If you want to know what I think of the torture memo/picture mess.
If I could write that well, that's what I'd have written.
Nuff said.
Let the shit-storm commence.
Can someone please explain to me how the Obama government knows we were made "less safe" because we used waterboarding? How do they KNOW it was a recruiting technique? Because those trustworthy Al Qaeda guys said so?
Maybe I'm nuts, but I'm guessing people who want to attack you without risk of suffering any discomfort if they're captured would tell you that the methods you use are a reason they attack you! So you stop using those methods and yay for them! Now they get to recruit saying "Don't worry, you can kill the infidel and nothing worse than being subjected to a few hours of the Barney theme song will happen to you!"
And do we honestly believe they will treat our people better because we're going to treat their people better? REALLY?
You know what I want to see released? I want to see the memos released showing who in the Congress was briefed on the fact that these techniques were deemed legal, and when they knew, and what they said. I want to see who said nothing then or approved of it as well, who might now be changing their tune? Don't we have a right to know this TOO?
I see no upside to any of this. None. And now they say we're safer? SAFER HOW? Al Qaeda has not been able to successfully attack us in 8 years. How much safer can you get than THAT? I really don't care if AQ is able to recruit thousands more, as long as we can stop them from doing what they want to do--either by killing or capturing them--that's really all that matters, and I don't think for one second that there's anything we can do that would cause the would-be terrorist to say "Oh, well, those people don't torture, they're cool, I'm going to cancel my reservation at camp Behead-An-Infidel."
Please. Spare me.
The MSM has had a parade of lawmakers on the talk shows today repeating the bizarre claim that we Americans are perfectly content with the amount we are taxed. HUHWHATHEFU? I would love to get a look at the question people were asked in that poll! Let me guess: "Do you think you're taxed enough already?" And a yes answer translates to "People are perfectly fine with how much they pay right."
Oh reeeeeeally?
And since when are "taxes" all about federal income taxes? The thing these people keep hoping we forget (or maybe they have forgotten) is that every decision they make in D.C. backs up on states and the states are doing their fair share of taxing people to death right now TOO. Just ask the people in CA and NY! They took to the streets to protest the fact that their states and the federal gov't are tone deaf and spending like crazy assuming the people will just pay for their decisons, if not today, then later.
There were also a lot of people out there protesting the taxes to come, the ones that will be inevitable, for their kids and grandkids when Obama's budget passes. So it really matters not if they like the amt. they're taxed NOW, these are taxes to come in the next decade or two.
And then of course there's the fact that 50% of Americans pay NO TAXES to the federal gov't! So why wouldn't they be satisfied with what they pay??? Let's see, I pay nothing. Yup! I'm pretty cool with that, thanks for asking!
/eyeroll
So really, if 61% say they think they pay enough, it's only 11% who actually PAY anything!
Finally, the poll and it's parrots who are using it to mock the protesters and act like they are nothing but whiners, assume that people protest purely for their own self-interest. What if that's not true? What if these people (like the anti-war protesters who were never in danger of a single bomb falling on them or of their kids going to war) were actually concerned about OTHER PEOPLE, or about the country, or about their kids and grandchildren?
I know, radical concept, but it's possible right?
My point is, no matter how much they try to tell us how much we LURVE to pay our taxes, and how patriotic it is, we aren't just concerned about the amount we pay, we're concerned about how much we OWE as a nation and what we're buying with that debt.
But I guess when you mock people and see them as "peasants" and can't resist making puerile jokes at their expense, such complex nuanced concepts are completely out of reach.
So I'm officially older now than I was four minutes ago, and it hit me: I am ridifuckinliculously LUCKY, to be who I am, where I am in life, with the family I have, the health I enjoy and living here--in the USA.
If I were 43 in many other parts of the world, I would either already be dead, dying, or not looking forward to a whole heckuva lot of good things in my future. If I hadn't married until I was 36 in most other places, I sure as shit wouldn't have three beautiful children born *after* that happy event, and if I'd even tried, chances are with the complications I had just the first go-around, I'd have died before the other two could have been conceived.
But even if we removed the hypothetical of me living in another country, what about just being someone else in THIS country? I don't want to think about it, I really don't. I am so blessed it terrifies me at times. Even with all my worries and compulsions and the problems I have (most of which are self-induced), I *still* wouldn't trade places with anyone.
So today, I just want to take a moment to thank God--quite literally--for these last 43 years. The good, the bad, the ugly, the really really ugly, and everything awkwardly in between. There are things I wish I hadn't gone through, but nothing I'd risk going back to change given the opportunity--not if it might (most likely) mean that my life today would be different than it is.
So thanks, Lord, I am--as you know--wholly unworthy of the abundance of riches with which you have blessed me, but please know that I will do my utmost for the next 43 years to endeavor to deserve what I've already received in the first.
I can't write intelligently about the Homeland Security Report (you know the one) but Slobo does a great--no, stellar--job of it for me.
Is it sinking in yet? Do you realize that you may very well be the target of this assessment?If you don’t believe abortion should be legal, or you are opposed to illegal immigration, your government thinks you may be a “rightwing extremist”. Like I said at the beginning of this post, there’s no turning back now. They already know what you’ve done, and if you open your mouth or stand up for what you believe in you face the risk of being labeled an extremist and an “American Terrorist”.
While they try to deflect your attention by throwing in the white supremacist groups and violent antigovernment groups connections to benign threats received by the government, they in essence are making it easier to deal with you, if you just happen to fit that “individual” definition of an American terrorist.
The assessment adds more insult to injury by including anyone that may object to new restrictions on firearms. Can you imagine a Guantanamo style facility housing nothing but American citizens who object to abortion, illegal immigration, and strict gun controls? Sure, it sounds a little extreme, but remember, your government thinks YOU are the extremist, so it’s not really that extreme now is it?
There’s a reason they didn’t want anyone releasing the information contained in the document. If everyday Americans realized what they were up to, it could “adversely affect or jeopardize” their investigative activities. It’s not as fun for them if they know you know they’re watching you.
Which is why you will now go read the whole thing.
And if you are met with some asshat liberal who tries to talk you off the ledge (where you ought to be after reading Michael's brilliant analysis) by doing the Obama "Two Wrongs Make a Right, Don't They?" routine, just toss them this answer from Jonah Goldberg who's had his fair share of that shit this week too.
Dear Lord! I mean, don't get me wrong, I'm happy about this, but really? "Adults under 30?" Is there such a thing? Really?
OK, I know I'm beting an ageist, but let's get real shall we? How old do you think the people are who pay most of the taxes in this country? Who create most of the jobs? Who do most of the investing and financing of the twenty-something's "dreams" of future glory?
Yeah, it's us old-fart capitalists, that's who! So is it really any wonder that we prefer capitalism and they are skewed slightly higher on the "socialism's kewl dude" scale?
Also, what age group came through school having a greater immersion in the multi-cultural utopian one-world bullshit view that socialism is a "moral imperative" or some such? I know it wasn't MINE, and I still had to endure my far share of crappy teaching by profs who had no clue about the real world.
I'll be interested to see how these same poll subjects feel once Obama's brand of socalism really gets going and they begin to realize how smart their parents and grandparents were after all.
This is a test. I better figure out links!