If you had any doubts about how powerful the NRA’s influence is in Republican congressional circles, this might clear it up for you.

Republicans on the House Judiciary panel shot down a proposal Thursday to prevent weapon sales to suspected terrorists.

In a party-line vote of 21-11, the committee Republicans killed an amendment from Rep. Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) that would have blocked firearm purchases by those on the FBI’s terrorist watch list.

To put this in context, Republicans have no problem preventing anyone on the the terrorist watch list from boarding a commercial airplane and flying over U.S. airspace. Nor do they have issues with Americans civil rights being violated via the Patriot Act (e.g. wiretaps on Americans conducted without warrants).  Where they do draw the line though, is preventing anyone from obtaining a gun even if that person is on the FBI’s terrorist watch list.  Why is that?  Well according to Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas it’s because it would be unthinkable to deny Second Amendment rights to an individual who was mistakenly placed on the terrorist watch list.

What a pathetic joke of an argument. I wonder if Gohmert has the same concerns about an innocent person being sentenced to death in his state of Texas where 467 have been killed since 1982 (1218 since 1819). Here is a partial list of people executed in Texas where new evidence uncovered after their death gives reason to doubt their guilt.

Carlos DeLuna Texas Conviction: 1983, Executed: 1989
Ruben Cantu Texas Convicted: 1985, Executed: 1993
David Spence Texas Conviction: 1984, Executed: 1997
Gary Graham Texas Convicted: 1981, Executed: 2000,
Claude Jones Texas Convicted 1989, Executed 2000
Cameron Willingham Texas Convicted: 1992, Executed: 2004

Could the hypocrisy and shallowness of Gohmert and his Republican cohorts be any clearer?  Execute an innocent man or prevent someone from flying because his name shows up on a terrorist watch list and it’s fine with them.  But have peaceful Muslims attempt to build a mosque in the U.S. or try to deny a possible terrorist from purchasing a gun and the claws come out and the screeching begins.

Clearly, the only rights Republicans are trying to protect in this instance are those of the NRA – one of the GOP’s many puppet masters.  Any thinking American with a conscience and love of country should be terribly concerned about ever granting Republicans – the party controlled by idiots, charlatans and scoundrels – the reins of power.  This one should have been a no-brainer for a party which has staked its name on implementing strong national security measures.

Democrat Mike Quigley:

“We’re here today to try to resolve the question of how best to strike the proper balance between ensuring our national security and protecting our civil liberties.”

Well, Mr. Quigley, you surely know by now that you’re up against a political party that doesn’t give a damn about striking a balance between anything. Logic, consistency and honesty are not what the GOP do. But that’s quite understandable for a political entity whose only driving force is the word of lobbyists for special interest groups who own Republicans outright. When you understand that little fact, then every seemingly illogical, heartless and lame-brained act by Republicans makes perfect sense, including allowing suspected terrorists to purchase guns in the U.S.

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It is debatable as to whether or not the world is today a safer place with the death of mass murderer Osama bin Laden.  By most accounts, bin Laden had become little more than an al-Qaeda figurehead over the last ten years. What you can be sure about though, is that the world is today a more just place. I can think of few people more deserving of a bullet in the head than Osama bin Laden, the person responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people.

It is difficult to overstate the significance of this event. The killing of bin Laden brings with it a degree of closure to the 9/11 tragedy which would have been impossible otherwise.  Declaring any kind of victory over al-Qaeda, no matter how justified, would have been a hallow claim for as long as bin Laden roamed free. Americans and the world needed this man dead. That day has come.

What follows will be much warranted celebration. The journey to rid the world of an evil entity began with a directive by Bill Clinton in the 90s to kill or capture bin Laden, continued under the watch of George W. Bush after 9/11 and finally came to an end under the leadership of Barack Obama who gave the authorization for U.S. troops to raid the Pakistani compound where bin Laden had been hiding.

The war against terrorism is far from over with the death of bin Laden. Whatever dangers were present a day ago are still with us all today. What is certain though is that a psychological victory has been achieved and a message sent out to the world that Americans are quite capable of finishing any task they set their minds to accomplish.

The President’s address to the nation.
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Charles M. Blow on lessons learned.

Nine years ago today, we saw the world stand still. We saw the innocence of a nation crumble to the ground. We saw the face of evil form in plumes of smoke and ash. It was Sept. 11, 2001.

We all watched the towers collapse, completely, falling from the skies above into a cloud below — horrific and awesome, breathtaking and unbelievable.

I felt myself grow numb, but I refused to be afraid. My attitude that day was the same as most Americans: the terrorists must not be allowed to win. America would not be cowed. We would rise, our greatness would shine, and our ideas of freedom would remain a beacon to the world.

[...]

But we simply cannot allow this new wave of fear to make us into something that we’re not. We are a country of freedoms, a country where religious freedom and freedom of speech hold equal standing, a country in which the construction of a building and the destruction of a book are rights extended to all, even if opposed by most.

Free expressions are not always pleasant, but they must ever be protected, with no regard to the proclivities of the enemy.

This is America, and the moment we forget that, they start to win.

Ted Koppel believes the terrorists have already won.

The attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, succeeded far beyond anything Osama bin Laden could possibly have envisioned. This is not just because they resulted in nearly 3,000 deaths, nor only because they struck at the heart of American financial and military power. Those outcomes were only the bait; it would remain for the United States to spring the trap.

The goal of any organized terrorist attack is to goad a vastly more powerful enemy into an excessive response. And over the past nine years, the United States has blundered into the 9/11 snare with one overreaction after another. Bin Laden deserves to be the object of our hostility, national anguish and contempt, and he deserves to be taken seriously as a canny tactician. But much of what he has achieved we have done, and continue to do, to ourselves. Bin Laden does not deserve that we, even inadvertently, fulfill so many of his unimagined dreams.

[...]

Through the initial spending of a few hundred thousand dollars, training and then sacrificing 19 of his foot soldiers, bin Laden has watched his relatively tiny and all but anonymous organization of a few hundred zealots turn into the most recognized international franchise since McDonald’s. Could any enemy of the United States have achieved more with less?

Could bin Laden, in his wildest imaginings, have hoped to provoke greater chaos? It is past time to reflect on what our enemy sought, and still seeks, to accomplish — and how we have accommodated him.

Given the climate of intolerance we’ve witness over the last many weeks, Koppel might very well be right.

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A number of people have noted this week that the problem with the Koran-burning story is that media, both of the mainstream and blogosphere variety, have turned the words and actions of a single lunatic “pastor” in Florida into a worldwide mega event.  Ignore him, they say, and his Koran-burning shenanigans would have taken place unknown to anyone but his congregation of fifty bigots.

True but one might as well say the exact same thing about terrorists or crazy people of all types. How does one ignore a madman standing in the middle of Times Square screaming at the top of his lungs?  No matter how delusional you believe him to be, he’s going to get the attention he craves.

The sad reality is that acts of insanity of this type are nothing more than borderline terrorism.  They are effective because flying a plane into a building or burning the holy book of one fifth of the world’s population are acts of intimidation which will bring out the news trucks every single time.  It’s just the way it is.  And the Terry Joneses of the world know it.

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Crooks and Liars wonders why this story has not received national attention.

On May 10th, a middle-aged man carried a can of gasoline and a pipe bomb into the Jacksonville Islamic Center of Northeast Florida during evening prayers and detonated it. Fortunately, there were no injuries to people, though the bomb did damage property.

The surveillance video above gives a fairly decent picture of this man, who is clearly white, middle-aged, and on a mission.

The local news is all over it, of course. WOKV.com reports the FBI investigating it as a hate crime and possible domestic terrorism.

[...]

Anti-Muslim sentiments in Florida have been bubbling to the surface, particularly after Republican Dan Fanelli’s campaign commercial was aired asking if a man appearing to be from the Middle East “looked like a terrorist.” According to Yahoo News, there were two other ads with even more pointed messages against Muslims

A few thoughts…

- While this story played locally in Jacksonville, there’s been nothing from the big boys.  Why?  Has everyone become so blase about hate crimes, that they are no longer worthy of media attention?

- Anti-Muslim hate speech by hate-mongers is going to eventually get innocent people killed while doing nothing to make anyone safer.

- As has been abundantly clear since 9/11, radical Islamic terrorism hurts Muslims more than it does anyone else.  Aside from the tens of thousands Iraqis and Afghans killed in the two wars, millions of others are subjected to scorn and abuse by individuals in need of an excuse to exercise their bigoted ways.

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Saw this ad from Saudi Arabia over at the DailyDish in what Sullivan calls Creepy Ad Watch.  Translation follows video.

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The written lines at the end say “Do not use your silence as a weapon against innocent people” and “Say no to terrorism.” The audio translates to “As you stand idly by terrorists and extremists, you only encourage them to continue the killing and destruction”.

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Q. If terrorists attacks are easy to pull off, why do we not see more of them?

There are actually several answers to this question. One, terrorist attacks are harder to pull off than popular imagination — and the movies — lead everyone to believe. Two, there are far fewer terrorists than the political rhetoric of the past eight years leads everyone to believe. And three, random minor terrorist attacks don’t serve Islamic terrorists’ interests right now.

Bruce Schneier delves deeper into each of these reasons.

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You could have seen this one coming. Republicans bitching about the Times Square bomber being read his Miranda rights.  First there was the increasingly irrelevant John McCain

“Obviously that would be a serious mistake…at least until we find out as much information we have.”

“Don’t give this guy his Miranda rights until we find out what it’s all about.”

What total idiocy.  The suspect is an American citizen.  They HAVE to read him his rights or risk having all evidence thrown out of court.

Steve Benen puts it into perspective.

Look, I know McCain’s in a tough primary and has to prove himself to the far-right, but this Miranda-related demagoguery is growing stale.

Najibullah Zazi was Mirandized, and the entire case went beautifully. Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was Mirandized, and the results have been excellent. When shoe bomber Richard Reid was taken into custody, the Bush/Cheney administration read him his rights five minutes after he was taken off the plane he tried to blow up, and McCain never said a word. It’s been standard practice, especially with American citizens upon their arrest, for years — spanning administrations of both parties.

Can’t McCain just let the grown-ups do what they do without offering suggestions from the peanut gallery? The Joint Terrorism Task Force caught the suspect 48 hours after the attempted bombing; the frequently-confused Arizonan should probably trust them to know how best to proceed.

Republican Rep. Peter King chimed in with his worthless two cents.

“Did they Mirandize him? I know he’s an American citizen but still.”

Which all leads us to the following observation.

Yesterday, when the primary suspect in the attempted bombing of Times Square was a middle-aged white guy, Republican leaders were the picture of calm, sober leadership. High-ranking Republicans on committees related to national security like Pete Hoekstra and Peter King urged people not to jump to conclusions, while Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell praised New Yorkers for not succumbing to fear.

That was yesterday. Today, as in the aftermath of the failed underwear bombing on Christmas Day, Republicans are eager to give that power back. With the Justice Department announcing the arrest of Faisal Shahzad, a Pakistani-born American citizen and Connecticut resident in connection with the failed plot, Republicans have returned to their usual script.

One word. Race.
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Washington Post columnist Marc Thiessen’s dishonesty on full display.

KILMEADE: First off, Marc, do you think — do you think it’s wrong to defend criminals? If you’re a defense lawyer for a bad guy, whether it’s Sammy the Bull or John Gotti, does that make you bad? Is that what they’re doing?

THIESSEN: No, but they – I mean, well, first of all, what these people did, most of them, was not defend people who were in the criminal justice system. The sixth amendment says that if you’re accused of a crime, you get to have legal representation. What these people were doing, most of them, was trying to spring terrorists out of Guantanamo who were held under the laws of war. Send them back out to the battlefield where they – where we have evidence they’ve killed Americans since. And one of these lawyers, Jennifer Daskal, has actually said even if we know that they will go out and kill Americans, we should still release them.

There’s not much one can do except to call out right-wing lies and idiocy each and every time it occurs.  Here in fact is what Jennifer Daskal said about holding Guantanamo detainees indefinitely.

An insurgency like al Qaeda is not static, but fluid and dynamic. If the particular detainees in Guantanamo are kept out of circulation, others can — and will — fight in their place. The supply outstrips demand. The high-profile detentions of a few dozen potentially dangerous men in Guantanamo do little to make the United States safer. To the contrary, it delegitimizes U.S. moral authority, helps to fuel the “recuperative power” of the enemy, and undercuts critical efforts to win hearts and minds.

Clear, clean-cut logic…not the type you’ll hear in the following Theissen interview with Jon Stewart.

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Here’s how the chronic lying pattern of Republicans plays out.

1.  Republicans scream that trying the underwear bomber in the criminal justice system is wrong and represents a danger to national security.

2.  Attorney General Eric Holder states that the Bush administration tried over 300 terrorist or terrorism-related cases in that same criminal justice system.

3.  Republicans scream that Holder is a liar.

“There haven’t been 300 high-profile, dangerous terrorism cases in the United States. If there were, we would have heard about them.”  -Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.)

“The 300 number is as false as false gets.”  -Former Bush press secretary Dana Perino

4.  Fact:

Back in the FY 2009 Budget request submitted to Congress in 2008 (under the prior administration), it was the Bush DoJ which cited the 300+ figure. Not once, but twice — as evidence of its success in combating and punishing terrorist activity.

Since 2001, the Department has increased its capacity to investigate terrorism and has identified, disrupted, and dismantled terrorist cells operating in the United States. These efforts have resulted in the securing of 319 convictions or guilty pleas in terrorism or terrorism-related cases arising from investigations conducted primarily after September 11, 2001, and zero terrorist attacks on American soil by foreign nationals from 2003 through 2007.And:

The Department has made significant strides in the global war on terror by identifying, disrupting, and defeating terrorist plots within the United States and ensuring those responsible are brought to justice. Since September 11, 2001, the Department has charged 512 individuals with terrorism or terrorism-related crimes and convicted or obtained guilty pleas in 319 terrorism-related and anti-terrorism cases.

End of story.  Republicans lie with impunity.
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