Motley Moose – Archive

I’m struck by two votes the Senate took recently that the liberal blogsphere has been absolutely FREAKING out about.

The first vote was for an amendment to the Credit Cardholder’s Bill of Rights, which not only passed the Senate 67-29, but later passed the House as well. To their credit, Democrats in the House did try to strip the amendment, but it passed anyway. The amendment, sponsored by Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, was to allow loaded guns into National Parks.

The other amendment, sponsored by Daniel Inouye of Hawaii, an amendment to the Iraq/Afghanistan supplemental that would bar any funding to be used to transport or release Gitmo prisoners into the United States.

The conservadems strike again, right?

In the wake of the torture, pictures, military tribunal fracas, yet more proof that the grand old “liberal media” is much more interested in conflict drama than, you know, reporting and yet more proof that we can’t count on them to help protect the rule of law.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/200…

This is disheartening, although to be honest not surprising.

A new national poll indicates that most Americans don’t want to see an investigation of Bush administration officials who authorized harsh interrogation techniques on suspected terrorists, even though most people think such procedures were forms of torture.

Six in ten people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Wednesday believe that some of the procedures, such as water boarding, were a form of torture, with 36 percent disagreeing.

But half the public approves of the Bush administration’s decision to use of those techniques during the questioning of suspected terrorists, with 50 percent in approval and 46 percent opposed.

“Roughly one in five Americans believe those techniques were torture but nonetheless approve of the decision to use those procedures against suspected terrorists,” says CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. “That goes a long way toward explaining why a majority don’t want to see former Bush officials investigated.”

Fifty-seven percent of those questioned don’t want Congress to investigate Bush officials who authorized those harsh interrogation procedures, with 42 percent calling for action by lawmakers. Fifty-five percent also don’t want a similar investigation by an independent panel.

So President Obama released the tortured memos…even though I didn’t think he would. It was the topic of discussion today between myself and my best friend back home.

He’s a liberal Democrat who supported Obama, opposed Bush vehemently. He’s no moderate. His response to the memos?

“Is that all they did? Torture them more!”

I have returned to Rome from Pescara and L’Aquila where I have been working in the aftermath of the earthquake. The experience, while tragic, has made me feel very much at home in my adoptive country. I was talking to some of the local political activists in Pescara the other day and we got to talking politics. Some in Italy are politicizing the earthquake aftermath. Right wing parties calling it a victory for Berlusconi, left wing parties preparing for the inevitable criticism of his government in an effort to win votes in the hotly-contested Abruzzo region in the next election.

So, never being an outsider in a political fight, I decided to join in

I’m fine

About six hours ago, we here in Rome were rocked by what my 32 year old cousin and his 65 year old neighbor say is the worst earthquake Rome has seen in their lifetime.

The quake struck at 3:30 in the morning, literally knocking me out of bed. A loud moaning sound joined the violent shaking that threw me out of bed. This was no ordinary earthquake, not the rolling motions I experienced when I got caught up in the Whittier Narrows quake as a child visiting my aunt in California, a violent shaking, as if someone picked up our house and is shaking it like a bottle of Gatorade. The sounds of glass breaking join the noise of plaster cracking and my cousin screaming “TERREMOTO!”

image courtesy REUTERS/Alessandro Bianchi, Aquila.

My best friend Holly is a lesbian. She came out in a most interesting way…on the last day of senior year, she asked all of her close friends to meet her at the diner across the Long Island Expressway from our high school.

Since 2003, she has been dating (and since 2007, living with) her parter, Jennifer, whom she met while a student at NYU. They now live in a fabulous new oceanfront condo in the Rockaways in Queens, New York.

Recently, the have decided to get married…but since New York hasn’t legalize same-sex marriage (and thanks to Governor Paterson, the state recognizes those performed out of state), they were looking for places to do it; elope in Canada, have it at Holly’s aunt’s in Connecticut, etc. Jennifer wants to fly her family to wherever the wedding takes place. However, that may not be necessary after all!

I happened to be in the States for a few days, and I came home just in time for the explosion over AIG.

Yesterday some of you might have seen my diary quitting the blogsphere…of course I reconsidered, but in that diary I said that the blogsphere has become completely detached from reality…like the MSM has been.

Both of them are pushing the story of massive public outrage…but quite honestly, I don’t see it and in the last two days, I haven’t seen it.

I haven’t been around recently. I’ve been travelling, working, and been downright busy.

I came back this week to check out what’s going on and as usual I came to the blogs, where I have been participating since 2004.

In the less than 12 hours I hit the blogs, my blood pressure went sky high and I’ve come to the realization that the blogsphere is another world completely disconnected from reality. I didn’t really want to write a GBCW diary, it’s so 2007, but I will anyway. It’s time for me to hang up the keyboard and move on.  

I’ve always been skeptical of Jack Cafferty. I always felt like the guy made a living out of being outraged that sometimes he forgets what he’s outraged about.

I skimmed CNN.com today and what I found was the latest commentary from Mr Outrage. My jaw dropped;

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITI…