Sunday, May 09, 2010

Jack Kelly stretches his quotes

Today Jack Kelly wants you to believe that the Obama administration is more worried about not offending and in protecting the rights of Muslims than it is about preventing terrorism. The problem is that he has only the most indirect of support for that. He gives us one quote from Mayor Bloomberg in reference to the Times Square bomber, stating New Yorkers will not be allowed to conduct a backlash against Muslims. As long as that is the only thing Bloomberg has said after the event, then Kelly has one piece of support for his theory. Kelly also raises the case of Major Nidal Hasan, and quotes General George Casey hoping there won't be a backlash against Muslim soldiers. If that is the only thing the military and all the politicians ever said about Hasan, then Kelly has a point. Similarly Kelly takes a quote from Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano made a few hours after the discovery of the bomb in Times Square and stretches it well beyond any reasonable context. To paraphrase, right at that moment the government had no evidence that the bomb was anything but a one time thing. Which was probably exactly accurate at that moment, but apparently Kelly wants the government to tell everyone to be scared.

Kelly says that a small sliver of Muslims here are determined to attack us, although we realize the vast majority of Muslims living in the US are law abiding. Well duh. In fact, we also realize that there are Muslims outside the US who don't like us, partly but not entirely because we have been killing other Muslims for the last eight years. The American people are also in fact already being vigilant (Times Square and the underwear bomber). But Kelly wants more, he would like the government to be more aggressive (and presumably more successful) in anti-terror activities. Or (more likely) he wants the American people to realize that the government isn't doing enough, and will change the Congress in the fall, and the President in two years.

The thing is, you have to be predisposed to think that Democrats, who are currently controlling the Congress and the Executive Branch, are unable to adequately carry out the duties of governing the country to believe that Jack Kelly has made his case. Which means Kelly isn't really helping us understand the world we live in, he is just trying to help one side.

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