Republican offensive

Well, the report got that right.

Extremely offensive. Good for Richard Clarke for such a pointed and articulate response to this
very tranparent, desperate propaganda scenario of the Republican Party.
They can't spin the mind-numbing reality that at this point they are cracking up.

Richard Clarke, Snap!

I like Clarke's line of attack.

Why are Republicans acting like terrorists?

Richard Clark got it right;
"a small group of marginalized radicals"
Anyone see Rachel Maddow's spin on the ads last night using the same creepy music? Hillarious.
These sorry ass people have nothing , nothing and it shows in their desperation.

The intent is not to reflexively oppose Obama per se, but to make a desperate preemptive strike in order to not lose their franchise on national security, just as tea-bagging parties were designed for their preservation as anti-tax nuts.

Aren't these people emboldening terrorists?

The wheels on the bus go round and round,
round and round,
round and round.
The wheels on the bus go clink, clank, screeeeeeeeeech..........oh shit, I think the republican party just lost a wheel!

Its worth noting that in addition to hapless mopes like Richard Reid and Zacharias Moussaoui, the Federal Prison system has successfully confined individuals that were demonstrably dangerous terrorists. Terry Nichols, Tim McVeigh, Michael Fortier (since released), and Eric Rudolph have all been successfully confined. There's no reason that other individuals could not be successfully confined. Its worth noting that the Bush administration released Fortier into the general public (under the witness protection program). His crimes (and those of his wife) were easily as significant as those alleged of many of the Guantanamo detainees against whom good cases can be made.

Only about 1 in 5 Americans is that stupid or ignorant to buy into that crock of shit. Unfortunately for them, they're already in the GOP.

What does 20% of the vote get you? Not very much.

I have a hunch a lot more Republicans are looking for the exits. Any bets that the Libertarians or their Paulist allies don't benefit from all this GOP childishness.

Richard Clarke's comments are dead on.

Republicans are such wimps. We in Colorado aren't afraid to have terrorists in our prisons. We know there's exactly zero chance of them getting out of a Supermax facility. But Boehner is afraid that they'll escape from Colorado and travel to Ohio to cause trouble? Grow a pair, John.

I hope the Republicans keep spending big bucks on ads like this. It may keep their base happy but will not create one new Republican.

Also, if I were one of the "terrorists" at Gitmo, I would not be real happy about going to an American prison. Once the guys on their cell block get wind that they may have been responsible for 9/11, their life won't be worth spit.

My question is: what makes them think this will work? Even small-brained mammals can learn from mistakes, but that seems to be beyond the capabilities of republican'ts.

Also, the other half of the argument is missing. What do Republicans love so much about Gitmo that they can't bear the thought of closing it? What if we had never kept prisoners at Gitmo in the first place? Would they be arguing that we should move them there?

tactics like these make them look desperate.

Yep. They get crazier and crazier, and Obama stands up and fields news conference questions with absolute command, unnerving detail, flawless diction and syntax, and perfect cool.

That's exactly why the favorable/unfavorable numbers are heading the way they're heading. You'd think experienced politicians would get it.

Shorter Republican Speech Writing: Noun, verb, and "we are total assholes."

well, the republics [sic] has been successful in convincing the public that the bush administration shouldn't be investigated for falsifying facts leading to the invasion of iraq or their torture programs (or illegal wiretaps, or anything else), so why wouldn't they have every expectation of swaying public opinion on this point?

I think I can speak for the state of Ohio when I say that we'll gladly take in a few of these terrorists---but first, the rest of "youze guys" will have to agree to take Boehner off our hands. After all, there is such a thing as "too much of a bad thing...."

House Republicans released a new video today showing footage of the 9/11 attacks and attacking President Obama's decision to close Guantanamo Bay.

Would these be the 9/11 attacks that happened under Republican President George W. Bush's watch?

well, the republics [sic] has been successful in convincing the public that the bush administration shouldn't be investigated for falsifying facts leading to the invasion of iraq or their torture programs (or illegal wiretaps, or anything else), so why wouldn't they have every expectation of swaying public opinion on this point?

Karen I think the Republicans have only been successful in persuading their base (about 20%) and a bunch of elected Democrats that the bush administration shouldn't be investigated. The rest of us, not so much. As long as the elected Democrats are too chicken (or maybe too involved) to support real investigations of the Bush criminal enterprise, no real investigations will take place (at least not in America.)

are you sure, ron? because i keep hearing reports about how a majority of americans don't want to investigations, and those reports are trotted out as the excuse for why none are being conducted.

i agree that "the rest of us" are of a different opinion. the public in general, not so much. and i would attribute that to the the success of the campaign conducted by those opposed to such investigations. which leaves me wondering how anyone can confidently believe that this outcome will be any different.

It seems 9/11 is the Republican's 21st century Bloody Shirt! Too bad they aren't in the majority the way they were in the good old days of the late 19th century. -Kevo

I hate to be the one to say this, but most Americans are indeed that stupid and naive.

Just look at the prime time line up on network television. The vaunted American people are more interested in how Britney Spears is doing on her comeback than they are about politics, the Constitution or the law.

Tell your average person that terrorists are going to be walking around their neighborhoods and watch their eyes widen in total belief.

As an upstate NY'er, my guess is that we have quite a few badass mofo's in Attica Correctional Facility, so a few Gitmoee's in our system are not going to make it any worse.

[...]should be viewed as misguided rants from a small group of marginalized radicals

Clarke called it spot on...

In addition, how do you think that the inmates of an American prison would treat someone accused of attacking the U.S.?

They're safer in Gitmo.

But what if they follow us home huh? What then. What if they follow us home then what would you do huh?

If this is an example of GOP "re-branding, " it is ironically more of the same.
Americans have a much more sober view of the past eight years, many have left the Republican Party, and the GOP's effort to continue to try to scare them into submission will not work.
I just watched the relentlessly clueless Hannity try to pound his talk show panel into 100% agreement with him on the value of this video-- and he could not do it. The frustration on his face was evident. In fact, it occurred to me that he has lost his somewhat youthful look since the 2008 elections.
That video is boomingly loud, and past it's prime.
Like the Republicans.

H.L Mencken was right 86 years ago. The only way you can get elected in the u.s. is through fear. The repubs scare you on foreign policy; the Dems scare you on the economy. The goals are the same: to control more of your life. If I were His Minstrelsy I would be worried that the American people are starting to feel better about things before he gets the Second New Deal fully in place.

Shameless Demagoguery?

Lord. The Dems have had this as their stock in trade since FDR. One can hardly criticize the Repubs for using it.

My question for Boehner & Co. would be this, how cowardly was it of Bush not to deal with the 17 Chinese held that the courts told them to release? Leaving it for the next president to deal with. Bush will never be more than an ahole to me!

JB

Sure, this ad may seem politically tonedeaf, but the Republicans aren't playing the gratuitous fear card to try and scare the shit out of a NIMBY-minded electorate. They're drawing such prominent attention to this issue because, to the chagrin of most progressives, polls are consistently showing a majority of the American people opposing Obama's plan to close Gitmo. Furthermore, despite most Americans perceiving waterboarding as torture, a majority, nevertheless, approve the use of the EIT when questioning terror suspects. This provides an opportunity for the otherwise floundering GOP to exploit the reinforcement of a pre-existing narrative of a Democratic party woefully weak on matters of warfare and foreign policy.

Um, the Uyghurs aren't going to trial or to prison; they're going to Virginia.

Hey, those terrorists have super natural power! They can bite through steel with their teeth! Sec Rumfeld told us so. They can walk through walls. Their muslim god is more powerful than Boehner's god, and Boehner knows it.

If it's so pathetic and hopeless, why even mention it? Surely the American people are smart enough to dismiss the Republican "tripe" without you pointing out that it is tripe?

Methinks you're scared that it will work. And if that's the case, you're right. It will.

Freekin Shreeking that 9/11 happened on GW's watch is as relivent as screaming that Pearl Harbor happened on FDR's watch. Most of you sound like morons!

Having these terrorists on US soil will draw out all types of support for them in the legal support they will recieve "pro bono" from some of the red/diaper law firms here in America. If the nations these AH's come from won't take them, there is NO DAMN reason we should have them here in the US and have to tolerate the HS that will follow.

ArtEclectic wrote "I hate to be the one to say this, but most Americans are indeed that stupid and naive.

Just look at the prime time line up on network television. The vaunted American people are more interested in how Britney Spears is doing on her comeback than they are about politics, the Constitution or the law.

Tell your average person that terrorists are going to be walking around their neighborhoods and watch their eyes widen in total belief."

Or tell them they are the change they have been waiting for and watch them line up to vote for an unqualified naif. Boehner and co don't think all Americans are idiots - just about half of the half that voted for Obama. Like it or not both sides have to contend with voters who don't even know which party controls congress. Manipulating just a few of them in almost any election can change its course. Leftists think it was worth it to coalesce about 40 million of them to get their man in the White House - no reason we can't co-opt 10 million or so of them to fix that mistake.

By the way, that would be the Richard Clarke that created the counter-terrorism programs that prevented the 9/11 attacks isn't it? Sorry, I forgot - his plans failed.

Not one comment to the effect that this is an unforced error on the part of the current administration?!

These are the same Uighurs who, allowed to watch a soccer match on TV recently and seeing a sleeveless woman in the stands, smashed the set on the deck. It'll be a fun cultural experiment to see them interacting with the similarly pious folk of Northern Virginia.

Did someone say Wille Horton? Times 17?

Not that people are logical, of course, but if they were it's rather obvious that the terrorist security threat comes mostly from the corruption in Washington on enforcement of immigration laws, which has let in as many as 60,000 illegal aliens from terrorist supporting countries through Mexico along with the constant flow of Mexican illegal aliens.