Nancy Pelosi: Damaged Beyond Repair
By Frank Salvato on (May 18, 09)
"I think this is the most despicable, dishonest and vicious political effort I
have seen in my lifetime...She is a trivial politician, viciously using
partisanship for the narrowest of purposes...She dishonors the Congress by her
behavior.”
-- Former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich
Well, well, well...it would seem that Nancy Pelosi has outed herself as a
liar...a disingenuous, political opportunist, hell-bent on making sure that her
ideology is placed above the importance of honesty and good government. It is
stunning that the White House and the Democrat leadership haven’t counseled her
to limit her media liability. With each session at the podium, Pelosi either
changes her story, creates another firestorm or both. Had she been a Republican
her resignation would have already been filed.
I find it incredible that the high-judge executioner of the neo-Marxist movement
– especially where the Bush Administration is concerned, and to a lesser extent
where the Republican Party is concerned – would so profoundly destroy what
little credibility she had before achieving her ideological agenda; the complete
reshaping of our system of government from a Constitutional Republic to a
Socialist Democracy.
A few things we should make sure are on the record...
The definition of “torture” is in dispute. The Left believes listening to a
recording of Whitney Houston singing “I Will Always Love You” repeatedly and at
noxiously loud levels is considered torture. Taste-wise, I would have to agree.
But when this action is employed against people who kill innocent civilians and
then gloat about it, when this act is employed against people who literally saw
the heads off of living human beings in the name of an aggressive, totalitarian
and oppressive ideology and to install fear in the public, it is not torture, it
is a tactic.
The standard by which the United States Supreme Court and the Bush
Administration defined “torture” is anchored in the notion that an act would
have to “shock the conscience of the court.” Given that the Bush Administration
lawyers were asked to draft interrogation guidelines for individuals who they
believed had information on imminent terrorist attacks on the American citizenry
– attacks that could, by reason of the attacks of September 11, kill thousands
of innocent Americans – one could successfully argue that “simulated drowning”,
or waterboarding, would be a reasonable tactic to use in extracting information.
Let’s face it, only the most fragile of individuals – and terrorists are not, by
definition, fragile, either in body or mind – would be “permanently scarred”
from a waterboarding session, a session where doctors are present and time
limits are placed on the procedure. Worse things happen between teenagers at the
public pool when they dunk one-another’s heads under water.
The anti-war Left insists that the actions of the Bush Administration went
against the Geneva Conventions. Whether this is true or not – and this is
wide-open for debate – the Geneva Conventions did not and do not apply to
terrorists or their organizations for the simple fact that they are not
uniformed (a requirement of the Geneva Conventions), they target civilians (an
action that removes them from Geneva Conventions protection) and they hide among
civilians, mainly women and children, when executing violence and when hiding
their movements (actions that simply make them cowardly but which remove them
from Geneva Conventions protection because they endanger civilians to an
unreasonable level). So, the Geneva Conventions and its vague reference to
torture – “...outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating or
degrading treatment...” –excludes terrorists from its protection.
The United Nations Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or
Degrading Treatment, mandates that torture can only be charged if an act
commits, “...severe physical or mental pain or suffering...” which in turn means
“prolonged mental harm.” Again, I reference American teenagers at a public pool
dunking each other’s heads under water as they roughhouse. Are anti-war
activists and the neo-Marxists in control of the US government trying to say
that what American teenagers do for fun is considered torture if government
agents do it to terrorists in a quest for information on perceived imminent
terrorist attacks on our nation? Are you kidding me? Has our nation become that
feminized?
Getting back to Pelosi...
Now that Nancy Pelosi has demonstrated that she is willing to lie – bald-faced
and in a grotesque manner – to achieve her goals, how can Democrats in the US
House of Representatives allow her to remain as Speaker of the House? Every
single word that comes out of her mouth from this point on must and will be
questioned.
Now, I have always questioned Ms. Pelosi’s actions, but I have done so because I
believe she simply isn’t smart. I believe her to be intellectually stunted and
an ideological pawn for the neo-Marxist movement that has been making
incremental inroads into our society ever since the 1920s. I can understand why
she was elected to office, you only have to look at the electorate of San
Francisco and their icons, the faculty at Berkeley, to understand why...they’re
straight from the Frankfurt School of Marxist ideology. But how people like
Steny Hoyer (D-MD), Jim Clyburn (D-SC), John Larson (D-CT), Jan Schakowski
(D-IL) and Maxine Waters (D-CA) allowed this intellectual midget to ascend to
the speakership...well, I suppose it stands as testimony to the intellect of the
Democrat leadership.
Nancy Pelosi is compromised beyond repair. Even the most disingenuous politician
has come to understand that. The question now is whether the agenda-driven media
will continue to hound her, ala Watergate, and whether the American people will
apply enough pressure to their elected officials to get the Democrats in the
House super-majority to remove Pelosi as speaker. No doubt she will remain a
Congresswoman from San Francisco; she has no pride, no ethic, no honor. But will
We the People allow her to spew her lies, her hate and her disingenuous
politics, will We the People allow her to further damage our country and remain
in such an influential position; third in succession to the presidency?
People...come on!
Frank Salvato is the Executive Director and Director of Terrorism Research
for BasicsProject.org a non-profit, non-partisan, 501(c)(3) research and
education initiative. His writing has been recognized by the US House
International Relations Committee and the Japan Center for Conflict Prevention.
His organization, BasicsProject.org, partnered in producing the original
national symposium series addressing the root causes of radical Islamist
terrorism. He also serves as the managing editor for The New Media Journal.