How support for both “financial security” and “national security” reveal partisan hypocrisy and make us less safe.
Tag: Constitutionalists
The Southern Avenger on "Ron Paul Republicans"
While the GOP establishment continues to debate how the party lost its way, Republicans should consider the best path out of the wilderness – by following the one man who has always remained loyal to his party’s conservative roots.
The Obligatory "Nancy Pelosi supposedly knew about Torture" Posting
Honestly, I would rather be getting a root canal without any anesthesia, than to have to blog about this. But everyone else is, so, here goes!
ABC NEWS Blog “The Note” reports the following:
ABC News’ Rick Klein reports: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was briefed on the use of “enhanced interrogation techniques” on terrorist suspect Abu Zubaydah in September 2002, according to a report prepared by the Director of National Intelligence’s office and obtained by ABC News.
The report, submitted to the Senate Intelligence Committee and other Capitol Hill officials Wednesday, appears to contradict Pelosi’s statement last month that she was never told about the use of waterboarding or other special interrogation tactics. Instead, she has said, she was told only that the Bush administration had legal opinions that would have supported the use of such techniques.
The report details a Sept. 4, 2002 meeting between intelligence officials and Pelosi, then-House intelligence committee chairman Porter Goss, and two aides. At the time, Pelosi was the top Democrat on the House intelligence committee.
The meeting is described as a “Briefing on EITs including use of EITs on Abu Zubaydah, background on authorities, and a description of particular EITs that had been employed.”
EITs stand for “enhanced interrogation techniques,” a classification of special interrogation tactics that includes waterboarding.
Of course, everyone on the right is jumping up and down and saying, “See we told you so!” Don’t count me in with that crowd, please. When it comes to this entire issue; I am a fence sitter. On one hand, I hate to know that a fellow human being is being tortured. But on the other hand, I also know what happened on September 11, 2001, and please; do not come in here and spout that stupid Alex Jones bullcrap about 9/11 being an inside job, okay? I am just not that simple-minded to believe that idiotic nonsense. The truth is that the 9/11 attacks were carried out by Muslim extremists who hate our Country and for what we stand for; they also happened because of our interventionist foreign policy and because of our occupation of parts of Arab peninsula. Further, the attacks were a revenge attack on United States because of the actions of the United States in the 1980’s. Osama Bin Ladin said that in one of his many tapes. This is NOT to say that the United States had it coming or anything of that sort. It is simply the bare, and sometimes ugly; truth.
Now back to the story at hand, there are some, mostly liberals who have problems with this story. Emptywheel, for example seems to believe that the CIA is lying about the briefings. I won’t quote here, what’s being said there. Because there is just so much to read. I’d advise everyone to just go over and read what is being said there.
The truth is folks, I do not believe we will ever know the truth about what happened, and who knew what when. I am sorry if that busts any balloons or anything of that sort. Our Government has a very good track record of covering up secrets and quite frankly covering it’s backside to the point of burying the truth. So for those who were hoping that Bush and Co. would be prosecuted. I hate to be the one to say this, but you are in for a big letdown. I knew this was coming; I blogged about a great deal of times. Obama will not go after the former President and his staff and cabinet. Obama just will not burn the political capital. President Obama would rather risk being a one-term President, than try and go after a former President and his staff. It just never has been done. Nor will it ever.
If the Obama Administration told holder to open an investigation as to “Who knew what, when…” when it came to the 9/11 attacks, The Iraq War, and the torture stuff. Both Parties; Democratic and Republican would be utterly destroyed and stripped void of any credibility that they still have now. That is something that the Obama Administration is simply not going to allow to happen. Because both of these political parties want to maintain their grip on a two party system in this Country. One Party may talk about wanted to see the other destroyed. But they know how long their leash is, and when it reaches it max length, the parties that be know when to get back into line.
So, I feel that this all just a big witch hunt, to distract us from the real issues. Like the state of our economy and so forth.
The Southern Avenger Asks "Is Secession Crazy?"
When Texas Governor Rick Perry suggested his state had the right to secede from the union, liberals laughed at the mere suggestion. But secession not only has deep American roots, but is no “crazier” than socialism.
Video: Motorhome Diaries Interviews Ernest Hancock of Freedom's Phoenix
Some of you might know this, but I submit some of my Blog postings over at a place called Freedom’s Phoenix. Freedom’s Phoenix is a Libertarian News Portal system, that I happen to enjoy, quite a bit.
Here is a video of the founder of Freedom’s Phoenix, Earnest Hancock being interviewed by Motorhome Diaries.
The Southern Avenger on "The Mexican Flu"
How the news coverage of the swine flu isn’t so much indicative of any serious crisis, but the mainstream media’s corporate and government, PC sensibilities.
The Obligatory Supreme Court Justice Souter To Retire Posting
Only reason I am posting about this now, is because it broke last night and I was busy with other things.
Supreme Court Justice David Souter is planning to retire at the end of the current court term.
The vacancy will give President Obama his first chance to name a member of the high court and begin to shape its future direction.
At 69, Souter is nowhere near the oldest member of the court. In fact, he is in the younger half of the court’s age range, with five justices older and just three younger. So far as anyone knows, he is in good health. But he has made clear to friends for some time that he wanted to leave Washington, a city he has never liked, and return to his native New Hampshire. Now, according to reliable sources, he has decided to take the plunge and has informed the White House of his decision.
Factors in his decision no doubt include the election of President Obama, who would be more likely to appoint a successor attuned to the principles Souter has followed as a moderate-to-liberal member of the court’s more liberal bloc over the past two decades.
Most people on the right are saying that this guy was not much of a Conservative, so this might not be that big of a deal anyhow. However, it does change the balance of the Government. It tilts the SCOUTS to a more liberal court. Which has some on the far, far, right quite upset. The question is, what will President Obama do? Will he appoint a hyper-uber-Liberal to the seat, or will he appoint a moderate to the seat? Either way, it will be interesting to follow.
Personally, I do not believe that the court is going to go balls out totally liberal. If anything, there will be a ever so slight lean towards a liberal court. But there are enough Conservatives still in the court to keep a Conservative voice up there. So, I think any panicking at this point is just abject foolishness.
Others: SCOTUSblog, Top of the Ticket, protein wisdom, , Don Surber, Hot Air, Wake up America Jules Crittenden,
The Southern Avenger asks "Is the GOP Too Conservative?"
The Southern Avenger on "Tea Parties vs. The Warfare State"
How in praising the tea parties one week, then defending President Bush on torture and his “War on Terror” the next, conservatives negate their alleged anti-government message.
Quote of the Day
The New York Times Company also has a major problem with the Boston Globe, which Sulzberger bought back in 1993. That paper is on the verge of bankruptcy and recently told its employees that it will cut their pay and health benefits. Since the Times and the Globe are big on “universal” health care, that caused some giggling in anti-Times precincts.
Over the past few months, newspapers in Chicago, Seattle, Minneapolis and Denver have either folded or filed for bankruptcy. With the exception of The Rocky Mountain News, all the papers were committed left-wing enterprises. The truth is that most Americans are traditional-minded folks; they believe their country is noble, they want respectful discourse. Fanaticism of any kind is not the American way.
The New York Times is most definitely a committed left-wing concern that is openly contemptuous of the conservative, traditional point-of-view. That is the primary reason the paper may soon dissolve. And all the cash in Carlos Slim’s fat wallet is not going to change that.
*****
Rooted people love the things of the heart: God, country, family and faith. The weapons of the mind have been given to us, they believe, to defend the things of the heart.
Knowledge follows love; it does not precede it.
Most Americans have grown to love America long before they read the Constitution, or the Federalist Papers. There are heroes in Arlington who never learned to read. A true nation is an extended family. If fathers or sons do not defend it, it is their conduct that is indefensible.
Obama may be popular today, but he will lose the country and his presidency if he lets the perception take hold that he, the personification of American sovereignty, does not react as a normal patriot.
The Obamaites may not like Sarah Palin’s phraseology. But they need someone in their councils who is rooted in the Real America.
