Deathers

The time line of stories (and it’s not over folks) just continues to feed conspirists(?). With all the changing stories, who among those who believes the Federal Government is so well organized that it can create a big fat conspiracy like Osama is still alive, would believe that he is dead after all of this?

In other thoughts…
There is a lot of talk out their about the enhanced interrogation techniques and how those led us directly to bin Laden and how BECAUSE these led us directly to bin Laden, they are ok.

Sorry folks, I’m not buying.

Geneva writes out the rules of signatories concerning war prisoners. Al Qaeda never signed on, nor did it follow the rules without signing on. That being the case, and remember we want to encourage combatants to sign on, enhanced interrogations were allowed.
Geneva calls what was done “torture” and many, including myself, can disagree with that but it is what it is.

So I hope that if a signatory and Geneva follower of Geneva were at war with us we would not use what Geneva is calling torture even though (in 10 years) it may have worked in this instance.

Links

This story is just funny.

White House goes silent on bin Laden raid

“Spin” in this day and age doesn’t work as well as it used to. There are tweeters tweeting, witnesses interviewing, and rumors running amok.

Going silent IS the smartest thing unless it’s just using the words “I don’t know” when you don’t actually know. Until all have been debriefed, and the top guys have decided what the narrative will be and it’s backupable being quiet is a good plan.

…………
And yes, it WAS legal.
………….

And I had no idea that there has been building done at the World Trade Center site. Excellent.

Osama news

The news is still all over the map. Go. Read. You won’t find much here because I know things are still being digested. However…..

1 – YAY to everyone involved!!!!! From the army who picked the bad guys up who ended up getting interrogated. To the CIA who asked the questions in the right way. To the President who made the decision. And to the SEALs who did the deed.

2 – NAY to Pakistani intelligence and military. I understand that we want to keep these guys open to us but sheesh people, it was bin Laden. We continued to drone you and give you cash as you protected the one guy we really really wanted?

3 – I know we have every right to pick on the left for being happy, and that they would never do the same for the right – but give them a break eh?
Give Bush the credit for all the steps leading up, but who knows, maybe if instead of EIT (and I am a long time supporter by the way) we used donuts, this would have happened years ago. ? Yes you can see cause and effect in hindsight, but you don’t get a chance to see othercause and othereffect in hindsight because it didn’t happen that way.
And as for the President, we knew who he was when elected. If he needed to sleep on the decision, that is who he is. Bin Laden was in place for years. In the end, he gave the order, just like he did with the Somali pirates and unlike the last big D President. Let him gloat a little. He’s a long way from re-election.

USA, USA, USA

And in Other News

Expect hotel pricing in California to increase as cleanliness goes down:
a) they will be required to use “fitted” sheets thus making laundry and rapid bed making a bigger pain
b) they will be required to use long handled cleaning utensils so no more stooping on the floor and getting those hard to reach places.

I am an ex maid. I know these things.
…………………….

There is a new study out from Europe showing that low-salt diets are ineffective in preventing all the things a low salt diet supposedly prevents. American researchers don’t believe it. (human studies are always tricky, read through for why they think the study is flawed)

In the meantime I loved this little spat between Dr. Briss and Dr. Alderman:

Dr. Briss adds that it would not be prudent to defer public health actions while researchers wait for results of a clinical trial that might not even be feasible.

Dr. Alderman disagrees.

“The low-salt advocates suggest that all 300 million Americans be subjected to a low-salt diet. But if they can’t get people on a low-salt diet for a clinical trial, what are they talking about?”

He added: “It will cost money, but that’s why we do science. It will also cost money to change the composition of food.”

Yes, let’s all rush out and force everyone into low-salt diets and force food companies to drop their salt content because……the research just “doesn’t make sense otherwise”. LOL

A Way With Words

Victor Davis Hanson has a way with words eh?:

Some plaintiffs “preventively detained” for an “indeterminate” period at “al-Qaeda’s chief recruiting tool” in a lame-duck Guantanamo offered critical information about bin Laden’s otherwise not very important “pawns” and “couriers”; some even did so after being subject to superfluous and not very legal “enhanced interrogation techniques.” We then dispatched a questionable “assassination” team into a sovereign nation without its consent, executed bin Laden and various unnamed others, praised our “partnership” with Pakistan, apparently for allowing bin Laden to live with impunity among their retired military for five years — and have finally established a narrative that the problem with Bush-era antiterrorism protocols was never their efficacy, morality, or legality, but simply the president who established them. Keep or expand the former, change the latter, and we have a new national consensus on the tools necessary in the War on Terror.

Huh?

UPDATE: First news accounts really do suck, don’t they? Here is the latest version of what happened.

From the Washington Post we hear of a guy who tweeted the takedown.

“Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1AM (is a rare event),” wrote Athar. Moments later, he added: “A huge window shaking bang here… I hope its not the start of something nasty.”
After liveblogging and speculating for several hours over what happened, it dawned on Athar and those following him that they were witnessing the end of a worldwide manhunt for the man held responsible for orchestrating the September 11, 2001 attacks.
“I think the helicopter crash in Abbottabad, Pakistan and the President Obama breaking news address are connected,” said one of Athar’s followers.
Seven hours after Athar’s first tweet, President Barack Obama announced bin Laden’s death in an operation by U.S. forces where one helicopter was lost.

I believe the post has been taken for a ride. Obama announced one week after Osama was dead. Me thinks the tweeter would have noted the gunshots a week ago….not yesterday.

A thorough mocking

ht Jawa

YeeeeHAAAh

Listening to the speech….Evil has it’s limits al-Qaeda and you, are evil. And now your head is popped.

May your attempts at revenge sputter and may those who feared, raise their heads.

UPDATE:
Drudge sees the beauty,