The primary reason the media and the Republican Party (primarily though not exclusively) use “war” lingo is because they are to a fault people who avoided service.

Not only “war president”, but cowards like Dick Cheney, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly, etc., love to talk about “being in the trenches” and “facing combat” precisely because they stalwartly avoided war and military service. And with the preponderance of right-wingers controlling the media narrative, it’s only natural we would hear the John-Wayne-who-never-served war lingo ad naseum.

It’s also why people who actually DID serve, such as President Eisenhower and President Kennedy, never put on fatigues little baby George or saluted the troops in their civilian role as president.

"In case you haven't noticed, the country is under attack by people armed with modern weaponry. And we have a few other things on our plate, left there by the incompetent Bush administration."

-- WillBFair

Absolutely! It used to be much easier when all America had to face was nuclear missiles pointed at us which could destroy the entire planet. Today we have box cutters, sneakers, shampoo bottles ... things that were unimagineable when we adherred to the rule of law and the Geneva Conventions.

And the plate is definitely too full to confront anything as minor as war crimes and concentration camps! Nancy Pelosi called the CIA liars! Newt Gingrich has a plan for America's recovery! There are tea bags that need to be soaked! Focus, people!

"Obama has access to "daily presidential briefings" we don't have. So anything we wish to contribute to the debate runs aground on the shoals of this enormous gap in information. And it gets all the more aggravating because we know that Obama is not able to divulge much of this info because it may be highly classified."

-- iambiguous

That's the exact same "argument" that Bush apologists used to defend him for attacking a sovereign nation that had posed no threat to the US.

"They know things we don't. They are privy to information we aren't. They can only tell you so much about Saddam's weapons of mass destruction, which isn't everything."

That's a first. Glenn linking to Brian William's blog the Daily Nightly -- a blog, interestingly enough, named after The Monkees most psychedelic, acid-tripped-out song.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dfmQ6w7RW7k

For the record, Brian Williams isn't stupid, he's STONED!

I think the reason discussions of empathy when emanating from Alito are brushed aside as hollow, irrelevant statements is because it’s understood to be a wink-and-a-nod to the same "values" that rightwingers always espouse and never practice (ie. “family values”, “Christian ethics”, “sanctity of life”, “civil liberties”, ”the constitution”, etc., etc., etc.).

A lack of empathy and understanding is as much a hallmark of the rightwing ideology as being a white male.

When people with absolutely no credibility and zero stature on issues of race, intellect, and competence (Karl Rove, Rush Limbaugh, Newt Gingrich, Glenn Beck, Tom Tancredo, etc.) call Sotomayor a "racist" it's awfully hard not to support her just on principle regardless of her conservative leanings.

An astonishing level of pulled-from-the-ass conservative "arguments" being posted here today. Was Glenn's column linked to some tail-wagging, 3-fingered, tongue-drooling rightwing site today?

The template for every conservative argument seems to be, "This is what I believe, so it's a centrist point of view held by most Americans. If you point out that in reality it's an extremist, far-right, fringe position, I'll ignore you."

There was a conservative blockhead on TV the other day saying, "It's not torture unless there is intent to commit torture!" And, in typical political TV discourse fashion, no one objected.

"And, to repeat myself: if we're going to hand our kids a better world, we had better get on the stick and shed any dead weight that's going to slow us down."

- Jim

Turning a blind eye to the instigators of a sadistically lawless system that can lock up people without charge, deny them representation, and torture & kill them under the guise of natonal security could obviously lead to detaining "your kids", waterboarding them, electrocuting their genitals, and disappearing them off the face of your better world... Maybe I misunderstood. Do you consider your kids "dead weight"?

"Is it because they are in Gitmo, and therefore MUST be guilty?"

-- daka101

It's because they are Muslim and Middle Eastern.

The same shitheads that are screaming that Sotomayor is a "racist" make no bones about the fact that they support a crusade of mass-murder (fought by others - never them) against a people based solely on their race and religion.

It's appropriate this supporter of ethnic cleansing adopted the name of a movie character portrayed by a coward, Sylvester Stallone, who admitted he wouldn't go to entertain the troops because he might get hurt. That perfectly epitomizes the cowardice of the stay-at-home-moms of the GOP (Limbaugh, Cheney, Bush, Rove, Tancredo, O'Reilly, Gingrich, etc.) who beat their chests and talk about how to "take out" America's enemies, all from the safety of their homes.

I'll make a 'wild' prediction that the "most important voices in Washington" (Newt Gingrich, Rush Limbaugh, Karl Rove), people who are not in any way disgraced, disreputable, or voices for an extremist, fringe minority, will be able to pontificate on this 'finding' ad naseum to the nodding bobble-heads of the l'bral media (John King, Wolf Blitzer, Chris Matthews, Andrea Mitchell, etc.).

We report, you roll your eyes.

How did you relentless predictions that John McCain would "win hands down" work out for you? LOL ROFL LOL ROFL

You'd think there would be at least one member of the rightwing who wasn't a soiled-diaper-wearing wimp, but they seem to thrive on the 'cowards only' approach.

There's Glenn Beck crying on TV like a bitch. Bill O'Reilly who wants everyone to believe in Santa Claus or he'll stamp his little feet. Rush Limbaugh (the head of the entire party) so scared of having to defend his views he steadfastly refuses to have guests on with an alternate view. They admit that their religion is so fragile that if homosexuals get married it will be destroyed. They're terrified the white race is DOOMED every time a minority makes an advancement.

Is it any wonder that Osama Bin Laden faced no resistance on 9/11 and has become a victorious hero throughout the Middle East?

The people that support torture as an acceptable tactic in warfare against US troops simultaneously feign grave concern for the safety of US troops. Can someone explain that?