Tuesday, October 31, 2006

On the list of safest American cities, Dallas ranks 338th out of 371.  Plano, right next door, is 41st.

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Proof that not all Republican-led governments need to be big spenders. New York State will have a surplus of  over $1 billion this year and has a reserve of $3 billion.

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John Yoo is a former employee of the Justice Department and is best known for his memos which became rather notorious as he advocated the possible legality of torture and that enemy combatants could be denied protection under the Geneva Convention as a means of diminishing legal challenges regarding war crimes.   He has written a book, “War by Other Means” which is criticized in a NY Times review today.

..he has written a book that reads like a combination of White House talking points and a partisan brief on presidential prerogatives — a book that is strewn with preposterous assertions, contorted reasoning and illogical conclusions. He writes that “because of our aggressive policies post 9/11, al Qaeda is no longer the threat it was.”

Now of course, I would argue that an organization that has been able to carry out exactly zero attacks against us for over 5 years could be considered somewhat of a lesser threat.  But let's go to the opening statement of the recently declassified NIE document which the left has used as a tool to prove that we are losing the War on Terror.

United States-led counterterrorism efforts have seriously damaged the leadership of al-Qa’ida and disrupted its operations;

Wouldn't that make them less of a threat?  Especially when "seriously damaged" is a euphemism for killed or captured. Or is that preposterous, contorted and illogical?  I understand that the document goes on discuss the overall threat of jihadi terror which is changing and may even get worse overall, but Yoo's statement as presented above is factually correct.

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