Thursday, April 30, 2009

Waterboarding Pales in Comparison to the Comfy Chair

Oh, the horror!

(In particular, read comments #16 and #17....they're quite grand! ;) )

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Wednesday, April 29, 2009

The First 100 Days

How would you rate his presidency, thus far?

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Tuesday, April 28, 2009

The RINO who finally came out of the closet....

....he'll be a pain in their arse, as well.

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4/27 Panic Attack

In this image taken with a cell phone by Jason McLane, the primary presidential aircraft, a Boeing 747 known as Air Force One when the president is aboard, flies low over New York Harbor, followed by an F-16 chase plane during a federal government photo op Monday, April 27, 2009. A low-flying Boeing 747 escorted by two fighter jets as part of a federal government photo opportunity over lower Manhattan caused a brief panic among workers near ground zero on Monday.

(AP Photo/Jason McLane)


Video footage shows the panic.

You can all draw your own symbolic meaning from this:
It wasn't an attack, or even a drill -- it was a government-sponsored photo op.

The Pentagon did tell local authorities about the startling fly-over that sent a Boeing 747 and a F-16 fighter screaming over New York's scarred skyline, but officials said they couldn't share the information with the public. They couldn't even share the information with the mayor.

Mayor Bloomberg said he was "furious" and criticized both the feds and his own administration for failing to issue a simple warning to the public in a city that is still somewhat traumatized by the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

"The good news is it was nothing more than an inconsiderate, badly conceived and insensitive photo op with the taxpayers' money," Bloomberg said.

News 4 New York learned Monday night that at least 90 calls were placed to 911 about the plane.

An official from the Obama administration said the White House Military Office wanted to update its file photo of the president's plane near the Statue of Liberty.

This official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the White House Military Office told the Federal Aviation Administration that it periodically updates file photos of Air Force One near national landmarks, like the statute in New York harbor and the Grand Canyon.

"It's completely asinine after 9/11 to do that," said Keith Mercantine, who witnessed the chaos in Jersey City. "I saw ambulances out here with pregnant women."

An Air Force One lookalike and F-16 buzzed the Statue of Liberty in New York harbor in the morning, halting work on nearby construction sites, causing residents and office workers to flee their high-rises and giving thousands of people in downtown Manhattan and New Jersey a major fright.

At least two people were treated for minor injuries at Jersey City Medical Center after falling during the rush to exit their buildings.

"Everybody panicked," said Daisy Cooper, a Merrill Lynch worker in Jersey City, who lost a nephew on 9/11. "Everybody was screaming and we all ran downstairs. I'm devastated...Everybody was running, we didn't know why we were running. We just knew it was a plane, there we go, 9/11 again."


I have an alternate post at Flopping Aces

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Monday, April 27, 2009

About that Library Tower Plot....

A number of our liberal readers on the "torture" threads bring up what this liberal blog brings up:



In the wake of the release of OLC memos authorizing torture, Bush apologists are frantically trying to show that torture worked. Former Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen wrote an op-ed for the Washington Post that claimed that torturing Khalid Sheik Mohammed had foiled a second plot to use airplanes to attack the highest skyscraper on the West Coast, the Library Tower.



The author of the post then goes on to cite Timothy Noah in "debunking" Thiessen's piece.

Primarily at issue is the timeline of having captured KSM in March of 2003, whereas the cell leader of the Library Plot was captured in 2002, leading to the assumption that the entire plot was then foiled- even though other terrorists within the cell were still roaming free to plot and plan and carry out future marching orders.

Well, here I cite Thiessen in debunking the debunkers, namely going directly after his critic, Timothy Noah:

Read more »

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Sunday, April 26, 2009

"Believe me....it's torture."

I've known about Christopher Hitchens' Vanity Fair article where he changed his tune regarding whether or not waterboarding constitutes torture; but I hadn't realized there's also a video that shows the session he had.



He lasts for only about 5 or 6 "drips/applications" (the claim that KSM was waterboarded 183 is misleading, as the actual number of sessions was 5- which is also KSM's claim; "183" represents the number of times water was poured; if I'm mistaken on this, please let me know).

I wouldn't be quick to pass judgment on Hitchens as a wimp, either; not unless you've personally experienced the same, yourself.

Regardless of whether it's applied to our own soldiers in SERE training to develop coping mechanisms to resist, or whether it's being inflicted on enemy combatants to go beyond their breaking points....can we concede that waterboarding is in fact "torture"?

After all, I classify such things as tickling and most hip hop music as torture, so why not waterboarding?

Cross-posted and re-edited at Flopping Aces

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Sunday Funnies


More at Flopping Aces

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Saturday, April 25, 2009

Next on Obama's Agenda: Redistribution of Physical Beauty?!




I make no secrets about watching WWE (more so in 2000-2003, than now); nor about my being a fan of Chris Jericho. He's the reason I got hooked in the first place. He portrayed himself very charismatically in 2000-2002, understands the nature of the business, delivers good matches and knows how to connect to the audience on the mic.
These days, Chris Irvine (his real last name) portrays himself as a heel (bad guy). If he seems arrogant and pompous in interviews, much of it is "kayfabe" and an act (he is, after all, an entertainer, where the character and the person behind the character sometimes has the line blurred).

I don't know what Chris Jericho's politics are (I posted his interview in 2007 during a WWE Christmas tour in Iraq; also, a post in 2008), but many WWE wrestlers do seem to lean either conservative Republican voters or libertarian.

Here he is in a TMZ bit. I found it a bit entertaining. Might be scripted (from the way he walks up to the camera); but I wouldn't be surprised if the line was spontaneous as well as his own. If you've seen him in other interviews, he's naturally funny and articulate.

At 1:30, he's asked if Obama has better abs than he has:

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Friday, April 24, 2009

This is the "Transparency" President Obama spoke of?!

An Iraqi girl watches a U.S. soldier on a patrol in Baghdad's Sadr City. U.S. troops have been patrolling the Shiite stronghold since March 4, 2007 under a deal that allows them to enter the area without resistance.
Adil al-Khazali, AP


First, the CIA....now our military targeted in Administration cross-hairs...

Hat tip, Brutally Honest, from ABC News Political Punch:

In a letter from the Justice Department to a federal judge yesterday, the Obama administration announced that the Pentagon would turn over to the American Civil Liberties Union 44 photographs showing detainee abuse of prisoners in Afghanistan and Iraq during the Bush administration.

The photographs are part of a 2003 Freedom of Information Act request by the ACLU for all information relating to the treatment of detainees -- the same battle that led, last week, to President Obama's decision to release memos from the Bush Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel providing legal justifications for harsh interrogation methods that human rights groups call torture.

Courts had ruled against the Bush administration's attempts to keep the photographs from public view. ACLU attorney Amrit Singh tells ABC News that "the fact that the Obama administration opted not to seek further review is a sign that it is committed to more transparency."

Singh added that the photographs "only underscore the need for a criminal investigation and prosecution if warranted" of U.S. officials responsible for the harsh treatment of detainees.

But some experts say the move could have a chilling effect on the CIA even beyond President Obama's decision last week to release the so-called "torture memos."

Calling the ACLU push to release the photographs "prurient" and "reprehensible," Dr. Mark M. Lowenthal, former Assistant Director of Central Intelligence for Analysis and Production, tells ABC News that the Obama administration should have taken the case all the way to the Supreme Court.

"They should have fought it all the way; if they lost, they lost," Lowenthal said. "There's nothing to be gained from it. There's no substantive reason why those photos have to be released."

Lowenthal said the president's moves in the last week have left many in the CIA dispirited, based on "the undercurrent I've been getting from colleagues still in the building, or colleagues who have left not that long ago."

"We ask these people to do extremely dangerous things, things they've been ordered to do by legal authorities, with the understanding that they will get top cover if something goes wrong," Lowenthal says. "They don't believe they have that cover anymore." Releasing the photographs "will make it much worse," he said.

Of what purpose will this serve? We've all witnessed how volatile Islamist-loonies are for the smallest slights and even imagined slights. MSM reportage of the incidents of abu Ghraib, almost single-handedly destroyed our efforts to secure post-war Iraq. Instead of serving to enlighten, it only served to inflame and recruit takfiri terrorists to the global jihad movement. How will the release of these 44 photos, while we are still in a state of "overseas contingency operations", help protect America? What is the point of releasing these photos now?

The photos, taken from Air Force and Army criminal investigations, apparently are not as shocking as the photographs from the Abu Ghraib investigation that became a lasting symbol of U.S. mistakes in Iraq. But some show military personnel intimidating or threatening detainees by pointing weapons at them. Military officers have been court-martialed for threatening detainees at gunpoint.
Does anyone besides myself, see a strong disconnect here?! Just whose side is the Administration on? "We support the CIA and we support the troops" by humiliating them and giving validation to anti-Americanism abroad as well as here at home.

You want to know the difference between "us and them"? Watch this. Then note:

Well, at least they didn't waterboard their victims; that would have been so wrong!- Dana, commenter at American Power
Cross-posted at Flopping Aces

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McClatchy Journalist Perpetuates a Media Distortion

Read Scott's post.

Why is this still important today? Because this media belief has misled so many and contributed to the election loss in '08.

The record and the rhetoric should be cleared up.

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Thursday, April 23, 2009

The Straight Story about that whole Miss America brouhaha...

This might be one of those superficial "who cares?" stories, if not for the fact that this strikes at the core of culture and society.

I could care less about the Miss America pageant. But what I've found appalling is the media pile-on assumptions that equates the issue of gay marriage to the civil rights movement for the 21st century. It's the new "good fight"; and if you stand opposed to gay marriage, then you must be a cultural neanderthal equivalent to racists who stood against the equal rights of blacks and other ethnic minorities.

I've also found it disgusting how the liberal do-gooders lack the ability to perceive themselves for the intolerant moral narcissists they are.

There's an inconsistent disconnect between the reasons Perez Hilton is saying Carrie Prejean lost the Miss America crown, and how he then goes on to shout "bravo" for each contestant, official, or celebrity who makes a political statement in support of gay marriage.

Read more »

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AP's optimistic interpretation of the latest poll

The country believes we're on "the right track"? Devil's in the details....

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Sunday, April 19, 2009

Cozying up to dictators and America's hostiles...

After curtsying to the Saudi King and all but fist-bumping with Chavez, I don't ever again want to hear about Bush shaking hands with Saudi royalty (as if preceding American presidents have not done so) and Rumsfeld shaking hands with Saddam....


Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez (R) gives U.S. President Barack Obama a copy of "Las Venas Abiertas de America Latina" by author Eduardo Galeano during a meeting at the Summit of the Americas in Port of Spain, Trinidad April 18, 2009.

REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque



Paling around with lefty dictators

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Sunday Funnies


More posted at Flopping Aces

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Thursday, April 16, 2009

CNN Activist Reporter Brings Her Pitchfork



ROESGEN: OK, well, Kiran, we'll move on over here. I think you get the general tenor of this. Uh, it's anti-government, anti-CNN, since this is highly promoted by the Right-wing conservative network, FOX. And since I can't really hear much more, and I think this is not really family viewing, toss it back to you, Kiran.

Kyra Phillips: I know Susan Roesgen is having a hard time hearing me, but wow. That is the prime example of what we're following across the country there. Susan pointed out everything plain and clear of what she's dealing with.







Amidst criticism leveled at this "activist confronts activist" manner of interview, CNN defends its representative, Susan Roesgen:

"She was doing her job, and called it like she saw it."

Move along, folks...nothing more to see here but media activism.

Cross-posted at Flopping Aces

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Would a Dream Change the World?




Heard this on Red Eye; and since I just posted on another Les Miserables song....

"American Idol" isn't the only launching pad for aspiring singers. Across the pond, "Britain's Got Talent" scored a huge boost in the Buzz after an unassuming contestant gave an amazing performance.

Susan Boyle (remember that name) became a Web phenomenon after singing "I Dreamed a Dream" from Les Miserables. The performance brought the audience to its feet and left the judges (including Simon Cowell) either speechless or in tears.

Before going on stage, Ms. Boyle admitted some self-deprecating facts about herself (she's never been kissed and lives alone with her cat, Pebbles). For those reasons and more, audiences were expecting the female William Hung. They were wrong.

Lookups on the sudden star posted huge gains. A no-name just the other day, Ms. Boyle quickly surged into our top 5,000 overall searches. Blogs and gossip rags went wild. The Mirror jumped on the story, reporting that while Ms. Boyle thought she "looked like a garage" on TV, she received a standing ovation when she showed up at her local church.

Other sources write that as a child, Ms. Boyle was the target of bullies because of a disability. But, with her newfound fame, she is getting the last laugh. In fact, she's already meeting with officials from Mr. Cowell's Sony BMG label. This may have been the first you've heard of her, but it certainly won't be the last.

Source: Yahoo Buzz

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Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Bring out the pitchforks...

Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Adopting Another Page from the Bush Playbook

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Somali Pirates Reacting in Self-Defense?!

Check out the "Blame America First" loons (no, they don't represent mainstream Americans, left or right):

That said, I checked some of the links at Memeorandum to get a feel for the blogospheric buzz, and many of those on the left aren't celebrating this event for the triumph of heroism that it is. Readers should check the comments at Think Progress, where some of the visitors there are scourging the United States, and suggesting that piracy is a legitimate response to Eurupe's "nuclear waste off the coast of Somalia." One of commenters blames the Bush administration:

We are always interfering in the internal affairs of other countries, and always trying to stop any progressive movement or any form of good self-government.
A couple of the visitors at the post have linked to a piece at Crooks and Liars, "What the International Media Aren't Telling You About Somalia Pirates."

Read the whole post.
Crooks and Liars links to an anti-capitalist essay at London's Independent, and then concludes with this flourish, "I wonder which principled member of our corporate media will point out that, in the big picture, the Somali pirates are acting in self-defense?"

Well, I wonder which principled member of our (leftist) media will point out that this is the exact same kind of logic that we saw after September 11, 2001,
when leftists claimed Americans deserved the atttacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Indeed, some widely-supported anti-Americans suggested that the "chickens came home to roost" on 9/11.


Certainly, there is the germ of a point to be made:

With no coast guard to defend its shores, Somalis began complaining that vessels from Asia and Europe were dumping toxic waste in their waters and illegally scooping up red snapper, barracuda and tuna. The rampant illegal fishing began destroying the livelihoods of local fishermen.

According to a memo prepared last month by the staff of the U.S. House Armed Services Committee, Somali clans began resorting "to armed gangs in an attempt to stop the foreign vessels. Over time, these gangs have evolved into hijacking commercial vessels for ransom as an alternative source of income."

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Friday, April 10, 2009

Happy Easter!



Sanctum Piter oteum, Deus ore uneum.

Hippitus hoppitus reus homine.
In suspiratoreum, lepus in re sanctum

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Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Now that it's a Democrat in the White House....

President Barack Obama speaks during a visit on April 7, 2009, to Camp Victory in Baghdad, Iraq.
Mandel Ngan / AFP / Getty


Did Daily Kos ever note how much rousing applause President Bush received? I certainly made a respectful hat tip toward President Obama earlier today, regarding his visit.

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Anti-Americanism= George Bush?

The notion that George W. Bush made us hated around the world is scapegoat drivel. Anti-Americanism has been alive, kicking and screaming in the world long before his administration ever took power, and continues after his departure....

Turkish demonstrators step on a poster of President Barack Obama during a protest in Istanbul April 7, 2009.


REUTERS/Gurcan Ozturk


Welcome to Bush's world, President Obama!


Longer post up at Flopping Aces

Also, on President Obama visiting the troops in Iraq.

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Sunday, April 05, 2009

Sunday Funnies


More Sunday Funnies at Flopping Aces

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Saturday, April 04, 2009

NK Launches!

Last Sunday:

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates predicted North Korea would launch a missile soon and said there's nothing the United States can do about it.

"I would say we're not prepared to do anything about it," said Gates during an appearance on "Fox News Sunday."



Friday:
STRASBOURG, France - Welcomed with thunderous cheers, President Barack Obama told a European audience on Friday that he is setting a dramatic goal of "a world without nuclear weapons."

The new American president opened a town-hall style gathering with the declaration, saying he would outline details in Prague in the coming days.

"Even with the Cold War now over, the spread of nuclear weapons or the theft of nuclear material could lead to the extermination of any city on the planet," Obama said, previewing a planned speech.
By Sunday morning:

North Korea launches missile.


Brilliant. And what do we have to do about it? Same as we did before the launch: More words. More talk. Same as it ever was.

Is anyone really colored amazed by this? This is what happens when the world has no teeth; when the U.S. does, but is muzzled. CJ nails it, spot on.

Well, if you want to eliminate nuclear weapons, Mr. President, you're off to a helluva good start.




Alternate version of this post at Flopping Aces

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Friday, April 03, 2009

"Can I treat you to a shoulder massage?"

President Barack Obama and Germany's Chancellor Angela Merkel, accompanied by Prime Minister of the Netherlands, Jan Peter Balkenende (R), leave the podium following the official group photograph at the G20 summit at the ExCel centre, in east London April 2, 2009. World leaders are set to declare an end to unfettered capitalism at a G20 summit on Thursday after France and Germany demanded they act fast on promises to prevent a repeat of the worst economic crisis since the 1930s.
REUTERS/Dylan Martinez

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Wednesday, April 01, 2009

The Recession Hits South Park

We'll see how long this stays up for......






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