Even with hindsight liberals can't see straight

wnd.com ^ | Ann Coulter

[perfect stranger]

Over in the alternative universe of the 9-11 Commission hearings watched only by me, Richard Ben-Veniste recently proposed an amazing new standard for investigating Arabs in this country. In the middle of haranguing Condoleezza Rice, Ben-Veniste demanded to know why the suspected 20th hijacker, Zacarias Moussaoui, had not been more aggressively investigated, despite the fact that – I quote – he had "no explanation for the funds in his bank account, and no explanation for why he was in the United States."

So let me get this straight: Airport security can't acknowledge that a person is an Arab, but they should be allowed to audit his bank records? (Come to think of it, "Can't Explain His Bank Account or Why He's Here" is also a pretty good description of John Kerry.)

Can we use that as a standard going forward? The government prohibits airlines from searching more than two Arabs per flight, so it would be terrific if liberals would let us examine their bank accounts. If Democratic Party shills like Ben-Veniste – who himself looks like someone who ought to be searched at airports – are going to make ludicrous, macho statements like that in order to win applause from weeping widows in the peanut gallery, can't we hold them to that policy when it matters?

Ben-Veniste thinks the key to stopping the 9-11 attack was for the FBI to have drawn the obvious conclusions from an Arab in flight school. If only the FBI had searched Moussaoui's computer, they would have found a flight-simulator computer program, information about the Boeing 747, and extensive files on crop dusters. From this, apparently, Ben-Veniste imagines the FBI would have drawn the obvious conclusion that on Sept. 11, 19 Muslims were going to hijack airplanes out of Logan, Newark and Dulles airports and fly them into buildings.

A somewhat more direct chain of causation traces its way back to the aviation-security commission chaired by Vice President Al Gore in 1997. If that commission had done its job, you wouldn't have to wait for one of my columns to find out that there was a commission on airline safety years before the 9-11 attacks. Isn't it curious that Democrats aren't bragging about Gore inventing air safety? The reason Al Gore hasn't added "anti-terrorism" to the list of things he invented is that Gore's commission concluded that passenger profiling must ignore ethnicity and nationality. Or as Gore himself might have put it, "I took the initiative in making it easier for Muslims to use airplanes to slaughter innocent American citizens."

The Gore Commission on air safety decided that profiling should be based on "reasonable predictors of risk, not stereotypes or generalizations." Amazingly, all those "reasonable predictors of risk" failed to stop a single Muslim terrorist on 9-11. One wonders whether a profiling system that included ethnicity and nationality would have been more helpful in stopping 19 Muslim men, 15 of whom were from Saudi Arabia, all speaking Arabic to one another, from boarding planes on Sept. 11.

Recently – i.e., about the time Ben-Veniste was shocked that the FBI hadn't uncovered the 9-11 plot based on the fact that Moussaoui had overstayed his visa – Sen. Hillary Clinton and Sen. Chuck Schumer were clamoring for the release of Ansar Mahmood, a 26-year-old Pakistani immigrant detained in October 2001 after he was observed taking photographs at a water treatment plant in upstate New York. Mahmood later pleaded guilty to committing a felony by giving financial aid to illegal immigrants from Pakistan. Schumer says Mahmood should be permitted to stay in the United States because he "was cleared of terrorist links," and he has already served his time for "a non-violent felony." Hillary simply calls Mahmood's detention "disturbing."

Where is Ben-Veniste when we need him? What happened to the "We Don't Know Why He's Here or His Sources of Money" standard for harassing Muslim immigrants? In contrast to Mahmood, Zacarias Moussaoui had committed no felonies; his only apparent offense was to have overstayed his visa. But Ben-Veniste is appalled that the FBI didn't beat Moussaoui for information. The French had linked Moussaoui to al-Qaida – based largely on the information that he took frequent trips to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Mahmood's home country. When FBI agents in Minneapolis requested a warrant to search Moussaoui's computer, FBI headquarters wrote back, "We don't know he's a terrorist" – i.e., the argument Schumer is making for Mahmood's release right now.

Liberals always claim to know exactly what to do as soon as it's too late. After Muslims attack with airplanes, they want to investigate flight schools. After Muslims attack with shoe-bombs, they want to investigate shoes. After a Muslim introduces E. coli into New York's water supply, liberals will be enraged that Muslim immigrants taking pictures of New York water treatment plants weren't investigated more aggressively – as soon as they are done blaming Bush for not stopping the attack amid their caterwauling about the detention of Muslim immigrants. Liberals are the only known species whose powers of reasoning are not improved by the benefit of hindsight. Not only are they always fighting the last war, in most cases they're surrendering.

[perfect stranger]

[pookie18]

Thanks for posting. Love to read Ann's articles.

[AuntB]

""no explanation for the funds in his bank account, and no explanation for why he was in the United States."

Oh, my! If we follow that thinking, we've got about 10 million illegal
immigrants qualifying for more "thorough investigation".

Ben - Veniste is a jerk. Worse than that, he's an attorney!

[perfect stranger]

I also prefer FR's formatting.

[Gator113]

"(Come to think of it, "Can't Explain His Bank Account or Why He's Here" is also a pretty good description of John Kerry.)"

God I love that gal!!!!!!

[Mr. K]

"Liberals are the only known species whose powers of reasoning are not improved by the benefit of hindsight."

DAM! she's good.

(although she is STILL ignoring my marriage proposals...stop being coy Ann!)

[Rocky]

Everything is shades of gray until an event like 9-11 comes along to uncloud the mind.

[perfect stranger]

There's Ann being coy.

Jeez, it looks like somebody buried her left foot and her left hand as well.

Can someone explain the grass depth thing to me?

[perfect stranger]

Unfortunately we didn't learn that until September 12th.

[rogue yam]

Thanks for posting. Love to read Ann's articles.

Oh sure, that old "I only click on the Ann Coulter threads for the articles" bull. Right.

[Gritty]

Ann Bump!

[pookie18]

Oh sure, that old "I only click on the Ann Coulter threads for the articles" bull. Right.

I think she's attractive, but what I like most is that she's smart & (like Mark Levin & some others) she doesn't suffer fools lightly.

[perfect stranger]

[alloysteel]

Not only are they always fighting the last war, in most cases they're surrendering.

Even after we have won, and won conclusively, we have to give it back. Or so goes the doctrine.

Who made those rules? When we steal it fair and square, we get to keep it. There is no other controlling legal authority.

[Rummyfan]

Ann Coulter bump! She had a good appearance on H&C tonight too!

[Rummyfan]

Liberals are the only known species whose powers of reasoning are not improved by the benefit of hindsight. Not only are they always fighting the last war, in most cases they're surrendering.

How true! Witness all the Dem caterwauling that Iraq is Vietnam and they want to cut-and-run all over again!

[perfect stranger]

The idiot media and the Democrats will work so very hard against any type of news story that shows our military presence in a positive light.

[RonDog]

From search Free Republic for "liberals" and "straight" (match all words):

Even With Hindsight, Liberals Can't See Straight (Coulter)
			Posted by swilhelm73 On News/Activism 05/06/2004 2:58:31 PM PDT with 15 comments FPM ^ | May 6, 2004 | Ann Coulter
Even With Hindsight Liberals Can't See Straight
			Posted by txradioguy On News/Activism 05/06/2004 12:20:43 PM PDT with 7 comments TownHall.com ^ | 6 May 2004 | Ann Coulter
Even with hindsight, liberals can't see straight
			Posted by Mikey On News/Activism 05/06/2004 5:32:15 AM PDT with 3 comments World Net Daily ^ | May 5, 2004 | Ann Coulter's
Ann Coulter - Even With Hindsight Liberals Can't See Straight
			Posted by kattracks On News/Activism 05/05/2004 10:17:17 PM PDT with 28 comments townhall.com ^ | 5/06/04 | Ann Coulter
Even with hindsight liberals can't see straight
			Posted by perfect stranger On News/Activism 05/05/2004 4:29:26 PM PDT with 16 comments wnd.com ^ | Ann Coulter

[perfect stranger]

What is your point RonDog?

[Fraulein]

Liberals always claim to know exactly what to do as soon as it's too late.

Of course; that's how they perpetuate themselves as useful, by mistaking consequences for causes...it is a common circular move. Part of it also has to do with the fact that liberals are not at all proactive but are almost purely reactive. They can therefore only succeed where they can create failure and divisiveness. Because they cannot be proactive -- which would require learning, changing, adapting, and hence occasionally relinguishing their ideological dogmatism -- theirs can only be a strategy of gaining power only by trying to make themselves useful. They can not be needed or useful where there is no problem, so they will even create problems where none exist, and then attempt to fix those too...

It's a circular move in part because one quickly discovers that evidence does not factor in or matter to these people in any way whatsoever, regardless of what happens, one way or the other. In other words, regardless of what happens, the solution will always be the same. They do not learn from the facts but instead only ever always miraculously discover therein opportunities to perform more acts of the same self-justification: "Look! Now we are needed more than ever before!" And so it goes...

That liberals always claim to know exactly what to do as soon as it's too late is not just a coincidence; it's structurally necessary to both the power and survival of an empty and bankrupt discourse. They cannot do without it. In the meantime, the consequence will be used to justify the cause that perpetuates the consequence...