Political Clowning from our Speaker of the House

[Amianthus]

Nancy Pelosi has by her own testimony violated the Logan act  how long can one be locked up if convicted?

Three years, IIRC.

[Henny]

What was Ms. Pelosi hoping to accomplish, other than embarrassing President Bush? "We were very pleased with reassurances we received from the president that he was ready to resume the peace process," she told reporters after meeting with dictator Bashar Assad. "We expressed our interest in using our good offices in promoting peace between Israel and Syria."

She purported to convey a message from Israel's Ehud Olmert expressing similar interest in "the peace process," except that the Israeli Prime Minister felt obliged to issue a clarification noting that Ms. Pelosi had got the message wrong. Israel hadn't changed its policy, which is that it will negotiate only when Mr. Assad repudiates his support for terrorism and stops trying to dominate Lebanon. As a shuttle diplomat, Ms. Pelosi needs some practice.

On a historical level, I was thrilled that we had our first female Speaker of the House. Now I'm thinking, "What a TWIT!"

While others are cheering her on, even though I agree in principal with the efforts at dialogue... she simply had no right to do what she did. I see her act as more of a mutiny than anything else. If Pelosi wants to stage a coup d'etat then she should simply say so. Otherwise, with the rest of us, she needs to sit her butt down and wait for the elections.

[The_Professor]

The Squabble Over Pelosi's Scarf
Speaker Pelosi's headgear draw fire from both right and left. What it says about Western attitudes toward Islam—and the state of American politics today.
WEB-EXCLUSIVE COMMENTARY
By Eleanor Clift
Newsweek
Updated: 7:46 p.m. ET April 6, 2007
April 6, 2007 - Nancy Pelosi donned a beautiful headscarf as she visited a mosque during a visit to Syria, signaling her respect for Islamic culture. In so doing, she also kicked off a debate here at home about whether the House Speaker did the right thing in bowing to a custom that to Western women symbolizes oppression.

And it wasn't just the scarf that stirred controversy. Conservatives, led by Vice President Dick Cheney, assailed Pelosi for overstepping her role at a time of war by meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is no friend of the Bush administration. A Wall Street Journal editorial suggested she might have broken the law, ignoring the fact that three Republican members of Congress had just been in Syria the previous weekend. The media coverage of her trip suggested she was more at home with designer head coverings than with the nuances of Middle East diplomacy, especially where Israel is concerned. It surely won't be long before the Republican National Committee incorporates Pelosi's new look into a commercial.     

I happened to be at a small liberal-arts college in a suburb of Chicago when Pelosi's trip was in the news. The television images of her headscarf enlivened the conversation at a luncheon with faculty members. Elmhurst College has a fair number of Muslim students and is actively recruiting in the Muslim neighborhoods of Chicago. In an effort to expand understanding, last November the Muslim Students Association invited female students and faculty to put on a headscarf for a day. It was called A Day in the Life of a Muslim Woman, and it proved so popular that the event's sponsors had to scrimp on the material they used to fashion the traditional head covering, which is called a hijab.

One professor said she didn't realize how much of her identity was tied up in the bangs she'd worn for years. She felt naked, not covered up. Lynn Hill, an art professor, recalled the stares she got when she left the campus and went about her normal routine. "Was it like being black in the South in the wrong neighborhood?" another faculty member asked. For Pelosi, the scarf was intended as an instrument of belonging. But for Muslim women in America and around the world, it's a more complicated matter. The female faculty members gathered around a table in the president's dining room generally agreed that Pelosi had done the right thing in adapting to the culture she found. But there was at least one vigorous dissent from an English professor emeritus who found Pelosi's behavior an affront to feminism on a par with bowing before the queen. Clearly taken aback by the strong negative reaction, the chairman of the English Department, Ann Frank Wake, who normally teaches Victorian literature, sputtered, "Whatever happened to, 'When in Rome, do as the Romans do'?"


Having the top-ranking woman in the U.S. government bow to Muslim custom was perhaps a shock to some Americans. There may even have been some puzzlement in Syria, where hijabs are not ubiquitous on the streets, and the country's president is a secular Baathist. But the practice is broadly accepted, and everybody from Laura Bush and Hillary Clinton to Condi Rice and Madeleine Albright have donned a headscarf at one time or another—despite Western concerns that it is not a symbol consistent with women's rights.

In Iraq, radical Islamic sheiks demand women cover themselves, and men are punished if they look at a woman who is not veiled. "Once everything is stable, we will take it off," says Huda Ahmed, an Iraqi journalist who is in the United States on a fellowship with the International Media Women's Foundation. But for now, it's a matter of self-protection, and there's fear about what restrictions might be next. "There are fliers from Al Qaeda and other groups asking people not to drive cars," says Ahmed. "Iraqi women have driven cars since ever."

More women are wearing the hijab today in Iraq. At a panel last month about women and Islam at the Kennedy Library in Boston, Ahmed said she noticed the change when she returned to Baghdad in 2002 after several years abroad. "When I came back I thought I was coming from Mars. I was the only one without a scarf." Under Saddam, Iraqi society was more secular—although as times grew tougher, the influence of Islam grew. During the first gulf war, women who lost sons and husbands put on the scarf as a way to show commitment to their faith. Then, in the aftermath of the war, the incidence of cancer increased—"cancers we never heard of before were killing children and young women and men," says Ahmed. "Women were afraid and they started wearing the hijab. They didn't have to."

Nancy Pelosi didn't have to, either. But it's interesting that she touched off so much anger by doing something so many other high-powered women have done before. Some of the most vicious attacks on the Speaker are coming from the left—a constituency that typically cheers her on. Maybe the fallout over Pelosi's headgear says more about the state of American politics than it does about the Muslim world. 

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17988187/site/newsweek/

[Henny]

April 6, 2007 - Nancy Pelosi donned a beautiful headscarf as she visited a mosque during a visit to Syria, signaling her respect for Islamic culture. In so doing, she also kicked off a debate here at home about whether the House Speaker did the right thing in bowing to a custom that to Western women symbolizes oppression.

[...]

Having the top-ranking woman in the U.S. government bow to Muslim custom was perhaps a shock to some Americans. There may even have been some puzzlement in Syria, where hijabs are not ubiquitous on the streets, and the country's president is a secular Baathist. But the practice is broadly accepted, and everybody from Laura Bush and Hillary Clinton to Condi Rice and Madeleine Albright have donned a headscarf at one time or another—despite Western concerns that it is not a symbol consistent with women's rights.

Now this is just stupid. If she was "bowing" to Muslim custom, she did so by visiting the Mosque. Women are not allowed to enter a Mosque (in any country) without hijab.

As for hijabs not being "ubiquitous" on the streets of Syria, that is downright wrong.

[sirs]

On a historical level, I was thrilled that we had our first female Speaker of the House.  Now I'm thinking, "What a TWIT!"  While others are cheering her on, even though I agree in principal with the efforts at dialogue... she simply had no right to do what she did. I see her act as more of a mutiny than anything else. If Pelosi wants to stage a coup d'etat then she should simply say so. Otherwise, with the rest of us, she needs to sit her butt down and wait for the elections.

See, this is why I find folks like Miss Henny & Universeprince so credible & objective in their commentaries, as far as I'm concerned.  Both can be completely frank in their outright displeasure of Bush's policies and how wrong it was to go to war, making very rational arguements in support of those view.  Yet they don't let that skew their objectivity to the point where the Dems can do no wrong in their pathetic efforts to try and embarrass Bush and divide the country even more, like apparently so many others on the left are only too happy to do.  Ends justify the means. 

While I will frequently, and consistently disagree with Miss Henny's & UP's positions & opinions, even get a might miffed at them from time to time, their presence in the saloon makes this locale an outstanding place to frequent     

[Henny]

See, this is why I find folks like Miss Henny & Universeprince so credible & objective in their commentaries, as far as I'm concerned.  Both can be completely frank in their outright displeasure of Bush's policies and how wrong it was to go to war, making very rational arguements in support of those view.  Yet they don't let that skew their objectivity to the point where the Dems can do no wrong in their pathetic efforts to try and embarrass Bush and divide the country even more, like apparently so many others on the left are only too happy to do.  Ends justify the means. 

While I will frequently, and consistently disagree with Miss Henny's & UP's positions & opinions, even get a might miffed at them from time to time, their presence in the saloon makes this locale an outstanding place to frequent     

Aww, thanks Sirs!

Truth be told, though, since I have no affection for the Dems either, I have no problem criticizng them. I'm one of the Independent Folk. I don't think UP considers himself a Dem, either.

[sirs]

While I will frequently, and consistently disagree with Miss Henny's & UP's positions & opinions, even get a might miffed at them from time to time, their presence in the saloon makes this locale an outstanding place to frequent     

Aww, thanks Sirs!  Truth be told, though, since I have no affection for the Dems either, I have no problem criticizng them. I'm one of the Independent Folk. I don't think UP considers himself a Dem, either.

True enough, but I actually consider myself an "Independent" as well, not affiliated with any party, just a brutally honest partisan conservative.  I'm frequently condemning the GOP on a whole host of domestic and immigration fronts, yet my support of Bush and the war frequently gets me labeled as some cool-aide drinking war-loving Bush sycophant.  Then I consder the source, and realize immediately how uncredible the claim is, which again brings me full circle into why I can thoroughly respect those other independents who don't happen to have the same support of the war or of Bush, as I do.

Now, if you, Up, or Fatman were to start accusing me of being a blinded warmongering Bush lover, then I'd have to give serious pause to my current rhetoric & actions

[Plane]

It is easy to be wrong when casting accusations of thought and motive onto other people.


They may have thought differently than one could ever guess.

[Plane]

Nancy Pelosi has by her own testimony violated the Logan act  how long can one be locked up if convicted?

Three years, IIRC.

Jessie Jackson owes an hundred years.

[domer]

No one's been prosecuted under the Logan Act in its over-200-year history, which clearly impacts the "force" of its proscriptions, however vague they might be as an initial proposition. For my Kool-Aid drinking friends, I recommend my initial post in this thread as representing the essence and sense of the matter.

[BT]

Just guessing but i iwould presume the Justice Department, under AG Gonsales watch would be charged with investigating violations of the Logan Act. Perhaps Waxman could lend an independent investigator or two.

[sirs]

For my Kool-Aid drinking friends, I recommend my initial post in this thread as representing the essence and sense of the matter.

And for our Bush-can-do-no-right friends, I'd recommend looking past Bush, and focusing on the rightful responsibilities that each branch of our government is to be constitutionally empowered to perform, as the original point of this thread encompassed

[Plane]

Two heartbeats fr0m the Presidency.

[sirs]

Blinded by hate for Bush

The Democrats just do not get it and by doing so they jeopardize our national safety. Nancy Pelosi's trip to Syria, against the wishes of the president, is just another example of why the Democrats cannot be trusted with national security issues.

Since the election in 2000 Democrats have been blinded with hate and disrespect for President Bush, Vice President Cheney and the rest of the administration and they will use any means to sabotage their efforts. Since their recent rise to power in both houses they have become more transparent in the goal of completely destroying this presidency at all costs – even if our national security is put at risk.

Over the past three years, after their thin-veiled acts of fake patriotism following 9/11, the Left along with the mainstream media have made an all-out effort to discredit the president and torpedo every effort to have a victory. They have labeled the president a liar at every opportunity all over the world – even though they all voted for the Iraq action and were aware of the same information that was available to Bush, Clinton and Blair.

It is inconceivable that the speaker of the House would take it upon herself to run foreign policy. Nowhere does our Constitution allow for this type of subversive behavior from this arm of the government triumvirate. If this would have happened during WWII and the speaker had gone to talk to Hitler unilaterally against the wishes of President Roosevelt, it would have been considered an act of treason.

It is clear from Madame Speaker's action that neither she nor the rest of her appeaser party understands that we are fighting a real war with real enemies who want our destruction. They would like to think that the Islamo-fascists in Iran, Iraq, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas that rule that part of the world can be our friends if we just sit down and have a chat with them.

The actions of the Democratic leadership in the Senate and House are despicable. If they really wanted to show some spine, they would vote to directly cut off funds for the war rather than propose a silly non-binding resolution for a withdrawal timetable. Let them go on the record as voting directly to stop the war in Iraq and against terrorism. Let them be counted by name and be accountable in the future, should we be attacked once again.

What will their excuses be and how will they try to write their revisionist history then?

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She airs our dirty laundry

It is beyond incredible that ego-driven Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi snubbed her president's request and landed in Syria. She took the division in our U.S. governing bodies to a terrorist-sponsored country, for Syria and its rogue supporters (and the whole world) to see and to relish.

The president and his Cabinet set foreign policy; Condoleezza Rice and her State Department speak for the president. At least, this is the way it has been for more than 200 years, until last November, when Pelosi became House speaker.

Evidently, she thinks a crown came with the gavel, and, as queen, she can bypass our president and secretary of state and visit any hostile country she wants to. Nancy Pelosi is the epitome of hubris – a power-hungry female bent on undermining our executive branch at any cost, so she and her party can gain total power in 2008. No doubt her next trip will be to Iran.

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Appeasing the enemy

Speaker Pelosi and the House Democratic leadership have proved that they do not have the ability to make good foreign-policy decisions. The Democrats in the House refused to condemn the British hostage crisis in Iran, providing no support for America's closest ally in her time of need. To add insult to injury, Pelosi visited Syria, a leading state sponsor of terror and one of Iran's closest friends.

It seems that the speaker thinks appeasement is better than upholding your nation's values and supporting your allies. If Pelosi thinks this is a good idea, maybe she should use her two-week vacation to read about how well this strategy worked for France before World War II.

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Political posturing

Nancy Pelosi and the House Democrats decline to take sides in the "dispute" over Iran's taking and abusing British hostages. She then rushes off to Syria to undercut U.S. foreign policy and assure the terror state's leaders that if the elected U.S. president won't kowtow to them, she and her Democratic Congress will. When this delegation gets back and holds a gushing press conference telling us how wonderful Bashar al-Assad is and how she doesn't understand why Bush can't get along with him, I hope they are all arrested and charged under the Logan Act.

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More voices referencing our new useful Idiot of the House

For the 1st time, I can actually believe that this country is less safe than it was just over a week ago.  Thank you so very much Miss Pelosi, and your fellow Democrats     

[The_Professor]

Hate is absurd in just about any form. It leads to the Dark Side of the Force.

Hating the President? Gimme a break! I didn't agree with a lot of Clnton's policies but I didn't and don't HATE him. Grow up, folks!

Geez...