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Playing With Fire (Thomas Sowell)
GOPUSA ^ | April 3, 2007 | Thomas Sowell

Posted on 04/02/2007 8:38:52 PM PDT by jazusamo

April 3, 2007

Congressman Tom Lantos, who is a member of the delegation that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is leading to Syria, put the mission clearly when he said: "We have an alternative Democratic foreign policy."

Democrats can have any foreign policy they want -- if and when they are elected to the White House.

Until Nancy Pelosi came along, it was understood by all that we had only one president at a time and -- like him or not -- he alone had the constitutional authority to speak for this country to foreign nations, especially in wartime.

All that Pelosi's trip can accomplish is to advertise American disunity to a terrorist-sponsoring nation in the Middle East while we are in a war there. That in turn can only embolden the Syrians to exploit the lack of unified resolve in Washington by stepping up their efforts to destabilize Iraq and the Middle East in general.

Members of the opposition party, whichever party that might be at a given time, knew that their role was not to intervene abroad themselves to undermine this country's foreign policy, however much they might criticize it at home.

During the Second World War, the defeated Republican presidential candidate, Wendell Wilkie, even acted as President Roosevelt's personal envoy to British Prime Minister Churchill.

He understood that we were all in this together, however we might disagree among ourselves about the best course to follow.

Today, Nancy Pelosi and the Congressional Democrats are stepping in to carry out their own foreign policy and even their own military policy on troop deployment -- all the while denying that they are intruding on the president's authority.

They are doing the same thing domestically by making a big media circus over the fact that the Bush administration fired eight U.S. attorneys. These attorneys are among the many officials who serve at the pleasure of the president -- which means that they can be fired at any time for any reason or for no reason.

That is why there was no big hullabaloo in the media when Bill Clinton fired all the U.S. attorneys across the country -- even though that got rid of the U.S. attorneys who were conducting an on-going investigation into corruption in Clinton's own administration as governor of Arkansas.

So much hate has been hyped against George W. Bush that anything that is done against him is unlikely to be questioned in most of the media.

But whatever passing damage is being done to George W. Bush is a relatively minor concern compared to the lasting damage that is being done to the presidency as an institution that will still be here when George W. Bush is gone.

Once it becomes accepted that it is all right to violate both the laws and the traditions of this nation, and to undermine the ability of the United States to speak to other nations of the world with one voice, we will have taken another fateful step downward into the degeneration of this society.

Such a drastic and irresponsible step should remove any lingering doubt that the Democrats' political strategy is to ensure that there is an American defeat in Iraq, in order to ensure their own political victory in 2008.

That these political games are being played while Iran keeps advancing relentlessly toward acquiring nuclear weapons is a fateful sign of the utter unreality of politicians preoccupied with scoring points and a media obsessed with celebrity bimbos, living and dead.

Once Iran has nuclear weapons, that will be an irreversible change that will mark a defining moment in the history of the United States and of Western civilization, which will forever after live at the mercy of hate-filled suicidal fanatics and sadists.

Yet among too many politicians in Washington, it is business as usual. Indeed, it is monkey business as usual, as Congressional Democrats revel in the power of their new and narrow election victory last year to drag people before committee hearings and posture for the television cameras.

It has been said that the world ends not with a bang but with a whimper. But who would have thought that it could end with political clowning in the shadow of a mushroom cloud?

----------

Thomas Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305. His Web site is www.tsowell.com.


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: democrats; dhimmicrats; lantos; pelosi; sowell; syria; thomassowell
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So much hate has been hyped against George W. Bush that anything that is done against him is unlikely to be questioned in most of the media.

Dr. Sowell couldn't be more correct. The left is not accountable for much of anything because the media is on their side.

1 posted on 04/02/2007 8:38:57 PM PDT by jazusamo
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To: AbeKrieger; Alia; Amalie; AmeriBrit; American Quilter; arthurus; awelliott; Bahbah; bamahead; ...
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2 posted on 04/02/2007 8:41:10 PM PDT by jazusamo (http://warchronicle.com/TheyAreNotKillers/DefendOurMarines.htm)
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To: jazusamo
Dr. Sowell couldn't be more correct. The left is not accountable for much of anything because the media is on their side.

Until the first 10kt warhead detonates in Manhattan and the second in Hollywood.

All those left-wing votes and "influential" people gone in the time it takes for the overpressure wave to hit.

NO cheers, unfortunately. I'd rather they repented and used their talents for good.

3 posted on 04/02/2007 8:45:38 PM PDT by grey_whiskers (The opinions are solely those of the author and are subject to change without notice.)
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To: jazusamo

We have an alternative Democratic foreign policy????????


4 posted on 04/02/2007 8:45:47 PM PDT by bnelson44 (http://www.appealforcourage.org)
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To: jazusamo

http://www.answers.com/topic/sedition


5 posted on 04/02/2007 8:47:24 PM PDT by Eccl 10:2 (Pray for the peace of Jerusalem - Ps 122:6)
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To: jazusamo

What the Liberal Left should be held accountable for is endangering the lives of our troops in Iraq and Afganistan. They’re surrender politics are emboldening our enemies and causing American lives.


6 posted on 04/02/2007 8:48:17 PM PDT by ExTexasRedhead
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To: Eccl 10:2; bnelson44

That’s the alternative Dem foreign policy, the leader is in the ME right now.


7 posted on 04/02/2007 8:51:24 PM PDT by jazusamo (http://warchronicle.com/TheyAreNotKillers/DefendOurMarines.htm)
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To: jazusamo

A hundred years ago people who insisted on separate versions of reality for themselves were called lunatics; today we call them demokkkrats. If the demokkkrat party cannot be destroyed, then we need to split this country up somehow or other. Democracy is a fairly good system for governing a fairly homogeneous people with shared values and ideals; it is not a reasonable system for sharing power between two or more groups with nothing in common at all who basically just hate eachother.


8 posted on 04/02/2007 8:52:24 PM PDT by rickdylan
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To: jazusamo

it’s disturbing to see such a high u.s. official,

nancy,

acting like jane fonda.


9 posted on 04/02/2007 8:53:29 PM PDT by ken21 (it takes a village to brainwash your child + to steal your property! /s)
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To: jazusamo
"We have an alternative Democratic foreign policy."

Somehow I'm reminded of the scene in Braveheart where King Edward's son has a homosexual lover who dares to offer military advice to the King. The king responds with great interest: "Oh, if you have ideas? By all means -- What do you suggest I do?" The guy begins, "What I suggest would be --"

I believe it's at this point that King Edward pushes the guy out a window, down to the flagstones 50 feet below.

10 posted on 04/02/2007 8:54:14 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy (Enoch Powell was right.)
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To: jazusamo

Reminds me a little of Obrador’s shadow presidency after the recent election in Mexico.


11 posted on 04/02/2007 8:54:44 PM PDT by Yardstick
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To: ExTexasRedhead

I couldn’t agree more. The actions of Pelosi, Reid, murtha and others are costing American lives in our military.


12 posted on 04/02/2007 8:56:14 PM PDT by jazusamo (http://warchronicle.com/TheyAreNotKillers/DefendOurMarines.htm)
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To: bnelson44
Exactly! Since when is the other party (the one not currently holding the White House) allowed to have their own foreign policy? WTF kind of BS is that!? Are they begging to be tried for treason? I'd arrest them the moment they set foot on US soil... What a bunch of dangerously power hungry idiots! Have they no idea the precedent they are setting? Of how they are damaging official US foreign policy?

I'd try them for treason, and if found guilty I'd have no qualms about executing them.

13 posted on 04/02/2007 8:57:42 PM PDT by CodeMasterPhilzar
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To: CodeMasterPhilzar

Pull their passports.


14 posted on 04/02/2007 9:02:49 PM PDT by Tax Government ("Congressmen who...during wartime...undermine military...should be arrested...or hanged." -A.Lincoln)
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To: Yardstick
Reminds me a little of Obrador’s shadow presidency after the recent election in Mexico.

Good point...I agree.

15 posted on 04/02/2007 9:03:24 PM PDT by jazusamo (http://warchronicle.com/TheyAreNotKillers/DefendOurMarines.htm)
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To: jazusamo

Say it again Sir.

Once Iran has nuclear weapons, that will be an irreversible change that will mark a defining moment in the history of the United States and of Western civilization, which will forever after live at the mercy of hate-filled suicidal fanatics and sadists.


16 posted on 04/02/2007 9:04:59 PM PDT by tet68 ( " We would not die in that man's company, that fears his fellowship to die with us...." Henry V.)
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To: jazusamo

Too bad this isn’t in effect anymore:

16 May, 1918
The U.S. Sedition Act


United States, Statutes at Large, Washington, D.C., 1918, Vol. XL, pp 553 ff.
A portion of the amendment to Section 3 of the Espionage Act of June 15, 1917.
The act was subsequently repealed in 1921.

SECTION 3. Whoever, when the United States is at war, shall willfully make or convey false reports or false statements with intent to interfere with the operation or success of the military or naval forces of the United States, or to promote the success of its enemies, or shall willfully make or convey false reports, or false statements, . . . or incite insubordination, disloyalty, mutiny, or refusal of duty, in the military or naval forces of the United States, or shall willfully obstruct . . . the recruiting or enlistment service of the United States, or . . . shall willfully utter, print, write, or publish any disloyal, profane, scurrilous, or abusive language about the form of government of the United States, or the Constitution of the United States, or the military or naval forces of the United States . . . or shall willfully display the flag of any foreign enemy, or shall willfully . . . urge, incite, or advocate any curtailment of production . . . or advocate, teach, defend, or suggest the doing of any of the acts or things in this section enumerated and whoever shall by word or act support or favor the cause of any country with which the United States is at war or by word or act oppose the cause of the United States therein, shall be punished by a fine of not more than $10,000 or imprisonment for not more than twenty years, or both....


17 posted on 04/02/2007 9:12:15 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (Iran delenda est)
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To: jazusamo
Once it becomes accepted that it is all right to violate both the laws and the traditions of this nation, and to undermine the ability of the United States to speak to other nations of the world with one voice, we will have taken another fateful step downward into the degeneration of this society.

Good on you Dr. Sowell.

If we trash the Rule of Law this country is finished.

There are days when I'm glad to be old.

I feel sorry for the kids coming up. They'll miss so much.

18 posted on 04/02/2007 9:14:30 PM PDT by upchuck (A living, breathing example of the Peter Principle. Oh, forgetful, too :)
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To: nutmeg

Congressman Tom Lantos, who is a member of the delegation that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is leading to Syria, put the mission clearly when he said: “We have an alternative Democratic foreign policy.”

&&
The Rats’ arrogance and their cavalier attitude for the security of this nation know no bounds.


19 posted on 04/02/2007 9:19:07 PM PDT by Bigg Red (You are either with us or with the terrorists.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

why was the amendment repealed anyhow?
Our country could do so much with that amendment. Especially congress.


20 posted on 04/02/2007 9:25:31 PM PDT by o_zarkman44 (No Bull in 08!)
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