GOP digs up 3,000 corpses again, wraps flag around them.

[SirNitram]

It's Called Fair Use, AP.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A defiant Barack Obama said Tuesday he would take no lectures from Republicans on which candidate would keep the U.S. safer, a sharp rebuke to John McCain's aides who said the Democrat had a naive, Sept. 10 mind-set toward terrorism.

"These are the same guys who helped to engineer the distraction of the war in Iraq at a time when we could have pinned down the people who actually committed 9/11," the presumed nominee told reporters aboard his campaign plane. "This is the same kind of fear-mongering that got us into Iraq ... and it's exactly that failed foreign policy I want to reverse."

The rival camps engaged in a war of words Tuesday that echoed the 2004 presidential campaign in which President Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and other Republicans argued that Democratic nominee John Kerry was soft on terror, a claim that resonated with voters and helped propel Bush to re-election. Democrats complained that the GOP was using the politics of fear.

The Republican argument proved less effective in 2006 when then Bush adviser Karl Rove said the Democrats had a pre-Sept. 11 view of the world and Republicans had a post-Sept. 11 terror attacks perspective. In November of that year, Democrats captured enough congressional seats to seize control of the House and Senate.

On his campaign plane, Obama told reporters that Osama bin Laden is still at large in part because President Bush's strategy toward fighting terror has not succeeded.

At issue were comments Obama made in an interview with ABC News Monday in which he spoke approvingly of the successful prosecution and imprisonment of those responsible for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Obama was asked how he could be sure the Bush administration's anti-terrorism policies are not crucial to protecting U.S. citizens.

Obama said the government can crack down on terrorists "within the constraints of our Constitution." He mentioned the indefinite detention of Guantanamo Bay detainees, contrasting their treatment with the prosecution of the 1993 World Trade Center bombings.

"And, you know, let's take the example of Guantanamo," Obama said. "What we know is that, in previous terrorist attacks — for example, the first attack against the World Trade Center — we were able to arrest those responsible, put them on trial. They are currently in U.S. prisons, incapacitated.

"And the fact that the administration has not tried to do that has created a situation where not only have we never actually put many of these folks on trial, but we have destroyed our credibility when it comes to rule of law all around the world, and given a huge boost to terrorist recruitment in countries that say, 'Look, this is how the United States treats Muslims. ...

"We could have done the exact same thing, but done it in a way that was consistent with our laws," Obama said.

Obama agreed with the Supreme Court ruling last week that detainees in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, have a constitutional right to challenge their indefinite imprisonment in U.S. civilian courts. McCain derided the ruling as "one of the worst decisions in the history of this country."

McCain aides criticized Obama for talking about using the criminal justice system to prosecute terrorists.

"Senator Obama is a perfect manifestation a September 10th mind-set ... He does not understand the nature of the enemies we face," McCain national security director Randy Scheunemann told reporters on a conference call.

Former CIA director James Woolsey, who is advising the McCain campaign, concurred, saying Obama has "an extremely dangerous and extremely naive approach toward terrorism ... and toward dealing with prisoners captured overseas who have been engaged in terrorist attacks against the United States."

The Obama campaign countered with its own conference call in which Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Richard Clarke, a counterterrorism official in Republican and Democratic administrations, argued the McCain campaign was emulating Rove.

"I'm a little disgusted by the attempts of some of my friends on the McCain campaign to use the same old, tired tactics ... to drive a wedge between Americans for partisan advantage and to frankly frighten Americans," Clarke said.

Kerry accused McCain of "defending a policy that is indefensible" by siding with Bush's policies, particularly with respect to the Iraq war.

Obama said Republicans could be counted on to do "what they've done every election cycle, which is to use terrorism as club to make the American people afraid to win elections." He said he didn't think it would work this time.

Dazzling failure Ghouliani similar slithered forth to proclaim his divinely ordained wisdom because he was in the same city as those who died.

[Oni Koneko Damien]

Mr. Obama, it's okay. You've already secured my vote, you don't have to go around doing even more awesome things to... oh dear, there he goes again.

Bloody overachiever.

[Stark]

A 'September 10' mindset? Jesus christ.

[K. A. Pital]

Yeah. September 11 became a codeword for "carte blanche" in the US, and quite a long time ago.

[Stark]

Yeah. September 11 became a codeword for "carte blanche" in the US, and quite a long time ago.

It's so amusing to see them just come out and say it, though - 'oh yeah, before September 11 there's no way we could imprison people without trial and get away with it. Obama needs to catch up'!

[VT-16]

A 'September 10' mindset? Jesus christ.

Yeah, the same September 10 mindset the Republicans who were in charge of America on September 10 had! Who would have fought they'd point out their similarities for once? :P

[PeZook]

So...what is the "September 10 mindset"?

Belief that killing random Arabs won't destroy terrorism as a fighting method?

[SirNitram]

So...what is the "September 10 mindset"?

Belief that killing random Arabs won't destroy terrorism as a fighting method?

That America is not a holy imperial power who is destined to bring Peace everywhere and imprison whoever the fuck they like without even the restraint of the Magna Carta.

[PeZook]

That America is not a holy imperial power who is destined to bring Peace everywhere and imprison whoever the fuck they like without even the restraint of the Magna Carta.

Huh.

I kinda liked September 10th America

[SirNitram]

That America is not a holy imperial power who is destined to bring Peace everywhere and imprison whoever the fuck they like without even the restraint of the Magna Carta.

Huh.

I kinda liked September 10th America

So did I. I mean, John Ashcroft's Christian Nationalist tendencies made the INS painful to deal with, but not near-impossible.

Now here we are. Now Habeas Corpus isn't the basic foundation of law.. Grab someone, present a charge.. But we have morons gibbering that it would 'Clog the courts', 'free the terrorists'(What, you have no evidence to hold them?), 'turn this over to juries'(Technically impossible, Habaes Corpus is a motion decided by a judge)..

[Maxentius]

"And the fact that the administration has not tried to do that has created a situation where not only have we never actually put many of these folks on trial, but we have destroyed our credibility when it comes to rule of law all around the world, and given a huge boost to terrorist recruitment in countries that say, 'Look, this is how the United States treats Muslims. ...

Seeing things like this make me all the more confident that Obama is the correct man for the job. He gets it, and it looks like he's the only candidate thinking about how other countries perceive America, as opposed to solely pandering to how we perceive ourselves.

[Galvatron]

Seeing things like this make me all the more confident that Obama is the correct man for the job. He gets it, and it looks like he's the only candidate thinking about how other countries perceive America, as opposed to solely pandering to how we perceive ourselves.

I read once that we see ourselves as Superman, while the rest of the world sees us as Batman.

[CaptainZoidberg]

the rest of the world sees us as Batman.

That doesn't sound so bad.

[Galvatron]

I think was the pre-9/11. Now we're more like Deadpool.

[Admiral Valdemar]

the rest of the world sees us as Batman.

That doesn't sound so bad.

He should say Superman during the "golden age" dick years.

[Solauren]

I seriously hope the GOP's fear mongering bites them on the ass so hard in this election, they have to go to the hospital for shots and reconstructive surgery for the next 20 years.

[Rye]

Armando Iannucci, 4 years ago. They need to play that video as an ad campaign.

[Kuja]

You know, when I clicked on this link, I honestly thought that Bush or maybe the GOP at large had actually exhumed the bodies of 3,000 soldiers and actually draped flags over them in some kind of bizarre ceremony because they thought it would promote patriotism.

And I honestly wouldn't have been too shocked at them doing it.

------------------

But to the real point of the article, God Damn I love Obama more and more.

[Drooling Iguana]

We need to build a time machine and send Obama back to 2004.

Or possibly even 2000 so we can avoid this mess entirely.

[Civil War Man]

I think was the pre-9/11. Now we're more like Deadpool.

That's unfair. While Deadpool is batshit insane, at least his kind of crazy causes laughter and not despair.

[Elfdart]

That America is not a holy imperial power who is destined to bring Peace everywhere and imprison whoever the fuck they like without even the restraint of the Magna Carta.

Huh.

I kinda liked September 10th America

Benito Ghouliani has a pre July 4, 1776 mindset.

[mingo]

I read once that we see ourselves as Superman, while the rest of the world sees us as Batman.

I'm beginning to think they see us more like Marvin ath Martian.

[Pelranius]

How about the Civil War Iron Man?

I'm still trying to decide if it would be more traumatizing to have Ghoulani or Lieberman as McCain's mate.