Carter's Little Heart Attack Pills

If your heart's a bit sluggish this morning, I recommend a cardio workout and point you to The Progressive, and Amitabh Pal's interview with Jimmy Carter.

After a fawning introduction that irritatingly reminds us that a great number of people think of Carter's last couple decades as "perhaps the best post-Presidency ever in U.S. history," Pal sits down for a heart-to-heart.

Right off the bat, Carter shows that he is incapable of differentiating between terrorists captured on the field of battle and everyday American citizens:

What’s been done in the last seven years is embarrassing to an American. What we have done through our own government is to torture prisoners, to deprive them of their basic rights to legal counsel, even the right of prisoners to be acquainted with the charges against them. Those kinds of things have been cherished as basic principles of American law and American policy for more than 200 years. To have them subverted and abandoned and condemned is just a travesty of justice and a very serious embarrassment to those of us who—as Americans and non-Americans—are committed to human rights.

It's not embarrassing to me; I don't agree with his definition of torture; and I don't think al-Qaeda operatives who defy the Geneva Conventions in every act they do should be offered anything approaching the rights of Americans.

Is there a great commitment to human rights on the part of those of us who think people who blow up babies and crash planes into skyscrapers -- infringements of human rights, if you will -- be kept apart from the rest of us?

Turning to the Middle East, Carter leads off his answer to a question about the Annapolis conference -- the question goes something like this, "Bush's Annapolis ploy doesn't hold a candle to your magnificent Camp David Accords, does it?" -- Carter says:

The Palestinian community has been deliberately divided, one part from another, with support from both the United States and Israel.

That's one incredibly ignorant and biased way to look at it. As I recall, Hamas and Fatah had a shooting war. Each side was armed and funded not by the US or Israel, but by the various Arab nations. They ripped Palestine apart and spilled a lot of Palestinian blood all by themselves doing it, and there was nothing the US or Israel could have done to bring the sides together; that was the work of the Arab nations, and none of them could do a thing about it, either.

Besides, what's wrong with Palestine going crazy and making a fool of itself again? If they do it enough, all the world except for Jimmy Carter and foolish people like writers for The Progressive will see their leadership for what they are: Human scum incapable of running a gas station, let alone a nation.

I wish I could go on; I'm barely touching the surface here, but I must be off for another all-day meeting to prep for my client's Coastal Commission hearing. Feel free to read the piece yourself and add comments below.

hat-tip: RCP

Big Hugs At Carter-Hamas Meet

Check out Scarface in the foreground. How many Israeli women and children do you think he's killed in his career as a "Palestinian militant?" How do you think he felt, witnessing a former US president hugging a leader of his political party terror group?

RAMALLAH, West Bank (AP) - Former President Jimmy Carter embraced a leading Hamas figure Tuesday, according to participants in a meeting that infuriated Israeli officials already upset by Carter's freelance Mideast peace mission.

Carter also laid a wreath at the grave of Yasser Arafat, whom the Bush administration and many Israelis blame for the breakdown of peace talks seven years ago and the violence that followed.

The recipient of the Carter hug was Nasser Shaer, a senior Hamas politician, who told reporters:

"He gave me a hug. We hugged each other, and it was a warm reception. Carter asked what he can do to achieve peace between the Palestinians and Israel ... and I told him the possibility for peace is high."

How can the possibility for peace be high? Is Hamas going to stop firing rockets into Israel? Is it going to recognize Israel's right to exist? Of course not.

The media is referring to Shaer as a Hamas moderate, which is sort of like talking about a chaste whore. As Hamas' education minister, he is responsible for a system that indoctrinates young Palestinians with hatred, hopelessness and victimization, or put another way, he does all he can to ensure that the possibility of peace will be low for at least another generation.

Scrappleface got it right:

As former President Jimmy Carter meets this week with Hamas leaders in the West Bank and Syria, sources at the State Department say President George Bush will soon honor Mr. Carter’s decades of freelance diplomacy by appointing him as the first U.S. Ambassador to Hell.

“Bush just wants Carter to go there,” said an unnamed State Department source, “and to set up an embassy, and try to be a good listener, open a communication channel, find common ground.”

Quote Of The Day: Simple Enough Even For Carter Edition

"I find it hard to understand what is to be gained by having discussions with Hamas about peace when Hamas is in fact the impediment to peace."
-- Condi Rice

I guess you have to make it pretty simple if you want the worst president in US history to understand it. But I doubt that Jimmy Carter will get it at all.

After all, why shouldn't Carter talk to Hamas if his long history of actions against Israel (here, here, here, ad infinitum) has resulted in such a lucrative "friendship" with the Arabs (here, here, here, ad infinitum)?

The Reuters article from which the quote above comes from is also host to one of the most bizarre, fawning sentences I've ever read. Get ready; gird up those loins! Here it is:

Carter, 83, served one term as president from 1977 to 1981, and has a long history in Middle East peacemaking.

"Peacemaking?!" Let's say it the right way:

Carter, 83, drummed out of office by the American people at their first opportunity, has a long history of miserable failures at trying to broker a Middle Eastern peace, but in a personification of a famous saying about insanity, he keeps trying anyway.

Former presidents should not engage in foreign policy initiatives without the current president's support, it's that simple -- no matter how much money Carter stands to make from this round of personal diplomacy money-grubbing.