Terrorist Justice

There are many opinions out there about how to treat the terrorists at Guantanamo Bay. Well as long as people are offering them I would like to offer mine. How about good old-fashioned military justice based on the Geneva Convention. They should blind-folded and executed by a firing squad because they represent no established country's military. They do not wear uniforms that identify their branch, division or rank. They target and kill civilians and run in the face of real opposition. Essentially they are criminals, thugs and cowards. If we wanted to treat them the way they treated Americans they captured we would burn them alive and hang them from bridges, or cut their heads off and put it on the internet. We might dismember them and send the remains back their families. In the past war and criminal behavior have always been separated. They have always been seen as distinctly different because war is an action by a country and crime is the act of individuals. This does not mean that crime does not occur in war, it just means it is treated differently because it is a war. That is why there is a Geneva Convention in the first place because despite the cruelty of war there are rules. The terrorists at Guantanamo Bay have ignored all those rules. They wear no uniforms; they target civilians and operate without rules. While it is fashionable to think that all armies are like this the truth is that most official soldiers know the rules and operate by them. There are exceptions of course, but if you ask anyone who has served they will tell you that most soldiers know the rules and do their best to follow them. The terrorists at Guantanamo ignored the rules on purpose. They deserve to be executed. That is the justice they deserve.

No Surprises - What A Disappointment

As America enters a new non-partisan era it's clear that the old hatreds remain the same. Despite the graciousness shown by President Bush, Vice-President Cheney and their spouses towards the Obama family and administration, Obama supporters could not suppress their dislike for the President by booing his parents, his family and his vice president when they were introduced at the Inauguration Ceremony. It was nothing short of disgusting, but in fact it was no surprise. People without manners and civility cannot learn them overnight even when the model is the perfect example. This entire week was a field day for the Bush whackers. Even as he leaves there are calls for war crime trials, more investigations, more blame, more vitriol and yes more partisanship. Except for John McCain of course who is now out to prove he never was a Republican anyway. We can expect lots of Obama boot-licking from him now that he lost. To regain his reputation as a maverick he will desert and betray his party in search of the deal that will make the media and the Democrats like him and invite him to all the good parties. And let me not forget the right and ancient, perhaps demented, Reverend Joseph Lowry who said "and White will embrace what is right." He obviously didn't notice that 45 million "white" voters chose Mr. Obama as President or did he just forget that he was at the Inauguration of the first black President. Maybe when they remembered the black regiment of the Civil War or the Tuskegee Flyers they should have remembered the many Caucasian Christians and Jews that supported the Civil Rights Movement including Harry Truman, Dwight Eisenhower, Hubert Humphrey and Lydon Johnson to name a few. It may truly be fitting to call today a black day in Washington. It was disheartening, but no surprise. But the real disappointment is yet to come. While Obama's supporters love him for better or worse. Will they still be thrilled when Guantanamo is not closed? Will they still be thrilled when the war in Afghanistan becomes bigger than the war in Iraq? Will they still be thrilled when the Congress returns to business as usual? Will they still be thrilled when they must continue to pay their mortgages, car payments and health insurance, and in addition pay higher taxes to fund Obama's trillion dollar spending spree? The KoolAid drinkers will always follow in awe. What about you?

Don't Be Fooled - Again

As we approach the inauguration of the new President I find myself in a terrible quandary. With a compliant, liberal, pussy-whipped media singing his praises and the neo-bootlicking conservative analysts’ suddenly feeling non-partisan, while their political enemies plan their demise, true political conservatives are being pushed into the cold hard ground. Now that President Bush is leaving office liberals are now crying for a new bi-partisanship. They want us to forget or at least ignore the terrible way they treated President Bush for eight consecutive years. Many may remember that Bush too, also came to Washington and spoke of a new tone; A less partisan atmosphere in which the Congress could accomplish common goals. But it was not to be and many liberals argued that it shouldn't. They argued the media and the Congress should not be a rubber stamp for any President. For eight continuous years they battered the President until he was beaten to a pulp, and finally acquiesced to their view of the world. He leaves office merely a shell of the man he was. Now they want conservatives to take the gloves off. Be nice. Give the man (Obama) a chance. Be better than we were. I don't think so. First of all, we conservatives have always been better than liberals. We have always been more honest about policy positions. We have always been more honest about our political goals. We have never had to disguise conservative goals the way that liberals must disguise their goals. Euphemisms like single-payer plan for socialized medicine, government investments for tax increases, are just two examples of the many ways that liberals in government want to fool us into going along with something that is inherently bad for the country. We won't be fooled again. It doesn't matter what kind of clothes this new emperor wears. His ideas are naked. Despite the foolishness of many conservatives that believe he will not govern as he promised I believe he will. He wants to take this country down the path of European socialism and he will unless like-minded conservatives stay on his case.

Taking Notice

After the month-long hiatus needed to recover from a bruising Presidential campaign, the presumptuousness of our new President, the auto-bailout failure and the Blagojevich mess in Illinois is forcing me back to the written word to express by frustration that the American people cannot see who their real enemies are. The most outstanding thing about the Obama Presidency so far is the presumptuousness of our new President. He is the first to create "The Office of the President Elect." This has never been done before. It goes to his own perception of his importance. For most Presidents’ it is the office that is important not the person in it. We can only hope that a President Obama can learn this lesson. The lust for his Presidency is so great that the political left is ready to discard the entire transition period so their chosen one could take over before Inauguration Day. The auto bailout of GM and Chrysler is an animal of another sort. Despite the protestations by the Democrats, especially the Senate Majority leader, that Republicans killed the bill, Harry Reid voted against it. For all his talk about supporting unions and being a regular guy he voted against the bailout and then tried to put it at the foot of the opposition. Why has the media overlooked that the most powerful Democrat in Congress voted against a bill his party was supposedly for. After Governor Rob Blagojevich's Gary Hart-like challenge to the media about his pubic and private ranting, the unsinkable Patrick Fitzgerald obliged him by releasing a 74-page complaint charging him with bribery and solicitation in trying to sell Obama's US Senate seat. And like all those before Blagojevich, Obama dropped him like a stone and never had any idea about the depth of the corruption of Blagojevich despite his efforts to elect Blagojevich twice and the incestousness of their staffs. David Axlerod, for example, worked for both. Rom Emmanuel also had a relationship with Blagojevich. Both have tried to cover their tracks to Blagojevich, but the media and the Justice Department are going to help lighten that path and Jesse Jackson Jr., may get dragged into the mess before being being selected to replace Obama in the Senate. This episode reflects two realities of modern political life. The first is that political corruption in Chicago is undeniable and the second is that the President-elect went 20 years in Chicago and never knew about Reverend Wright's anti-American ravings, Bill Ayers terrorist activities, Tony Rezko's influence peddling and now Blagojevich's corruption. Considering that these things are so painfully obvious to most people, even some Big D Democrats, how can we have confidence that Obama will know what's going on in the world when he occupies the White House?

A Touch Of Class

You can tell the Democrats won the election because there has not been a single complaint about disenfranchised voters or voting machines. Despite their army of lawyers throughout the nation they did not file a single complaint after almost a year's worth of creating the environment to make such a contention possible. After two tumultuous elections in which democrats filed hundreds of complaints and used those to declare George W. Bush an illegitimate President, this year's elections did not elicit a single one. Over the last eight years the constant refrain about the stolen elections of 2000 and 2004 permitted the press to pound the President almost every day until his popularity was driven so low that he was never able to recover. Either the Democrats now have cheating down to an art form or these issues never really existed or both. You be the judge. You can also tell the Democrats won by the class shown by Republicans who despite their opposition to Obama are willing to give him a chance. Something the Democrats never gave to George Bush. Republicans seem willing to wait on his action to make any judgments about his policies. Even the President showed a great deal of class when he acknowledged Obama's victory and promised a smooth transition. Let's hope some of it rubs off.

Obama the First

The pretensions of the man that has ascended to the Presidency cannot be overstated. He began his victory clothed in the colors of black power. Like the ersatz presidential seal he used in his campaign, his latest attempt at shallow symbolism was yet another seal that reads Office of the President Elect. In his first press conference he was surrounded by adoring, fawning white men who are so over the hill it puts the lie to his entire hip and new campaign. Among the things he promised to address as President is the conflict concerning Iran's nuclear program. To be precise he said he would begin a new intense diplomatic effort with Iran. Where has he been? The world, as represented by the UN, as well as individual nations including the United States have been having an intense dialogue with Iran for more than a decade on this very topic. Something the press failed to point out during the entire election season. However, Iran's intransigence on the matter of nuclear might is unambiguous. It has lead to recriminations by many nations including sanctions, but every effort has so far failed to deter Iran’s belligerence. The other thing he promised to address immediately upon taking office in January is the economic crisis. In case he hasn't heard the government has already promised over a billion dollars to deal with the current situation. Actually if you include the $300 billion that the Congress appropriated for troubled mortgages in July of 2008 it’s almost $1.3 billion. He voted for both. Oh, on second thought he missed the July vote. He was too busy running for President. Now that he will take of the oath of office in January he will have to do the work. There will no voting present or not showing up. There will be no blaming the other guy. There will be no excuses. Unlike the Democrats who never accepted George Bush as President, Republicans for the most part will accept Barack Obama and give him a chance to get it right. And while he may continue to escape the scrutiny of the press he will not escape the scrutiny of citizens, both Democratic and Republican.

An Inconvenient Formality

If you've been watching the election coverage you already know that your vote on Tuesday is just an inconvenient exercise for a media that has picked Barack Obama to win the Presidency by a landslide with as many as 370 electoral votes. They have also given the Senate a virtually filibuster-proof majority and the House another 30 seats making the Democrats very close to a two-thirds majority in the House. At the same time they are attempting to cover themselves by saying that the polls have great variability in the event the unthinkable happens. That is, if the Republicans have any success at all in the Presidency, the Senate or the House. It is quite stunning that such an overwhelming victory is being predicted in a country that the media readily admits is basically a 50/50 country. This merely proves that the media is in the tank and they hope to convince you to vote for Obama or stay home. If they succeed we will be treated to a self-fulfilling prophecy, but if we act as Americans normally do the media will be surprised. Americans are being asked to overlook many things to choose Obama and give the Democrats bigger majorities in the House and Senate. In the case of Obama you are being asked to overlook his questionable ties to Jeremiah Wright, Louis Farrakhan, Tony Rezko, Bill Ayres, Rashid Khalidi and others. You are also being asked to overlook his failure to provide little more than a doctor's note for a medical record, the lock down of his academic records at Columbia and Harvard and his questionable birth documents. When you raise these issues they are treated as old news or racism. Will this persist if he is President? In the case of the House and Senate you are being asked to overlook an economy that has tanked since the Democrats came into power two years ago, as well as their opposition to the emerging victory in the war in Iraq. In addition, it is widely acknowledged that the current financial meltdown is the direct result of social engineering by the Democrats, as well as questionable accounting procedures by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to keep the bonuses rolling. It shouldn't be overlooked that George Bush was one of the first to voice his concerns about this as was John McCain and former Treasury Secretary John Snow. Democrats obstructed reform and the result was the mortgage meltdown. Readers of this blog know that John McCain is far from a perfect choice from my perspective. His willingness to betray his party for good media coverage is the mark of a people-pleaser, which is not always the best choice for a President. However, given the choices a vote for McCain is a vote that will give us breathing space until the next election when we may have some better choices.