No money for closing Guantanamo Prison, that is, at least for now. I just had to add my 2 cents worth to this widely reported story.
Wednesday's 90-7 Senate vote stripped the $80 million from a war-spending bill, and the decision to bar, for now, transfer of detainees to the United States, raised the possibility that Mr. Obama’s order to close the camp by Jan. 22, 2010, might have to be changed or delayed. (Denver Post, New York Times)
It is momentous in that not only did Pres. Obama not get an automatic free pass, go-directly-to-GO but he got a resounding, bi-partisan NO for one of the first times since he became president. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, in an extraordinary case of foot-in-mouth that seems to be infecting California female political representatives these days worse than the swine flu, said “she knew of one federal facility that would be a perfect fit — Supermax prison in Florence, Colo.
"It isn't in a neighborhood. It isn't in a community. It's an isolated Supermax facility," said Feinstein, standing next to a large blowup photograph of Supermax.
"This facility houses not only drug kingpins, serial murderers and gang leaders, but also terrorists who have already been convicted of crimes in this country," she said.”
As we Coloradans know this is not just a case of NIMBY Colorado (not-in-MY-backyard), it is a case of not-in-ANY-backyard in the U.S. Kansas has the military prison at Leavenworth and Kansas doesn’t want them. Nevada has possibly the most desolate, barren stretches of land remaining in the U.S. (look how long it took to find the remains of plane crash victim and mega-millionaire Steve Fossett) and even Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) said “Guantánamo makes us less safe. However, this is neither the time nor the bill to deal with this. Democrats under no circumstances will move forward without a comprehensive, responsible plan from the president. We will never allow terrorists to be released into the United States.”
The proper backyard for a suspected terrorists prison is exactly where it is now, GUANTANAMO. The U.S. has leased it since 1903. No one else in the WORLD wants those prisoners. The main reason Obama wants to close the prison? It doesn’t make us “look good”. I’ve seen and heard enough about “looking good” in my life to know how superficial an approach this is. Guantanamo works. We will “look” even worse with any other alternative, and function much worse than that.
FYI, Florence, Colorado, in Fremont county, is 29 miles W of Pueblo, Colorado (center to center) (pop. 102,000 in 2000) and 34 miles SW of Colorado Springs, Colorado. (Pop. 360,890 in 2000.) There are 3,653 residents in the city. (Florence.) (REF: Florence, Pueblo, Colo. Springs. So much for isolated, Sen. Feinstein.
Pres. Obama and the Democrats continue to harp on FEAR and Fear-Mongering when anyone opposes their policies. Some of us DO fear Big Brother and the Democratic Socialist Holding Company Government when they continually set logic and reason aside and merely go with “just trust me on this one”. NOOO WAYYYY.
While he accuses dissenters of Fear-Mongering, Obama continues to disparage the previous administration. His speech about Gitmo today is more of the same. (MSNBC1, MSNBC2.) He says, to the effect (my words) “they were wrong, wrong, wrong, but now we have to move on and do it MY WAY.”
NOOOO WAYYYY. Not-in-my-backyard, Not-in-my-backcountry, NOT-ON-MY-WATCH.
1. REFERENCES:
Denver Post
New York Times
Historical Look at Guantánamo Bay
Guantanamo Bay detention camp - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Florence
Pueblo
Colo. Springs
Obama calls Gitmo 'a misguided experiment'
Barack Obama's national security remarks
Dick Cheney's national security remarks
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