Good communication is just as stimulating as black coffee, and just as hard to sleep after. ~ Anne Morrow Lindbergh

Iowa Voice (Brian) The On-Again, Off-Again Message Of The Senate — “First, they pass that bill that calls for the guest worker program, a bill that was the direct opposite of the one passed in the House and in direct conflict with the desires of the American people. Then they seemed to get the message that Americans wouldn’t support that. Then, they go back to the guest worker debate. Now they’re talking about securing the border again. If their goal is to confuse us to the point that we don’t know exactly where they stand on the issue, it’s working.”

Captain’s Quarters (Ed Morrissey) Border Fence Vote Upcoming — “It will force the Senate to vote on an issue that many people see as critical to our national security , and the bill provides a common-sense solution to the chronically porous border in the American Southwest. Those who vote against it, and especially those who attempt to filibuster it, will have to answer why they insisted on linking national security to normalization for illegal immigrants.”

The Strata-Sphere (A.J. Strata) Now It’s About Nothing? — “John McCain ran into a buzzsaw of common sense over the Geneva Coventions’ General Article 3 and its vague langauge which leaves interrogators with “please” and “pretty” please so we do not hurt someone’s dignity when trying to find out where they planned to kill thousands of innocent people. The media is playing this up as Bush against McCain in a lame attempt to save McCain from himself. But McCain and Graham screwed themselves by being more concerned about terrorists’ feelings than American lives.”

Blue Crab Boulevard Enough Already — “Nothing the Pope said has remotely approached the level of hate that is spewed daily from the Islamist “clerics”. The West needs to stop apologizing to thuggish people like this. We really do need to stand united against this behavior and denounce it.”

Right Truth (Debbie) Ahmadinejad’s view of the future — “Iran’s President Mahmoud Amadinejad has looked into his crystal ball and seen his ideal future for the world. What is it? I thought you might ask:”

Coffee is a beverage that puts one to sleep when not drank. ~ Alphonse Allais

Happy 2nd Blogiversary to
The Royal Flush

Iowa Voice (Brian) Republicans Gaining In The Polls – “Nevertheless, if you see poll after poll after poll showing similar results, you get a trend. It’s not enough to just look at one poll, you have to look at a bunch of them to get a real idea of what they’re showing.”

Captain’s Quarters (Ed Morrissey) Just Another Quixotic Monday …. — “Perhaps Porkbusters may have another issue to press in the cause of open government. Jeffery Birnbaum reports in today’s Washington Post about an exception to election rules requiring immediate electronic filing of political contributions, rules that allow voters to determine to whom politicians may be beholden before casting their votes. Not to worry, though — the exception only affects 100 offices:”

Right Wing News (John Hawkins) The Geneva Convention Doesn’t Offer Our Troops Any Protection — “I’m not sure that there could possibly be a dumber argument for coddling terrorists than the one made by Lindsey Graham, who, as per usual, is playing Robin to John McCain’s Batman, this time on the interrogation of terrorists.”

Right Truth (Debbie) What would appeasers do about Iran? — “The terrorists have given us their demands, convert or die. How do you appease yourself out of that one? Hmmm?”

Lindsey Graham (SC), Susan Collins (ME), and of course John McCain (AZ), joined with Armed Services Committee chairman John Warner (VA) to push through terror-detainee legislation that President Bush has promised to reject.

The president’s measure would go further than the Senate package in allowing classified evidence to be withheld from defendants in terror trials, using coerced testimony and protecting U.S. interrogators against prosecution for using methods that violate the Geneva Conventions.

So, of course they side with the democrats and go with the weaker senate package.

I agree with this assesment by Kim Priestap writing at Wizbang:

The business of protecting the American people from terrorist attacks involves taking a very tough stance against terrorists, and allowing our national security secrets to be viewed by terrorists who are being tried for conspiring to kill us en mass is simply foolhardy. These terrorists will get that information to their cohorts who will then use it to their advantage. We can’t allow our judicial process to become a weapon that can be used against us.

I am utterly sick of hearing the argument that these enemy combatants are in any way deserving of Geneva Convention protections. Andrew McCarthy echos my thoughts:

Let’s not mince words here: Our soldiers, if captured by Islamic terrorists, will be tortured and killed. That’s what Islamic terrorists do. That’s why awed admiration is the only proper response to the bravery of our men and women in uniform. They fight for us despite knowing, as we should all by now know, that nothing we do affects the jihadists’ behavior.

On the other hand, if we were to fight another conventional war against the honorable combatants of a nation-state, that country’s forces — like our own — would be solemnly bound to (as well as self-interested in) compliance with their Geneva Convention obligations regarding prisoners of war. Again, how we deal with al Qaeda now is irrelevant to the treatment our forces will receive in any future conflict.

So, no, we don’t owe jihadists the same trial rights we owe any honorable combatants, much less our own troops. The very notion is an insult to those putting their lives on the line in our defense. That aside, though, the incentives these senators would create are perverse. It is an elementary rule of human nature that when behavior is rewarded, it begets more of the same. Rewarding terrorists with rights to which they have no legal entitlement can only encourage their methods — a cost McCain, Graham, and Warner would apparently have us bear despite the absence of any discernible benefit.

Outrageous.

Illinois Republican Party Chairman Andy McKenna asked Senator Dick Durbin to apologize for his remarks comparing American interrogators at Guantanamo Bay to Nazis and Soviet gulags and the Pol Pot regime made on the Senate floor. His response was to say that the Bush administration should apologize for abandoning the Geneva Conventions. Would some inside the Senate chambers please buy him a copy. Heck, I’m sure there’s one laying around there some place or I understand that Congress has access to this big library. Get him a library card. Now.

UPDATE: This topic (rightly so) has all sorts of people outraged: Rush is talking about it on his broadcast right now.
Others blogging about it (in no particular order):

• Mad Mikey’s Blog
• Don Singleton
• Alamo Nation
• Intermittent Stream
• GOP and the City
• Dagney’s Rant
• Apartment 3D
• Captain’s Quarters

And I am sure many more. If I missed anyone please leave a comment.

MORE:

• Iowa Voice
• Power Pundit
• Outside the Beltway
• In the Bullpen
• Pirate’s Cove (Follow the links from there with caution due to the graphic content)
• Six Meat Buffet

We are not going to get an apology, and I for one wouldn’t give you a penny for the sincerity if one is offered. I think that censure is called for, if there are enough backbones in the Senate. I know there are enough voices in the blogosphere to put out that call. Following censure he should resign his seat in the Senate. But since I don’t expect that to happen either it will be up to the people of Illinois to take that action for him at the next available opportunity.

Who else is discussing this? Send me the links, leave a comment, we can not let this just go away and become yesterday’s news. If someone is going to make statements like this they need to be held accountable.