Rightwing Hypocrisy, Again. AOL hilited today indignation by President Bush at the "evil" of the Islamists who beheaded a U.S. contractor, claiming that this 'murder' of an 'innocent' 'civilian' showed the justice of our cause.
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On the same day, AP reported that "A U.S. military plane fired missiles Saturday into a residential neighborhood in Fallujah, killing at least 20 people ... Outraged residents accused the Americans of trying to inflict maximum damaged by firing two strikes - one first to attack and another to kill the rescuers."
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This is exactly the tactic roundly condemned by the U.S. Government — when used by "terrorists". They set off one bomb, and then, when rescuers arrive, set off another. When "terrorists" do it, it is unspeakably evil. When the U.S. military does it, our great moral leader in the White House doesn't say a thing, and AP reports that his military HQ in Iraq has 'no comment'.
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At home, AP reported today that

"Kenneth Kimes testified earlier that his mother decided to kill Kazdin, an old friend, after he discovered that she had fraudulently taken out a $280,000 loan by forging his signature. Kenneth Kimes testified that he shot Kazdin, 63, in the back of the head and used an assistant he had recruited from a homeless shelter to clean up and dispose of the body. ... Kimes, 29, pleaded guilty in November to Kazdin's 1998 murder in return for a life sentence without the possibility of parole. He also agreed to testify against his mother. Prosecutors dropped plans to seek the death penalty against his mother after he pleaded guilty. If convicted, she faces life in prison without the possibility of parole."

What of the slimeball from the homeless shelter who helped clean up the crime scene? Is no action whatsoever to be taken against him? What kind of morality is at large in this society when murderers are not executed and a person given shelter by a compassionate society is perfectly content to take money to conceal murder?
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Mind you, this was only one of (at least) TWO murders these two grifters committed. The mother coined the charming "family motto, 'no body, no crime'" — and in fact the body of their second victim has never been found. Yet "Prosecutors dropped plans to seek the death penalty against [the] mother" after the son copped a plea to avoid a death sentence himself. So these two Americans killed two other Americans and our brave, indignant, moral governments - three governments: New York State, California, and Federal - will not execute them. Will our moral leaders be that charitable toward Islamists who kill Americans, or are only Americans entitled to evade execution for killing Americans?
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(Incidentally, has anyone noticed how many murderers cop a plea to avoid the death penalty, even if that means consenting to multiple consecutive life terms or to life imprisonment without possibility of parole? So much for the fatuous and dishonest argument of some capital-punishment opponents that real life imprisonment is worse than death. People don't ordinarily go out of their way to negotiate a worse punishment, do they?)
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AP has also hilited in recent weeks a number of beheadings of Americans by Americans — and, even more appallingly, of children by their own parents. There is essentially no chance that those beheaders will be executed for their crimes. So let us stop pretending to be innocents and angels indignant at savagery. We've got plenty of savagery in this country that is not dealt with lethally, yet innocent civilians in Arab residential neighborhoods are slaughtered by the dozens by our brave "heroes" in Iraq.
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Compare the Saudi beheading incident to these others. The victim serviced Apache attack helicopters used in the war against al-Qaeda. That makes him a combatant, not an innocent civilian. He wasn't a tourist or student or technician helping to set up telephone service or pursuing any other civilian activity. He serviced ATTACK HELICOPTERS!
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The White House's phony indignation about a combatant being killed in a war - even as they fire missiles into residential neighborhoods and kill 20 civilians - is exactly like the insane pretense at the time of the 9/11 attacks that the Pentagon was not a legitimate military target! They really said that: the MILITARY HEADQUARTERS of your MILITARY ENEMY is not a legitimate MILITARY TARGET! The hypocrisy of the Republican "Right" never ceases to amaze.
- posted by L. Craig Schoonmaker @ 11:12 AM