Compassionate Conservatives are Back

Many republicans are again beginning to use the label “compassionate conservative” to soften their public image. We know from history what an empty phase it really is. I guess “moderate” is a no no with the republicans. But the phrase really begs another question. If a republican is labeling him/herself as a “compassionate conservative”, then are they saying that the rest of the conservatives are not compassionate? I think so!

“Compassionate conservative” ranks right up there with other classic republican phrases like “enhanced interrogation” and “peacekeeper missiles.”

Tags: National Issues, Politics by Jay Stuart
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Cheney lying about CIA memos

From cnn.com:

Sen. Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, says former Vice President Dick Cheney’s claims — that classified CIA memos show enhanced interrogation techniques like waterboarding worked — are wrong.

Cheney, who has become a vocal public defender of the Bush administration’s controversial interrogation policies, had asked the Obama administration to declassify the documents so there can be a more “honest debate” on the Bush administration’s decision to use them on suspected terrorists.

Levin, speaking at the Foreign Policy Association’s annual dinner in Washington on Wednesday, said an investigation by his committee into detainee abuse charges over the use of the techniques — now deemed torture by the Obama administration — “gives the lie to Mr. Cheney’s claims.”

The Michigan Democrat told the crowd that the two CIA documents that Cheney wants released “say nothing about numbers of lives saved, nor do the documents connect acquisition of valuable intelligence to the use of abusive techniques.”

“I hope that the documents are declassified, so that people can judge for themselves what is fact, and what is fiction,” he added.

Tags: National Issues, Politics by Jay Stuart
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Cheney’s Misguided Crusade

Dick Cheney actually came clean Sunday morning on Face the Nation.  I wonder if he was aware of it. “On the morning of 9/12, if you will, there was a great deal we didn’t know about Al Qaida,” he said. “There was the need to embark upon a new strategy with respect to treating this as a strategic threat to the United States. There was the possibility of Al Qaida terrorists in the midst of one of our own cities with a nuclear weapon or a biological agent.” In other words the Bush administration was caught completely flat-footed. They had no idea was going on. But they saw the opportunities. [Read more →]

Tags: National Issues, Politics by Jay Stuart
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Legalizing illegal Immigrants

I am the grandchild of an immigrant. My wife is the great, great, great, great grandchild of an immigrant. My neighbor is the daughter of an immigrant. All of my friends and coworkers are descendants of immigrants. Well let’s face it, America is a country of immigrants. Although our ancestors all came to America from different countries around the world at different times in history, they all had something in common— [Read more →]

Tags: National Issues, Politics by Jay Stuart
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