Tuesdays w/ Jonah

Another one. Does it ever stop?

What do Yucca Mountain and Guantanamo Bay have in common? Well, there's the obvious stuff. Both have Spanish names. Neither is a great spot for a family vacation. And each is under the control of the federal government.

We'll note that "yucca" is not a Spanish word. Maybe Jonah thinks that the United States was stolen from the King of Spain, rather than the people from whom the King of Spain stole parts of it.

Even if every American lived like a Prius-driving, vegan eco-feminist, we'd still fall far short. A recent MIT study found that even the homeless in America have twice the carbon footprint of the global average.

In reference to the slur against the homeless, we send you to Sadly, No! And what does "eco-feminist" have to do w/ anything? Only women are...are...are what?

But here's the thing: If you want to fight a war on terrorism, or any war, you need to put captured combatants someplace -- someplace other than a conventional U.S. prison, where they're treated like any other criminal.

Uh, yeah. Certainly there are no "SuperMax" prisons anywhere. Nor brigs or stockades on military bases located w/in the continental U. S. That might make it too easy for Mahometans to have contact w/ attorneys though. Speaking of which:

WASHINGTON, May 13 (Reuters) - The Pentagon said on Tuesday it dropped charges against a Saudi who U.S. officials say intended to be the "20th hijacker" on Sept. 11 but sent five others to trial on accusations they planned the 2001 attacks.

A Pentagon appointee who oversees the U.S. war court at its Guantanamo Bay military prison did not say why she rejected the charges that prosecutors sought earlier this year against Mohammed al-Qahtani.

Just how many "20th hijackers" have there been, anyway? Back to Jonah:

McCarthy prosecuted jihadi terrorists as criminals in the 1990s, but he rightly scorns the idea that we can treat terrorists like bank robbers. That Clinton-era strategy "can be considered a success only if one's chief preoccupation is due process. Viewed through the prism of national security, the effort was an abysmal failure." According to McCarthy, from the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 to the second on 9/11, only 29 mostly low-level operatives were caught and convicted in the U.S., costing taxpayers millions and doing next to nothing to prevent the 9/11 attacks.

Now compare & contrast w/ this:

Domestic spying far outpaces terrorism prosecutions As more Americans are watched, fewer cases are made. The trend concerns civil liberties groups as well as some lawmakers and legal experts. [...] The emphasis on spy programs also is starting to give pause to some members of Congress who fear the government is investing too much in anti-terrorism programs at the expense of traditional crime-fighting. Other lawmakers are raising questions about how well the FBI is performing its counter-terrorism mission.The Senate Intelligence Committee last week concluded that the bureau was far behind in making internal changes to keep the nation safe from terrorist threats. Lawmakers urged that the FBI set specific benchmarks to measure its progress and make more regular reports to Congress.

So even casting due process & civil liberties to the wind, the FBI are still stumbling over their own dicks. (No they aren't. If they had peckers large enough to stumble over, the Special Agents wouldn't have joined the Bureau in the first place.) Per Sadly, No! (again) Guantanamo isn't a Spanish word either. What an ignoramus Jonah is.