Fair and Balanced

A previous post attacked the apparent political hypocrisy of Congressman Joe Sestak, so turnabout is fair and balanced play. Here's Rudy Giuliani, a former SDNY prosecutor and mayor of New York, condemning Obama for bringing the Gitmo Five to the Big Apple...



But here's the mayor talking about the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui:

"At the same time, I was in awe of our system," the former mayor continued. "It does demonstrate that we can give people a fair trial, that we are exactly what we say we are. We are a nation of law. . . . I think he's going to be a symbol of American justice."

Can't get there from there. Rudy was challenged about this puzzling dichotomy on the No Longer Fake News Sunday with Chris Wallace, seen here on Obama-approved "Crooks and Liars". Admittedly, the sight of them using Fox News to bash a GOP enemy should warrant alarm from Olbermann or Maddow. More on crooks and liars in a minute.

Aside from the partisan snark, Rudy's answer sounded like a feeble attempt at covering up a consistency goofup. It's hard to strongly argue against bringing KSM to Manhattan using the 'act of war' and 'circus' arguments after saying the Moussaoui trial was a symbol of something good. He was an inspiration during 9/11 but as a national candidate Sarah Palin is more appealing right now.

Many of us down here backed the at times halting Fred Thompson, who seems to have very little on the record about Moussaoui. He did weigh in on the Boumediene Five case, that produced habeas rights for terrorists. But the legalese gets old for most normal people--the first minute of this rambling Red State Update on Zacarias probably sums it up better than any ole pointy head (language warning of course).

Now, not sure if Tom Maguire qualifies as a pointy head (even if he's a Yankee and Yankee fan) but he outdoes Jackie and Dunlap with this quip:

There is no contradiction here: military courts for attacks on the military, civilian courts for attacks on civilians.

OMG. And if the next batch of terrorists are clever enough to attack an elementary school will they be tried in juvenile court?

Which speaks to the entire bizarre flip-flopiness of this whole thing. For instance, Obama was for military tribunals for KSM before he was against them, yet checking with the abovementioned Obama-approved Crooks and Liars--who just used Faux News to rip Guiliani--they don't seem to have much on Obama's equally puzzling inconsistency.

And to make matters more confusing, Major Garrett from the "Major Garrett is the only bastard at Fox News worth our Time" network will be interviewing our Pacific Prez tomorrow from Chiner for a whole 10 minutes. Hopefully he can point out that the Pentagon is indeed a military target and that both Nashiri and bin-Attash allegedly attended the 2000 Kuala Lumpur terror summit where 9/11 was planned. But considering the filibuster factor he'll probably only get about two and a half questions answered.

IT BEGINS 11/17/09

Conservatives are taking a beating for worrying that the Gitmo Five affair will end up being a cheap and tawdry propaganda platform to bash Bush, Cheney and the CIA. Here's a NY Times article about lawyer Lynne Stewart's conviction being upheld (for helping the Blind Sheikh kite messages back to his followers in Egypt in 1999), speaking on current events:

At the news conference, Ms. Stewart sharply criticized the decision, and said its timing, “coming as it does on the eve of the arrival of the tortured men from offshore prison in Guantánamo,” carried a message for any lawyers who might be appointed to represent them.

Emphasis added for obvious reasons. It doesn't always take a bullhorn.