Bergdahl's hometown flooded with hateful calls, cancels celebration in 'interest of public safety'
I suppose it should not be a surprise that people in Bowe Bergdahl's tiny Idaho hometown are getting inundated with furious phone calls from Americans who are ... angry that Bergdahl is from there, apparently? Angry that the town was going to welcome the POW back without punching him? Whatever the reason, America's creepiest not-patriots are taking it out on any town official whose phone number they can find. . .
McCain and Ayotte, for it, before they were against it. Image from source, HuffPo
It really should come as no surprise by now. Countless times, Republicans have been for something, only until President Obama does that thing. Then, magically, they're against it. In the case of the release of prisoner of war, Bowe Bergdahl, their reasons have been kind of all over the place. But Sen. John McCain, Sen. Kelly Ayotte, and countless others in the conservative media and blogosphere were adamantly for getting Bergdahl out of detention, up to and including the use of prisoner swaps. Hell, McCain himself was released in a prisoner swap!
I've gotten in arguments with conservatives regarding Obama, Eric Holder, Jay Carney, always on the same theme: they lie! Well, what is this, friends and neighbors? What do you call this, besides hypocrisy of course? Amnesia?
[Excerpt] GOP Urged White House To 'Do All It Can' To Get Bowe Bergdahl
As soon as President Barack Obama told the nation Saturday evening that America's only prisoner of war in Afghanistan had been rescued, Republican lawmakers and pundits began criticizing the administration on how it handled the release of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. . .
It goes without saying by now, that if President Obama does something (or doesn't do something) Right Wing World will bellow that it's wrong. It even applies to the First Lady who has been lambasted merely for suggesting that kids eat healthy food, and that we all drink more water. Honestly. So, it was a given that there would be an outcry when American POW Bowe Berdahl was sprung from Afghanistan. We didn't know exactly what their tactic would be, but you could predict outrage!
And boy, it was a scattershot outrage. Bergdahl, it is alleged, had "deserted" his post. The details of this are not confirmed, but no one I've seen denies that whatever happened there should be investigated. It was hardly the point when bargaining to get a 5-year POW out of imprisonment. But so far, that's only one of the reasons why President Obama was wrong to get this guy out. In addition to the desertion charge--which apparently means he should be left to rot--there is a complaint about how and when Obama told Congress about it, a complaint about the bargain to exchange Gitmo detainees (men who have never even been charged, let alone convicted, and have been there more than a decade). And they're even picking on the guy's parents. It's all over the place, and it would have brought charges of unpatriotism from the right, were the tables turned, and this was a POW sprung by Dubya. Whatever issues need to be hammered out by military justice and by Congress, the behavior of Right Wing World (FOX "News", talk radio, and the blogosphere) has been skeevy.
Rachel Maddow shares my disgust in this video which is really worth watching.
So, the only American POW in Afghanistan was released. Right Wing World goes nuts because it was President Obama who was responsible for getting him released. They've assailed the President for not informing Congress, they've maligned the soldier himself (and his family, oddly), and more. If this were during the Bush era, complaints like these by liberals would have brought immediate outrage from the right, and accusations of a lack of patriotism. Regardless of the circumstances of an American POW release. And you know that's true.
As more and more information spills out on Bush Era "Enhanced Interrogation" (torture), I'm more and more amazed at the Republican response to it, even from friends. As George W. Bush himself said, "America doesn't torture." So, let's call it something else. Give it a Frank Luntzian/Karl Rovian name, and it magically becomes something else.
But water boarding is torture, as defined by international and federal law. I heard a local right-wing radio host today (I forget her name, KXNT has an interchangeable roster of female hosts, like FOX "News"), comparing water boarding to "a little water in your face, boo, hoo." She and others keep trying to muddy the waters by making the definition of torture open to interpretation. And if it's defined as torture, it's a liberal definition! Anyway, so what if we torture, they say, these are terrorists! And the information got us information to protect us from their evil plots!
So it's not torture, but it might be torture, but it's OK because it works. Forget that these prisoners were suspected terrorists, not confirmed. And they were allowed no counsel, not even told what they were picked up for. It's all so un-American, and yet the conservatives have no problem whatsoever with it. So we broke a few laws, the ends justify the means! But do they?
In a campaign filled with stupid stories, what's one more? But just exactly how stupid does the John McCain campaign think his followers are? If you ask a question or say a derogatory word regarding Sarah Palin--about anything--you're disrespectful, not deferential, and quite probably sexist. If you criticize McCain about anything, why, didn't you know? He was a POW! How dare you!
What? Yeah, I know that McCain survived several plane crashes and a long stretch as a POW. What that experience has to do with remembering how many houses he has, or cheating on his first wife, or any other issue, I have no idea. And now, it is the reason he can't use a computer? Exsqueeze me?
And one more thing. I know it's standard operating procedure for Democrats to precede any criticism of McCain with a lofty "McCain is a war hero. He served his country well and is a good man. . ." Whatevs. Sorry folks, I'm going to go with the premise that the preamble is by now assumed. The history is well known, and really doesn't need to be rehashed by Democrats. And yeah, he used do nice stuff for us. . .but what has he done for us lately?
The Drudge Report and several conservative blogs are working themselves into a lather over the new Obama ad noting that John McCain doesn't know how to use a computer. Their claim is that McCain is simply unable to use a computer because of his POW injuries, citing a March 2000 article in the Boston Globe that states, with no supporting evidence...
