Cheney’s 1% Doctrine Put in Perspective

Hube is married to a Latina. Chavez is also a Latina. It may seem hard to believe, but based on evidence to the contrary, it could be possible that Hube supports the policies of Chavez. Even up to a whopping !% chance that he does. IT COULD BE POSSIBLE.

Mike M is familiar with geo positioning technology. In the wrong hands, that could be dangerous. He has recently returned from Canada, which has less stringent border requirements than does the US. There could be a chance that he spoke with someone about sensitive technology. Perhaps even a gigantic 1% chance that it possibly could have happened. BUT STILL, IT COULD BE POSSIBLE.

Randy, has left WGMD. Sometimes a personal event can change a person’s perspective. He is knowledgeable of radio technology. That knowledge in the wrong hands, could be dangerous. Perhaps there is even a 1% chance that he will instigate some type of disruptive event. You say it is far fetched. I say THERE IS A POSSIBILITY!

Congressman Mike Castle has supported the war in Iraq. despite the fact that it removes resources devoted to finding Bin Laden in Northwestern Waziristan. Why would someone WANT TO LET UP pressure on America’s number one terrorist, if that person wasn’t being a sympathizer to Al Qaeda’s cause? What other reason would representative Mike Castle have for aiding and abetting Bin Laden? The chances are possible that he is a mole, operating not to defend the Constitution, but under code from a lanky Arab who climbs over rocks and shoots a gun……(at least that is all we ever see him do…) You laugh, but look at the results. There is at least, if one rounds up, a 1% chance that congressman Mike Castle is helping Al Qaeda. IT COULD BE POSSIBLE.

Dave at FSP supported McCain in 2000, and now supports Mitt. Anyone who supports Mitt Romney is aware of his views on Iraq. His sons have not joined any branch of the Armed Services…. Does that mean that secretly, Mitt does not want them fighting and killing terrorists? By default, anyone who does not want to fight or kill Al Qaeda, must want them to live. Therefore anyone who WANTS a terrorist to live, is being supportive of their cause. Dave, who supports Mitt, who supports his sons’ decisions. which indirectly support sparing the lives of terrorists, could be considered a co-conspirator. At least there could be, again rounded up, a 1% CHANCE THAT IT IS SO.

The Cheney doctrine is as follows: “Even if there’s just a 1 percent chance of the unimaginable coming due, act as if it is a certainty. It’s not about ‘our analysis,‘ as Cheney said. It’s about ‘our response.’ … Justified or not, fact-based or not, ‘our response’ is what matters. As to ‘evidence,’ the bar was set so low that the word itself almost didn’t apply.”

You laugh, but look at those arrested so far on terroristic charges. Granted it is hard to arrest, and prove intent before a crime has been committed. Sometimes the flimsiest of evidence is necessary to proffer a conviction. And sometimes the evidence is stretched a little too thin. We are fortunate that ultimately our actions will be judged, not by government officials, but by twelve citizens culled from a pool of those who could not escape their jury notices. We are fortunate that members from such a group would be skeptical of the government’s infallibility.

But acting on the possibility of 1% chance of a terrorist attack, as we demonstrated in the above examples, crosses the line that differentiates the reasonable from the unreasonable.

The underlying tenet that makes unthinking Americans susceptible and willing to believe this nonsense,.. is that on an emotional basis, it makes sense. After all, I still vaccinate my children for diseases they have less than a 1% chance of exposure.

However that being granted, the simplistic doctrine of “if at least 1 percent, then act“ becomes especially frightening in the context of international conflicts, not just because of the number of threats misconstrued to meet the 1 percent threshold is overwhelmingly large, but because the consequences of misconstrued military action are so terrible, expensive, and irrevocable.

Therefore the emotional argument turns against the 1% doctrine. What do we have to give up to maintain such an unrealistic level of security? Here are some examples……….

At the last Drinking Liberally, I ordered a Heineken. Across the bar was a Miller Lite drinker, dressed conservatively, who glared at me. I deduced there was more than a 1% chance he would give me trouble…….I shot him.

My wife visited the Doctor. “Anything wrong” he asked and she said “I woke up with this scratchy throat. It could be allergies.” He said it could be cancer and if it is, we don’t have time for conclusive tests. Begin chemotherapy now, just in case.

The leader of the free world, conferred with his second in command. The consensus was that they could attack a third world nation intent on building a nuclear weapon before the leader’s term was up. Just as in the last engagement, no one worked through the possible consequences of their drastic action. Perhaps Russia will retaliate with a nuclear attack of their own. There is at least a 1% chance of Armageddon.

As Cheney said. “It’s about ‘our response.’ … Justified or not, fact-based or not, ‘our response’ is what matters.”

So impeach now.

Born 7/4/1776 Died 7/17/2007

Hyperbole has its uses. Often points are scored in courtrooms, on televisions, and national debate through the use of hyperbole.

Only by writing, have I fully come to appreciate its usefulness. The effect of such comes not from what is said, but from the thought process that goes through each listeners head as they try to decipher the irrationality of what they have just heard………..Often through that analysis, they make some neural connections that are often quoted as “thinking outside the box…..”

It is unfortunate that in this case, my title is not hyperbole. It is my response to this, which I picked up from a link on Delaware Liberal…..

I have to admit, even though I try to use clean language when I write, when I read this my bowels rolled over and I even said “Oh shit. Here it is.” For amongst ourselves we have been talking about the repeated tendency of our president to laughingly consider himself as a king. And as we did, all of us knew in the back of our minds that the only real rational for such unconstitutional actions was for them to actually think………. that they would someday become one…………

Many of our generation were never schooled in the classics. As one who sprinted through two years of Latin, I would highly recommend that the reading in Julius Caesars’ own words, his argument for the replacement of the Roman democracy with the instillation of himself as its dictator, be required reading for all members of all democracies.

Fortunately today we do not all need to know Latin,…… for the same argument is dramatically portrayed in the last three episodes of the Star Wars Trilogy. The Dark Side is among us……………………………

But this recent executive order scares me…….. for next comes the assassination of our Jedi knights and the heartless slaughter of their future generation……………………….

I am no Jedi knight, but I may have to become one after this..

From the executive order signed days ago……….

I, GEORGE W. BUSH, President of the United States of America, find that, due to the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States,..I hereby order: all property and interests in property of the following persons, that are in the United States, that hereafter come within the United States, or that are or hereafter come within the possession or control of United States persons, are blocked and may not be transferred, paid, exported, withdrawn, or otherwise dealt in:(for) any person..undermining efforts to promote economic reconstruction and political reform in Iraq or to provide humanitarian assistance to the Iraqi people.

If one assumes the language is English and that the words therein have the meanings associated with those defined by dictionaries of the English language, then as someone who is adamantly against the Bush Iraqi Oil Grab, I am one of these, I am included. So are most of you…….

So is Dennis Kucinich, Olympia Snow, Joe Biden, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi…….all of us who protest not the war, but it’s failed policy, are in the same boat, for according to Republican Sen. Bunning of Kentucky, anyone who opposes the war, is in effect giving aid and comfort to the enemy.

Despite the reality that the opposite is true, as Dana was quick to point out here, that it is really the policy of George W Bush that has banded and bonded disparate groups (united by their hatred of both al Qaeda and the US) to “GET US OUT OF IRAQ“, ………. under the language of this order, even poor June and Rebecca Young, who have eloquently spoken against the war, are now like Will Smith and Gene Hackman,……………. enemies of the state.

And should we, as patriots, decide to help our friends and neighbors after their bank accounts have been frozen and assets devoured, we too stand on the wrong side of this capricious Ministry of Magic.

Sec. 4. I hereby determine that the making of donations of the type specified in section 203(b)(2) of IEEPA (50 U.S.C. 1702(b)(2)) by, to, or for the benefit of, any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to this order would seriously impair my ability to deal with the national emergency declared in Executive Order 13303 and expanded in Executive Order 13315, and I hereby prohibit such donations as provided by section 1 of this order.

To our representative E-ZPass Mike Castle, Republican of Delaware: Our sincere thanks for your silence in support of the dissolution of what was once considered the greatest nation to have ever existed on this planet……….May future generations show you mercy and spare you the infamy that has hitherto, been previously reserved for Benedict Arnold, Judas Iscariot and Pontius Pilate……….