AG Holder, the Justice Dept, and Obama Are Right

They are absolutely right.  


We know, folks, why the GOP has got their knickers in a twist.  First, they tortured the guy to justify their Iraq invasion and second, they want to see Obama fail (and by extension, really, the whole country.)

Steven Simon, an author, and a fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, really does a number on the GOP strawmen attacks but I would like to poke a spear in a few of the other lame canards the GOP (and Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Hannity, Beck, yada-yada-yada, ... ) are promoting.

Some of my best friends are lawyers, ha-ha.  And I've been on a jury.  There is no such thing as a truly IMPARTIAL jury. There just ain't.  What judges ask juries to do is to:  to their best ability put their prejudices aside and adjudicate the case as fairly as they possibly can.  Sure, KSM has got to think that all New Yorkers hate him and would like to stick the needle in, themselves, but where in America would he think otherwise? Even in Berkeley/Oakland East Bay I know he'd have a rough time of it.  Hell, even Kos, from Daily Kos, bans users pronto if they even whisper about Bush 9-1-1 conspiracy theories.  But, just for fun, consider the kind of trial KSM would get in France.  Or the UK, or Germany, or any other Western European ally; Western European nations that suffer from terrorism to a much larger extent than we ever have, and that are just as racist and xenophobic as our country is.  KSM will not be pleased anywhere he is tried.  Tough titties.  And, I am sorry, but I love Holder's sense of poetic justice.  Manhattan should be able to face its' worst terrorist.

There are two reasons KSM is being tried in the US.  The first, torture notwithstanding, is that Holder is supremely confident in a conviction and a death sentence.  The second is that, finally, the US is acting the way it truly should, as an example of legitimate justice.  This Justice Department and this administration are through w/ torture and Gitmo and John Yoo loopholes.  This trial reflects that shining city on a hill.  It is, quite simply, America at its' finest.

And for anyone who says that this trial would be a recruiting bonanza for Islam, I would say, you mean more than Abu Ghraib? or waterboarding? or our support for Israel? or the Shah of Iran?

Be proud as a US citizen to watch this trial unfold.  At last New Yorkers will get justice (and the rest of the world, too.)