More ramblings

Link

Interesting. Many have held held the Reno AG as a completely immoral leader during her tenure, and cited her role in going after Waco and Ruby Ridge. In this blog entry, this journalist notes that Lt. Gen. Boykin (remember him? the guy who said that in Somalia he was fighting Satan as Islam or some such thing) is in charge of Military Intelligence, and can be directly linked to the prison torture scandal. So, we have someone who has alienated the entire Muslim world now linked to this abuse of Muslim men. This is bad appearance, at the very best, and shows how Bush's "loyalty" ends up biting us. Had he fired Boykin for essentially calling the war a modern crusade against Islam (while in uniform), he would have some credibility now. But he doesn't.

But back to Reno. Evidently, Boykin served as a military advisor to Reno regarding tactics for going into Waco. And speaking of Waco, I am still thinking about my rant yesterday about the right wing media machine. Flipped through Fox this morning and they were up to old tricks. They introduced a conservative media critic (btw, this particular critic sticks in my mind, because I saw him absolutely outraged that the TV show Cybil had a discussion of the female anatomy. I saw that show and it was respectful and embracing of women, not pornographic or puerile, but this guy was outraged. Said something about how he didn't want his 17 year old daughter hearing about "labia" but also his 40 year old wife! That's right, he didn't want his 40 year old wife hearing about labia. I assume she knows, but this certainly speaks to a level of sexual repression that is hard to justify as healthy) to discuss the world response to recent events. The world, they shouted, had been outraged at photos of the prisoner abuse, but were strangely silent on the beheading of Berg. Hmm. Switched to CNN and they were talking about the world outrage over the beheading, and even the Iraqis who were outraged.

I predict, and this takes no Amazing Kreskin, that this media will absolutely savage Kerry every time they can. While excusing Bush's inarticulate expressions, they will question every word choice with Kerry. They will take every opportunity to repeat the Bush line on Kerry--that he is soft on defense and an ultra-liberal. they will also continue to argue that kerry is essentially un-American for opposing the war in Vietnam the way he did. And this brings me back to Reno and Waco and Ruby Ridge. I have asked this question before, but still no response. So here goes again. I can understand how people can frame the anti-war debate as being counter to American interests by encouraging the VC to keep fighting. What I don't understand is how conservative politicians could cuddle up to militia leaders (and many did not, remember. GHWB denounced the NRA for its attacks on federal employees as jack booted thugs) and carry their conservative "hate America" language without any reprisals. No one accused Rush of being Un American for being soft on right wing hate, nor did they go after the numerous elected officials who spoke favorably of militia concerns. You think they had some legitimate concerns about encroaching government? Fine, though that sounds really funny now that we have one of them as AG using his power as government to encroach to unprecedented levels. But why are they not un-American? Why is this only reserved for those on the left?