I've heard the lame arguments in an attempt to justify torture. There aren't any.

Our law enforcement or military is responsible for the safety of anyone they take into custody. Despite Dick Cheney's assertions, I have never heard of lives being saved because a prisoner was tortured or treated inhumanely.

I'm all for exposing those who would abuse their authority and harm a prisoner in their charge. It should not be allowed and someone should be made accountable for such acts. I am confused as to the ACLU taking pictures of people. It surely cannot be any kind of evidence in a court of law. If it is exposing a CIA security measure, then the CIA is doing something wrong.

As to news, I usually pay most attention to PBS--little or no promos and no commercials, stories followed with interviews. I agree that network news has become a tabloid format. Hard news is likely to be superseded with sensational celeb gossip.

John Adams, one of the last great Republicans (Lincoln being the last).  By the way, it wasn't Novak who outed Plame. Novak GOT the information *somewhere* and the arrows seem to point to Carl Rove and VP Cheney. The goods on Plame were LEAKED to Novak by those who knew what a big mouth he had. You'd think an American  journalist would not aid and abeit the enemy by announcing whom our spys are in the daily newspaper. Talk about patriotism!!!!  O'Reilly's column isn't all bad but The Rule of Law seems to be a concept he has tossed into the dust bin.

Well said, Catpaw.

Let's never forget that the previous administration, when caught redhanded by Ambassador Joseph Wilson about the non-existence of a uranium sale from Niger to Iraq, as revenge, exposed Wilson's wife as a CIA operative, endangering her life - eventually resulting in the conviction of Scooter Libby, as the "fall guy" for Bush & Cheney.

How soon OReilly forgets.

 I'm all for exposing those who would abuse their authority and harm a prisoner in their charge.

As a 10 year US military veteran and friends of many veterans, what you're saying is just not right.  I am disgusted to have served the US military to protect people like you.  To say that you would expose our men and women that kept your butt safe is totally ignorant and you and others on this blog (FSG & gary ray) have totally lost my respect forever.  I know that you think we ought to treat the terrorist with a white glove, but were they treating our citizens with the same respect when they were decaptiating them?  Who's side are you on? 

casooner - you might think we are justified to stoop down to the same level of terrorism, but I do not.  I believe we are better than that, and as a Christian, I advocate alternative methods of information gathering. 

Ah. The appeal to prior military service as moral superiority. Hey, maybe I should do that, too. Ya know. Eight years in the Nam era. I was in the service when John McCain was a POW. For years he was totally opposed to torture and we all GOT IT when he said that because HE WAS TORTURED.  But it only took one presidential run for him to change his tune.  Sorry.  Barbarians in Viet Nam can do it, but we are AMERICANS. 

Here in the conservative middle, extremes frighten people.  You think torture is cool? You're on your own. Embrace it. I'm for the Rule of Law. I'll put my principle of the rule of law up against your principle of the embrace of torture any day. 

 "John Adams, one of the last great Republicans (Lincoln being the last)."

Ray, I was going to ask why you didn't include TR in your list of great Republican presidents since he did try to move the Republican Party towards progressivism, but then I saw on another blog that you are a conservative.

I know this, casooner90:  I don't feel as safe as I once did.  You can make whatever you want of that.  And an administration that won't look out for the best interests of Israel does nothing to comfort me.  That may be irrelevant to your blog, but it just bubbled up. 

ALICEN - as usual, doom and gloom abounds in your post.

FSG, America was always great up until now- Except for Slavery, mistreatment of Native Americans, exploitation of foreign nations for cheap resources, Jim Crow, Black Codes, Women's Suffrage, Internment Camps, and segregation.  Other than that, things were always great.

And an administration that won't look out for the best interests of Israel does nothing to comfort me. 

Israel is a dirty and cutthroat nation.  They will align with countries that are trying to destroy groups of people just for the survival of the nation-state of Israel.  Israel is no more clean than other nations in the Middle East.  We need to quit looking at Israel in biblical eyes and see them for what they are- An military powerhouse with strong economic, political, national security ties to the US. 

jfrancais - well said.

Read The Way of the World by Ron Suskind.  It may open your eyes to how dirty the game of International Relations can be.  The US is no different.  The CIA interogated and convicted people in shady military tribunals without due process, a jury, or even habeas corpus.  People are dying due to the unquestioned belief that everything the US does (foreign or domestic) is right.  CIA has historically played a role in human rights violations over the years.  Combine the history with the existence of Guantanamo and any accusation has merit at this point.

Israel supplied nuclear weapons and infertility chemicals to South Africa to maintain aparthied on the continent of Africa and prevent African nations from rejecting colonization and empowering themselves.   They will do anything for the survival of the nation-state, Biblical morals and lessons learned from the holocaust be damned. 

When I think of the terrorist atrocity that happened eight years ago, I feel deeply for people like Vic and Christine Colaio. These two fine Americans lost their sons Stephen and Mark who both worked in the World Trade Center. Along with their daughter Jean, the elderly couple suffers their loss on a daily basis. Time does not heal those kinds of wounds.

Had NORAD standard operating procedure been followed on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Vic and Christine Colaio would not be grieving for the loss of their two sons.

Relevant questions. We await the answers.

We’ve waited 8 years for an answer to the most important question Mr. O’Reilly. The MSM is dying primarily from failing to answer the important questions and staffing with entertainers instead of journalists.

8 years, two days and counting. We await the answer.

casooner90:  I'll just repeat what I believe about Israel:  Israel is the only real friend we have in the Middle East.  Right now we're treating Israel as though it were an ugly child to be hidden away.  I believe we need Israel.  I believe Israel needs us. 

Israel has every right to defend itself against the tyrants who almost daily do whatever they can to pick away at the citizenry until there's nothing left.  I would hope we as a country would do the same thing.  If a neighboring country, say, Canada, was lobbing missiles over the border at us, I would hope we would have the intestinal fortitude to take them out.  I don't mean call them out, either.  I mean take them out.  But I wonder if we would have what it takes.  Israel has the same right and duty. 

Israel also has not one real friend that I know of there in the Middle East.  When one looks at a map of Israel, it's impossible to believe that the rest of the world cannot let this "remnant" (although that's not Biblically correct, I know -- I'm speaking in the most general of terms) live in peace.  Geographically, Israel has to be one of the smallest countries in the world.  But it has heart. 

Also, Don:  you're correct in that the MSM is staffing with "entertainers"; it's why I stopped watching any of their blather a long time ago.  Also, just for the record, I don't watch their "entertainers," either.  Not so entertaining. 

Israel is just as dirty as the nations in the same region that we chastise for being backward, cruel, and, mostly, "undemocratic".  If Israel is a friend and an ally, how does that give the US credibility to do nation building and fighting terrorist in neighboring countries.  The US is tacitly okaying Israel's actions for survival yet we openly admonish neighbors for attempting to buy nuclear weapons or using tactics just as ruthless and cutthroat as Israel. 

Israel, as any other nation, has a right to defend itself and govern within its own borders.  What makes Israel any different or more sanctimonious in the eyes of Americans?

Don, you would have thought that the holes in NORAD procedure would have been ameliorated since the last major NORAD mission was the Cuban Missile Crisis. 

I wonder if there even is a need for NORAD since USSR is no longer a threat.  We are keeping too many Canadian Generals and colonels employed with the program.

jf:  We must disagree, but we don't have to be disagreeable.  We just won't talk about Israel anymore, okay?

Alicen, I do not mean to be disagreeable.  Take away all my personal judgments on Israel and look at the facts.  They gave South Africa nuclear weapons and Pyridine (makes males sterile).  How can anyone condone that or even look at them as righteous?  

They have nuclear weapons, why can't other sovereign nations do the same?

They do pre-emptive strikes on neighbors, why can't regional countries prepare themselves?

Essentially, I think as a matter of policy, the US should have a laissez-faire approach. If we are friends with Israel, it hinders relations with all the other nations that we are supposedly "nation building" with (Iraq, Afghanistan. Egypt, etc.).  If we are friends with Middle East nations it causes a strain on US-Israel relations.  It would be best for the US just to stay out of righteous "nation-building" and focus on American economic interest (like we always do).

Israel has a great military, strong economy, and a stable government.  For those reasons, the US should maintain a strong alliance. 

Good luck getting her to look at facts..

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