No Resolution Of Issues Mentioned In Last Blog Entry Before Vacation!
I am back from my vacation, and the world has not ended! 
LOL
But the Oil Spill Crisis in the Gulf of Mexico continues, and is doing great harm to Louisiana in particular, but also to Mississippi, Alabama and Florida beaches and wildlife. This will be discussed in more detail at a later point.
The Korean Crisis, with the sinking of the South Korean ship by North Korea, and the heavy loss of life, has not led to outright war as of yet, thank goodness, but Kim Jong Il has reorganized the government of North Korea in expectation of a change in leadership, due to his poor health and advancing age.
Finally, there have been no more terrorist attacks on the homeland, but two young men in New Jersey were intercepted trying to leave the country and to train for "jihad" with an Al Qaeda unit in Somalia, after a four year investigation and tracking of their statements and activities by counter terrorist groups within our intelligence agencies. The fact that they were caught is an encouraging sign after the last few terrorist incidents in the past few months which were only unsuccessful because of missteps by the terrorists!
Commentary on these issues and others of the past eleven days while I was away, along with new events, will be analyzed as the days go by! It is good to be back and writing!
The Progressive Professor On Vacation, May 29-June 8! :)
The author will be on vacation from May 29 to June 8, so there will be no commentary for the next eleven days!
Upon my return from Seattle, and an Alaska cruise, I will catch up on important events and controversies!
Until then, happy reading, and hopefully a resolution of the BP oil spill, and avoidance of war in Korea, and no more attempted terrorist attacks on the homeland! Is that asking too much?
The Incongruity Of Terrorists And Gun Rights Versus “Miranda Rights”!
Everyone is in agreement that terrorists are "terrible" people who must be kept track of so they cannot get on planes, but if the suggestion is made that such people on a "watch list" should not have the right to buy arms or weapons, forbid the thought, as it means the loss of "gun rights"! 
How could anyone in their right mind think it is alright for people being tracked by the FBI to have the ability to buy weapons and explosives that could be used to attack Americans on the streets of our cities? What is it about "gun nuts" that they cannot see the craziness of unwillingness to limit ability of such people to buy arms, when it is for no good purpose?
That is exactly what Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, often quite reasonable on many issues, has declared! Don't dare touch the Second Amendment, even for dangerous people, who are being tracked because they are thought to be a threat to all of us!
But at the same time, if terrorists are American citizens, as the Times Square terrorist is, Graham says that they should not be read their "Miranda rights", and Senator Joe Lieberman of Connecticut wants to strip citizens who commit terror of basic citizen rights after the fact!
How loony these senators are, and how inconsistent they are! Rather than use common sense, and stop angling for votes and to please extremist constituencies on the right, they use irrational thoughts which do great harm to our Constitution and Bill of Rights and national security!
National Security Becomes Dominant Issue Again In Different Ways!
In the midst of heated debates over health care and financial reform, that "800 Pound Gorilla", National Security, has reared its ugly head in recent days!
Not only is the constantly emerging threat of a nuclear Iran becoming more worrisome, but three issues that have shown up in the past ten days add up to an alarming scenario.
First, the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which caused the loss of eleven oil rig workers was upsetting, but now the reality is that since the spill cannot be controlled and is spreading to the Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida Gulf Coast, threatening wildlife, fishing, and beach communities long term, it is a frightening situation. It could be a total environmental, as well as economic, disaster for decades! And to top it off, there is some concern growing that the Gulf Stream could carry the oil spill around Florida's Panhandle to create tremendous damage to the west coast, the Keys, and the east coast of Florida, and work its way up the Atlantic coast states, making the situation a national disaster of massive proportions hard to fully conceive! This situation is a tremendous threat to our national security, no matter how one tries to portray it in a better light, if that is possible!
Secondly, the protests against the immigration legislation in Arizona reflect the fears of many of racial profiling and civil liberties and civil rights violations. But at the same time, there is the reality of the porous 2,000 plus miles border between the United States and a very unstable neighboring nation, Mexico, which represents the danger of drug gangs and crime infesting our boundaries, and the reality of terrorists easily being able to cross our borders with impunity, at least in theory, if not reality!
And now, just last night, the shock of an SUV being parked in Times Square in New York City, loaded down with gasoline, propane tanks, and explosive devices that failed, fortunately, to detonate, makes us fully reminded of the fact that we cannot sit back and relax and think we are safe from internal and external threats of terrorism!
But how do we deal with these different aspects of our national security crisis, which makes us more aware than ever before since September 11, to the need to do everything to insure our safety?
How do we give our government at all levels enough authority and power to protect us, and yet not take away our Bill of Rights?
This is the challenge that may, in the long run of history, be a greater determinant as to the reputation of the administration of President Barack Obama, than health care or financial reform or Supreme Court appointments or anything else imaginable on the horizon!
Liz Cheney And The New “McCarthyism”
Liz Cheney, the conservative activist and daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, has become a lightning rod among both liberals and conservatives.
Many conservatives, including Ken Starr, Michael Mukasey, Larry Thompson, and Ted Olson have denounced Liz Cheney for her attack on Justice Department attorneys who have defended terrorist suspects held in the Guantanamo Bay prison camp, people she termed the "Al Qaeda Seven".
These conservatives, who all worked under George W. Bush, except for Starr, who was the special prosecutor investigating Bill Clinton in what led to his impeachment trial, declared that every person, no matter how despicable, is entitled to a legal defense under our Constitution, and that defense lawyers do not necessarily agree with their clients, but are doing what is required under the law, an effort to defend anyone from government conviction without a fair trial.
As liberals would term it, Liz Cheney is utilizing loose charges without justification against the reputations of people who deserve to avoid the image of being terrorism sympathizers. In this sense, Liz Cheney is acting like a new Joseph McCarthy, who denounced people as Communists without any evidence or justification.
It is very inspiring to see strong conservative opposition to what Dick Cheney's daughter is doing, but the question is WHY she is doing it, and a NEW YORK MAGAZINE article clarifies this issue.
That is, it is apparent that Liz Cheney wishes in the near future to pursue a political career like her father did, and might be planning to run for the Senate in either Wyoming or Virginia. She is seen as overly ambitious, determined to preserve her father's legacy and carry it on into the future.
She has appeared more than 40 times in the past year on talk shows on the major news networks, and has always been very combative and feisty, even against fellow conservatives. No admonition by George Will on ABC or other spokesmen on other channels has deterred her from her aggressive and vicious attacks on the Obama Administration, and now leading to the present controversy over "terrorist" lawyers raging among conservatives.
For sure, we will not see Liz Cheney back away, but she is becoming a very divisive figure in the conservative movement and the Republican party.
More than ever, it seems as if it is conservative women in the Republican party, whether Sarah Palin, Marsha Blackburn, Virginia Foxx, Michele Bachmann, Liz Cheney or others, that are becoming the true lightning rods of the GOP, and bound to play a growing role in American politics with their "in your face", confrontational politics!
The Capture of Adam Gedahn: Will Dick Cheney And The Republicans Stop Calling Obama Weak In The War on Terrorism?
The just announced capture of American expatriate and Muslim convert Adam Gedahn, who grew up in California and became a spokesman for Al Qaeda in 2004, and is on the FBI's Most Wanted List, is a great step forward in the war on terror worldwide!
This comes on top of arrests recently of other Al Qaeda and Taliban operatives, primarily by cooperation between the Pakistani spy agency and our CIA.
To accuse the Obama Administration of being weak in the terrorism fight, as Dick Cheney, other Republicans, talk radio, and Fox News Channel asserts, is obviously ridiculous and outrageous!
It is time to stop politicizing this threat to our security and unite around the President. However, is that likely? Don't bet on it, as the Republicans and conservatives are only interested in promoting fear and division, rather than unity and support for our President, whose administration is doing a fantastic job, way beyond anything accomplished during the Bush-Cheney Administration!