Tag Archives: extraordinary rendition

Environment, Health Care, Orange County

CA-46: Who Needs Any More of Crazy Dana’s Insanity?

(Proudly cross-posted at Ditch Crazy Dana, Southern California’s resource for fighting back against the sheer insanity of Dana Rohrabacher. : ) – promoted by atdleft)

I’ve had it. I’m sick of it. And I won’t take it anymore. Dana Rohrabacher simply has to go. NOW!

Crazy Dana loved the Taliban. Crazy Dana still loves disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Crazy Dana dismisses the seriously distubing reality of global climate change as just “dinosaur flatulence”. Crazy Dana is vehemently anti-choice, even though he represents a pro-choice district. And now, Crazy Dana wishes death by terrorist attack upon the family members of ANYONE who has the nerve to call him out on his sheer insanity.

Simply put, Crazy Dana is batshit insane. In fact, TOO BATSHIT INSANE to even be allowed inside our nation’s Capitol, let alone serving another term in Congress. He doesn’t represent our values, and he can’t get our logic. This is the final straw, and now it’s time for us to plan how to restore sanity to our Congressional office.

(Follow me after the flip for more on how we can really DITCH CRAZY DANA…)

So what can we do to restore insanity to our Congressional office? Well, we need to let our neighbors know just how insane our member of Congress truly is. We are a coastal community that cares about our natural resources. We are a socially tolerant community that values women’s reproductive rights. We are a reasonable community that values pragmatic, common-sense solutions. And simply put, Crazy Dana doesn’t represent us on any of these issues.

Crazy Dana refuses to acknowledge the serious threat of global climate change. Crazy Dana wants to completely take away a woman’s right to choose. Crazy Dana wants natural gas drilling off our precious coast. And now, Crazy Dana wishes acts of terror upon family members of anyone who disagrees with his insane point of view. This is NOT someone who should represent us in Congress.

We need to let our neighbors know of Dana’s insanity. We need to let them know that Dana does not represent our values in Washington. We need to let them know that Dana is no “cool maverick”, but rather a far right extremist. We need to let them know that there are leaders in our community who are better fit to serve us in Congress. Basically, it’s time for us to begin organizing in the 46th. We cannot afford any more of Crazy Dana. We need to return to reason in this district. NOW!

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CA-46: Dana Rohrabacher: Ugly American

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So in a strange twist of fate, when I got home last night, there on CSPAN was our friend Crazy Dana Rohrabacher presiding over (to the extent that the ranking member can) the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Human Rights from last Tuesday, defending tooth and nail the right of the United States to engage in the abhorrent practice of extraordinary rendition. It was the very hearing, of course, that was written up by dday here on Friday and I must say that seeing his statements in full, context and all, really was sickening.

Seeing Rohrabacher on one hand say that the ends justify the means with respect to extraordinary rendition because of the many lives he claims the practice saves yet to then turn around and wish harm on loved ones of those in the audience, was one of the more pathetic displays by a congressman who is no stranger to compassionless conservatism. I was embarrassed as a Californian and as an American, that Dana Rohrabacher represented us in front of these members of the EU parliament. And so, of course I had to share it with you. I was going to try to upload my DVR’d video to YouTube but luckily did a search and found that mardish had beaten me to it. Let’s go to the video tape (offending remarks begin at about the 8 minute mark.)

More thoughts over the flip. Also read k/o’s thoughtful (what else?) dailykos diary on the subject.

Rohrabacher’s combativeness in this hearing is clearly rooted in his, and the entire conservative movement’s, utter contempt for Europe. But it is the Europeans here that come off as intelligent and thoughtful and it is Rohrabacher who appears curt, rude and vulgar. So it is especially satisfying to see our European friends make points that shut down Rohrabacher’s f’ed up logic that the relatively small number of people who are mistakenly abducted and tortured is the price we pay for greater security.

Take Sarah Ludford, Vice Chair of the EU Parliament Extraordinary Rendition Committee, who shoots him down at 2:35:

Are we safer as a result of what the European Parliament believes has been illegal practices the last 5 years? I believe that most intelligence services would say no. The number of recruits to terrorism, the threat is greater than it has ever been both to Europe and the United States and the potential pool of terrorists is growing.

Then there’s Jonathan Evans, EU Parliament member from Wales, who outclasses Rohrabacher from moment one and echoes a lot of what many on the left have felt about post-9/11 conservatives, that in their efforts to protect America, they’ve made it something unrecognizable.

Our case is that we must act under a due process of law. Listening to the litany of points that you have raised. I think it might be churlish to do so but I think that one could raise the argument that in a sense the end always justifies the means and having any sort of judicial process is just a further impediment. Judicial processes have developed in our countries as proper safeguards. We Europeans hold your country in high respect because you have developed those processes. And we have also for our part endeavored to develop them as well.

Evans eloquently puts into words the real loss in moral standing we’ve suffered in the world, a loss we’ve suffered because of conservatives like Rohrabacher who say things like this:

We are at war and we’ve got to make sure that we do not let go 50 terrorists who will go out and plant a bomb in London and kill 20,000 people in order to protect that one person who we arrested accidentally because his name is the same. That’s that type of unfortunate consequence…[faint boos can be heard] well I hope it’s your families, I hope it’s your families that suffer the consequences.

In his appearance at this hearing, Dana Rohrabacher personified the very image of the ugly American…and he did it in the halls of Congress. At what point are his extremist rantings going to finally cross the line for those in his district? Let’s make sure that 2008 is the year that we finally boot the ugly American.

Los Angeles Area, Orange County

“I hope it’s your family members that … suffer the consequences”

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(I added the audio. This garbage cannot be allowed to stand. -Brian;
Thanks, Brian, for the audio! And thanks, dday, for posting about this horrifying rambling by Orange County’s most notorious psychotic politician. – promoted by atdleft)

Check out this diary for video.

Of all the wingnutty statements from Rep. Dana “you say Taliban, I say Paliban” Rohrabacher, this may be the wingnuttiest.  What makes it worse is that he said it in the presence of Col. Ann Wright, who served this country for 45 years in the military and the diplomatic service, fighting for the very values on which Rohrabacher spits. 

During a Congressional hearing this week with members of the European Parliament on the practice of extraordinary rendition, whereby detainees are flown on CIA planes to secret prisons all over the world to be tortured either at Guantanamo or their countries of origin, Rohrabacher scoffed at all notions of eliminating this deeply troublesome program, which has harmed our stature with our allies and around the world and has debased our souls, and then busted out with this:

Rohrabacher railed against anyone who questioned the right of the Bush administration to do whatever it wanted, legal or illegal, to prevent terrorist acts and said that by not supporting the Bush policies was consigning their country to the terrorists. In particular he said that any Americans who questioned the extraordinary rendition were un-American […]

Rohrabacher never once mentioned due process, the rule of law, right to a trial for anyone picked up in the extraordinary rendition program. Merely because persons were “rendered” and imprisoned by the US meant to Rohrbacker they were guilty.

Rohrabacher said if European countries did not cooperate with the United States and go along with whatever the Bush administration wanted, they were condemning their countrymen to death by not using extralegal methods to imprison terrorist suspects. When citizens attending the hearing, including members of Codepink Women for Peace and Veterans for Peace, heard Rohrabacher’s statement, they collectively groaned. Then, much to the shock and disbelief of everyone in the hearing room, Rorhbacker said to those who had expressed displeasure at his statements: “I hope it’s your family members that die when terrorists strike.”


(NOTE: in the clip provided, Rohrabacher specifically said “suffer the consequences,” not die.)

So a US Representative wished for death on his fellow Americans because they disagree with him that the best way to fight terror is to hook people’s genitals up to electrodes so they can give us false information.

This is of course nothing new for Rohrabacher.  During the election he told the father of an Iraq soldier that “you’re the one calling your son a war criminal.” (go about 5:15 into the clip)

But this is pretty low on the scale of human discourse.  Hoping that your critics are killed by terrorists.  And don’t forget, after the fact he’d exploit those dead to justify permanent and endless war.