Tag Archives: politics

Our National 9/11 Schizophrenia?

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In his usual black/white arguments, Victor Davis Hanson imagines that safety from terrorism cannot be achieved unless our society ratifies the doctrines of the Bush administration and continues them. Our National 9/11 Schizophrenia by Victor Davis Hanson on National Review Online. The schizophrenia is his, not ours. One need not embrace all of George W. Bush’s policies or abandon them; one need not take them in their totality or abandon them altogether. One need not seethe world in black and white. We can have a world with shades of gray, policy complexity; we can have safety with values. We can disavow torture and preserve public safety. We can seek to work with Iran without abandoning Israel. We can confront terrorism without going to war and without deceiving the public.

None of these binaries–choose torture or insecurity; choose to with an enemy or abandon a friend; choose to fight terrorism or tell the the truth–are real. They are imagined by Victor Davis Hanson and those who want to politicize national security.

We can honor civil liberties and fight terrorism, and indeed we must do both, or we will have already been defeated by the terrorists.

Joe Wilson is now is Offline

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Joe Wilson, or should I say Addison Graves Wilson Sr., man up! You become the poster child for political incivility and all you can do is issue a written statement? How about you fess up to the fact that yourlittle public tirade was itself a lie? And, Lots of folks are covering the untruth uttered by Wilson. (Or, could it be that Wilson’s uncovered some secret plot, something only he knows about?)

And, Joe, why go offline? Really, check for yourself, Joe Wilson is offline. (edit: site now claims to be down due to “high traffic.”) How about you stand up and speak clearly, like the President of the United States?  Are you scared that a “mob” might form on the Internet–kinda like the forces you and your right-wing ideologues have unleashed to quash meaningful debate about health care?

Now that I’ve fulminated a bit, perhaps its time for some perspective on just how august Congress really is. Indeed, Joe’s behavior continues a long line of incivility in those hallowed halls.  For example, check out this list of great Congressional fistfights. There are rules of order for a reason I guess.