Mood:
cheekyNow Playing: John McCain fired at the President, the President fired back....
Topic: This time he got mad
John McCain is being just as stupid as the Liberals have been lately. His comments after the President’s speech on Friday were uncalled for and just plain stupid. The idea that there is a moral equivalence between Al-Qaeda and us, is insane. My God, people, they behead their prisoners! They kill people! If you are one who loves America, it is hard to listen to McCain and his cohorts talking about this.
"Since actual torture is already illegal, it would be helpful if Mr. Warner [and McCain and Graham], could explain what interrogation methods or punishment they object to (loud music? interrogating someone for a prolonged period of time? limiting commissary privileges?) even if it lessens the likelihood of preventing the next attack on Washington or on U.S. servicemen in Kabul or Baghdad."
Torture is illegal folks. That isn’t what the president is asking for, but that is just the opposite of what the Liberals and John McCain are talking about. They have no clue.
The New York Times said yesterday: "Stampeding Congress -- We'll find out in November how well the White House's 'be very afraid' campaign has been working with voters." The New York Times should check their own polling data. They would be stunned and shocked and surprised. "We already know it's working in Congress," they say, "stampeded by the fear of looking weak on terrorism, lawmakers are rushing to pass a bill demanded by the president that would have mingle impact on anti-terrorist operations but could cause profound damage to justice and the American way. "
When was the last time anybody of the New York Times editorial board was anywhere near an interrogation of terrorists to understand whether or not the impact is minimal? The New York Times is more ignorant on this subject than probably the average American Citizen!
Drive-By Media is panting over McCain's "Republican rebellion" against Bush. The Democrats can't agree on anything, but according to them, they never have rebellions. Norah O'Donnell from MSNBC, Dana Bash, CNN, Brit Hume, Brian Lamb, Shepard Smith, Charlie Gibson, all saying "Republican rebellion."
O'DONNELL: President Bush surprised the press corps today announcing a press conference. He is under fire facing a Republican rebellion from John McCain, Colin Powell --
BASH: -- a Republican rebellion over how to treat terror detainees.
HUME: President Bush faced an outright rebellion today at the hands of four influential Republican senators.
LAMB: President Bush is facing a Republican rebellion --
SMITH: Rebellion against the president, and battle lines drawn within the GOP.
GIBSON: Members of president's own party in rebellion against the White House.
The Drive By Media, (as Rush calls it) is just that. They seem to drive in packs, so that they all say the same thing. They get those “nifty” little catch phrases or words, and it seems they ALL use it to describe something. Remember Gravitas? That word in itself amazed me. I mean, how many people use that word......and then suddenly, every reporter out there was using it in a short burst of “gravitas” that the news media was orgasming about. Now that word is Republican Rebellion, and you can see the same excitement in their tones as they all use it. Wonder what the next one will be.....and make no mistake...there will be a NEXT one.
The other night, in The Situation Room, Wolf Blitzer interviewed Senator McCain, and he said, "Colin Powell, among other US retired military personnel, agreeing with you that if this doesn't change, if the president's position stands, it would endanger US troops serving around the world. Do you speak with a little authority on this as a former POW yourself? Go into a little bit more specific detail. Why do you think the fighting men and women of the US could be endangered if the president gets his way?"
MCCAIN: Suppose that we amend the Geneva Conventions to our interpretation of it, then another country that is not quite as democratic as ours decides they will amend their version, a Special Forces person is captured by them, and their attorney general tells their secret police, "Okay, here's our interpretation of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions. Have at them." That's what people are worried about.
Do you really think that is what people are worried about? Let me tell you what they are worried about. They are worried about Politicians like McCain, Kennedy, Kerry, Schumer, Durbin, Palosi and others of their ilk getting into power and then inplementing their ideas. That is what people are afraid of, Senator McCain!
Rush Limbaugh brought up another one that was said during this time in the News, (and this is from his show), ...an interesting question: What if these detainees are being denied their [Second Amendment] rights to carry arms? Will Senator McCain step in and do something about this, or the lawyers for the Al-Qaeda terrorists who are at Club Gitmo? (More on that in just a second.) In the first place, as far as that media montage with the media saying, "Ah, Republican rebellion, Republican rebellion," there is no Republican rebellion. There are 45 Democrats who oppose the interrogations joined by a handful of liberal Republicans led by McCain, the usual suspects. There is no Republican rebellion. Now let's get first things first here. This section of the Geneva Conventions, Common Article 3, doesn't even apply in this war except the Supreme Court said that it does!
You think dictators are going to apply this section of the Conventions to themselves because our court says it should be even though it doesn't apply? And even if we get a bill that McCain likes, are the world's dictators and thugs going to abide by it? What is this incessant need to draw some kind of moral equivalence between our enemy and ourselves? Now, when Bush says: "Okay, I have to follow the court, but I want us to properly interpret the section so we can conduct useful interrogations," what does McCain do? McCain says no! This is the guy who held up the Senate for his own torture bill. This is the guy who stopped everything in order to define what is torture, and now he's doing it all over again.
We're not "amending" the Geneva Conventions! We are simply interpreting them because it is vague, and it is broad. So we've gone from the Geneva Conventions not even applying to these...shreds of human debris, to having them apply to terrorists, to preventing us from interrogating terrorists effectively! Thank you, Senator McCain. Thank you, Senator Graham, and thank you, Senator Warner -- not to mention all the Democrats who have actually been leading the way on this before Senator McCain started to throw his hat in the ring. On a little side note, I wonder how the Democrats feel about this. Democrats were leading this charge. Democrats are hoping to win the election on this. Now McCain has taken all their glory! McCain is getting all the oxygen in the room. It's "McCain's opposition." Durbin's gotta be furious. Dingy Harry's gotta be furious.
Yes, they are! Don't think that they're loving the politics of this, because their egos will triumph over the politics. They want to make an election issue out of it. They'll be glad to welcome McCain and the boys to it to defeat the plan because they want to defeat the plan, too. But they want to be the ones signified and notarized as the ones carrying the ball on this. So, again, we've gone from the Geneva Conventions not even applying to terrorists to having them apply to terrorists, to preventing us from interrogating terrorists effectively. This is going to go down as the event that will result in us getting hit again, and if we do, and if McCain, et al, prevail, I can tell you where fingers are going to be pointed on this program: at every senator, Republican or Democrat, who stood in the way here.
There is no "Republican rebellion." Forty-five Democrats opposed the interrogations, joined by a handful of the usual suspects on the Republican side, led by McCain. This is nothing new! We've seen this before. McCain does this all the time: joining with the Democrats to undermine the president. Now, Dick Durbin, the senator from Illinois, said on TV this morning: people going to end up forgetting McCain and Warner and Graham if there is blame for holding this up, and that Bush and everybody will blame the Democrats. They deserve some blame! There are 45 of them leading the charge, and they've been on board for a long time.
They've been trying to sabotage victory over this enemy for years. You deserve blame, Senator Durbin. It sounds like he wants it, sounds like he's hoping they forget McCain. He might be scared. I hope he is scared, but you know, you make your bed, you lay in it -- lie in it, sleep in it, whatever you do in it. People do different things with beds. Back to the audio sound bites. Another McCain, Wolf Blitzer with another penetrating, hard hitting, tough question: "How concerned are you that the three powerful Republican senators, you being McCain, Lindsey Graham, John Warner, that some Republicans might say you're giving aid and comfort to Democrats during this very, very bitter political season, less than eight weeks before the election?" Here is where I just can’t stand it anymore. Senator McCain is being just as big a fool as the Liberals are. Thinking that he has the support of the nation, when he really doesn’t. The only difference between the Liberals and the Moral majority, is the fact that the Liberals have big mouths and an addiction to being in front of the cameras. That is all. But he still carries on with the following:
MCCAIN: There are Senate Republicans that agree with us and there's other people around the country like General Colin Powell who agrees with us. This is not -- this should have nothing to do with politics. Nothing! This is about the lives of American men and women who are serving our country. I believe that we can work out our differences, and I will bend every effort to do so. It's very important, not because we have an election coming up, but because we have men and women who are serving in the military who need every protection we can provide them with.
Senator, have you read Richard Miniter's piece in the New York Post, the piece Rush led his program Friday off with? Rush said it was insulting to him.....well, I have to agree...but I think it is insulting to all of us. I, like Rush can understand the concern for the American Soldiers. But you know that they knew what they were signing up for. They don’t need to be treated like babies, cause they signed up themselves. They have been trained for this. They know what they are doing. They are the fighting forces of the United States, and they don't need to be treated like children like your trying to treat everybody else in this country, and you don't need to humiliate them by forcing them to treat terrorists down at Club Gitmo the way they're apparently being forced to treat them. And to top this whole thing off, Senator Dick Durbin said this on it:
DURBIN: We went through this administration's effort to redefine torture, to abandon Geneva Conventions that we have stood by for decades. We saw the scandals of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo. Arthur Schlessinger, Jr., a noted historian, says that the issue of torture "has damaged the image of America in the world more than anything in our history." Torture. Torture under the Bush-Cheney administration --
Durbin should know that this is total BS. Can’t these people get it through their thick skulls that this is wrong? I am beginning to think that their skulls are too thick, and it has cut off the oxygen supply to their brains and their brains are dead.
The fun part about the President’s last speech is that he finally put his foot down. In the speech, at the beginning, responding to McCain about interrogations of monsters like Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the President made his feelings known...very hard.....taking it right to McCain.....
President Bush: Khalid Shaikh Mohammed described the design of planned attacks on buildings inside the US and how operatives were directed to carry 'em out. He told us the operatives had been instructed to ensure that the explosives went off at a point that was high enough to prevent people trapped above from escaping. He gave us information that helped uncover Al-Qaeda's cells' efforts to obtain biological weapons. We've also learned information from the CIA program that has helped stop other plots, including attacks on the US Marine base in east Africa, our American consulate in Pakistan, Britain's Heathrow Airport.
This program has been one of the most vital tools in our efforts to protect this country. Were it not for this program, our intelligence community believes that Al-Qaeda and its allies would have succeeded in launching another attack against the American homeland. By giving us information about terrorist plans we couldn't get anywhere else, this program has saved innocent lives. I'm asking Congress to pass a clear law with clear guidelines, based on the Detainee Treatment Act that was strongly supported by Senator John McCain. There is a debate about the specific provisions in my bill, and we'll work with Congress to continue to try to find common ground.
Then came the questions. Terry Hunt, AP, says: "Former Secretary of State Colin Powell says the world's beginning to doubt the moral basis of our fight against terrorism. Now, if a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a former secretary of state feels that way, don't you think that Americans and the rest of the world are beginning to wonder whether you're following a flawed strategy, Mr. President?"
end of part one-
-Robert-
