Where’s the Outrage?

Tony Blankley, editor of the Washington Times, argues that be NIE makes sense.  He argues that the Jahadists will follow the sound of the gun.  This seems to contradict what we know about the insurgency.  Although, Al Franken did not make this point, the insurgency has been hitting soft targets.  They have been avoiding direct confrontation with American forces.  This is the way all insurgency’s work.  They look for a spot of weakness.  An electrical plant or a telephone communications station or civilians at their place of worship or civilians in a crowded bus — these other targets that insurgencies choose.  Insurgencies do not follow the sound of the gun, they run away from it.  Al Franken’s points are excellent.  Take a listen.

 

 Franken on Hardball - NIE [6:16m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Iran, National Intelligence Estimate by ecthompson
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The NY Times broke this story yesterday.  Here’s Olbermann’s take.

 

 Countdown - State of Denial [9:08m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Tags: Iraq, WMD, War on Terror by ecthompson
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From CNN:

WASHINGTON (CNN) — An angry President Bush Tuesday said he would declassify an intelligence document that reportedly finds that the Iraq war increased the terrorist threat to the United States.

The president said the media accounts of the leak of the National Intelligence Estimate were meant to “create confusion in the minds of the American people” and suggested that the report had been leaked for political purposes.

During a joint White House press conference with Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Bush said he has ordered Director of National Security John Negroponte to declassify the report’s key findings . (Full story)

Tags: Foreign Affairs, National Intelligence Estimate by ecthompson
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From Salon:

WASHINGTON — A former football teammate of Sen. George Allen decided Friday to go on the record with recollections of the Virginia Republican’s alleged racist behavior during college.

Edward J. Sabornie, a special education professor at North Carolina State University, had previously spoken to Salon about Allen’s behavior on the condition of anonymity, because he feared retribution from the Allen campaign. In a Salon story on Sunday, Sabornie was quoted as a “teammate” who remembered Allen using the word “nigger” to describe blacks. “It was so common with George when he was among his white friends. This is the terminology he used,” Sabornie said in that article.

Sabornie said he has now decided to let his name be known because he was upset by how Allen responded this week to the Salon story. “What George said on Monday really kind of inflamed me — that it was ‘ludicrously false’ that he ever used the N-word,” Sabornie told Salon. “I don’t know how George can look himself in the mirror after saying that.”  More.

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Again, the cover-up is usually worse than the offense.  If Senator Allen would have come out and said I didn’t know any better I was a foolish moron in college and I use the “N” word frequently.  Subsequently, after graduation, I have grown up.  I’ve learned that this world is full of many people and they all deserve to be treated with respect.  If Senator Allen was said that, there would’ve been an initial firestorm within a would’ve died down.  Instead, this has blown up.  In the early 1970s, the South was changing.  But there’s one tradition in the South and hasn’t changed, we respect honesty.  We despise deceit and lying.

Tags: Senator George Allen by ecthompson
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