<I>Face The Nation</i>: Gingrich Thinks SCOTUS Gitmo Decision "Could Cost Us A City"
By Nicole Belle Saturday Jun 14, 2008 7:00pm
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Lord, save us from the idiot pundit class. The smackdown the Supreme Court gave the Bush administration is making the GOP very unhappy. I mean, how dare we consider a fundamental building block of justice since the Magna Carta anything less than an unacceptable allowance for activist judges?
And how do we know it's a bad decision? Fear, fear, fear!!!! Newt says it'll cost us a city! A notion not far off from Scalia's remarkably legal citation-free dissent that this decision "will almost certainly cause more Americans to be killed." Oooohhh....be afraid, America. Little obnoxiously liberal notions like the right for people like Maher Arar to know why he was detained and to prove his innocence are things that the Republicans don't think they should have to held to.
Mr. GINGRICH: On the other hand, I will say, the recent Supreme Court decision to turn over to a local district judge decisions of national security and life and death that should be made by the president and the Congress is the most extraordinarily arrogant and destructive decision the Supreme Court has made in its history.
REID: In its history.
Mr. GINGRICH: In its history. Worse than Dred Scott, worse than--because--for this following reason: The court has now knowingly stepped in--and this morning's newspapers say smugglers had actually gotten the design of a nuclear weapon, that we now have the evidence that people out there had a nuclear weapon design. And this court is saying that any random district judge, based on whatever their personal caprice is, whatever their personal ideological bias, can intervene with a terrorist in such a way--and this is something that the Italians will tell you about fighting the mafia.
Worse than Dred Scott? Wasn't that a dog whistle used by GWB for indicating the kind of justices he'd pick for SCOTUS? And the whole "mushroom cloud" fear of smugglers getting nuclear plans? Dude, it's called the Google. It's not hard to get bomb plans online or in the library, for that matter--manufacturing them is another issue. But that has NOTHING to do with the Boumediene case. Boumediene said that habeas corpus still applied at Guantanamo, despite its location in Cuba because the US has sovereign rights over it and the Military Commissions Act of 2006 was an unconstitutional suspension of habeas corpus.
But again, facts have a liberal bias, don't they, Newt?
Transcripts below the fold:
REID: War or economy, what's going to be the bigger issue in the fall? Or is there something else?
Mr. GINGRICH: Well, I think--I think they're interlocked. I think the reason the American people worry so much about energy is partly the economy, partly the personal impact of 4 and $5 gasoline. And partly, as we found in a poll at American Solutions a year ago, 78 percent of the country said it was dangerous to rely on foreign dictatorships for oil. And I think they see that both as a national security issue, as a--as an economic issue. On the other hand, I will say, the recent Supreme Court decision to turn over to a local district judge decisions of national security and life and death that should be made by the president and the Congress is the most extraordinarily arrogant and destructive decision the Supreme Court has made in its history.
REID: In its history.
Mr. GINGRICH: In its history. Worse than Dred Scott, worse than--because--for this following reason: The court has now knowingly stepped in--and this morning's newspapers say smugglers had actually gotten the design of a nuclear weapon, that we now have the evidence that people out there had a nuclear weapon design. And this court is saying that any random district judge, based on whatever their personal caprice is, whatever their personal ideological bias, can intervene with a terrorist in such a way--and this is something that the Italians will tell you about fighting the mafia.
REID: Well, but here's my question.
Mr. GINGRICH: Go ahead.
REID: Why won't the inexperience argument work against Obama, then? If you're talking about all these dangers out there in foreign policy, with nuclear weapons and--why can't the McCain successfully argue that Barama--Obama is just not ready for that job?
Mr. GINGRICH: My judgment, as somebody who's studied politics for a long time, is because it won't work in the end. Obama's a very articulate, very intelligent Harvard Law graduate, you hnow, who is extraordinarily smart, and he is not going to come across in a debate like some guy who's dopey. I mean, he's going to come across as fully prepared. He knows how to study all this stuff. He has good military advisers. The problem with Obama is he's wrong. It's not that he's
inexperienced, it's that his policies are wrong. He applauded this court decision. This court decision is a disaster which could cost us a city. And the debate ought to be over whether or not you're prepared to risk losing an American city on behalf of five lawyers--it was a five-to-four decision, and five lawyers have decided that the Supreme Court counts more than the Congress and the president combined in national security. That has never been true in American history.
That ought to be a principled argument between McCain and Obama, about whether or not you're prepared to allow any random nutcase district judge who has no knowledge of national security to set the rules for terrorists.
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He says this like the GOP haven't damaged New Orleans, and New York.
What about the Constitution?
So much for Conservative claims to be "Originalists."
And if Conservatives were really concerned so much about safety over the Constitution, why are they against gun control?
Well, BushCo has already sacrificed New Orleans, and perhaps Des Moines is next. I wonder what city this decision will "cost us."
Yeah, the administration and republican congress already cost us a city.
Wasn't he the guy wishing for a terrorist act, to emphasize the danger so we would
give up more freedomI mean make ourselves safer?The worse than Dredd Scott idea is such a blatant attempt at fear mongering that it borders on bigotry/racism.
I would say it symbolizes ignorance but Newt knows better than that.
Giving should-be POW's access to actual due process = worse than segregation? He can't be this delusional.
What's this all about Newt? You got the inside scoop? Who've you been talking to?
Why'd Ashcroft stop flying commercial flights the summer of 9/11 Newt? You got something you'd like to get off your chest? You can tell us - we won't tar and feather you until you've had your say.
*
John Tighe @ 1:
Or the multitude of American cities that suffered devastating damage from tornadoes and floods - and all Bush can say (after the obligatory photo-op) is ...
"Sorry fellas - you're on your own."
Newt needs a brain and needs lessons on googling and reading articles and connecting names and orgs,
the plans were supplied by his AIPAC ATC DC Repug spyring buddies to the bad guys over there.
The neo-cons already cost us a city - The Shining City on a Hill.
I just wonder why CBS would even have a Gneuter brain like him on. How many times does a man have to be FOS for them to PAY this geek to speak. OH...how's that 'send all unwanted babys to 'BOYS TOWN' working out Gnewt? Go back in your cave and count your money.
Habeas Corpus is also built into those quaint ol' Geneva Conventions that don't apply here cuz the prisoners in this war on terror are not prisoners of war - got it?
Man, this does have the villagers upset. This is just further proof they have zero understanding of the basic principles of democracy.
This admin has already cost us a city- I used to live there.
Unless he was speaking figuratively - and meant GOP was going to lose Washington...
Fear is what they want us to feel while they steal more power and more money.
You know what costs America a city? Prioritizing brush-clearing in the wake of a category 5 hurricane that the authorities warned was imminent.
You know what costs America their country? Listening to delusional ass-talkers like Weasel Gingrich.
What an AMAZING buffoon. It will probably save us a city as it will force the government to use effective interrogation techniques , will force them to focus on something other than just locking up anyone. Anyone who thinks that "thug talk" stops terrorist attacks is Republican dumb . . . and that's pretty damned dumb.
Gingrich is a total creep who left his dying wife for a younger model, then left the younger model for another classic ride.
The US Constitution is so damned liberal.
Oh, and I hope New reads this:
Damn! These guys are like HAL at the end of "2001, A Space Odyssey."
"Fear, Fear, Fear, FFFFFFFEEEEEEAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR"
Time to pull out that last circuit board and shut this beast down.
Who's writing Scalia's opinions for him now?
The Gestapo?
Face The Moron.
Larry Flint has the goods to chase old Newt back under a rock
What city Newt? Baghdad maybe? Oh wait, Mc Lame said it's perfectly safe so it must be the truth. We know NeoCONS would never lie or exaggerate the truth for their self serving ends.
Excuse me while I remove my hip waders, it was getting mighty deep there for a moment.
Lions, and Tigers, and Bears, and Newt the Gnat...Oh My!!!!
The nuclear genie is out of the bottle -- and has been for quite some time. I will NOT spend the rest of my life living in some kind of Kafka-like parody of what this country once was, simply because of these fear-mongering hawks.
Newt -- you are an enemy of the US Constitution in my book...
Newt...STFU.
I think Americans are getting tired of the raise your right hand and Zieg-Heil or be attacked again crap.
Didn't we get rid of you years ago? Why have you crawled out of your sewer to bother us again?
According to Newt, we're supposed to be worried about the remote possibility of losing a city to terrorist attack while back in reality the US has a whole mess of cities being lost to floods and droughts and tornadoes and firestorms without so much as a blush from these pathetic, right wing idiots.
They can't praise Gitmo, so the criticize SCOTUS.
smugglers had actually gotten the design of a nuclear weapon?
Was it these smugglers?
Great way to gin up the fear... old gun running trick, supply both sides.
Epinnoia @ 27:
Yep, anyone who knowingly conspires to subvert the constitution and deprive Americans of life, liberty, and happiness is an enemy of the people and traitor.
That goes for the rest of you right-wing assholes too.
Not Another mushroom cloud !
Not another Chemical weapons plant !
RUN Everybody !! Be Afraid !! The GOP is going to attack Again !!
Old Thunderthighs and his message of fear. I swear, his arsecheeks are so tight with fear that if you put a piece of wood in there the friction would ignite it.
I declare Newt to be an enemy combatant. Send him to Gitmo forever.
Oh...Now he has to be charged with a crime.
Never mind.
The Rude Pundit wrote about the Right's reaction a few days ago. Fear-mongering Gingrich is the perfect illustration. These guys hate the U.S., don't they?
jitter @ 4:
More like two cities, and they're working on a state now (Iowa)
What a public service this sad and unfortunate little man provides. Another one note pugnacious projecting repug who avoided military service big time drumming up fear with horror-show images of mushroom clouds and lost cities. Is this truly all that network TV can offer as news commentary? A bloated, spewing relic of failed policies who was forced out? Get the hook.
This link is here: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080615/pl_nm/financial_summit_election_dc_1...
...and not yet even so much as a thought to of all the terrorists Bush has created that will plague our nation with the threats for decades to come.
The greatest weapon of the right has been to reduce complex topics to narrow talking points and dichotomous questions others can only agree with or risk being branded a traitor or leftist nut. How many unconsidered dire consequences have brushed aside in favor of agenda appeasement by the GOP?.
We'll trust the random nutcase judge to know the constitution and the law, thank you.
Oh Newtie is so cute when he breaks out the hyperbole. Screw Dred Scott. Is it really "worse" than Roe v. Wade? C'mon, Newtie, tell all those feverish fetus-lovers that your "revolution" exploited that the "American holocaust" of abortion pales in comparison to Li'l Georgie and Big Dick's ability to lock up people they don't like forever.
ferrofluid (Obama 08) @ 9:
So true. This latest destruction of evidence has all the markings of the crooks covering their a** on the way out.
These Dumb Asses are the greatest threat to this country.
Notice how he never brings up habeas corpus at all, he is an UnAmerican SOB.
hey, have you heard the news
timmeh russert died
Wasnt Newts motto " Grill America " , sorry drill America thats what I meant to type ( its that damn new breath-analyzer I installed on my ketbored ) Newt hey whats in a name .
Let it cost us Washington, DC. The price is right.
MountainMan23 @ 12:
That's why Bush & cronies called them "detainees." If they were called what they really are - Prisoners - there would be a problem with violating the Geneva Convention.
And, by the way, what will actually cost an American city would be us attacking Persia.
Osama is smart enough to just kick back now, and let us do ourselves in...
I'm not going to read it...
I'm not going to view the video....
To do otherwise would be to consider these people actually are looking out for my interests.
If US installations around the world are considered under the US rule of law, then Gitmo qualifies. If not, then McCain's being born in Panama rather than on US soil makes him ineligible to run for president.
You just can't have it both ways.
PEACE
Newt, I suspect you're a pedophile. I need not be made to show you my evidence, because I want to protect my 'sources and methods'. Tough luck, Newt. I am going to throw you in Gitmo, and ask the rest of the population to simply trust me. Seems quite fair, right?
Same Newt Gingrich who forced President Clinton to take his eye off the ball for a year and a half while the terrorists plotted 9/11. Go back under your rock with your mistress Newt.
And the follow-up to your crazy half-assed assertion about losing a city because we have now reinstated the law of 1066 that we have to make the prisoner appear before a court.... is .... is....
oh, yea, its Saturday morning, never mind.
He describes five jurists on SCOTUS as lawyers and demeans district court judges ...
... who ... I wonder ... does he think he is that anyone should defer to his opinion?
Guantanamo has become a terrorist training camp. Many going in are have been released, having been found to have been there by mistake. I wonder how many have then been radicalized and inspired to to seek revenge for their treatment. I wonder how many in the world at large have been inspired to use Guantanamo as a inspiration to do us harm. I wonder if we'll eventually lose a city over it...
Sometimes attributed to Nietzsche:
Choose your enemies well, because, in the end, that's who you will most resemble.
From Bartleby:
Respectfully Quoted: A Dictionary of Quotations. 1989.
NUMBER: 1056
AUTHOR: Benjamin Franklin (1706–90)
QUOTATION: Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety.
ATTRIBUTION: BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, Pennsylvania Assembly: Reply to the Governor, November 11, 1755.—The Papers of Benjamin Franklin, ed. Leonard W. Labaree, vol. 6, p. 242 (1963).
This quotation, slightly altered, is inscribed on a plaque in the stairwell of the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty: “They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.”
If we're going to ditch parts of the Constitution because defending them makes us less safe, let's start with the Second Amendment.
I am not afraid...I am not afraid.... I am not afraid...I am not afraid. Freedom and the constitution will last longer then individuals like this. The threat is not outside the US, but from guys like this and his party.
Brad @ 5:
Yes, he was. He said that Bush would have been wiser to have let an occasional terrorist attack sneak through. Teach us a lesson, ya know.
Fig Newton is lying and selling fear (so what is new). SCOTUS only ruled that detainees have the right to know what they are being imprisoned for, and cannot be held indefinitely without due process. Now, how this can be seen as a threat to national security, would require a person who has advanced mad cow disease.
I was surprised and very pleased to see SCOTUS finally making a few correct rulings. But, look at the backlash, when the neo-cons did not get their way - even from their colleagues on the bench. Intimidation.
Pardon me, but why is Newt Gingrich on TV giving his opinion about anything? The guy's been out of politics for 9 years. He got hit with ethics charges 80 times, was fined $300,000 by the House Ethics Committee, resigned in disgrace. His big accomplishments as Speaker, the 'Contract on America' and the impeachment of Bill Clinton, were pathetic failures.
Who gives a fuck about anything he has to say, other than the neocons at AEI and the Hoover Institute and the idiots who buy his books?
Tarro @ 44:
Nice way to frame the debate, huh? I like that he refers to the majority of the Supreme Court as "five lawyers". I'm surprised he didn't call them "activist trial lawyers" to really let us know how little respect they deserve.
John Tighe @ 1:
...and destroyed a country, Iraq...and ours economically.
Don't suppose it ever occurs to pea-brained dicksuckers like Gingrich that taking a dump on every known standard of justice, due process and simple decency, and thereby fanning the flames of anti-Americanism into an inferno, is far more likely to lead to more terrorist attacks than just sticking to the rule of law in the first place.
I still have yet to figure out how people in custody, who are merely allowed to see the evidence against them and challenge this in a court, somehow equates to making the US unsafe. The "in custody" part seems to be a rather important aspect. Much as I don't think that mass murderers who are allowed to defend themselves in court are a threat to me, the same would pretty much hold true here.
I think what drives everyone so crazy, is the thought that some people buy the crap that dribbles out of the GOP and their croonies. I hope the next president will slap down on the press to report truth, and not slants, opinion, views, spin, et cetera.
Either that or start throwing some of these people in jail for treason.
I understand the problem that the GOP is worried about is that these prisoners will be claiming in Federal court that they were tortured, something they would prefer not to be before the courts.
We're only one Supreme away from a complete Fascist Kafkaesque nightmare that will last the rest of our lifetimes. Any body seriously still thinking of voting for Nader?
Gingrich is a fear-mongering, bloated, self-loathing, neo-conservative courtier whose contract with America was a superficial rewriting of Mussolini's facist ideology. Work, family and nation before the legitimate power of the citizenry. He is overflowing with contempt for his fellow citizens. Fuck him and anything that pours out of his corporate mouth.
It's refreshing and comforting to me at this time to be reminded that Newt is merely a pundit now, and not a Representative, a Speaker --
-- or even a very good politician, for that matter...
if it's true newtie's shilling for a satanic, apocalyptic death cult posing as christians, it could very well cost him his soul.
And who would know wrong better than good old newton? At least I hope that's his real name. Who the hell names their kid newt?
see how deeply the psychosis has set in w/ the hardline champs of the neocon cult?
newtie's desperate, like ted bundy was when he escaped prison. like dahmer was when he thwarted milwaukee police.
these guys are smart, like all sociopaths, serial killers & crime syndicate kingpins, and they will do anything to save their own skins from time in the slammer.
which is scary as hell. which is why we all have to double our efforts....
Why is this fear mongering lowlife degenerate still given a national platform? Nice way to follow up Chip-o. Heckuva job!!
Scrotus vs. SCOTUS
Remember, voters. You still need to be scared. That is the message. Thankyou.
Haha. I love it when Reich-Wingers get all falsely pissed off over issues of racial inequality just to show they somehow have humanity...
Let's get real and have a poll of Conservatives who are at least judicially literate, and see if Dred Scott makes even 1% in response to what was the worst decision the SCOTUS.
mcclellan's obviously already figured it out. rove probably has, too. powell knows the house of cards is collapsing, and i bet perino has an inkling.
but the old school fatheads like newtie, inhofe, boner (sp?) & mitch mcconnell -they're gonna take it the hardest.
good riddance, i say. and may God have mercy on your dark, sordid souls.
Really, France and Germany have made it known outright that Donald Rumsfeld is not welcome there and have even made some strong attempts to have him arrested while he visited in their countries.
What I can't understand is -- people (and I use that term loosely!) just like he are right there (in the U.S.) and still walking the walk and talking the talk like Iraq never even happened. As if the War On Terra is only a footnote of their legacy.
Why isn't Charlie Rose already interviewing even Ari Fleischer in prison by now, one needs to ask?
Well, at least the RATS voted the way they were expected when appointed to SCOTUS.
R-oberts
A-lito
T-homas
S-calia
If we have to lose a city, may it be the city that has Newt as a resident. Newt is a guy who never served (deferments aplenty), but lectures generals on how to maneuver large military forces. His ego is in danger of bursting.
USA:
FEAR
EATS
THE
SOUL
USA:
FEAR
EATS
THE
SOUL
For this pudgy sack of shit to use the word "arrogant" is almost laughable in and of itself.
This "self righteous, hypocrite" would have been many of the right wing neocon's "favorite son" for the repug/neocon/fascist party. He speaks as though he has an ounce of substance in what he says, and yet he spreads his crap thick and heavy on his listeners with so many holes and biases that it's "arrogant" in and of itself.
What a smart ass, destructive and conceded piece of shit this pathetic politician is.
If it's going to cost us a city, I choose Crawford, Texas, but only after January.
I like to remind people that nuclear bomb technology is as old as Television. By today's tech levels, nuclear bombs are EASY to make.
There is but one thing keeping people from making working nuclear bombs: no access to the enriched uranium or plutonium.
Seriously, that's it. And guess what? Every single commercial nuclear power reactor in the USA has a 'spent fuel' pool full of the stuff that's so hard to get.
The hard part is separating out the enriched Uranuim from the regular (still radioactive) Uranium. That's not too easy, although Michio Kaku does say it can be done in your garage by swinging a bucket around your head as a centrifuge...
But back to reality: if there really were any mainstream press that was still liberal (which we all know there is NOT), if there were, they would be dutifully reminding us that the Conservatives are trying to insist that for the first time in over 800 years that there is a class of humans that are NOT covered by the oldest laws of western civilization: the Magna Carta and the Great Writ.
Can we call 'em Nazi's yet? Seeing as how Acting President Bush IS the grandson of a major Nazi banker (who was fined under the 1942 Trading With The Enemies Act continuing to fund Hitler even after he declared war on the US)... Or is this overturning of 800 years of the Rule of Law even worse than that?
I was hoping the bright minds here would help me out. I regularly argue with some die hard neo cons on this other site. Recently we were discussing the pluses and minuses of this decision. here is the latest reply from their side, and I was looking for a good reply.
Time will tell how this Supreme Court ruling effects us. Never before have we allowed enemies of war access to our court system like this. This will also possibly bring our military officers in for questioning in court and could allow some terrorists access to our non-military prisons where they could potentially recruit among inmates.
Mainly I was wondering if that statement about not allowing enemies access to our courts was true?
So, here's the $64,000 question: If this decision "costs us a city," will Newt blame Ronald Reagan for appointing Justice Kennedy who wrote the opinion?
The comparisons that piss me off more than any other are the comparisons to this decision and WWII. In WWII, we knew who the enemy was. They wore uniforms, there were clear sides. In this "war" the other side is not wearing uniforms making it very easy for mistakes to be made (Buchannan made this comparison the other night). If we pick up someone accidentally (like the German national who was on 60 Minutes a long time ago), those who are innocent deserve a chance to prove it. Otherwise, our country will become what we supposedly despise.
As with the insistence on the righteousness of torture, the purpose of fascist propaganda like this is simply to numb us to the New America--the one owned and run by moral degenerates and perverts who amuse themselves by thinking up new ways to bullshit the naive and uninformed.
How do all of these neocons having been so wrong on just about everything, rate being on tv with their bullshit opinions. Most people don't want to hear that elitist crap anymore. Please go back to your mansions and yachts and talk with each other.
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Why is it we care what Newt Gingrich has to say?
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You know what's really hilarious?
Suggesting that the alternative--keeping Gitmo the way it is--will magically PROTECT OUR CITIES FROM NUCLEAR ATTACK! (lol)
Oh Newt you're so silly! Go back to sleep, you crazy cocksucker,you!
if we just shipped all the gop reichwingneocons out of the country to
nuremberg, germany by rendition, we would have a safe and hate free
country. then the world crimes court could just try them absentia and
make them disappear forever..........
That's really rich.
Okay, Newtie Snake: That sounds to my ears like a threat. If any cities should be harmed, once again the first suspect will be you and yours. Don't try it. It's the kind of murderous scam that only works once.
This kind of fearmongering makes me sick.
Gingrich is the "nutcake," not the Supreme Court. Or does he think the NYTimes editorial page is a "nutcake" too? The FOUR judges who wanted to trash American human rights were: Scalia plus, of course, Thomas, plus Bush appointees Roberts and Alito (he of the wife who ran off crying during Judiciary's softball questio