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Up to the minute notes on the current state of free thinking and free living: Kentucky moonshine - original analysis and reporting from MoreThings, and all round pop culture museum of sight and sound - photo galleries, mp3 and video downloads.
Al Barger and MoreThings - getting people's goats since 1998.
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September 11, 2003
Giving Dubya his due on 9-11
I don't want to like President Bush. I didn't vote for him, and most likely won't next year, depending on who my own Libertarian Party puts up. I'm less than thrilled with some of the Patriot Act stuff, and attempts at lumping in "narcoterrorists" (ie simple dope dealers) with actual terrorists. He's apparently more than willing- for the sake of political convenience- to sign a HUGE new entitlement program for free drugs that will likely not only cost a boatload of money, but seriously damage our pharmaceutical industry's invaluable research efforts.
Still, on this second anniversary of 9-11 Dubya has to be credited for his serious efforts and success in defending the country, which is, after all, his main job. To that end, take it away Bill Whittle:
Say what you want about George W. Bush and his policies � that is of course your right. But consider this, all you defeatists and self-haters out there: it is barely possible, mathematically, to tie the President�s record for defending this country from a new terrorist horror. You cannot � not even hypothetically � improve upon it. This is a fact that is undeniable and so obvious that only a few will see it.
And at what cost? Did jackbooted storm troopers descend in the night from black helicopters to take away those voicing dissent? Or do the most vile and baseless accusations fly hither and yon, blown ever larger by a terrified and complicit media elite? Did hundreds of thousands of Muslims have their businesses torched, their families terrorized and beaten, the rest hauled off to concentration camps, or are you far safer, both physically and emotionally, as a Muslim in the US then you would be in any middle eastern country � safer and less harassed, without question � than Jews are in France today? Have we given up our liberty and lifestyle for this perfect record, or do we still go to football games and shopping malls and fly, more or less, the way we used to?
There are some provisions of the Patriot Act and related things that merit some congressional and judicial skepticism, but still. Considering their real world responsibilities and pressures to deal with seriously dangerous and devious people, the abuses against our civil liberties have been relatively modest.
Most importantly, the administration has continued against the opposition of all enemies foreign and domestic to methodically knock down the bad guys. They've thankfully done so with a minimum of collateral damage and civilian deaths. Even Salam writing from home in Baghdad concedes that the destruction has been minimal, despite his understandable pre-war opposition. "Wars are never OK, but the actual war did much less harm than everybody was expecting."
Some things could be done better, and I'm unthrilled about a half trillion dollar budget deficit, but still. Working in the realities of actually governing and having to keep all the balls in the air, we could sure be doing a hell of a lot worse.
posted by Al at 9/11/2003 09:36:00 PM
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