My Wednesday Rant... Drones, Hugo Chavez, and Bill Cosby

For the last several years, President Obama has been utilizing stealth drone attacks to kill terrorists.  Some people complained that he was also killing innocent women and children in these attacks but for the most part, the strikes weren’t challenged too strongly. 

Then came the day he ordered a successful drone attack on Anwar Al Awlaki, an American citizen who had moved to the Middle East and taken up residency with Al Qaeda.  Al Awlaki hadn’t given up his legal citizenship but was engaged in a jihad against the United States, which, in my book of humble opinions, made him an enemy of the United States and a fair target.  I applaud President Obama for authorizing the strike on him.  I would, however, caution the government that drone strikes should only be utilized on targets that are as free as possible from innocents.

That said – a new problem has arisen in Washington that people on both sides of the aisle should not only be talking about but fearful of.  That is the President’s statement, backed by the Attorney General, that drone strikes can be used on American citizens anywhere in the world, including the United States, if that person is deemed by the President to be working with a terrorist organization or a threat to the nation.  It seems the President, allegedly a former Constitutional Law professor, believes he can issue execution orders on Americans and deny them due process of the law – something with which he should be familiar.

One can’t help but wonder, particularly since it has already happened overseas, if the President will be concerned about collateral damage to innocent bystanders as he executes military attacks on American citizens here at home.  Will he order a drone attack on a home in your neighborhood?  How many of your neighbors (or children living in the home) could suffer injury or death in that attack?  Will he order a hit on a vehicle as it moves through town (as he did on Al Awlaki)?  Will your car be next to his when the missile strikes?

Where is the outrage from the left on this topic?  They screamed when G. W. Bush had three men waterboarded to gain information (that led to Osama bin Laden) even though those three men are still alive.  The President is talking about vaporizing people right here at home because he considers them to be a threat and the left is oddly quiet about it.  With this type of plan in the works is it really so difficult to believe in the possible existence of FEMA camps?  Really?  But don’t worry…  the Attorney General said he doesn’t really ever see drone strikes here in the USA happening.   And you can trust him – he works for the government.

In other news, some Americans on the left are mourning the death of Hugo Chavez and talking about what a great leader he was.  Actor Sean Penn was quoted to have said “Today America has lost a good friend – a friend they didn’t even know they had.”  Really, Mr. Penn?  That “good friend” who called President Bush the devil himself?  I’m sure you probably felt the same way though. 

Many leftist socialist types here in the U.S. praise Chavez for his education and health care programs he created for the impoverished in Venezuela.  Yet they ignore the fact that in an oil rich country where abundant wealth was easy for those with the right connections, poverty among its citizens was rampant.  They may have been healthy and went to school but they were poor and dependent on the government – just the way Chavez wanted it.

Chavez’s government took over the oil industry in Venezuela, claiming the profits of Citgo for the administration.  The people got very little from those profits except.  If that’s the mark of a great leader I’ll stick with our Democratic Republic, thank you.

Finally, in an interview that makes me sad and is difficult to believe, Dr. Bill Cosby hinted in a CNN interview that GOP opposition to President Obama is racially motivated.  Asked by Soledad O’Brien if race relations have improved under President Obama, the comedian, actor and PhD responded "To see people sitting down and then there are others standing and cheering,” referring to the State of the Union Address  “I don't think it's difficult to believe.  I think that we have people sitting there who are as bad as the people who were against any kind of desegregation.”

Really, Mr. Cosby?  With all due respect, Sir, have you ever watched a State of the Union Address before?

  

It is quite common practice for the Democrats to stand and applaud comments from a Democrat President and for the Republicans to stand and applaud the comments from a Republican President, just as it is custom for Democrats to sit when a Republican gets applause and vice versa.  It has nothing to do with race – it is purely partisan.  Why do you not know that with your level of education? 

Cosby was apparently just warming up the race rhetoric.

"It's also interesting that this Republican Party is not the Republican Party of 1863, of Abraham Lincoln, abolitionists and slavery.  It is not good.  I think it's important for us to look at the underlying part of it. What is the value of it?  Is it that some people are angry because my people no longer want to work for free?"

Again, Mr. Cosby, with respect to you, your work and your education – what exactly is the underlying part of it?  Are you saying all Republicans are racists because they disagree with President Obama and his policies?  And are you really saying that Republicans want black people to work as slaves again?  Really?  I truly hope not because I have always had the utmost respect for you and that is a ridiculous notion.  You were one of the first African-Americans (if not the first) to make it big in prime time television.  Your comedy has always been absent of racism.  Even in the Fat Albert cartoons there was no racism that ever occurred to me.  Your education and degrees are very noteworthy.  I have always admired you, since my childhood.  Now you want to say those who oppose Obama are racists?  I’m very disappointed if you cannot discern between opposition to ideology and racism.  

In all fairness, the answer to “Are some who oppose Obama racists?” is certainly “Yes.”  But then – the answer to “Are some who vote for Obama racists?” would also be a resounding “Yes.”  Racism still exists in all areas of the world, with all colors and ethnicities of people and all political ideologies.  There will always be people who cannot see beyond race or skin color.  And they show their ignorant intolerance on a regular basis. 

The bottom line here is that since President Obama’s election in 2008, racism seems to have increased.  But in my humble opinion it’s coming more from the left than the right.  Regardless of the discussion about the President, regardless of the topic, someone on the left always tosses out the race card and claims the reason for opposition to Obama is because he’s black.  I know some people like that – who oppose anything and everything he does because of his skin color.  But the majority of those I know who oppose Obama do so because of his left-wing political ideology and his ties to socialists and Marxists.  It has nothing to do with skin color, as wide Republican support of Allen West, Herman Cain, etc., prove.  It seems to me that those who cannot allow disagreement without playing the race card are racists themselves.  When you see everything in life according to race and skin color that’s racism – regardless of who you are.