There is no other way to describe this:
The White House said Thursday that dangerous detainees at Guantanamo Bay could end up walking Main Street U.S.A. as a result of last month’s Supreme Court ruling about detainees’ legal rights. Federal appeals courts, however, have indicated they have no intention of letting that happen.
The high court ruling, which gave all detainees the right to petition federal judges for immediate release, has intensified discussions within the Bush administration about what to do with the roughly 270 detainees held at the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
“I’m sure that none of us want Khalid Sheikh Mohammed walking around our neighborhoods,” White House press secretary Dana Perino said about al-Qaida’s former third in command.
Bookmark this post in case you ever need to show anyone what the pure, distilled essence of wingnut looks like. This comment from Perino has it all- sheer nonsense, a complete distortion of the truth, an attack on an independent judiciary, fear-mongering, and the characteristic brazenness we have grown to know and love. If you are looking for right-wing bullshit, this quote is the full monty. I have not seen the transcript, but I would bet it went unchallenged by the press corps.
But, channeling my inner Democrat and left-wing blogger, I will note that Obama isn’t doing exactly what I want on a piece of legislation, so I probably will vote for him, but I won’t enthusiastic about it or help fund his campaign to beat down this kind of nonsense we have dealt with for eight years. Plus, the media told me that he flip-flopped yesterday on Iraq even though he said exactly the same thing he has said all along, so I don’t know if I can trust him to do the right thing. He might be just as bad as the current administration.
*** Update ***
The transcript of this press briefing is even worse than I guessed it would be. Not only was the proclamation about KSM walking the streets not challenged, it was treated seriously:
Q: One last thing, then. If the stakes are so high, and you’re saying there’s a possibility that someone like Khalid Sheikh Mohammed could be put out on the streets of the United States, what is a reasonable timetable, then? Is this weeks, months? I mean, you don’t want that to —
MS. PERINO: Well, I think you — the Supreme Court, again, didn’t provide a lot of answers. They just asked — basically asked a lot of questions. And we don’t know how this whole system would work for them to be able to exercise their now constitutional and habeas rights. It’s unchartered territory, so we don’t know.
Q: What’s the best-case scenario, then, given that that’s the circumstance? What would the White House like to see happen?
MS. PERINO: Well, that’s what we’re working through right now. And we’re trying to make sure that everyone remains safe and that enemy combatants who are a threat to innocent life are kept in detention.
Think about that. The WH press secretary said something completely and totally far-fetched, about as ridiculous as stating “We have information that Martians may invade tomorrow, so we may need to cut taxes on the top .5% of earners to make sure everyone is safe,” and rather than challenging it, the press asks when the tax cuts would take place.
The absence of a decent media is honestly killing this country.
Jomo
At no point in their thought process does doing the right thing even come to play. Every equation comes down to demonizing the opposition. If they could have Osama Bin Laden walking around the streets of the US and have the Dems take the blame they would do it in a heartbeat.
srv
Oh, I think GW wants to show SCOTUS a thing or two before he leaves.
I would love to see these guys walking the streets. I’d love to see an interview with each and every one of them.
Notorious P.A.T.
Which is the inevitable result of the Supreme Court ruling.
Hurry, January, hurry.
smiley
Careful, John, your sarcasm might anger the GOS.
4tehlulz
I like the idea of releasing them into Disneyworld.
D. Mason
I imagine they would be just passing through to some place with a less fanatical regime in charge.
Notorious P.A.T.
Oh no, Jesse Helms is dead! Boo hoo!
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25530608
slippy hussein toad
The moment I read that, three things collided in my mind: I just got paid. I just got my stimulus check. And I’ve had it with the ZOMG! OHNOES! shit I’m hearing emanating from the GOS (who have pretty permanently lost a reader over the last few weeks).
So I just threw $40 at Obama. Like 10 seconds ago.
Take that, Republicans!
Ted
Considering the cultural alienation involved, I like the idea of holding legitimate trials, and then imprisoning them in Disneyworld.
Dennis - SGMM
If the administration has the evidence that these guys are all dirty and dangerous terrorists why are they so shy about sharing it? Maybe if they tried them we could all appreciate the great work they’ve done in protecting us. There is the possibility that only fifteen to twenty percent of them actually are guilty of anything but hey, you can’t make an omelet… There’s also the nasty possibility that being falsely imprisoned for five or six years may have radicalized some of them but considering Bush’s record of success in every other fucking thing he’s touched I’m sure that everyone in custody belongs there.
frogspawn
No doubt the San Francisco liberal activist federal courts have Charles Manson and Theodore Kaczynski on the short list for early release as well.
frogspawn
Ummm…
Maybe they get to go to court? With lawyers? And present arguments in front of a judge/jury?
WTF?
Janus Daniels
Not, “We have information that Martians may invade tomorrow, so we may need to cut taxes on the top .5% of earners to make sure everyone is safe,” but “We have information that Martians may invade tomorrow, so we may need to cut taxes on the BOTTOM 55% of earners to make sure everyone is safe.”
Remember: Republicans.
Calouste
Shorter Perino: You know the immigration service and the no-fly list and unlimited wiretaps and all those airport checks and all the other security crap? It’s just theater, we know it doesn’t do shit. (But it is useful as hell for domestic purposes.)
Thepanzer
Just keep drinking the TZ kool-aid JC. There’s just so gosh-darned much to be enthusiastic about with Obama’s sprint to the center-right.
He’s reminding me more and more of John Kerry. I voted for Kerry not for any hope for change or enthusiasm for his candidacy but just to get the Bush crew away from the ship of state before they found more icebergs. If you want to keep kidding yourself that he’s going to be the modern political equivalent of Martin Luther King knock yourself out. We certainly need a MLK but I rather doubt that’s what we’re going to get with Obama’s “leadership” if the last 4 weeks are any indication. All aboard the Kerry train!
Obama: I was strongly against the FISA bill before I was tepidly for it, which is why i tried to remove immunity but then voted for it anyway cuz it would be so gosh darn hard to fight it further. Besides modo and the right will make fun of me if I don’t show how bipartisan I am” Of course the real Obama version will be 2 pages long and be so well written that TZ will swoon for a week.
Being aware of all internet traditions makes me happy to vote for the lesser evil.
Calouste
Ah Senator “let’s threaten to invade an ally if an international instution on their soil doesn’t do what we want”. He’ll sure be missed.
Libby Spencer
My, a little cranky today, eh? This Bush statement is of course, pure bullshit. The only reason any real terrorists will be released from Gitmo is because they can’t convict on evidence tainted by torture, but I feel the need to put a word in for the FISA complainers, since I’m one of them.
This is important. It goes to the very root of all that is wrong and evil about the unitary executive theory and the criticism that is being aimed at Obama is not meant to hurt his candidacy. Hell, no one is going to remember this shit by November.
This is about letting all the Democrats know there is a political price to be paid for spineless caving to GOP threats and maybe even blocking the bill one more time. They told us months ago it was a done deal and all the agitating done so far is why it hasn’t already passed unnoticed.
It’s a fight worth having, even if its a loser and withholding money from Obama in the short term I think is a good tactic. It won’t hurt him in the short term, he has plenty of cash on hand and rewarding bad behavior is no way to send a message that we expect better.
Notorious P.A.T.
“Yes We Can! But, we probably won’t.” Disappointment ’08!
I’ll still vote for him, gladly, but I had planned to donate a big chunk of my stimulus check and now I’m going to wait until he gives me a reason. Don’t reward bad behaviour.
Thepanzer
You assume Obama will fight this sort of non-sense and not cave under republican pressure. I hope you let the Obama campaign know that donation is contingent on him behaving like a leader and not a blue-dog democrat. And that’s assuming they don’t just laugh, take your money, and do whatever the hell they want…which for democrats means going along with the republicans slightest whims in hopes of being seen as bipartisan.
Good thing the Obama campaign has gone out of its way to challenge Bush policies and take a strong and decisive stand on progressive issues. Oh wait…
Dennis - SGMM
Perino: “We don’t want the smoking sheik to be a mushroom cloud.”
Ted
Yeah. That bottle of champagne I saved and opened for Jerry Falwell probably would have been better saved for Helms. He exercised his bigotry while wielding a lot more power. Oh well. Next one’s for Robertson or Dobson.
gbear
We can (and I did) help Obama by sending him money, but who in the wide-wide-world-of-sports do we send money to in order to combat stupid journalism? If we could set up some kind of reverse NPR fund drive for an organization that would send messengers out to deliver personal dope slaps to clueless reporters, the money would never stop rolling in. But it seems like the only course we have to let ‘journalists’ and ‘news programs’ know that we think they suck is to contact their advertisers. General Electric isn’t going to change course because of that. I’m seriously asking what do we do to effectively hit the media for this bullshit? Bill Moyer’s group seems to be on the front lines and as high-profile as it gets, but you never see or hear him anywhere outside of the lecture circuit or public radio and television.
And in keeping with today’s theme, I blame Obama’s waffling for all of this.
Thepanzer
…And yeah I’m a bitter asshole. I had a lot of real hope for Obama and I keep hearing “Arthur Silber has been right all along” in my head with every new lurch to the “center” from team Obama. I hope TZ and the kool-aid gang are right and this is just a rope-a-dope ploy until they get in office but with the complete lack of courage on the part of the dems for nearly a decade it’s hard to keep my hopes up. I’m an Occam’s razor fan so I think it’s more likely we have 1 x insane political party and 1 x incompetent, weak party that goes along with the insane asshats thinking that’s how to “win.”
I either need to start drinking a lot more or a lot less.
slippy hussein toad
I’ll applaud slowly, savoring the moment, as I recall how hard he worked to keep public funds away from the study of the AIDS virus in the service of his craven homophobia.
And who can forget such quotable gems as these:
I’m glad you’re dead, Jesse. Fuck you, fuck everything about you, and enjoy whatever Eternity has in store for your shriveled, blackened soul.
gbear
From personal experience, I recommend ‘a lot less’.
Scott H
A fundamental of authoritarianism is to foster powerlessness. After 9/11 everything changed, but we let it change in the wrong way. We allowed ourselves to be focussed on the WTC when we should have looked to United Flight 93. After that morning, you couldn’t have hijacked a short bus with a bazooka. We let that moment slip away. By sundown we were all of us cowards.
Some random idiot posted somewhere that the Supreme Court betrayed the 3,000 victims of 9/11. SCOTUS finally took a stand for the ignored heroes on that plane who refused to be victimized. Common men and women who did the extraordinary thing and sacrificed everything for their country. Remember Flight 93. Happy Fourth of July.
Oh, and Khalid. I bet he would be rmembering Flight 93 if he is fantasizing his relocation plans. Like his major moves are ever going to be any more than the hypotenuse of an eight by 10 room.
Bill Arnold
Digby stated it well in a recent post:
It rings depressingly true. The fix is obvious, and the Democrats have plenty of media/communications talent to do it with.
Re your inner Democrat, you’re channeling the petulent wing of the Democrat party. Know that many of your readers will be fighting for Obama during the next several months, including important mundane work like registration drives, and get out the vote work as the election approaches. We love our country too much to let McCain win.
Ted
I, for one, am not glad he’s dead — yet. I wish he could have lived just long enough to see Obama sworn in. That alone might have done him in.
flavortext
Apply palm directly to forehead.
And for the record, I think Obama’s FISA position is stupid, but I still think that he’s one of the best candidates the Democrats have fielded in decades and I hope he stands up to any other right-wing nonsense flung his way. I don’t really mind the criticism and I don’t think Obama does either. It sure beats the Republican party’s lockstep march-of-death into irrelevancy.
slippy hussein toad
Fortunately, enough Americans realize that their face in fact does not look better or will not have learned a thing if they cut off their nose.
But enjoy your Realm Of Purity and just remember for everything you fail to do to elect Obama, you give up that much ground to John McCain. I do hope his policies are more to your liking.
gbear
Is it? Seems like John Dean, Obama’s media group and lots of independent progressive sources are sending out tons of sharp yet easily digestible sound bites that the media ignore. We see those bites (plus great full length speeches) all over the place on internet sources, but the media will go interview 23%ers in front of a Walmart before they go with a democratic talking point.
What’s the obious fix you’re seeing? I want to know.
YellowJournalism
Chain them up in It’s a Small World like that episode of “Family Guy”.
TScheisskopf
Well, I sent this link to you the other day. It is by Robert Parry, the man who broke the Iran Contra story. He is not a nut.
He also lays out, in quite painful detail, just what is wrong with the MSM and why. Considering that this maladministration is stuffed with former Iran Contra players, you can be sure that all of this is exactly going on today.
Of course, you can also be sure that the right has its own people in positions as editors and producers, and you cannot ignore that the talking heads only get hired if they have a signed medical statemet attesting to the fact they are anacephalic.
Oh, and I was talking to my partner, Tad, who was once a slot editor at UPI Marketwatch and a shop steward there. He said the new, young talent that he had to deal with were largely Randians in their worldview. They would take the union pay scale and bennies, but fight the union all the time. Spoiled, childish and not particularly smart.
Wilfred
What’s so hard to believe about that? To ‘fix’ public opinion only needs the cooperation of a relatively small number of people. A newspaper editor here, a tv producer there and, if possible, one tv anchor.
It’s like US policy in the Middle East where we support every dictator we can at the same time we bloviate about democracy. It’s just easier to pressure one man, threaten to kill him or his family like Reagan did with Qadafi. You just need to control a few people with money, blackmail or threats and your home free, at the same time you honor and cherish free speech. It happens in Brazil all the time.
Once you cross the threshold of violence, anything’s possible.
pseudonymous in nc
The correct answer to Dana P’s bullshit is this: “Don’t be so fucking stupid.” When ‘don’t be so fucking stupid’ enters the vocabulary of the American press, the nation will be better as a result.
(Some people have said that this is an admission that the Gitmo detainees are held illegally, as that would be the only reason to order release at a habeas hearing. I just think they assume that the general public is ignorant enough to believe that ‘habeas corpus’ is Latin for ‘get out of jail free’.)
crshedd
IF the administration had to let all these bad guys go, WHY would they release them on main street usa, instead of their own countries?
how stupid is that?
ooops, forgot. we are talking about bushco.
MattF
I think the press is just plain fearful– after all, they don’t want to be labeled as terror-symps. Bad for their career plans, job security, etc. If the notion of ‘President Obama’ as someone who is cunning and ruthless starts to penetrate, coverage will probably improve.
Redhand
Obviously, the only way to “keep America safe” is to trample every vestage of due process of law into the dirt and vest untrammeled and arbitrary authority in the likes of this lawless crowd. I mean, our judicial system is soooooooo incapable of protecting us.
I’ve always considered Perlino an airhead who makes the blonde infobabes on Fox look like intellectual giants. Now I have to ask myself if she’s so f*cking stupid she actually believes this drivel, or is instead a complete whore. Probably both.
What is truly depressing is that after three Supereme Court slapdowns on unreviewable, endless and therefore illegal detention of alleged “enemy combatants” George W. Bush still has absolutely no clue about or ability to accept the U.S. Constitiution’s limits on his power. Instead of learning from this final Supreme Court rebuke, the stupid bastard sends this blonde blivid out to make a pitch for the imperial presidency (again).
I can’t wait for January 2009.
gil mann
I really wish he could’ve lived to see a nigra sworn in as president.
Heard on the radio that he died comfortably, surrounded by friends and family. More support for my hypothesis that God is either nonexistent or a total dick.
Thepanzer
And that’s the 2nd half of the equation, there are enough democratic apologists and enablers that will forgive any sin of their pet candidate for the good of the greater cause. You just don’t seem to have noticed that 28 years of that collective decision making has lead to a Democratic party unable to fight, unable to stand, and unable to self-correct. Any call to hold our own candidates feet to the fire for selling out gets you branded a concern troll at best. Until Democratic candidates know their funding will be based on their actions, not their rhetoric, you’re at the whim of their strategists as to how they’ll act in office. Pardon me if I’m not delighted at the prospect of a future 4 years of politics where i get to brag that our greatest success was keeping a geriatic wingnut from carrying out Bush’s 3rd term and wrecking the country another 4 years after the country already mandated the Democrats to fix the situation. Obama needs to lead from the left, thats where the country has moved over the last 8 years even if they’re not comfortable with the label that implies. “Leading” from the center is simply a bland continuation of the less nutty policies of the last 8 years and the hope that Obama won’t cave on supreme court nominations, etc. But there’s no reason for him not to cave since it’s not like you’d doing anything to protest it anyway. Have some more kool-aid motherfucker.
gil mann
Hey, I’ve been to that restaurant. Silvia’s in Harlem, right?
Thepanzer
You’re thinking ice tea. Kool-aid is for chumps who blindly support a political candidate no.matter.what. : P
I guess I’m twice a chumpe since I’ll hold my nose and pull the lever for the MUP in November, but the idea that I have to “enthusiastically donate and campaign” for someone catering to the very asshats who’ve wrecked this country makes me want to puke.
4tehlulz
>>there are enough democratic apologists and enablers
Naderites never learn do they?
Scott H
When God meets Ol’ Jesse and hands him a stiff bourbon and branch water he is going to need it, especially when he sees She’s black.
nightjar
And what actions has Obama demonstrated, to have his funding support removed? And don’t confuse the leftward lurch of the electorate as necessarily ideological. It has as much to do with temporary contempt for the Rebublican brand as anything else.
And yes, the public has mostly agreed with liberals on the issues, the albatross around democratic candidates, fairly or not (mostly not), is weakness on national defense. Obama understands this and it’s why he made his “refine” comment to combat this misperception of weakness and/or irresponsibility.
And he did so, without actually changing his position which should be considered smart, but is hammered by self preening libs for not speaking the language of leftwing dogma. Give it a rest motherfucker.
Chris Johnson
Yes I can.
Delia
The iconic setpiece for what we’ve become as a nation is the photo of Bush in his flightsuit with his stuffed codpiece; not only the photo, but the (mostly male) pundits swooning over him afterward and opining on how women can’t resist a virile leader like that who has just won a war so spectacularly. It perfectly captures the propagandistic and infantile relationship between the government and the media. You can see it carry over into the media’s relationship with McCain as they try desperately to maintain that because he’s a REAL war hero (as opposed to a fake one like Georgie) he’ll automatically make a GREAT Commander in Chief. What a bunch of morans.
Kevin
The right way to put it is this: “If there is a God, he is a malign thug“
Notorious P.A.T.
Well, most of them are.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
Look on the bright side – at least the DC govt. will still be able to prevent them from legally carrying handguns! Or maybe not…
croatoan
The White House doesn’t have a problem with letting the anthrax terrorists walk around our neighborhoods. What’s so special about Khalid Sheikh Mohammed?
Steve S.
“I’m sure that none of us want Khalid Sheikh Mohammed walking around our neighborhoods.”
If he promised not to set off M-80s every five seconds, like the worthless effers in my neighborhood are doing today, I’d welcome him.
Delia
Ms. Perino doesn’t really need to worry her pretty little head about a thing. As usual, the Onion had it all covered long ago.
gbear
Steve, get yourself a couple of M-80’s and set one of them off on the effer’s front steps at about 5:00am. Won’t teach them much, but you’ll enjoy it. Use part of a cigarette as a slow fuse so you’re back home before it goes off.
Nancy Irving
You really need a “Media Stupidity” tag, John.
justme
Come now. We wouldn’t want a mushroom cloud to be walking the streets of our smoking gun, now would we?
Oh, and to the purity troll upthread, on the off chance that you actually believe your own bs. This is a long, hard slog, to be won piecemeal if at all. You will not get everything you want all at once. Period. It took the lunatic fringe thirty or forty years to effectively take over and control the Republican Party. What on earth makes you think that it will be any quicker or easier for voices of reason to fight their way back to prominence in national government?
By dint of not being a wholly owned DLC product alone, Obama will be a step forward from the Clinton years. Of course he’s tacking to the center for the election. Duh. I’d be worried if he weren’t.
Pardon me if I’m not delighted at the prospect of not even accomplishing that.
El Cid
I like the implied suggestion that if Khalid Sheikh Mohammed somehow were ‘freed’ by a court to walk about on his own, the U.S. government is sort of officially declaring that well, it wouldn’t have any idea what the f*** to do or how to keep tabs on him, so you’re on your f***ing own, neighborhoods!
Shygetz
Shorter John Cole: The problem with the Republican Party isn’t blind allegiance to Dear Leader, it’s blind allegiance to the WRONG Dear Leader.
John Cole
I don’t even bother when all you are going to do is throw out Red State quality trolling.
AlanDownunder
So what was the presscorpcreature that asked Perino the follow-up? Can’t you do to it what it did to America? Gannon couldn’t have bettered that follow-up.