The Good Democrat

Don’t Do It Obama

Don’t increase troops in Afghanistan. You’ll never get them out. Bribe the warlords instead. Much better investment.

Let Dick Cheney Stay on the TV

Keep him in the news. Doesn’t matter what the topic is. Let him be the speaker for the Republicans.

Rupert Murdoch’s Assault on BBC News

He’s gonna destroy British news too, just like he destroyed American journalism. God help Britain from the awful situation America is in right now thanks to Rupert Murdoch.

Torture Defenders Begin Their Work to Obfuscate

At the Washington Post, of course. This article is about KSM, and the torture used on him. Continue Reading Torture Defenders Begin Their Work to Obfuscate…

Glenn Beck: Barack Obama is like Saddam Hussein, and Hitler of course

When will sensible conservatives denounce this guy?

Glenn Beck Can’t Even Spell Correctly

That would be Oligarchy you dumb nut. Surely you could find a good, incendiary word that starts with the letter C to label Obama with… oh I don’t know… Communist?

Glenn Beck, Womanizer

Did his wife see this?

Glenn Beck is Insane

And losing it. Who begins their segment by asking “how many Marxists, communists, anti-capitalists do you have around you on a daily basis?”

The man is utterly insane. The thing is that because he doesn’t feel he has anything to lose, anything of real value, by saying these kinds of things, he feels free to go even further into the extreme. He is a shame to America, to intelligent people, to smart, religious, thoughtful Americans.

Praying For Barack Obama To Die

That would be a right-wing Christian preacher who prays to God that God would take the life of the American president early. Com’on conservatives. Denounce this crap. Let’s hear you stand for what is right. When it matters, not when it is convenient. Is it okay for a religious leader to tell his congregation that he prays that the president of the United States dies?

Republican Mantra: Look For Great White Hope in Dark Times

Nice. Comedians should have a field day with this one.

The Topeka Capitol-Journal reports that freshman Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-KS) told a town hall meeting a week ago that the GOP still had to find a “great white hope.”

“Republicans are struggling right now to find the great white hope,” said Jenkins. “I suggest to any of you who are concerned about that, who are Republican, there are some great young Republican minds in Washington.” As examples, Jenkins mentioned Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI).

All three are white. Her spokeswoman tried to clarify, but alas… poor choice of words:

Jenkins’ spokeswoman Mary Geiger told the paper that Jenkins’ remark was not meant to refer to “race, creed or any background.” Said Geiger: “There’s no doubt the Republican Party has gone through some dark and challenging times in recent years, but thankfully bright young leaders have stepped up to lead the party into the future and she hopes to be a part of it. That was the intent of her comments — nothing more and nothing less. Congresswoman Jenkins apologizes for her choice of words.”

Of course, I’m just picking on her, but if she truly wants African Americans and Latinos to be a part of the Republican party, she really needs to be careful how she phrases things.

What Was NOT on the Today Show This Morning

any reference at all to the biggest news story of the day yesterday. Why would GE not want its viewers to know that the IG report showed clear, incontrovertible proof that the CIA, under orders by the Bush administration, willfully violated America’s laws.

Your liberal media.

Speculation Makes Torture Even More Ineffective

From the IG report on the CIA’s use of torture, page 83:

According to a number of those interviewed for this Review, the Agency’s intelligence on Al-Qa’ida was limited prior to the initiation of the CTC Interrogation Program. The Agency lacked adequate linguists or subject matter experts and had very little hard knowledge of what particular Al-Qa’ida leaders–who later became detainees–knw. This lack of knowledge led analysts to speculate about what a detainee “should know,” vice information the analyst could objectively demonstrate the detainee did know.

You are at a disadvantage with your enemy detainee if you

1. lack his language skills
2. lack his subject matter
3. lack knowledge of the detainee himself

The detainee in question will tell you what he thinks you want to hear. The worst part? You will never know if you fully extracted all you wanted out of the detainee, and as such, you will continue torturing him until you finally feel satisfied he has nothing else of value for you. This, however, could go on for a long time, because each time you press more, the detainee will tell you even wilder tales hoping the next tale will finally get you to stop torturing him. Of course, with each new tale, since you don’t actually know what else the detainee is holding back, with each new tale he tells, you press even further. Finally, of course, the detainee’s psyche collapses into learned helplessness and is now completely useless, for information and as a human being. You’ve destroyed him. Since you came into this without actually knowing what the detainee knows, all you’ve ended up doing is destroying the mind of another human being.

Congratulations torturer.

Wrong Choice Obama

Planning to continue Bush’s rendition policies are wholly wrong, counterproductive, and unethical. Also… what exactly is the point of rendering someone to another country to be interrogated? What, are there like not enough Americans to train to interrogate prisoners? Do we not have enough Americans to train in Arabic, or Pashto or any of the other language of our “enemies” so that we can interrogate them properly? Why send them to Syria when we KNOW they will be tortured there? Shame on you Obama.

“We’re Going to Kill Your Children”

American terrorism and torture at the hands of the good old CIA.

A newly declassified CIA report says interrogators threatened to kill the children of a Sept. 11 suspect.

The document, released Monday by the Justice Department, says one interrogator said a colleague had told Khalid Sheikh Mohammed that if any other attacks happened in the United States, “We’re going to kill your children.”

Fear the Government!

Fear the government, Americans.

Terrorism in this country obviously poses a serious threat to us as a free society. It generates fear. But there is a far greater fear that is present in this country, and that is fear of our own Government. We should not further that fear. We should not do anything to promote further lack of confidence in our own Government. Public officials must recognize that our citizens fear not only terrorism, but our Government as well.

That’s Tom Coburn of Oklahoma attempting to water down a anti-terrorism bill after 168 of his state’s own citizens died at the hands of a homegrown terrorist. See, in Tom Coburn’s eyes, and in the eyes of the Republican party/ conservatives there is no greater thing to fear than our own government. Not terrorism. Not death. But our own government. Fear the government, America. Michael Moore was right both in Bowling for Columbine and in Sicko. Fear of our government makes us irrational and unwilling to create a nation where our government works for us, and fears us.

And remember, right wing commentators, like Glenn Beck incite their viewing/hearing audiences to believe there is no hope for our government. In this segment below, watch how Glenn Beck frames his argument:

Beck: “Do you really honestly believe that we have come to a place to where those very senior people in the highest offices of the land—Congress and the White House—really will not do the right thing in the end, that they won’t see the error of their ways?”

Fear the government + government is not redeemable = ?

What is the question mark? Put it together for us Mr. Scheuer:

Scheuer: “No sir they will not. The only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama Bin Laden to deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States—because it’s gonna take a grassroots, bottom up pressure—because these politicians prize their offices, prize the praise of the media, and the Europeans. It’s an absurd situation again, only Osama can execute an attack which will force Americans to demand that their government protect them effectively, consistently and with as much violence as necessary.“

Fear the government + government not redeemable = change the government by force.

How does it relate to today? Frank Rich notes how right wing zealots are bringing guns to townhall debates wearing T-shirts with Thomas Jefferson’s famous quote on them: “The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.” Nice, eh?

I wouldn’t put it past any of these “patriots” to refresh the tree of liberty with the blood of Obama…

What Are We Fighting For In Afghanistan?

Because when Americans do all the killing, it will not turn out for the best. There is NOTHING on the horizon that sees a shift away from this, where Americans do all the killing, where Americans use force. Because America does not take Afghanistan as a colony, with full political control over the country, all we are doing is killing Afghans without any real goal to attain because the political reconciliation in Afghanistan is going absolutely nowhere. I thought it was bad in Iraq. Iraq is child’s play compared with the mess the Bush administration made in Afghanistan. While in Iraq there is some political unity (the Maliki government, as weak and corrupt as it is, does have a mandate over the country that is accepted by enough Iraqis to survive on its own), Karzai has nothing. Not even Kabul.

We need to do one of two things.

1. More drastic action. Take full political control of the country, wherein America is in charge with American laws and American culture (yes, that means empirical colonial control).

2. Get out. It’s simply not worth the cost to keep doing what we are doing now.

We’re not sending enough troops into the country yet again. We are not sending in enough civil workers to properly nation build. In terms of cost benefit analysis, what we are doing now is wholly wasteful. The worst part, even under Obama, the Afghan bill is being put on a credit card to be sent to our children to pay.

So why are we fighting in Afghanistan?

Mock Executions Are Illegal In The United States

But don’t let the law stop the CIA. After all, they waterboard and get away with it. Why not mock executions too?

Why I Am Not A Progressive/Liberal

Because I don’t think like this. Essentially, liberals and progressives keep thinking Barack Obama is some liberal when he is not. He has always been a centrist, so he’s gonna piss off liberals and progressives on things. The reason why hardcore conservatives never lost faith in George W. Bush was because he was their guy. Liberals and progressives don’t have a guy as president. They probably never will. I certainly don’t trust Obama to 1) keep his word 2) use his powers as president for only good things 3) be completely honest. But to this point, he is doing generally what I want him to do as president. So I’m alright with him.

What Mike Huckabee Won’t Tell You On Why Christian Conservatives Support Israel More Than American Jews Do

It’s because Christian Conservatives look forward to the day when God kills all who don’t believe in Jesus and turns Israel into a haven for Christians. That would mean God kills Jews too, seeing how they rejected His Only Beloved…

The Stupidity of Those Years – 2001-2005

As Atrios puts it so well:

I don’t want to dwell in nostalgiaville, but every now and then events occur which remind me just how fucking weird this country was between… roughly, 9/11/01 and 10/05. The obvious thing, of course, was Iraq, though it wasn’t just that. (Some) liberal bloggers were crazy and clueless and naive and, most of all, “unserious,” for recognizing the rather obvious point that aside from the dreaded balsa wood drones of mass destruction, there was literally no evidence that Hussein had a WMD program even by the rather low bar they’d set for what WMD were. More than that, it was quite obvious that lots of lies were being told to create the impression that Saddam could KILL US ALL AT ANY MOMENT, which was completely absurd, and that’s without even getting into the whole Hussein-Osama BFF pact we were supposed to believe.

People lied to take us into war. The media, by and large, believed or ignored those lies. Thousands of US troops have died along with hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. And just about everyone still has their jobs. Except maybe Ashleigh Banfield.

You know the worst part, at least for a Mormon like me? President Gordon B Hinckley, the prophet of our times was sold on these lies too:

And so I venture to say something about the war and the gospel we teach. I spoke of this somewhat in our October conference of 2001. When I came to this pulpit at that time, the war against terrorism had just begun. The present war is really an outgrowth and continuation of that conflict. Hopefully it is now drawing to a conclusion.

He believed the lies that the War in Iraq had anything at all to do with the War in Afghanistan.

In the course of history tyrants have arisen from time to time who have oppressed their own people and threatened the world. Such is adjudged to be the case presently, and consequently great and terrifying forces with sophisticated and fearsome armaments have been engaged in battle.

He thought Saddam Hussein was like previous tyrants who oppressed his own people and threatened the world. That of course was a lie. Saddam Hussein was safely contained.

First, let it be understood that we have no quarrel with the Muslim people or with those of any other faith. We recognize and teach that all the people of the earth are of the family of God. And as He is our Father, so are we brothers and sisters with family obligations one to another.

But as citizens we are all under the direction of our respective national leaders. They have access to greater political and military intelligence than do the people generally. Those in the armed services are under obligation to their respective governments to execute the will of the sovereign. When they joined the military service, they entered into a contract by which they are presently bound and to which they have dutifully responded.

And there was the most important failing. President Hinckley gave the Bush administration the benefit of the doubt.

In a democracy we can renounce war and proclaim peace. There is opportunity for dissent. Many have been speaking out and doing so emphatically. That is their privilege. That is their right, so long as they do so legally. However, we all must also be mindful of another overriding responsibility, which I may add, governs my personal feelings and dictates my personal loyalties in the present situation.

He says people are free to disagree, but makes it clear he does not side with those who disagreed with President Bush.

It is clear from these and other writings that there are times and circumstances when nations are justified, in fact have an obligation, to fight for family, for liberty, and against tyranny, threat, and oppression.

He shows his true neo-conservative colors. Stating that “there are times and circumstances” when nations can go around the world killing people but not offering clear guidelines about those circumstances and times opens a can of worms of abuse. Who exactly gets to judge which times and circumstances warrant action? President Hinckley states earlier, when the President of the United States deems it, at least if the president is Republican. We can’t forget, of course, that church presidents in the 1960s and the 1940s were against the wars that Democratic presidents fought.

It may even be that He will hold us responsible if we try to impede or hedge up the way of those who are involved in a contest with forces of evil and repression.

President Hinckley even gives a warning of God’s wrath for those who try to oppose the President of the United States taking the fight against “forces of evil and repression.”

This was the moment I lost faith in President Hinckley. Every General Conference after this, I was hoping he would retract his words. But no luck. He passed away without another public word about his defense of the War in Iraq. It has made it so that I cannot trust the words of the prophets on their own. President Hinckley was clearly wrong in supporting the War in Iraq. It doesn’t make him less of a prophet, but it does make it harder for me to trust the words of a prophet.

Those were really stupid years in America.