Bill Maher, Understand THIS!

I really, really, really hate pulling rank on people. I wasn't raised that way. I was told it was tacky. Actually, I was told it was a pretty damned Yankee thing to do, but sometimes, you have to get down to a person's level, even if it does mean slithering in the mud with the other slugs.

Friday night, Bill Maher told a lie. Now, he's not he first person to tell this lie. I don't know who was; but facts are facts, and if people weren't so damned intellectually and morally lazy, they'd find that what Bill and many others have been whining and bitching about is one big fat lie.

Bill said Obama lied when he said he'd close Guantanamo Bay.

Here are the facts:-

Yes, the President signed an Executive Order, authorising the closure of Guantanamo Bay within one year. That was in 2009.

The Executive Order is a simple piece of legislation, and quite often it simply gives an end to which another department or Congress has to aim. For example, Harry Truman signed the Executive Order authorising the de-segregation of the military; but it was up to the Defence Department to implement this, via their own procedures.

So the President said to close Guantanamo within one year. Then the responsability shifted to Congress, who had to deal with the financing and logistics of the situation. That's their job, you see, not the President's. It's part of the checks and balances system. I'm certain Bill learned about that, because in the 70s, every public schoolchild studying civics or US Government or whatever your school called it, got the standard red-white-and-blue textbook entitled - you guessed it - "US and Comparative Government"(by Harcourt, Brace and World Incorporated.)

First, Congress had to decide where the prisoners would be relocated until they had their requisite trials or whatever. The Senators and Congressmen balked at that. They quivered, they shook; but above all, they spoke for their constituents. Who would tolerate, who would countenance suspected terrorists being housed on the mainland, even though they would be housed in high security units?

When someone suggested re-activating a disused high security prison in Illinois for the prisoners, Dick Durbin, Democrat, objected strenuously.

Congress was still debating this in the autumn of 2009, when AG Holder announced that the civil trial of Khaled Sheikh Mohammed would be held in New York City. The media hailed this as a great manoeuver. It would show the world that we were not cowed by the events on 9/11 and that we would seek justice in the city where the greatest of the crimes were committed.

At first Mayor Bloomberg approved, but suddenly, he rescinded his approval. Residents objected to the disruption to daily lives that a high-profile trial like this would cause. They objected to the cost, the plethora of world journalists descending on the city; but most of all, they were afraid of some reprisal action. These outcries were led by Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat, Senator Kirstin Gillibrand, Democrat, and Congressman Anthony Weiner, Democrat.

When an attempt to move the trial to Pennsylvania, the site of the downing of United 93, opposition was led by Senator Arlen Specter, Democrat and Senator Bob Casey, Democrat.

When a third attempt was made to hold the trial in Virginia, owing to the Pentagon attack, resistance was led by Senator James Webb, Democrat and Senator Mark Warner, Democrat.

Then, with the process still in limbo, at the end of 2009, Congress voted against providing funds for the disestablishment of Guantanamo Bay (fiscal matters being raised in the House - then Democratic - and approved by the Senate); at the same time, the legislation passed called for no inmate at Guantanamo Bay to be given a civil trial on the mainland. All trials were to be of a military nature and to take place at Gitmo.

This legislation passed in the Senate by a vote of 96-4 in favour. Bernie Sanders voted for the legislation. That's right; Saint Bernie voted to keep Gitmo open, keep the inmates there and give them military tribunals. Sherrod Brown voted for the measure. And John Kerry. And Jay Rockefeller. And all of the Democratic Senators from the states which were directly affected by the events of 9/11. All six of the Democratic Senators from New York, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

You will recall, and I'm sure Bill will, that when the President signed the legislation, he admitted, on camera, that he was signing, with reservation, because he did not think this was the appropriate course of action, but that under the terms of our Constitution, the Congress had deemed this best.

End game? No, Bill, Obama didn't lie about closing Guantanamo Bay. He did as much as he could do within the scope of his powers as President to close the facility. Unfortunately, that closing entailed Congress getting off its recalcitrant backside and doing some work and showing some fortitude. Fat chance getting that from this lot of losers!

Had there been a more resilient and intellectually honest bunch of legislators, ones with backbone, there might have been a different outcome.

But it's all there for you to research, Bill, unless you, yourself, are so intellectually lazy that you'll believe someone else's spin, rather than seek out the facts for yourself.

But then, maybe that's why I was accepted at the University of Virginia and you weren't. And why I could choose to turn down Cornell's offer of a place in its freshman class, and you really couldn't afford not to do so.

Sorry, about pulling rank. It truly is a Yankee thing to do.