TPM: Prominent Conservatives Say Gitmo Detainees Would be Fine in IL Prison

[flpoljunkie]

Conservatives Say Gitmo Detainees Would Be Fine In IL Prison, Warn GOP Of 'Scaremongering'

Christina Bellantoni | November 16, 2009, 10:19AM



President of The American Conservative Union David Keene, Rep. Bob Barr (R-GA), and Americans for Tax Reform President Grover Norquist

Three prominent conservatives warned in a joint statement against Republican "scaremongering" on Guantanamo Bay detainees, saying the prison in Thomson, Illinois would be fine to handle them.

Former Republican Congressman and Libertarian presidential candidate Bob Barr, David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union and Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform, have teamed up to urge the Gitmo detainees be taken to the U.S.

"The scaremongering about these issues should stop," Barr, Keene and Norquist wrote.

"Civilian federal courts are the proper forum for terrorism cases," they wrote. "Civilian prisons are the safe, cost effective and appropriate venue to hold persons in federal courts."

more...

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/11/conservatives-say-gitmo-detainees-would-be-fine-in-il-prison-warn-gop-of-scaremongering.php?ref=fpa

[tblue]

1. Well, hey, they finally got something right. Is this a privately owned prison?

Because I know.....anything to make a buck. And the prison industry could make a lotta money off of holding KSM, et al.

[flpoljunkie]

2. It appears to be an Illinois state prison which, if approved, will become a federal prison.

http://www.idoc.state.il.us/subsections/facilities/information.asp?instchoice=tom

[bluestateguy]

3. Goober Norquist?

nt

[Brother Buzz]

4. Goober married a practicing Muslim

His views of the world no longer mesh tightly with the conservative loonies.

[Cha]

5. Wow..you just can't tell

what's going to happen. No more bathtub drains for him?

[Brother Buzz]

7. That's dometic policy

Plus the K street boys couldn't have been really thrilled by that bit knowing the pork fat shrank with a smaller budget, too. Either way, Grover has become a has been after Abramoff world imploded.

[msanthrope]

6. Was that the sound of Hell freezing over????

I find myself agreeing with Norquist on, well, anything???????????????

[Canuckistanian]

8. This is very, very dangerous

If we let terrorists into the country, they could use their Super Jihadi powers to rip the bars out of their prisons, use their propaganda to indoctrinate our kids (whose heads are filled with lib'rul commie ideas like "due process" and "human rights").

It's the most dangerous thing this country has faced since the Nazis invaded Pearl Harbor.

[quaker bill]

9. Some of them

were bound to begin acting modestly sane sooner or later. It is needed to create some distance from the tea bag lunatic fringe where very few concepts appear to qualify as simply too irrational for acceptance. It also distinguishes them from the Bushite neo-cons, who feel that our constitution and system of justice is "too quaint" to deal with modern terrorists.

This is the front, a sort of conservative - libertarianism, a sort of hybrid somewhere between Gingrich and Ron Paul, where the GOP could reorganize to eventually return to become a force in national politics. Locally, they are playing around with the name "independent conservative". There is still a fairly solid "tea party" faction that seems to be attempting to get candidates on the ballot in 2010. However, most of these are not professional politicians, have no discernable campaign experience and no party backing. In short, they will not survive the primaries. This being said, I think the "tea party" faction has enough energy to go for two cycles of defeat before they abandon ship.

If things go well for them, the GOP could be sufficiently reconstituted to offer a credible challenger in 2016.