Glenn Beck Gets It Right

[IndianaGreen]

Glenn Beck Gets It Right

Robert Scheer

May 5, 2010

What if Faisal Shahzad, the alleged Times Square car bomber, had turned out to be an illegal immigrant from Mexico? Imagine the fuel it would have provided to those who are using national security as an excuse for cracking down on hardworking immigrants in Arizona. The reality is that the terrorists who have attacked us, every one of the 9/11 hijackers included, all had their papers in order.

Shahzad had entered the country back in 1999 on a student visa and then was granted an H-1B visa, offered to those whose technical skills are needed in the economy. At the time of his arrest he was a naturalized citizen, and there is no evidence of his ever having broken any laws in getting to that status. Another point of interest is that the "weapon of mass destruction" he is charged with attempting to detonate was as primitive as it gets, and was the basic part of a woefully inept attempt to employ the fertilizer bomb technique used with horrid efficiency in the Oklahoma City bombing by several—born in the USA—self-defined patriots.

The Times Square car bomb, while certainly capable of inflicting death on scores of innocents and destroying nearby structures, hardly qualifies for WMD designation and indeed would seem to mock our highly warranted concern over such threats. The case is also a reminder that the massive defense budgets for high-tech warfare that have pushed close to a trillion dollars a year since the 9/11 attack are beside the point in countering terrorists who turn firecrackers into bombs. This man was caught because of old-fashioned police work, after officers were alerted initially by a vigilant Times Square T-shirt peddler.

And while some Republican politicians, led by Sen. John McCain, attempted to turn this into an occasion for attacking civil liberties and stoking the Miranda rights debate, it is clear that the investigation moved forward in an extremely effective and expeditious manner with full regard for constitutional protections

Credit Glenn Beck of Fox News for breaking with that sort of demagoguery and asserting that the rule of law is basic to our freedom and not just an inconvenient indulgence. "He is a citizen of the United States, so I say we uphold the laws and the Constitution on citizens," Beck had the guts to assert in a Fox broadcast. "If you are a citizen, you obey the law and follow the Constitution; has all the rights under the Constitution." Beck added, "We don't shred the Constitution when is popular. We do the right thing."

Compare those profound words of wisdom from one that many liberals loathe to the advice from a former Democratic Party vice presidential candidate for whom many of us voted. Sen. Joe Lieberman went further than McCain and argued for summarily obliterating all constitutional rights for citizens charged with terrorism. Lieberman even suggested stripping them of their citizenship before they are convicted of any crime:

http://www.thenation.com/article/glenn-beck-gets-it-right

[Angry Dragon]

1. Really goes against the grain to agree with beck

[Warpy]

2. His track record is worse than the stopped clock

He's more like an outdated calendar, right only every so many years.

However, he was correct in this instance.

The main thing that got the guy talking was being shown that his rights as a citizen would be upheld.

[IndianaGreen]

3. Beck was crying quoting George Washington on TV the other day

in a clip shown on Olbermann, Beck choked up reading Washington's famous "I have given my eyesight for my country" speech. What Beck did not say was that the context of Washington words were that he had been offered the crown, to become America's monarch, and Washington rejected it with those words.

Our Founding Fathers would be appalled if they were to see how the Presidency has turned into an absolute office rivaling that of King George III.

[zbiker]

4. the bomb sure

was an amateurish attempt from all accounts, but i have heard it rumored as well that if he had simply opened the propane bottles and filled the car with gas and the got out of the area it would have worked as planned, detonating the rest of the explosives.
sounds like his ineptitude saved a lot of lives in the end.
in the end beck may have got one right, but he sure took a long time to do it

[pepperbear]

5. he's still a tool. n/t