Ripping them a new one
Dana Hunter of En Tequila Es Verdad is a blog quandary: when she isn’t ripping cons a new bodily orifice for stupidity and hypocrisy, she’s writing fun articles about science. So what’s the quandary? I try to be selective about sharing her posts on Google Reader but just end up leaving out a lot of good stuff.
One regular feature of her blog is the “Happy Hour Discurso”, in which today she lays in a volley of heavy rhetorical artillery on the conservative overreaction to the underpants bomber. Let’s see, you gots Lieberman wanting to declare war on Yemen, Buchanan advocating torture, Tom Ridge saying we can’t trust our justice system to handle terrorists, and blaming Obama even though terrorism was around before him and will be around afterward. Here’s a little sample:
Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) doesn’t want Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to face criminal charge in a federal court. Former DHS Secretary Tom Ridge doesn’t want Abdulmutallab to have legal rights. I had the same thought Josh Marshall had about the search for elusive consistency.
Remember, the AbdulMutallab case is virtually identical to the Richard Reid “Shoe Bomber” case from December 2001—to an uncanny degree. Same explosive, (PETN), same MO (blowing up an airliner bound for the US), same failed attempt.
It’s really about as close to identical cases and you get. And, of course, Reid was tried in civilian courts and is now serving a life sentence. Seemed to work fine in his case. And unless I’m misremembering, I don’t remember anybody criticizing this approach at the time.
Most of the criticisms we’re hearing are pretty silly. But that’s where the buck stops. It happened. Obama’s president. It’s natural that the political opposition will try to pin it on him. But can we at least get some demagoguing that isn’t so transparently ridiculous and easily refuted by pointing out the policy the accuser followed when they were in charge?
Right. The Reid and Abdulmutallab cases offer nearly identical circumstances—same chemical, same target, same intended consequence, same month of the year, same twisted ideology. Reid was charged, convicted, sentenced, and locked up for life. Neither conservatives nor liberals whined about it. But if the Obama administration subjects Abdulmutallab to an identical process, Republicans are outraged? Either they’re idiots or they think we are.
En Tequila Es Verdad: 30 December 2009 Happy Hour Discurso
Occasionally (and by “occasionally” I mean “practically every day”) some con will say something so blindingly stupid I’m just unable to come up with a good response. But Dana never seems to have that problem. So just in case you aren’t aware of her blog, here you go. It’s good clean fun for all.
NOTES:
- On a related note, be sure to check out The true odds of airborne terror chart.
- Or this just in: Terrorism still less deadly in US than lack of health insurance or salmonella. “Clearly, providing health care to all Americans is beyond our capabilities, so when do we launch the $700 billion-a-year War on Salmonella?”
This is some serious dumbassery. I wasn’t sure before now that we had a class of criminals so much worse than rapists, child molesters, serial murderers, cannibals, and crooked financiers & politicians, that our system of criminal justice was inadequate. Heretofore, it seems the right wing kooks saw it my way, too. Well, I’m always glad to learn something new.
There is something anti-American about the rhetoric of the Right in our wonderful country. It begs the question to call them sore losers, nutcakes, or even racists (all of which appear to be true). These folks are my neighbors in this great land. What makes them so hateful, where others are not?
It’s sad really, and like DOF I find myself lost for words. Usually I find the facepalm a better form of expression for this from me since the stupidity blocks my creative part of the brain.
*blush* It’s all in who you choose to quote, y’know. I’m not that brilliant – Steve Benen is. So are you, and all the other bloggers I choose to quote. Glad you like the choices!
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to go melt into a puddle.
I guess I still haven’t vented enough.
The sad excuses for security services invented under the Bush regime (Homeland Security, TSA), have been malodorous piles of patronage slime since they started. The TSA people at the aerodromes remind me of nothing so much as Wal Mart greeters without the smiles and hugs.
And, stopping bucks notwithstanding, Mr. Obama did not invent these expensive and useless bureaucracies. I say this: close ‘em down. Make the airlines pay for security on their flights, to be vetted by some real professionals, with frequent random and unannounced tests and probes.
Or, if Delta wants to whine enough (like their Prez has been doing since the pantie bomber episode), let ‘em go the fuck out of business.