has yet again done the indefensible and the United States are the only ones defending them, rogue nation that they are.

If you ask me, Turkey has the right idea: In response to the killing of two Turkish aid workers, Ankara has replied that “further supply vessels will be sent to Gaza, escorted by the Turkish Navy.”

Damn straight.

Not only did the NYPD make an arrest without having to waterboard anybody, but more arrests were made by working in tandem with law enforcement in – of all countries – Pakistan. It’s like the GOP narrative is breaking down as we speak. How dare Obama’s effete, liberal agenda on cooperation bear fruit!

Another potential attack is foiled by the NYPD – this time a carbomb parked in Times Square – and just like last time they didn’t have to go all Jack Bauer about it. The bag vendor who tipped the cops even proved the boon of the much-advertised suggestion, “If you see something, say something.”

Moreover, the trial on the Critical Mass incident has concluded with a conviction against Pogan – if not for assault than for falsifying records. That’s right: A pot-smoking wise-cracking activist who admitted he hates the police won a case against a cop son of a cop.

While Obama is continuing Bush’s policies against civil liberties and the racist xenophobia still reigns supreme in the South and Southwest, at least NYC still believes in the rule of law. Hurrah!

Najibullah Zazi hasn’t seen much of the national news because the plot he had to bomb the NYC subway was foiled – within days of the potential attack – by the NYPD and the FBI, making the entire thing non-news and business as usual.

That’s some funky business.

Leslie Gelb, formerly of the Council for Foreign Relations once pointed out that the NYPD Intelligence Unit is better funded and gets more done than the State Dept. Yep. And it’s nice to see the rule of law – complete with proper warrants and lack of torture – prevail in a non-aggrandizing manner.

Or “terrorists,” for short.

Joseph Stack tried to set himself up as a church to avoid paying taxes, then when that ploy failed railed against the Catholic Church. He took a tax code revision that clarified whether IT workers were independent contractors or employees (and thus subject to payroll taxes) as a direct attack on another of his schemes. He got very incensed that his family was caught by the IRS and forced to pay back taxes. And he himself admits to a relatively light tax burden:

While very few working people would say they haven’t had their fair
share of taxes (as can I)

And so when he tried to burn the Austin IRS office down, instead of being reported as the textbook case of terrorism that he so clearly perpetrated, there’s a marked reticence in the mainstream media to call him such. I mean, he’s domestic! White! And Christian! Never mind the last white guy to try to blow up a government building…

What is wrong with Lower Manhattan as a site to hold the Khalid Shiekh Mohammed trial? Mayor Bloomberg cites cost overruns in security upgrades. Seriously?

Several points bear asking. First of all, why does it cost $1 billion to secure Lower Manhattan for one trial? It cost $75 million for Obama’s inauguration – and that was with a flood of almost two million people!

Second, why would NYC foot the bill? It’s a federal trial. Let the feds pay for it. Actually, while they’re at it, let them bail out the state, too, so we don’t have to keep cutting city services, damnit.

Third, what’s with the obsession that terrorists are reactionary when it comes to doing such attacks? Why would they work on our schedule – you know, when security is tightest? We could have pipebombs in the subways now. Isn’t the whole point of terrorism to attack when least expected? We spent years checking people’s shoes and missed a guy lighting his underwear on fire.

Fourth, what’s with the obsession over security in the first place? We’re never going to be totally secure against any and all attacks. Never. Not with our entire GDP locked up in military expenditures and security details. Not with airport enemas and subway strip-searches. We spent years checking people’s shoes and missed a guy lighting his underwear on fire.

Fifth, doesn’t this needless delay further harm our rule of law? We have these trials because all people – even foreign nationals – are created equal and are afforded the rights of due process. To say that this is a special case not only weakens our moral standing – KSM is less than human yet is a superhuman criminal mastermind – but proves to the world that everything enemy propaganda says about us is true: We don’t believe our own values, we’re inconsistent and aggressive, and more than everything else their attack was effective.

The best of all possible messages we could impart is that we are secure enough in our values that this can be dealt with by our justice system as it is, such that we are not turning it into a kangaroo court where he is found guilty not by the evidence submitted but by the popular vote of an angry populace whipped up by a cynical propagandist media. We want a trial, not a stoning, and we have a federal court just for that purpose right in downtown Manhattan.