Saturday, June 25, 2005

Congress Goes To Gitmo To Get A Grip

The Congressional Durbin Damage Control Delegation (DDCD) arrived at Guatanamo today for a first hand visit and walk through to see the facility and the treatment of the terrorist for themselves (treatment of terrorist? that is still a puzzling word association for me personally). First question for me is why did this not happen years ago when the criticism first started coming out from the ultra-left, both in Europe and America? Regardless of the answer to that question, here is how the DDCD visit went, via Fox:

DDCD Tour

Member of the House of Representatives witnessed interrogations, saw the cells, toured the general facility, received a classified briefing, and ate the same chicken with orange sauce that the troops and the terrorist were having ( I had orange chicken this evening myself ). They saw terrorist who had displayed good behavior playing soccer in the recreation yard. Sounds like your standard America prison to me, with the slight difference of ongoing interrogations to gain more information to try and keep Americans safe. If the treatment is good enough for our own incarcerated then it is certainly good enough for terrorists. Who knows, the DNC is trying to give felons the right to vote so they may try to also give the Gitmo Gang the same rights and they can take it out on the RNC at the polls.........................

Who made up the DDCD, well 10 members of the House lead by David Hobson (R. Ohio), and Joe Skeen, R-New Mexico; Dan Miller, R-Florida; Todd Tiahrt, R-Kansas; Steve Chabot, R-Ohio; Thomas Allen, D-Maine; David Vitter, R-Louisiana; Todd Platts, R-Pennsylvania, and Robert Underwood, D-Guam, and Shelia Jackson Lee, D-Texas. Strange thing is that CNN is leaving Lee off the DDCD list here in the very last paragraph:

CNN Leaves Lee Off

Why would the most liberal news organization leave the most critical member of the DDCD off the attendee list? Don't know but I'm just saying.............

How about Shelia Jackson Lee, and her read here? She has been a "huge" critic of Gitmo, as she is on all Bush policy. It's funny though, she almost pushes people out of the way to get to the sideline for the opportunity to shake Bush's hand and be photographed with him at any official joint sessions. Bush must poll importantly even in Jackson Lee's district. Shelia Lee is a member of the Conyers Bat Commission that meets in the basement of Congress on the bat memo (Downing Street) and do things like this:

We are writing to request that you appoint a special counsel to investigate whether high-ranking officials within the Bush Administration violated the War Crimes Act, 18 U.S.C. 2441, or the Anti-Torture Act, 18 U.S.C. 2340 by allowing the use of torture techniques banned by domestic and international law at recognized and secret detention sites in Iraq, Afghanistan Guantanamo Bay and elsewhere.

Don't you thing that Shelia Lee and the others who have called are military heroes War Criminals, should have done what they did today before they made those statements? Novel approach but before you put the interest of terrorists before the brave Americans fighting for our freedom and protection, don't you think you should go down and see it for yourself? I do.

There is a lot of discussion going on about improper trips by members of congress these days.

Trips

Summary:

Republican and Democratic House members were nearly equal rules violators in failing to disclose their personal trips within 30 days after the trip's completion. There were 23 GOP members, 19 Democrats and 1 independent, all of them months or years late in their reporting to the House public records office.

Staff members for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-California, disclosed 11 prior trips, while staff members for DeLay, R-Texas, had 4. Rep. John Linder of Georgia, a former chairman of the House Republican campaign organization, belatedly filed 9 trips, as did Rep. Maxine Waters, D-California.

So Delay was the big abuser (and I'm not a Delay guy) but Pelosi had 11 to 4 on Delay on buy off trips? Huh, don't see much coverage on that point, but the whole Delay issue went away. That would explain the MSM attention on the matter. Well I digress, back to my point, which is:

Every member of Congress, every editor of any major newspaper, and every executive of "all" major TV networks must go the Gitmo and take the tour, or your criticisms mean really nothing. Everyone would be fine with a trip expenses to Gitmo so you know what your talking about. So what does bomb thrower and Conyers committee member Shelia Lee has to say after her visit via Fox:

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, is one of many Democrats who have called for an independent commission to investigate abuse allegations and said the facility should close. She stopped short of changing her position after the visit, but acknowledged, "What we've seen here is evidence that we've made progress."

We have made progress? Really..................No I think you have made progress Shelia Lee, you have made progress understanding what the hell you are talking about. Go tell Dick Durbin(Nazi, Gulag, Pol Pot), Nancy Potosi, Harry Reid, Ted Kennedy, John Kerry and Hillary Clinton. Stop protecting the liberalism of your party and start protecting the American People.

The only remaining question is, how did the DDCD commission and the terrorist enjoy the Orange Chicken while our troops fighting the terrorist in Iraq and Afganistan enjoyed K-rations, heat, blowing dust, and being shot at?