Part-Time Pundit

Forget Eavesdropping - Let’s just surrender

After Katrina, one of the blog posts that was making the rounds was tribes. It’s essentially a societal commentary written during the aftermath and political blood-letting that took place.

I remembered this article in the recent debate on the eavesdropping that the government is apparently doing in the course of the War on Terror. Politicians are taking turns pointing fingers, and apparently the New York Times timed the release not for the soonest possible dissemination of the information, but to shill a book that’s coming out and try to sink the Patriot Act. (Yes, they are just that unpatriotic that they can’t even vote for a law called the Patriot Act).

Particularly, that the pink tribes out there still don’t believe there is a war on. They believe that they can still blame 9/11 on us and that all we need to do to win the War on Terror is “understand” our enemies and “raise awareness” (read as surrender).

First things first, who cares if the government is listening to phone calls? There are complaints that warrants haven’t been issued. Let me get this straight, a warrant issued by a star chambers court (FISA court) where only the government gets to present a case, all the proceedings are sealed, and the judge hearing the case is appointed by the administration is safe and protects civil liberties, but a policy reviewed by the Administration every 90 days to make sure it’s actually targeting bad guys is not? Would you trust a closed court that did not allow for the accused to present a defense an adequate way to try criminal offenses? Didn’t think so. The whole process is cloak-and-dagger to being with, how is this news?

I have a cell phone; that means everyone within about 25 miles can hear what I say on it. That’s right, you can listen in to the occasional suggestive comment I make to my wife. I don’t call phone sex lines, I don’t buy drugs, and I’m not trying to score some hookers. You listen to my phone calls and about the most you’ll get out of it is that I love my wife. Scandalous! I figure most people are the same way. Innocence rarely utters shrill shrieks.

That should not be read to mean that I think the man should be in the business of listening to everyone’s phone calls, but that there are some phone calls I’d like the government to listen in on. Particularly the ones that say when and where the next terrorist strike is going to happen.

However, the pink tribes have once again mounted the ramparts against the sheepdogs. It’s not the wolves that are dangerous; it’s the sheepdogs that protect us. Cops don’t protect us from criminals, they intimidate minorities. Soldiers aren’t defenders of freedom; they are indentured baby-killers. In short, the perpetrators are the victims and the defenders are the perpetrators. If we would only disarm, then we can all live in peace, and joy, any light.

For every victory the United States achieves, there are those who would choose to then lay blame. “We must learn from our mistakes!” The Iraqis just voted for their first constitutional government, instead of celebrating this event we are mourning our “failure”.

After 9/11 and in fact during Hurricane Katrina, I tried various ways to get involved. I made several phone calls, was turned down, and moved on. I didn’t feel good about it because I knew I could have done something. I learned more than peeling potatoes in the military and, if nothing else, I have proven that I’m a darn good crisis manager. That’s the difference between the greys and the pinks. I wanted to get involve and helped. The pink wanted to blame FEMA.

The culture war is little more than this: will we do it ourselves, or will we hold out our hands and wait for someone else to do it for us. There is the constant drumbeat from the left, “you can’t do it” (aka affirmative action), “you can’t trust others to do it” (aka the fight against faith-based initiatives), and so on.

The facts are these, no one ever was known for being able to find the best government welfare programs. Stories of success in history are of people who fought, strived, failed, but got up and succeeded. These are the people we celebrate.

Before we give in to pessimism, despair, and finger-pointed, how about we at least figure out if the powers were misused first. Maybe we should wait to kick around the sheepdogs until we figure out if they did wrong. How about, for a change, we not assume every evil motivation simple by the fact that someone somewhere has another opinion? Instead of the raging pink brigade telling us everything that’s wrong, how about they contribute something that helps things get better instead of telling us who is to blame?

December 19th, 2005 Posted by John Bambenek | Freedom of Speech, Military / War, National, Politics | 2 comments

What I’ve Been Up To

I have been light on blogging lately, in part because of grad. school, in part because I’m kinda burned out on the sniping that is political discussion, and in part, because I’m trying to get this charity I’m working on off the ground. I’ve mentioned it before but now I’m finally making some progress. Below is a couple of pictures of the 140+ (so far) computers I’ll be installing and sending out to Tanzania with anything else I can get that isn’t nailed down. Hopefully I’ll be set up to take donations in Jan. finally.

Progress, finally!

December 18th, 2005 Posted by John Bambenek | Uncategorized | no comments

There are some sick people out there…

I have a wiki bio. Sure, it’s somewhat vain, but it’s also wikipedia, come on.

Well, someone in Champaign (with the IP of 12.210.85.203) decided to add the following tidbits to it…

That I suffered “and severe anal trauma due to an violent raping by a priest.”

And “and to recover from the shame of having a dirty crack whore of a sister.”

Note to troll - You are not nearly as anonymous as you think you are.

December 16th, 2005 Posted by John Bambenek | Misc | no comments

Wow, 3 Letters…

3 letters to the editor were posted in response to my column, The wrong question. I guess no one dares let me step off the plantation unchallenged.

First, this one where I owe the world an apology. This kind of letters irritate me, not because they disagree, but because of the hysteria that they represent… I have an opinion, why should I apologize for it. I’m not talking about killing off the Jews. Second, as far as the Catholic and Orthodox churches, some local churches did bless same-sex relationships, they NEVER, however pretended that they were equivalent to marriage, and it apparently had little to do with sex. If this book is trying to make the point the Catholic Church did same-sex marriages, I won’t bother reading the rest of the book for the simple fact is that the author has to try and twist facts. Read this review on Boswell’s book for more.

This guy misunderstood my point entirely. I was suggesting we talk about what we want marriage to be in general, I was less advocating a specific position (though I have one). As far as social recognition of marriage and the benefits conferred, yes, that is EXACTLY my point. Societies shouldn’t be in the business of recognizing useless institutions.

I’m not sure what this guy is responding to. In short, because *I* would be in the category of unmarried if I was arguing that. But here’s the thing about fertility, you never really know most of the time. Couples have gone upwards of 10 years before having their own child. If someone chooses not to have children because of their life circumstances, they can change their mind in one cycle. No amount of mental wrangling will allow for gay couples to produce their own children.

Lastly, somehow people thought I was eliminating love from the equation of marriage. What part of life partner and loving relationship implied love had no role?

December 12th, 2005 Posted by John Bambenek | DailyIllini | 5 comments

Column Posted: “The wrong question”

You can read it, here.

I think it was kind of babbling and I didn’t make my point very well… long week without sleep. This is the last one for the semester…

December 9th, 2005 Posted by John Bambenek | Uncategorized | no comments

Why We Can’t Pull Out Of Iraq… Yet.

If one is looking for a reason that the United States cannot nor should not pull out of Iraq, they only need to look to neighboring Iran. After flagrantly developing nuclear weapons in full site of the world, all the international community will do is send delegations. When the president of Iran suggests that the “tumor” of Israel be wiped off the map, all they international community did was send delegations. Now, when the Iranian president suggests all Jews be expelled back to Europe, there will be the usual hang wringing, but not action.

Osama calculated, after witnessing our lack of spine in Mogadishu, that the United States has no patience for protracted conflict. The first sign of a body count, the American people will demand a pullout, the argument goes. Saddam knows this and is counting on it. He knew beforehand his army would be mopped. He counted on waiting us out, and by extension, a Kerry win. Iran and North Korea know the same thing. Even our Asian allies are coming to us with doubts we could ever real do anything should China start getting belligerent. The general consensus is that if you get in a fight with America, you’ll lose the initial battles, but all you need to do is wait until the anti-war crowd, liberal media, and liberal politicians whine enough and the tide of public opinion will shift.

If we pull out of Iraq before finishing our objectives (which have always seem perfectly clear to me), Iran could simply nuke Israel and nothing would happen. North Korea could feel comfortable crossing the DMZ and taking South Korea. China could finally take that prime-beef real estate known as Taiwan without fearing an American response. Why? Because even if the US initiates military action, all they need to do is run the clock and the Left will talk the public into giving up. The anti-war crowd will come to us with stories about how the Jews are to blame.

There comes a time to pullout. That time starts after a permanent government is in place and when they are ready to be mostly responsible for their own security. The time is coming relatively soon, and most have thought that after this next round of elections, troop reductions would begin to occur. Look for the anti-war left to start claiming credit for the execution of a plan that has been in place for years.

UPDATE:

When the head of one of the major parties gets on national television and says the most powerful, best trained, and most advanced military in the word cannot beat low-rent suicide bombers with home-made bombs that can’t seem to go off reliably, it says something. It says that if we cannot beat them in Iraq, we cannot beat them on our own soil. Howard Dean has not only said that our military is incompetent (as opposed to Kerry who says they are terrorists) but that we cannot even win the war on terror. In a nutshell, he leaves only one option left… surrender.

December 8th, 2005 Posted by John Bambenek | Iraq, Military / War, National, Politics | 5 comments

Polls Show When Bush Talks About his Plans, America Supports

The latest cBS/NYT poll shows that Bush’s numbers are on the rebound. The reason? He’s actually started talking about his successes and hitting back at his opponents. We have a plan for victory in Iraq, pretending like it isn’t there is a deception. We get them to elect a soveriegn government, we prepare their government, we leave. Undoubtedly, when we leave the anti-war crowd will claim victory despite the fact it will have nothing to do with them.

People have been down about the economy for years despite the fact it has been going good. The more Bush and the GOP talks about their plans, the better they do. For too long they’ve been quiet, hopefully this will get them to speak up, put their platform out there and move forward.

I suppose it doesn’t help that Kerry called the troops terrorists, and Howard Dean says we can’t be low-rent terrorists with bombs stapped to themselves. If we can’t beat them there, we can’t beat them here. If that’s what they believe, they are left with only one option, appeasement. The corrolary is that when the Democrats (Dean specifically) talk, the WORSE they do in polls.

December 7th, 2005 Posted by John Bambenek | Military / War, National, Politics | no comments