profound. When people talk of religious convictions as the foundations for public policy… remember that all religion is a “leap of faithâ€. The cannons of religious faith cannot be “provedâ€. They are beyond proof. And more importantly, not all religions share the same beliefs. Your God, my God, their God. Whose God speaks for America? Which sect of American Christianity is most “Americanâ€?.
More importantly, think about the consequences of this agenda.
America in the 21st Century is made strong and safe by scientific methodology and its impact on our markets and our own defense. When people talk about substituting religious thinking for science… as in “intelligent designâ€â€¦ we are condemning our country to fall behind the rest of the world in scientific achievement. The consequences of this “moral†decision to abandon critical thought are immense. When the left in this country talks about people dying as the defining reason to leave Iraq… as important as each and every life is… it is merely a “political polemicâ€. It must be challenged as vociferously as “intelligent designâ€. Politics are for the left what religious morality is to the right. Both abandon themselves to their own demons… and diminish the public dialogue to be merely polemic. Dying is, unfortunately, a part of governance and must be evaluated in larger terms. That people die in Iraq is not sufficient to determine policy. How then, to determine public policy and truly diminish suffering and death?
History…
Much like Jimmy Carter who was genuinely and publicly shocked (imagine the ramifications… the dangerous naivety) when the Russians lied to him… the answer to wining this war is framed by a clear and unequivocal need to know the larger reality confronting us. Which war do we wish to win? Yes, a sustained and massive military response is essential to our defense, but do we think we are faced with a military war… a political war… or a cultural war? Which war is defining our ability to succeed? Are we fighting more than one war?
Extra point question: Does anyone out there know what brought down the Berlin wall?
Yes, military might certainly helped create conditions that lead to its deconstruction, and we do need the strongest military in the world. But our military might did not pull the wall down. Truth brought the wall down. When East Berliners saw the gray, flickering images of western and European societies on their cheap Russian televisions, they finally accepted the larger truth of their lives. Their government had lied. Massively. When the Truth became inescapable, the guards on the wall could not shoot and the people of East Berlin tore the wall down. The Truth: metaphysical concepts of justice and morality have always been so powerful that they have humbled the mightiest militaries in history. Truth created Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and oh yes, America. Can it be that when our President tells the world that America is ready to defend democracy and western values that he truly understands what that means?
I too want Bin Laden dead… without reservation nor with any need to know his specific culpability. I accept that we must defend ourselves from Islamic extremist. But, let not our blood lust blind us to critical thinking. The truth is never found in the language of extremist of any stripe or color. Nor should we allow our complacency to hide the nature of our current cultural wars in America. Extremism is not the sole definition of our enemies… it is part of our daily culture as well. Fundamentalism is found everywhere. It “concretizes†thought… an intellectual construct frozen and impenetrable and unchanging as concrete.
America can no longer ignore the Truth.
Bin Laden was created by his contempt for the despotic and corrupt regime that runs Saudi Arabia. The Truth is that Bin Laden is actually… dramatic pause… right in his contempt for the Saudi royal family! The Saudi royal family has no intent of creating a democratic form of government (not that Bin Laden cares) and is diametrically opposed to the values Bush is poised to defend with the lives of so many. Bin Laden rages against us with all the technologies of the western world partly because we support the Saudi and other despotic regimes. Our need for oil has placed us in the most difficult of moral positions. Bin Laden is right again… and millions of people abroad know this next truth… we are positioned on the wrong side of our principals. Give me a second here to explain to all you die heart neocons.
(… which war must we win?)
When Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger allowed the formation of OPEC… they did so to regulate and stabilize the global supply of oil. Or said another way, they made the oil business a whole lot better. Yes oil was, and is, a strategic necessity. And in encouraging OPEC last century, we retarded the creation of technologies and industries that we need to survive in this century. And, we positioned America as the defender and economic benefactor of despotic regimes all over the Middle East. The Truth is that decision has cost this country an incalculable sum… our integrity and our future prosperity. And today, our government is poised, once again, to sacrifice you and me in defense of corporate America. In 30 years since the formation of OPEC, we could have developed the technology that will replace oil as a strategic necessity. Image: a Middle East made irrelevant to the struggles of oil. No terrorism. No war. A reality that didn’t happen due to corporate interest in America. A reality that didn’t happened because of the State Department’s stewardship of modern foreign policy. Now, don’t get me wrong. I am a committed Capitalist. But, I am first and foremost a realist.
God help us.
Bin Laden was trained, funded, and supported by the CIA to defeat Russia in Afghanistan. The Truth is that it didn’t matter who won that war in Afghanistan. Where are the “Dominosâ€â€¦ where is the communist uprising that would result when the “dominos†fell? Do we ever learn?
Who won the Viet Nam war? Extra bonus points!
Not the French. Not the British. Not the Americans. The ultimate victors weren’t even the North Vietnamese. Hilton Hotels won the war. Communism was beaten by tourism and their foot solders came armed with credit cards and cameras. How many millions of people were killed and maimed to overthrow a communist regime that was destined to fail. If we really believed in the strength of our values, we should have believed in the inevitable failure of communism to feed and sustain its people. If the North and the South Viet names regimes were left to fight it out on their own, a whole lot less folks would have been killed and maimed. And, the result would have been the same. How many other Asian, South American, and Central American despots has the State Department protected? How many millions of people killed, tortured, and maimed? For what end? Did any of this every lead to protecting American’s real strategic interests? Not a one. But the real cost of that policy was the alignment of America with some of the most corrupt and murderous regimes in modern times. The real cost was the loss of American leadership in the world and the deflowering of America’s strongest weapon: its values and leadership towards a better world.
Yes, there is a cultural war going on. Medieval theologies are fighting the spread of modern culture. And while there are a few current cultural icons I personally would love to see stoned to death, these forces are just like the communist of the last century. They cannot be defeated militarily, nor need we do so. They will die out when we win the hearts of their foot shoulders if we lead with traditional American values. Please note… it takes a strong army… often in armed conflict… to maintain conditions ripe for success. But success itself will not come on the battlefield. Where would we be today if the Bush government immediately rebuilt the economy of Iraq… protected the essential assets of that country… had enough troops to maintain civil order… keep Iraqi military assets out of the hands of insurgents… built schools and hospitals… and insured the military and police stayed on the job? A whole lot less people would be dead and the costs would, in the long run, be less.
We did not do this simply because Rumsfeld had to prove his vision of a transformational, smaller, faster military would work. Well, it did win the war (no great accomplishment) but it lost the peace and in doing so, condemned our children to a diminished future. Imagine the arrogance… the hubris that condems us to 100 years of conflict in order to achieve a personal vindication.
The Truth will set us free.
In the last several elections, a great to do was made over each candidate’s war record in Viet Nam. Hell, I don’t care whether they carried a M16, a camera, a bed sheet, or flew aimlessly around the Texan backcountry. But as President, we should all care about what the candidates learned from the last war. No one asked. In every single national election since the war… not one journalist has asked. Not one politician offered insight into the single most important event of the last half of the 20th Century. Take that knowledge, if it exists, and tell us what to do about the Saudis, the French, North Koreans, China, Russia and the Palestinians all of whom are supporting international terrorist activities. Where is critical thought? Where is wisdom?
Our commitement to authentic American principals and justice is ultimately the only Truth that will win this war. When will we learn?
America is at war. And the question of the hour is simply how to win this war. This war is unusual, it is often said, because of the nature of this enemy. But I think not. I think it is unusual because it can only be won if every American can find within themselves a level of critical thinking and reflective discernment that our educational system has failed to inculcate. Today, we must think critically for ourselves, without blind reliance on government or the press, if we are to win this war. After all, it was our Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld that was looking over the horizon for an intercontinental missile when the terrorist struck the twin towers. What country in the world is going to attack America with an ICBM… a weapon that can easily be traced to its point of origin? Not even North Korea.
I was in Europe a month after 911 with a group of educated professionals that I had know for years. Everyone under 40 years of age sincerely believed that the strongest military in the world could not be attacked without prior knowledge. It had to be a conspiracy. The Pentagon had to have known what was about to happen. Now if you believe this one, you can stop reading right now. The point is that these folks are the professional class of Europe and they are just as ignorant as the rest of America.
Now, Rumsfeld was right about reforming the military and give him credit for that one. But as Secretary of Defense, he’s also had to have a realistic and accurate worldview. The danger of the war de jour is a suitcase nuclear attack on American soil. It will happen in my lifetime and it will be done by the terrorist we are currently fighting. They will have bought the essential parts from North Korea, the Russia mafia, or the Iranians. When it happens, every American will look to the government and ask why we didn’t do everything… and I mean everything… possible to avoid it. It is inconceivable that we do not take this seriously. And we don’t. As we fight the first war of the 21st Century, we are led by cold-war warriors of the 20th Century. Almost as bad, their foot soldiers in the congress and press… as are the loyal opposition… are condemned to mere rhetorical excess. Where is rational, measured thinking in America? The answer to wining the war is our ability to reason… with all the benefits of hindsight that history brings… and to start having real “faith†in authentic American values. Start with words.
Listen to the language and words of our times.
Words do have meaning. When pundits talk about approaching the “slippery slope†ask yourself who lives on the flat plains of moral certitude. The neighbors down the street? There is no perfect answer to anything. Murder is wrong. If left with no other means, would I kill to protect my family? You betcha. We all live on the slippery slope of compromise. In fact, the art of living well is the ability to make good compromises by “seeing†that which is most profound. When people talk of religious convictions as the foundations for public policy… remember that all religion is a “leap of faithâ€. The cannons of religious faith cannot be “provedâ€. They are beyond proof. And more importantly, not all religions share the same beliefs. Your God, my God, their God. Whose God speaks for America? Which sect of American Christianity is most “Americanâ€?.
More importantly, think about the consequences of this agenda.
America in the 21st Century is made strong and safe by scientific methodology and its impact on our markets and our own defense. When people talk about substituting religious thinking for science… as in “intelligent designâ€â€¦ we are condemning our country to fall behind the rest of the world in scientific achievement. The consequences of this “moral†decision to abandon critical thought are immense. When the left in this country talks about people dying as the defining reason to leave Iraq… as important as each and every life is… it is merely a “political polemicâ€. It must be challenged as vociferously as “intelligent designâ€. Politics are for the left what religious morality is to the right. Both abandon themselves to their own demons… and diminish the public dialogue to be merely polemic. Dying is, unfortunately, a part of governance and must be evaluated in larger terms. That people die in Iraq is not sufficient to determine policy. How then, to determine public policy and truly diminish suffering and death?
History…
Much like Jimmy Carter who was genuinely and publicly shocked (imagine the ramifications… the dangerous naivety) when the Russians lied to him… the answer to wining this war is framed by a clear and unequivocal need to know the larger reality confronting us. Which war do we wish to win? Yes, a sustained and massive military response is essential to our defense, but do we think we are faced with a military war… a political war… or a cultural war? Which war is defining our ability to succeed? Are we fighting more than one war?
Extra point question: Does anyone out there know what brought down the Berlin wall?
Yes, military might certainly helped create conditions that lead to its deconstruction, and we do need the strongest military in the world. But our military might did not pull the wall down. Truth brought the wall down. When East Berliners saw the gray, flickering images of western and European societies on their cheap Russian televisions, they finally accepted the larger truth of their lives. Their government had lied. Massively. When the Truth became inescapable, the guards on the wall could not shoot and the people of East Berlin tore the wall down. The Truth: metaphysical concepts of justice and morality have always been so powerful that they have humbled the mightiest militaries in history. Truth created Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and oh yes, America. Can it be that when our President tells the world that America is ready to defend democracy and western values that he truly understands what that means?
I too want Bin Laden dead… without reservation nor with any need to know his specific culpability. I accept that we must defend ourselves from Islamic extremist. But, let not our blood lust blind us to critical thinking. The truth is never found in the language of extremist of any stripe or color. Nor should we allow our complacency to hide the nature of our current cultural wars in America. Extremism is not the sole definition of our enemies… it is part of our daily culture as well. Fundamentalism is found everywhere. It “concretizes†thought… an intellectual construct frozen and impenetrable and unchanging as concrete.
America can no longer ignore the Truth.
Bin Laden was created by his contempt for the despotic and corrupt regime that runs Saudi Arabia. The Truth is that Bin Laden is actually… dramatic pause… right in his contempt for the Saudi royal family! The Saudi royal family has no intent of creating a democratic form of government (not that Bin Laden cares) and is diametrically opposed to the values Bush is poised to defend with the lives of so many. Bin Laden rages against us with all the technologies of the western world partly because we support the Saudi and other despotic regimes. Our need for oil has placed us in the most difficult of moral positions. Bin Laden is right again… and millions of people abroad know this next truth… we are positioned on the wrong side of our principals. Give me a second here to explain to all you die heart neocons.
(… which war must we win?)
When Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger allowed the formation of OPEC… they did so to regulate and stabilize the global supply of oil. Or said another way, they made the oil business a whole lot better. Yes oil was, and is, a strategic necessity. And in encouraging OPEC last century, we retarded the creation of technologies and industries that we need to survive in this century. And, we positioned America as the defender and economic benefactor of despotic regimes all over the Middle East. The Truth is that decision has cost this country an incalculable sum… our integrity and our future prosperity. And today, our government is poised, once again, to sacrifice you and me in defense of corporate America. In 30 years since the formation of OPEC, we could have developed the technology that will replace oil as a strategic necessity. Image: a Middle East made irrelevant to the struggles of oil. No terrorism. No war. A reality that didn’t happen due to corporate interest in America. A reality that didn’t happened because of the State Department’s stewardship of modern foreign policy. Now, don’t get me wrong. I am a committed Capitalist. But, I am first and foremost a realist.
God help us.
Bin Laden was trained, funded, and supported by the CIA to defeat Russia in Afghanistan. The Truth is that it didn’t matter who won that war in Afghanistan. Where are the “Dominosâ€â€¦ where is the communist uprising that would result when the “dominos†fell? Do we ever learn?
Who won the Viet Nam war? Extra bonus points!
Not the French. Not the British. Not the Americans. The ultimate victors weren’t even the North Vietnamese. Hilton Hotels won the war. Communism was beaten by tourism and their foot solders came armed with credit cards and cameras. How many millions of people were killed and maimed to overthrow a communist regime that was destined to fail. If we really believed in the strength of our values, we should have believed in the inevitable failure of communism to feed and sustain its people. If the North and the South Viet names regimes were left to fight it out on their own, a whole lot less folks would have been killed and maimed. And, the result would have been the same. How many other Asian, South American, and Central American despots has the State Department protected? How many millions of people killed, tortured, and maimed? For what end? Did any of this every lead to protecting American’s real strategic interests? Not a one. But the real cost of that policy was the alignment of America with some of the most corrupt and murderous regimes in modern times. The real cost was the loss of American leadership in the world and the deflowering of America’s strongest weapon: its values and leadership towards a better world.
Yes, there is a cultural war going on. Medieval theologies are fighting the spread of modern culture. And while there are a few current cultural icons I personally would love to see stoned to death, these forces are just like the communist of the last century. They cannot be defeated militarily, nor need we do so. They will die out when we win the hearts of their foot shoulders if we lead with traditional American values. Please note… it takes a strong army… often in armed conflict… to maintain conditions ripe for success. But success itself will not come on the battlefield. Where would we be today if the Bush government immediately rebuilt the economy of Iraq… protected the essential assets of that country… had enough troops to maintain civil order… keep Iraqi military assets out of the hands of insurgents… built schools and hospitals… and insured the military and police stayed on the job? A whole lot less people would be dead and the costs would, in the long run, be less.
We did not do this simply because Rumsfeld had to prove his vision of a transformational, smaller, faster military would work. Well, it did win the war (no great accomplishment) but it lost the peace and in doing so, condemned our children to a diminished future. Imagine the arrogance… the hubris that condems us to 100 years of conflict in order to achieve a personal vindication.
The Truth will set us free.
In the last several elections, a great to do was made over each candidate’s war record in Viet Nam. Hell, I don’t care whether they carried a M16, a camera, a bed sheet, or flew aimlessly around the Texan backcountry. But as President, we should all care about what the candidates learned from the last war. No one asked. In every single national election since the war… not one journalist has asked. Not one politician offered insight into the single most important event of the last half of the 20th Century. Take that knowledge, if it exists, and tell us what to do about the Saudis, the French, North Koreans, China, Russia and the Palestinians all of whom are supporting international terrorist activities. Where is critical thought? Where is wisdom?
Our commitement to authentic American principals and justice is ultimately the only Truth that will win this war. When will we learn?
I do not know one person if asked, that would take the Dem position. But almost half of my friends vote Dem. Even though the NYT cuts another 100 jobs, they and the MSM still drive this train.
A perfect example of pure insanity by the Dems. So someone explain to me why their phones are not ringing. How can they LIE about important issues that the facts are so well known, and it still be published?
If someone could cut through that fog, people would be scared to death. Who would intentionally vote to die? Do you hear those protected ‘journalists’ whimper? Even they must live in la-la-land to not protect their own children.
Michael, your post is intriguing.
I understand that Tom DeLay has changed his mind and endorse McCain after all!
Considering the fact that Tom Delay was indicted and he brought the whole K Street thing into the Congress in the first place, I don’t know how much I care. He hurt Republicans more than he helped them.
As for the Democratic Congress, I honestly do not know what they are thinking. I don’t know if they are pandering for the base, trying to help out the trial lawyers or are just paranoid, but if they did not want those companies to have immunity more of them should have been raising hell about it in the first place. The whole thing is absurd.
There has not been any evidence that ordinary people have been spied on. None at all. Why would the government bother?
AJ,
Not only are the Democrats trying to tie the hands of the Bush Administration and acting in a reckless manner with the safety of our troops and our citizens, it seems they just can’t stop meeting with terrorist states…
http://www.nysun.com/article/71373
AJ,
By the way, I love all of your posts lately about the progress in Iraq, the middle east news, Fisa, etc.
This is where I think you really shine! 🙂
The Dems think that the 90’s were the way to fight terrorism, as a law enforcement issue. As far as they are concerned the last 8 years need to be wiped clean as if they and Bush didn’t exist. History be damned.
At “The Victory Caucus” everyone should read this, Michael writes from the front lines, this is especially good. Michael Yon: Dragon Soup. Americans are good people!
Michael – that was a long-winded … bag of wind.
Owl – I agree that the MSM has failed miserably in presenting and explaining important issues to the public. I also think this is one area — communications — where the Bush team has been rather inept at times. But, the larger question is what has happened to the media? Obviously, contempt for Bush (BDS) and liberal bias plays a big part, but I think journalistic standards have fallen. So much of the reporting and writing is so shoddy. And there’s usually an agenda that results in the real lead being buried and pertinent facts dismissed.
MSM and the Dems are one in the same. And they all can be connected to George Soros. Listen to the Soros agenda, there is not one cintilla of difference between the three. If anybody wanted to know what was going on in Iraq they could find out the same way I can. The President has talked until he was blue in the face, if his words are not printed or on the various news casts what is he to do? I know what is going on because I want to know and can read the internet. Is the latest FISA debacle on the front page, no. What has been repeated are Dem talking points. Is the Presidents visit to Africa and the reason for going on the front page or on any news casts? No! Why, because all are invested in this country looking like we have no friends, have done nothing for the rest of the world, that George Bush has accomplished nothing and on and on.
But when Clinton went to Africa to redeem himself for Monicagate, every MSM covered every move, hand shake, body wiggle of the whole group he took along for sight seeing. So who talks about the Millennium Account that this administration established to help governments who are working towards democracy, rule of law, education for their children and health issues. NO ONE, WHY? Because the world and the powers in this country are pretending that Bush is a nothing President. and that America is bad.
What do they want of us, the George Soros crowd? Sign the Kyoto Treaty, join the World Court, give .07% of our GDP to the UN, stop acting unilaterly, get off our high horse thinking we are something when we are not.
Michael,
I got the impression that you know little of the Viet Nam War. We were defending a country and a region. The charge that the Diem regime was corrupt was a gross exaggeration by a corrupt press.
Yet another thought-provoking post from AJ, and spot-on.
Please allow me to quibble with one assertion.
To attribute the insanity we see with mere Bush Derangement Syndrome is giving too much credit to liberals. The fact is they hate America, have hated America before Bush, and will hate America after Bush.
The essence of liberalism is to abhor capitalism. Many liberals manage to cloak this penchant for distaste for free markets, but their actions, their votes, and their proposals belie their words. Since America is capitalist, America is evil, and America must be stopped. Yes they love the place, the land, the buildings, and the people that think like them, but everything else must be changed. I was once a liberal, and I know how they think, to blame current perfidy on Bush Derangement gives them an excuse, and in part erases their sordid pre-Bush transgressions on this country, not to mention the implication that once Bush is gone, they will revert to patriotism. Not a chance, they want capitalism eradicated, and until it is, America will be their primary target.
They don’t want America to be protected, it’s as simple as that.
Tom DeLay has been indicted but not convicted. But the way he ran the House…
The Dems are claiming that there are no real threats so they don’t think it’s a real problem.
I see that if Obama wins, he may hire Linda Darling-Hammond.
He won’t support vouchers
Also, the Dems made sure that a pork Republican king becomes a minority chair of the House appropriations committee, instead of Jeff Flake.
Something I am wondering about. If the FISA legislation expires is that really a bad thing? Wouldn’t we go back to what we were doing before FISA? Wouldn’t that mean we could simply monitor pretty much whatever we wanted to without worrying about getting a FISA warrant?
Oh, and maybe there should be a “welcoming committee” in Pentagon City for this function:
I read this on “Betsy’s Page”
The BBC referred to both murdered prime minister Rafik Hariri and terrorist mastermind Imad Mughniyeh as two “great national leaders.”
Why would one wonder how the Dems could go on vacation without passing FISA legislation. After all killers are just a kind of leaders. And George Bush is just a KIND OF TERRORIST. What a world we live in! Moral relativism is so interesting and has deadly consequences.
I read this on “Betsy’s Page”
The BBC referred to both murdered prime minister Rafik Hariri and terrorist mastermind Imad Mughniyeh as two “great national leaders.”
Why would one wonder how the Dems could go on vacation without passing FISA legislation. After all killers are just a kind of leaders. And George Bush is just a KIND OF TERRORIST. What a world we live in! Moral relativism is so interesting and has deadly consequences.
Sadly, this vote has nothing to do with ideology or the anti-war movement. That would make it misguided and foolish, but not as reprehensibly traitorous as it truly is.
It’s all about money, plain and simple. More specifically, about the money that the trial lawyers association contributes to Pelosi and her congressional supporters. They see a huge payday coming from the lawsuits against the telecoms, no matter who wins, and that can only be thwarted by this bill. Robert Novak has tracked down the details:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/17/AR2008021701734.html?nav=rss_opinion/columns
“The recess by House Democrats amounts to a judgment that losing the generous support of trial lawyers, the Democratic Party’s most important financial base, would be more dangerous than losing the anti-terrorist issue to Republicans.”
and
“Big money is involved. Amanda Carpenter, a Townhall.com columnist, has prepared a spreadsheet showing that 66 trial lawyers representing plaintiffs in the telecommunications suits have contributed $1.5 million to Democratic senators and causes. Of the 29 Democratic senators who voted against the FISA bill last Tuesday, 24 took money from the trial lawyers (as did two absent senators, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama). Eric A. Isaacson of San Diego, one of the telecommunications plaintiffs’ lawyers, contributed to the recent unsuccessful presidential campaign of Sen. Chris Dodd, who led the Senate fight against the bill containing immunity. “