Posted on 03/01/2006 1:46:42 AM PST by bayourant
http://www.salon.com/opinion/feature/2006/03/01/keillor/ March 1, 2006 | These are troubling times for all of us who love this country, as surely we all do, even the satirists. You may poke fun at your mother, but if she is belittled by others it burns your bacon. A blowhard French journalist writes a book about America that is full of arrogant stupidity, and you want to let the air out of him and mail him home flat. You hear young people talk about America as if it's all over, and you trust that this is only them talking tough. And then you read the paper and realize the country is led by a man who isn't paying attention, and you hope that somebody will poke him. Or put a sign on his desk that says, "Try Much Harder."
Do we need to impeach him to bring some focus to this man's life? The man was lost and then he was found and now he's more lost than ever, plus being blind.
The Feb. 27 issue of the New Yorker carries an article by Jane Mayer about a loyal conservative Republican and U.S. Navy lawyer, Albert Mora, and his resistance to the torture of prisoners at Guantánamo Bay. From within the Pentagon bureaucracy, he did battle against Donald Rumsfeld and John Yoo at the Justice Department and shadowy figures taking orders from Dick (Gunner) Cheney, arguing America had ratified the Geneva Convention that forbids cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment of prisoners, and so it has the force of law. They seemed to be arguing that the president has the right to order prisoners to be tortured.
One such prisoner, Mohammed al-Qahtani, was held naked in isolation under bright lights for months, threatened by dogs, subjected to unbearable noise volumes, and otherwise abused, so that he begged to be allowed to kill himself. When the Senate approved the Torture Convention in 1994, it defined torture as an act "specifically intended to inflict severe physical or mental pain or suffering." Is the law a law or is it a piece of toast?
Wiretap surveillance of Americans without a warrant? Great. Go for it. How about turning over American ports to a country more closely tied to 9/11 than Saddam Hussein was? Fine by me. No problem. And what about the war in Iraq? Hey, you're doing a heck of a job, Brownie. No need to tweak a thing. And your blue button-down shirt -- it's you.
But torture is something else. When Americans start pulling people's fingernails out with pliers and poking lighted cigarettes into their palms, then we need to come back to basic values. Most people agree with this, and in a democracy that puts the torturers in a delicate position. They must make sure to destroy their e-mails and have subordinates who will take the fall. Because it is impossible to keep torture secret. It goes against the American grain and it eats at the conscience of even the most disciplined, and in the end the truth will come out. It is coming out now.
According to the leaders of the bipartisan 9/11 Commission, our country is practically as vulnerable today as it was on 9/10. Our seaports are wide open, our airspace is not secure except for the nation's capital, and little has been done about securing the nuclear bomb materials lying around in the world. They give the administration D's and F's in most categories of defending against terrorist attack.
Our adventure in Iraq, at a cost of trillions, has brought that country to the verge of civil war while earning us more enemies than ever before. And tax money earmarked for security is being dumped into pork barrel projects anywhere somebody wants their own SWAT team. Detonation of a nuclear bomb within our borders -- pick any big city -- is a real possibility, as much so now as five years ago. Meanwhile, many Democrats have conceded the very subject of security and positioned themselves as Guardians of Our Forests and Benefactors of Waifs and Owls, neglecting the most basic job of government, which is to defend this country. We might rather be comedians or daddies or tattoo artists or flamenco dancers, but we must attend to first things.
The peaceful lagoon that is the White House is designed for the comfort of a vulnerable man. Perfectly understandable, but not what is needed now. The U.S. Constitution provides a simple ultimate way to hold him to account for war crimes and the failure to attend to the country's defense. Impeach him and let the Senate hear the evidence.
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Garrison Keillor's "A Prairie Home Companion" can be heard Saturday nights on public radio stations across the country.)
I'd like to see the RNC run an ad reminding the American people about who the dems really are featuring:
Garrison Keillor
Michael Moore
George Soros
Ted Kennedy
Barbara Boxer
Hillary Clinton
Dan Rather
Mary Mapes
Howard Dean
Dick Durbin
David Gregory
Pat Leahy
Charlie Rangel
John Conyers
Maxine Waters
Barney Frank
Bill Maher
Jon Stewart
Joe Biden
Arianna Huffington
Cindy Sheehan
Rand Beers
Richard Clarke
Joe Wilson
Valerie Plame
John Kerry
Bob Torricelli
Jon Corzine
James Carville
Paul Begala
Mike Farrell
Most of Hollywood
NARAL
NOW
Bill Clinton
Jimmy Carter
CBS
NBC
ABC
NYT
WP
LAT
NPR
PBS
Al Franken
Garrison Keillor is a ponderous bore.
How could anyone who hates the U.S. be on NPR? I am shocked!!!
PING
Yes, Garrison; they're negative, hateful youths because of the smarmy bile spewed by people like yourself.
Just reading that list gives me the willies.
Well stated!
LLS
Would you say Keillor is a half-educated pretender, or actually knows better and is using his Lib License to Lie?
If I dress as a civilian (even though I'm a soldier) and blow away some soldiers, I forfeit my Geneva protection, and can be executed without trial upon capture. All those in Gitmo known to have done this could be shot today without further ado. All that is required is that I be captured in a combat zone with a weapon in my possession and out of uniform - I can be legally executed on the spot as a partisan - even by my own side.
Have to say I think Keillor actually doesn't know the basic laws of warfare. How about it Libs? Should we enforce the Nuremberg laws and stop the torture?
What a lying sack of sh**. Plus, he's one of the ugliest bastards I've ever seen.
I too think that he is ignorant, as well as stupid.
"Should we enforce the Nuremberg laws?"
Sounds good to me! I like your reasoning.
LLS
If they're loon-crazy now with Bush II in the Oval Office, what will they do if McCain, who appears to be the present GOP favorite, gets elected. Same thing with Giuliani. McCain is more pro war against Islamo-fascism than Bush is. Maybe all the lib whiners like Keillor will finally leave. I hope.
Hey, these people run over each other's backs to buy Jimmy Carter's latest book. No other proof of delusion is required. Not sure why I'm on such and anti-Carter jag lately, but he seems to sum up the stupidity of the left nicely.
They just don't get the world today. Dhimmicrats appear to think you can appease a third world dictator here or there, propose some ap-peace-ment treatie with someone else in the ME who wants to blow up the US, throw in some bribes to North Korea (more Carter for you) and the world is safer.
BAH!
These people are mentally ill.
I don't get them, and they probably don't get me.
I've actually given that idea some thought. I believe one of the differences between liberals and conservatives is that, in general, conservatives do have a sense of what liberals tend to think, whereas liberals are so sure they are correct that they don't pause to consider that conservatives might have valid thoughts and arguments. That, and liberals tend to think with their hearts and not with their heads.
I really like this one!
It's wonderful!
Hence, his nickname, "The Minnesota Twit"
This--as everything else Keillor emits including "and" and "the"--is pure flatulence.
Would that it were so, but thanks to McCain et al, these illegal combatants are fed better than the public schoolchildren in this metro district.
Keillor is just one more fifth column puke whose speech is excrement.
The illegal combatants who behead innocents, who bomb, murder and mutilate innocents, who fly planes into buildings of innocents are entitled to any treatment we choose, the least of which being detainment for the duration, if it means the remainder of their natural life.
Garrison, you atesticular glob of marshmallow, the president is plainly the person who is paying the most attention.
Below is a link to an excellent analysis of the mentally ill Keillor. It was posted by Kattracks. This mentally liberal sees all of us as Rednecks, and probably has never set down to have a cup of coffee and a real discussion with any of us.
He claims to be real Christian yet any of us who are Christians are labeled as Nazis.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1293432/posts
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