Cafe de Mello

House Minority Leader John Boehner (I don’t care what he says, his name should be pronounced “Boner” today accused President Obama of having a pre-911 mentality based on his administration’s handling of the Christmas “underwear” bombers arrest and detention. The trouble is the policies Attorney General Eric Holder and the rest of the administration followed were set in place after 911 by the Bush administration and have resulted in the conviction of about 300 terrorists.

Since Boehner/Boner has forgotten everything that has happened since 911, doesn’t that mean he, not the President has the pre-911 mentality?

This is another of the facts optional attacks that the Republicans have thrown at President Obama which show the Republicans to be more interested in scoring political points than what is true or what is good for the country. These folks are corrupt to their very souls.

This is in part a response to Eva Rodriguez’s post “Don't buy the administration's spin on the Christmas day bomber” in today’s Washington Post. That Ms. Rodriguez, who can be fairly reasonable (e.g. “No KSM trial in Manhattan, after all?” and “On Alito's State of the Union head wag, you're all wrong.”), is so ready to abandon the rule of law, may serve as an example of why the Republican’s scare tactics are so dangerous to America.

Ms. Rodriguez views recent reports detailing how Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, known as the underwear bomber, is now providing lots of valuable information to the FBI as an admission of failure. In her view, rather than reading Abdulmutallab his Miranda rights after his initial 50 minute interrogation, he should have promptly been dragged off to some military prison and what? Waterboard him? Have the Republican’s learned nothing?

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In my post “Lindsey Graham Wants To Surrender To Al Qaida,” I suggested that by ignoring the rights of those suspected of terrorism and thereby abandoning our commitment to the principles in our Constitution we are giving Al Qaida the victory it wants—changing the fabric of our society out of fear.

In the hours since I wrote that, new information has become available that highlights how acting on our principles strengthens our national defense.

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According to the Washington Post, AIG is set to distribute about 100 Million Dollars in bonuses Wednesday to workers in the Financial Products division—the folks that brought the US banking system to the edge of collapse. This is an early payment (by one month) for employees who agreed to accept reduced bonuses (my, that must have hurt them).

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Senator Lindsey Graham (R- S.C.) plans to introduce legislation that would block funding for the civilian trials of self-confessed 9-11 mastermind, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, and four co-conspirators, all of whom are currently held at Guantanamo Bay. This amounts to admitting that Al Qaida has defeated our belief in our legal institutions. For myself, I refuse to be such a coward.

All Americans should be aware that—whether we live in Washington D.C., New York City, Fort Hood, or Rat’s Nest California (like me)—without warning we could find ourselves on the front lines in the struggle against terrorism. And with that in mind, we should decide how we are going to respond now!

I say we respond with a roar of, “Screw you guys!

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