Quote if the day

Quote of the day on listening to Sarah Pailn from www.balloon-juice.com

"Listening to her speak is like Free Republic Mad Libs."

List of US forces used abroad 1798-1993

This is an interesting list useful for putting some things into perspective. Some points I took away from it are these:

1) American armed intervention abroad is nothing new. This list shows about 234 instances between 1798 and 1993, or on average more than one per year.

2) There's been little real controversy over the president using military forces abroad, even in some fairly significant ways, without specific Congressional authorization. Indeed, only five of the 234 instances were declared wars.

3) That said, the vast majority of the instances were very limited in scope, casualties and duration.

4) The typical distance from the US had tended to increase as the country became more powerful, but even in the early 1800s there were interventions in the Arab world and even in the 1990s there were interventions in the Caribbean and Latin America, so there's no hard-and-fast rule on where the next intervention might be.

Down the slippery slope

Sullivan:

Notice again how far down the slippery slope we have gone. Krauthammer's first position was that torture should be restricted solely to ticking time bomb cases in which we knew that a terror suspect could prevent an imminent detonation of a WMD. His position a few years later is that torture should be the first resort for any terror suspect who could tell us anything about future plots. Those of us who warned that torture, once admitted into the mainstream, will metastasize beyond anyone's control now have the example of Charles Krauthammer's arguments to back us up. Stephen Hayes, Cheney's stenographer along with Mike Allen, even argued on Fox News that Cheney's assault on the president as an alien threat to the American people was too soft and wanted to "squeeze" the pantie-bomber for more info. These are neo-fascist sentiments, empowering lawless violence by the government, justified solely by fear of terror incidents. Whatever else junking the entire history of Western jurisprudence and the laws of war is, it is not in any way conservative. It is a radical assault on one of the central pillars of our civilization.

Illinois Gitmo

Loks like the Gitmo detainees will end up in Illinois. One thing I haven't heard mentioned is that this may be a tiny bit of presidential pork heading for his home state. No matter what else you mau say about it, the plan will send some cool cash to a depressed little corner of Obama's adopted state.

More disturbing evidence of possible crimes at Gitmo

This Seton Hall report, based on public records, by the way, points to some disturbing evidence that the trio of so-called "suicides" at Gitmo that the military called asymmetrical warfare by detainees may have been something else. At a minimum, it appears that there was a cover-up of the real circumstances.

The shame continues.

Getting Bin Laden

Andrew Sullivan makes an excellent point

Personally, the one thing that sticks in my craw the most about the Bush era was how much he too his eye off the ball by not making sure he "got" Osama.

I am not arguing that getting Osama bin Laden would have solved all our problems, made the Afghan War a success or won the War on Terror. It doesn't matter. Simple justice demands that the man responsible for 9/11 should not die in his sleep of old age. No, that will not do.

Can Obama's Afghan surge net Osama in the bargain? Impossible to say. Clearly the trail is cold. It's possible Bin Laden may already be dead. But Bush let 8 years go by without a serious effort mounted to bring Bin Laden to justice. If Obama succeeds in capturing or killing Bin Laden it would be the final repudiation of Bushism.

Citing Psalm 109 to curse Obama

The Old Testament is a minefield for the unwary who would cite it for authority on action. A lot of bad conduct can be sanctioned by selective quotation, for, as Shakespeare notes, the devil can cite scripture for his purposes. The Old Testament language and style are quite alien to modern usage and exacerbated by the fact that many Bible-quoters like to use the King James version, which is also quite alien to modern ears.

The latest misappropriation of the Bible by people professing to be Christians is quoting a passage from Psalm 109, which I have highlighted below, in the context of the whole, which is the proper way to consider all Bible passages.

the KGV version:

The Psalms

109
A Cry for Vengeance
To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.
1
Hold not thy peace, O God of my praise;
2
for the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me: they have spoken against me with a lying tongue.
3
They compassed me about also with words of hatred; and fought against me without a cause.
4
For my love they are my adversaries: but I give myself unto prayer.
5
And they have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love.
6
Set thou a wicked man over him: and let Satan stand at his right hand.
7
When he shall be judged, let him be condemned: and let his prayer become sin.
8
Let his days be few; and let another take his office.

9
Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.
10
Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.
11
Let the extortioner catch all that he hath; and let the strangers spoil his labor.
12
Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favor his fatherless children.
13
Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.
14
Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the LORD; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.
15
Let them be before the LORD continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.
16
Because that he remembered not to show mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man,
that he might even slay the broken in heart.
17
As he loved cursing, so let it come unto him: as he delighted not in blessing,
so let it be far from him.
18
As he clothed himself with cursing like as with his garment, so let it come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones.
19
Let it be unto him as the garment which covereth him, and for a girdle wherewith he is girded continually.
20
Let this be the reward of mine adversaries from the LORD, and of them that speak evil against my soul.
21
But do thou for me, O GOD the Lord, for thy name's sake: because thy mercy is good, deliver thou me.
22
For I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within me.
23
I am gone like the shadow when it declineth: I am tossed up and down as the locust.
24
My knees are weak through fasting; and my flesh faileth of fatness.
25
I became also a reproach unto them: when they looked upon me they shook their heads.

26
Help me, O LORD my God: O save me according to thy mercy:
27
that they may know that this is thy hand; that thou, LORD, hast done it.
28
Let them curse, but bless thou: when they arise, let them be ashamed;
but let thy servant rejoice.
29
Let mine adversaries be clothed with shame; and let them cover themselves with their own confusion, as with a mantle.
30
I will greatly praise the LORD with my mouth; yea, I will praise him among the multitude.
31
For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn his soul.

They are happy to quote verses 8 and 9, but I think other verses such as 2-5, 17 and 18, 28 and 31 might be more appropriate.