Everyone Needs Their Daily Dose Of Drones

Mandeville, LA – Exclusive Transcript – I’m going through the stories, and one of the ones I was running across, kept seeing, was the Brennan testimony and how acrimonious it got at one point.  What I thought was, I don’t want to say humorous because none of this stuff should be funny, but what I thought was intriguing about this is how he presented the drone and the drone killings to the Senate.  Check out today’s transcript for the rest…

 

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Begin Mike Church Show Transcript

Mike:  I’m going through the stories, and one of the ones I was running across, kept seeing, was the Brennan testimony and how acrimonious it got at one point.  What I thought was, I don’t want to say humorous because none of this stuff should be funny, but what I thought was intriguing about this is how he presented the drone and the drone killings to the Senate.  It’s almost as if he were saying, [mocking] “No, you guys got it all wrong.  Not only are drones good, but they’re good for you.  You should have a heaping helping of drone every morning.  Just imagine how wonderful life could be if only we had more drones.  Just imagine how life could be if we could only surveil more people, if we could only kill more people wherever America has an interest.”

As I have pointed out, or I pointed out yesterday, I do not believe, according to John Bolton, the Kagans, the Kristols, the McCains, the Grahams, now the Ted Cruzes of the world, I do not believe that there is a square inch of the Earth, hell I don’t think there is a square parsec of the known universe where America doesn’t have an interest.  It’s a vital interest.  If we could have a vital interest in a remote place like Mali, I wonder how many vital interests we have in Antarctica.  Yesterday I was joking about the North Pole.  What about the South Pole?  We never hear about all the heinous terrorist activities going on down at the South Pole.  Why haven’t the jihadis figured out that there are men ensconced inside buildings in the South Pole that are just ripe for the picking?  They don’t have any defense down there.  No one would ever even think to go and defend those people down at the South Pole studying penguins and ice sheets.

Brennan basically makes the case that not only are the drones good, they’re good for you.  It’s like a balanced breakfast.  Are you old enough to remember when you used to see the television commercials for various breakfast cereals and the mom would always come on at the end, after Cap’n Crunch had done his business or after Lucky Charm had done his advertisement for the cereal, and the mom would always come on and say, “This is part of a nutritious breakfast.”  There would be a table there and laid out on the table would be a couple sunny-side up eggs, two strips of bacon and a glass of orange juice.  When I hear John Brennan and the decepticons and the libtards speaking so glowingly about the drone, that’s what it makes me think of, that breakfast table.  The drone is so good and it’s so good for you.

Let’s listen to Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, who may be the last honest liberal – no, Glenn Greenwald at the Guardian UK is the last man standing, last honest lib left.  Wyden may be the last honest lib left in the U.S. Senate.  At least he makes a head fake towards civil liberties.  At least he makes a head fake toward transparency in government and is trying to get to the bottom of some of what’s going on with who we are killing without any authorization as Obama invents it as he goes along, and where we are killing them.

By the by, I do not believe that what’s being reported as acrimonious and as testy and all this other stuff over the nomination of John Brennan, I don’t think that Obama would send him up there if he didn’t already know he had 60 dims in his pocket and they had some whole card to break a filibuster.  The man has not suffered a defeat yet.  I could not imagine a scenario under which he would suffer this one.  I think that this is a Shakespearean moment.  Let me rephrase that: Methinks they doth protest too much.  In other words, nobody is that angry over anything.  You’re just doing that so we’ll think that you’re protesting.  Anyway, here’s Senator Wyden questioning Dr. Drone.

[start audio clip]

Senator Wyden: I’d like to get your reaction on one point in particular, and that is this question, particularly in the context that you give it, that you try to focus in areas where the evidence is substantial, the threat is imminent, where there is a particularly persuasive case, that the targeted killing of an American is warranted. In that kind of case, do you believe that the president should provide an individual American with the opportunity to surrender before killing him?

John Brennan: I haven’t spoken about any specific operations —

Senator Wyden: I’m talking about the concept because you talk about the concept.

John Brennan: Absolutely.

Senator Wyden: You said imminent threats, serious evidence, grave concern, and certainly words that strike a chord with me. That’s why I’d be interested in your thoughts on whether, in those kinds of instances, the president ought to give, should give an individual American an opportunity to surrender.

John Brennan: I think in those instances, and right now let’s use the example of Al-Qaeda. If an American were to join Al-Qaeda, we have routinely said openly, publicly, repeatedly, that we’re at war with Al-Qaeda. We have repeatedly said that Al-Qaeda is in fact trying to kill Americans, and that we are going to do everything possible to protect the lives of American citizens from these murderous attacks from Al-Qaeda. We have signaled this worldwide. We repeatedly have said it openly and publicly. Any American who joins Al-Qaeda will know full well that they have joined an organization that is at war with the United States and that has killed thousands upon thousands of individuals, many of them Americans. I think any American who did that should know well that they in fact are part of an enemy against us and that the United States will do anything possible to destroy that enemy to save American lives.

Senator Wyden: I certainly, and I said this at the very beginning, want to be part of that effort to fight Al-Qaeda on all of these key fronts. I just want to have some answers. I’ll give you another chance, whether you think the president should give an individual American the opportunity to surrender. I think that Senator King, for example, talked about the idea of a new court. There will be colleagues that are going to —

[end audio clip]

Mike:  Pause that for just a second.  I just have to interject here.  There is a reason why in Article III of the U.S. Constitution there is a process by which you can define treason.  That’s not in there by accident.  As a matter of fact, if you go back to August of 1787, there’s almost a week of debate over the definition of treason, with various members of the Federal Convention saying: No, you can’t make it like that because, or you can’t make it like that because.  No, it’s got to be this.  Ultimately they wind up with the definition in the Constitution that “shall consist of making war against them.”

This is why it’s in there.  It is in there in case a colonial joins the British Army or the 1787 version of Al-Qaeda.  It is in there to ensure that there is a process, a due process by which that traitor or person that is now committing treason — this is how you define it — can be captured, can be prosecuted, and yes, if it’s determined that the punishment is death, then that’s what it is.  You have to go through the process.  You just heard Brennan.  Who is this guy?  Senator Wyden didn’t seem to bat an eye.  [mocking Brennan] “We need them to know that if they join Al-Qaeda, they’re dead.  If they joint the enemy, they’re dead.  We’re gonna hang ‘em high, drone ‘em high.”  You can see Clint Eastwood starring in Drone ‘Em High.

End Mike Church Show Transcript