You’d have thought by now I’d be all over the
Obama/Cheney Smackdown over national security.
Actually, no – mainly because neither of them said anything they haven’t already said (especially Cheney, who’s been giving the same speech for years), and I’ve already expressed my views on both. Repeatedly, actually. All I could really add is how disheartening it is that Cheney can still find anyone to listen to his demented paranoid jabbering and take him seriously (though he did give his speech at the American Enterprise Institute, which practically invented Dick Cheney, so that's to be expected).
I am, however, baffled, perplexed and bamboozled over the spectacle of Congresscritters
refusing to give Obama the funding to shut down Guantanamo Bay.
I’d understand if they had a really good reason for it. But so far, the chief reason seems to be: “We don’t want terrorists on American soil, even if they’re in maximum security prisons.”
Seriously. What’s up with that? I’m missing something here. At what point did we discover that the Gitmo detainees are really supervillains whom no prison can hold? And when did we become so afraid of Teh Terrors that even having one in a nearby prison is enough to make ordinary citizens fear for their very lives? And ... and ....
You know what? I’ll let Jon Stewart take it from here.
Just one other thing to add:
By the same logic expressed above, the four people arrested in Brooklyn in that
synagogue bomb sting are far too dangerous for American jails.
BONUS TRACK: On the Brooklyn bomber guys, Bruce Schneier has
some helpful perspective on the nature of the “threat”. Here’s a particularly good takeaway for you:
They were caught by traditional investigation and intelligence. Not airport security. Not warrantless eavesdropping. But old fashioned investigation and intelligence. This is what works. This is what keeps us safe.
Talk sense,
This is dF
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