The American Spectator

Steve| 5.9.09 @ 10:40AM

Great post - keep us in the loop!

COMMON CENTS
http://www.commoncts.blogspot.com
ps. Link Exchange??

Big J| 5.9.09 @ 11:03AM

Nancy Pelosi not telling the truth?

I suppose the next thing you'll tell me is that water is wet or the sky is blue??

Sheesh! What kind of fool do you think I am?

/sarc

tonypal| 5.9.09 @ 11:14AM

Nancy Pelosi's problem is one of projection. She is truly one of the dumbest public figures we've ever seen, but she acts as if American citizens are just sitting around drooling on themselves. Well, maybe 52% of them are.

Have any of you ever read the transcript to one of her interviews. They're bad enough to listen to, but to read what she says is really astounding. The woman cannot put together a coherent thought. She is completely ignorant with respect to the Constitution and doesn't seem to comprehend any part of public policy. How this woman become the leader of the House Democrats makes you scratch your head in bewilderment.

Tom Paine| 5.9.09 @ 11:45AM

tonypal --

Pelosi may come off as ditzy (and you're right, she does) on television, and maybe in the transcripts you recommend, but believe it, to become the Speaker you have to have the heart of a cobra and the wisdom of the devil himself. She's not stupid.

She may just take a fall over this torture business, although, to be fair, the story in the Wa Po suggests she might not have known water boarding had actually been used.

VideoSavant| 5.9.09 @ 12:25PM

To be fair?

Well, to be fair, if the media was doing its job of holding elected officials accountable for their public statements, Madame Pelosi would be spending the weekend preparing the first draft of her resignation speech.

Because she either lied about the briefings or is simply too magnificently stupid to understand what she was told. Personally, I think she's lying here, but I have to admit that I am mightily swayed by past evidence that she is operating on substantially less than 100 watts of brainpower.

But either way -- deceit or stupidity -- she's now proven without question that she is completely unworthy of any elected office, whether it's Speaker of the House or San Francisco dog catcher.

Anna Keppa| 5.9.09 @ 1:19PM

Make that "San Francisco gerbil catcher", and I'm with you all the way.

John Richmond| 5.9.09 @ 2:20PM

Yeap, Pelosi might be lying -- and she might be complicit in Bush's war crimes by tacitly approving of torture. If she knew, then she's dishonest and a hypocrite. But, she wasn't the one who authorized torture, so legally she is in the clear.

George Bush, Dick Cheney, et al., however, are war criminals. It's as simple as that. We executed Japanese solders for waterboarding our troops, and we defined it as torture. And, we prosecuted OUR OWN troops for waterboarding the North Vietnamese. It was torture then and it's torture now.

I have been proud to be an American because we supported human rights. We were the good guys who didn't torture, who lectured the world on the Geneva Convention. Our comic book super-heroes caught the super-criminals and and actually took them to the United Nations to be prosecuted!

If we engage in torture, spying and oppressing our own people and, generally, disregarding the law then we are no better than any other country. We can claim to have a higher standard of living or a stronger military, but we will just be another corrupt country run by bribes (which we are) that has no principles, and thumbs its nose at human rights and international law.

At that point, an American proclaiming "I'm Proud to be an American" will be exactly as honorable and remarkable as someone from, say, Nigeria saying "I'm proud to be a Nigerian". They will be equal statements in every logical way.

ruth| 5.9.09 @ 2:56PM

TP/Jeremiah--I told you so. Your phony outrage over waterboarding seems to have dissipated since your feckless liberal icons have been called out on their lies.

ruth| 5.9.09 @ 3:08PM

Sure, John; we dunked three mass murderers in water to save thousands of our fellow Americans and now we're the worst of the worst among torturers. Not only are you democrats complicit in this 'torture' you are liars and cowards as well.

Basil Plumley| 5.9.09 @ 4:35PM

Hey Tommy Pain/Jeremiah .....

Do you remember when this story first broke, you proclaimed Nancy Pelosi totally innocent and there was no proof that she attended these
meetings?

Now you proclaim that Pelosi has "the heart of a cobra and the wisdom of the devil himself. She's not stupid."

You are truly amazing. Preach on, dude!

@John Richmond

Please do some research and quit repeating the MSNBC mantra. We did not execute any Japanese soldiers for merely waterboarding Allied soldiers. The brutality of the Japanese towards our soldiers went far beyond waterboarding. Think beheadings, amputations, and other barbaric behavior.

Mike Lee| 5.9.09 @ 7:27PM

Pelosi et, al are traitorous scum that care more about their own future than the future of the nation. Any administration will make mistakes and errors in judgement in trying to protect this nation but i would rather err on the side of caution than to have a major city vaporized even if that means that Europe won't like us. Personally i don' t care if they like us or not as long as we're kept safe from attack. Mr. Obama should worry whether or not Americans think he is doing his job. Europe can go scratch. woe be unto you if everyone likes you.

Tom Paine| 5.9.09 @ 8:16PM

Video --

To be fair?

Yes, to be fair. What's wrong with that?

There is descrepancy between what one person and another are saying about Pelosi's briefing. Until there's more evidence, I don't think withholding judgment is wise. You don't have to. It's a free country.

Basil --

Your memory is a little defective, although that hardly surprises me.

All I said on Pelosi was that it seemed unlikely she was briefed in 02 since she chaired no relevant committee and had no leadership position that would have warranted such a briefing. Frankly, you bogus fools on the right didn't seem even to know those basic facts. (Again, this seems hardly surprising: not having facts is something of which "conservatives" remain proud.)

If Pelosi was briefed, the question will remain the same as it did for other people in the Congress: what could she have done? Telling anyone about the briefing would have been ILLEGAL. Those briefings are secret. AND, those briefings are not b.s. sessions in which the administration solicits the opinions of leading members of the opposite party.

My advice? Try to learn a little something about American politics and how Congress works. You're just ignorant as a bag of hammers. All you do is repeat what you hear on Limbaugh or other talk radio programs. It's a total bore.

ruth| 5.9.09 @ 9:12PM

TP/Jeremiah--you so lie like a rug!! You were absolutely apoplectic with outrage over President Bush's 'torture' tactics. I distinctly remember dodging the spittle that burst forth from your posts. Looks like you and your acid tongued Nazi Pelosi have lots in common--lies. Dumb dweeb.

ruth| 5.9.09 @ 9:14PM

I think you liberals should be frog-marched to STUPID jail! Ha ha ha.

Tom Paine| 5.9.09 @ 9:21PM

Ruth --

How am I lying? I'm not denying being angry that the Bush administration became the first in American history to sanction torture. I'm just denying that I made positive claims about what Pelosi knew. And I'm denying that what Pelosi knew even matters, which is does not. A simple knowledge of civics is all that's needed to clear up so many of these debates.

Tom Paine| 5.9.09 @ 9:27PM

I've just been reading about the man in Georgia who opened fire on the theatre group a couple of weeks ago.

And I'd like formally to make a request of NRA types, gun nuts, and society-haters:

Please, for the love of God, when the time comes that you want to gather all your ammo and weapons and go shooting people in public places, before getting into a stand-off with police and eventually killing yourself, please, please SHOOT YOURSELF FIRST.

You have to understand that years ago being a crazy whack-job had a certain kind of charm. We liked the crazy. The crazy had endearing traits, and we were happy to have them around.

But now they're armed, and they hate us. They're armed, and they have the most powerful lobby organization in Washington, and they want to shoot people.

They want to shoot people because they lost their job. They want to shoot people because their wife left them, or because their girlfriend looked at another guy in a bar. They want to shoot people because a black man is president, or because the police won't let them take hostages. They want to shoot people because they hate their mothers, resent God, don't like movies, or never made love to a woman.

We have to do more to encourage these people to commit suicide more quickly, before they start taking others with them.

And YOU can help. You conservatives, government-resenters, militia-types, NRA members: please help by spreading the word to the crazy, so they'll stop gunning down kids at schools, in work places, at shopping malls and churches. You'll feel better when you do.

ruth| 5.9.09 @ 9:39PM

Hey, Richmond; I researched Japanese 'waterboarding' that was performed on American soldiers during WWII. Have you? The Japanese 'interrogators' forced a hose down each of our men's throats and filled their stomachs to bursting--then the Japanese would jump on or punch our soldiers' stomachs. Now--that was torture. Are you capable of discerning the difference?

ruth| 5.9.09 @ 9:58PM

Nah, Jeremiah--not civics--humility. Admit you were wrong; the truth will set you free.

ruth| 5.9.09 @ 10:00PM

Bet you most of those crazy shooters are liberals--you guys have crappy impulse control.

Basil Plumley| 5.9.09 @ 11:51PM

Hey Tommy Pain/Jeremiah

Try harder, much harder. You said there was no evidence that Nancy Pelosi attended such a meeting and/or knew of the EITs. You further accused those not of your ilk of lying and making up allegations.

Well, well, well, it appears her top aide was present. You should always wait before making calumnous accusations on folks who write for AmSpec and others who post here in good faith.

Tommy, it is you who needs "to learn a little something about American politics and how Congress works".
My guess is the CIA released this memo to jar Pelosi's memory. I would also guess that the CIA has other memoranda/information that might embarrass Pelosi. The ball is in Pelosi's court. She can apologize now or have further trouble down the road.

You see Tommy Pain/Jeremiah, if you understood intelligence or possessed any intelligence, you might understand how the game is played.
As it is, our job here at the AmSpecBlog is to educate dumbasses like you from making a bigger fool of yourself.

BTW, what in the name of Sam Hill does that screed about a shooting in GA have to do with the subject at hand?
Changing the subject because you got caught in another lie?
If I recall, the shooter in question was a UGA professor. I understand he also was a liberal. Even your screeds off-subject have no basis in fact. Par for the course.

Hank Rearden| 5.10.09 @ 1:06AM

@ John Richmond: get off it.

The Japanese tactics were far, far worse and were true brutality. Terrorists aren't covered by the Geneva Convention, which was designed to protect uniformed members of an organized military, not terrorists.

As for me, waterboarding would be reserved for their vacation days off. I'd kick them in the balls at 4:30 every morning for reveille, then make sure they looked back on that as the best part of their day. Waterboarding would be reserved for the nice compliant ones, as a reward for coughing up useful intel.

ruth| 5.10.09 @ 1:31AM

TP/Jeremiah, that guy who killed his wife and two of her male friends was a university professor. Of course he was a liberal, he couldn't keep his wife satisfied.

WendyG| 5.10.09 @ 10:30AM

The lefties still hate Bush more than anything. More than Bin Laden, waterboarding, 9-11, Islamofascism, and beheadings. The Demp pols want blood, even now. But it will backfire on them, politically. Oh, and they hate America and capitalism too, though capitalism has made many of them rich.

Dave C| 5.10.09 @ 1:53PM

This is better than Clinton. She can say she didn't lie because she wasn't personally briefed by the admn, she was briefed by one of her own staff and another dem congressman. Even better than a non-denial-denial.

Spicy Joker| 5.10.09 @ 1:56PM

The fact that Republicans will probably lose more seats next year, in spite of the fact that their chief adversaries, Reid and Pelosi, are slow-minded ditzes, says a LOT.

Angel| 5.10.09 @ 3:05PM

Don't think so, Spicy--but keep on ACORN dreamin' anyway.

Tom Paine| 5.10.09 @ 4:37PM

I love how "conservatives" have protected themselves from the threat of any meaningful criticism or self-questioning:

If any fact from the reality-based world threatens the ideological membranes, they claim the press is liberally biased;

If they lose elections, they cite bias in the press, or more recently, ACORN.

If scientists tell them their policies are foolish or ignorant, they tell us science itself is a liberal conspiracy, as are schools, universities, and any other institution charged with education and the preservation of knowledge.

There is thus never any danger that ANYTHING will get through and disrupt the ceaseless operations of the echoing Fox Newsopia in which they dwell.

Basil Plumley| 5.10.09 @ 6:14PM

Doug Bandow says---House Speak Nancy Pelosi is ... well, not telling the truth!

Of course, you just have to love Tommy Pain/Jeremiah's latest reponse. Obfuscation at its finest. Screed on, Dud!!

BTW, the WSJ has reported that Nancy Pelosi met with folks at the CIA at least 40 times to discuss EITs. Not that I want to get back to the topic but I thought you love to know some information about the person you have been defending.

It appears that both you and Nancy need "to learn a little something about American politics and how Congress works"; as well as telling the truth.

I predict the latest excuse from Tommy Pain/Jeremiah---will include AmSpec-FoxNews-vast right-wing conspiracy-etc.

ruth| 5.10.09 @ 7:22PM

TP/Jeremiah, we know liberals like you are lying when we see your lips moving or read your repeated, inane posts. Thank God you idiots weren't in office after 9/11--hundreds of thousands of Americans would probably have been incinerated. I can only wonder which American city will next host a terrorist attack because of the willful stupidity of your party. Unfortunately, per Thomas Jefferson, we the people have gotten the government we deserve.

tonypal| 5.10.09 @ 10:12PM

Tom Paine:

Gee, if you can't be both stupid and Speaker of the House, then I guess it would be downright impossible to be stupid and become, say, the 43rd President of the US.

Curtis Rasmussen| 5.11.09 @ 12:32AM

It appears that Nancy Pelosi was caught in a lie. The waterboarding story will fade quickly as bringing it to the fore will compromise the Democratic leadership. CYA is the name of the game.

From TP: "They want to shoot people because a black man is president, etc.."

Question: what the hell do Tom Pain's troll gun and "paranoid conservative" posts have to do with Nancy Pelosi and waterboarding?

Answer: Absolutely nothing. Hey race instigating douchebag, do me the honor of never mentioning blacks again.

Answer in Tom Paine speak, which should be easier to understand: " I know that we all have different ideas and viewpoints. That's life when one is selected over another but you have to remember we're in this together. Let's work to get the problem resolved and we'll be able to look back at this time as a positive, learning experience."

JP| 5.11.09 @ 7:21AM

This might just put an end to the efforts to criminalize the actions of the previous administration. It is now apparent even to the Far Left that Congress gave the CIA sanction to use "harsh methods" (basically the same methods that SEARS proctors use at or special ops schools), and it would be somewhat impolitic to prosecute something that was obviously legal.

I wouldn't surprise me in the least if the Obama administraton gave the Post a nudge in publishing this story. A lengthy grand jury investigation would serve no purpose other than to highlight an obvious weakness with the Dems. That, and you never know where these things (grand jury investigations) may end up. I can imagine the President doesn't want any distractions as he goes forward and remakes the world.

MT| 5.11.09 @ 11:33AM

Obama's people want the State Bar Associations to disbar some of Bush's lawyers. Easy way to destroy their careers without taking the heat. Liberal cowards.

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