Former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani who, it is rumored, may be seeking the Senate seat now held by Kirsten Gillibrand, had no problem with our criminal justice system when it prosecuted Zacharias Moussouai in a trial where the one-time presidential candidate was called as a witness.  During that 2006 trial Rudy sang a very different tune, as Chris Wallace reminds him: (h/t Crooks and Liars)

Rudy Giuliani in 2006: “At the same time, I was in awe of our system,” the former mayor continued. “It does demonstrate that we can give people a fair trial, that we are exactly what we say we are. We are a nation of law. . .I think he’s going to be a symbol of American justice.”

But now that a Democratic administration is going to conduct civilian trials it’s simply “to satisfy left-wing critics,” says Giuliani.

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Fred Thompson says the Afghanistan war has been lost, and nothing President Obama does will make a difference because he doesn’t have the will to win it. He also accuses the president of emboldening our enemies.

“It really doesn’t matter how President Obama divides the Afghan baby, how he splits the difference between McChrystal and Biden. Because the war has been lost,” Thompson said on his radio show today. “I say this because of one sad and simple fact. The president does not have the will and determination to do what’s necessary to win it. His heart’s not in it, and never has been. The Taliban knows it. Al Qaeda knows it. Our allies know it. And the American people know it.

“Our enemies are now emboldened and our friends are discouraged. We cannot prevail if the American people are not willing to make the sacrifices necessary for an extended effort. The case has not been made to them to justify this effort. The case can only be made by the president. This president is unable or unwilling to make that case,” Thompson said.

However, on a show that I’m slightly familiar with, “Hannity and Colmes,” Thompson attacked Senator Harry Reid on May 1, 2007, when Reid said the Iraq war was lost, agreeing with a woman questioning how Reid could say such a thing when there are troops in the field.

THOMPSON: Well, let’s talk about Senator Reid for a moment. Right before I came over here, I was sitting outside, getting a bite to eat, before we did our interview. A young woman [former Army captain] came up and asked if she could sit down and talk to me a minute. . . . I asked her what she thought about this. She said, “How in the world can anyone, any one of our leaders, declare war, declare that the war has been lost when we’ve got troops in the field? My friends are over there in the field. I know what they think about this.”

And, of course, it’s just like all other Americans think. The very idea that they would do this and undercut our efforts over there is unprecedented. And it’s not only unprecedented; it’s awful politics.

Thompson then even used the same language about Harry Reid he’s now using on Obama, accusing Reid of “encouraging our enemies.”

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A Lithuanian official and a former CIA official have told ABC News about a concrete structure built by the US where up to eight detainees at a time could be harshly interrogated.

“The activities in that prison were illegal,” said human rights researcher John Sifton. “They included various forms of torture, including sleep deprivation, forced standing, painful stress positions.”

As Laffy properly notes, the proper word for “harsh interrogations” is “torture”.  And see her links to more on blight in our detainee policies.

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• Are new guidelines for mammograms tantamount to health-care rationing? Or are they simply an effective way to control costs? Dr. Dennis Gottfried, author of Too Much Medicine, shares his prescription for better and more affordable care.

• The Politics of Fear? As Sarah Palin’s book hits store shelves, Alan responds to claims that liberals are afraid of the former governor.

• Washington Times Editor Emeritus Wes Pruden says the President of the United States is un-American. Alan analyzes Pruden’s logic.

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According to Washington Times Editor Emeritus Wes Pruden you can’t blame President Obama for not understanding America because his father was Kenyan and his mother “was attracted to men of third world (h/t Think Progress). Pruden believes that Obama “on the loose in a foreign land is enough to frighten protocol officers and embarrass the rest of us.”  And Pruden doesn’t miss a shot at Bill Clinton:

It took Bill Clinton months to learn how to return a military salute worthy of a commander in chief; like any draft dodger, he kept poking a thumb in his eye until he finally got it.

But Obama’s foreign roots can excuse him, says Pruden:

It’s no fault of the president that he has no natural instinct or blood impulse for what the America of “the 57 states” is about.

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• AfterDowningStreet.org co-founder David Swanson says that if Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is prosecuted, his interrogators should be prosecuted as well. Swanson defends his controversial demand.

• Tennis legend Andre Agassi tells Alan why he decided to reveal his life’s darkest moments in his new book, Open: An Autobiography.

• Alan considers the strange standards that some pundits have when evaluating presidential leadership.

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Isn’t it the Republicans who tell us they love the troops more than us anti-American liberals?  But it’s GOP Oklahoma Senator Tom Coburn, also a physician, who is obstructing a health care plan for veterans.  The legislation, which has bi-partisan approval (with the exception of Coburn), would provide long-term home health care for the wounded.

The urgently needed legislation consolidates more than a dozen improvements in veterans’ health care — most notably a new assistance program for family members who wind up providing lifelong home nursing to severely disabled veterans. These vital caregivers — who sacrifice careers and put huge strains on their own mental health — assume an obligation “that ultimately belongs to the government,” Senator Daniel Akaka, the bill’s chief sponsor, properly notes.

The measure also expands benefits for women veterans who suffered sexual trauma on duty, extends veterans’ care in rural areas, tightens quality control at V.A. hospitals, and ensures that catastrophically disabled veterans will not be charged for emergency services in community hospitals.

The omnibus legislation drew unanimous committee approval. But Senator Coburn objected to quick floor passage, demanding that the five-year, $3.7 billion cost be offset with immediate budget cuts. The senator’s argument rings hollow in the face of veterans’ suffering and the world of deficit budgeting brought on by his party’s tax cuts and zealous war investments.

But do they worry about budgets and costs when it comes time to send our treasure off to war?

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When President Obama bowed to the Saudi king he came under fire, and now he is experiencing the same disdain from the right for bowing to the Japan’s Emperor Akihito.  Of course, it was lack of respect for other cultures that diminished America’s standing in the world during a previous administration.

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Senator Joe Lieberman gave Sarah Palin support and encouragement during the 2008 presidential campaign, according to her new book (h/t The Plum Line).

She does single out some who during the campaign offered support and encouragement, specifically Sen. Joe Lieberman, a close friend of McCain. Prior to a key debate in which the prep advice was becoming overwhelming, Lieberman urged her to “Be yourself,” she writes. Sen. Lieberman then added: “Don’t let these people try to change you. Don’t let them tell you what to say and how to think.”

Palin takes a shot at Katie Couric:

“I have had better interviews,” Palin writes, noting “I choked on a couple of responses, and in the harried pace of the campaign, I mistakenly let myself become annoyed and frustrated with many of her repetitive, biased questions.”

But rather than take responsibility for her performance in that interview, she plays the victim:

…she believed it was cut in such a way as to purposely make her appear uninformed and out of touch. She had been told that the interview experience would be “mellow,” while focusing on “balancing motherhood and my life as governor.” Instead, she writes, she was victimized by a strategy designed to show her in the worst light.

“When I saw the final cut, it was clear that CBS had sought out the bad moments, and systematically sliced out material that would accurately convey my message,” she writes. “The sin of omission was glaring.”

The book’s dedication gives a shout-out to patriots, freedom, soldiers, and war with a dedication to “all Patriots who share my love of the United States of America. And particularly to our women and men in uniform, past and present–God bless the fight for freedom.”

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The health plan offered to employees by the Republican National Committee covers elective abortion, even though the party platform calls the procedure “a fundamental assault on innocent human life.”

Federal Election Commission Records show the RNC purchases its insurance from Cigna. Two sales agents for the company said that the RNC’s policy covers elective abortion.

Informed of the coverage, RNC spokeswoman Gail Gitcho told POLITICO that the policy pre-dates the tenure of current RNC Chairman Michael Steele.

“The current policy has been in effect since 1991, and we are taking steps to address the issue,” Gitcho said.

Oh? Taking steps finally after 18 years?

According to several Cigna employees, the insurer offers its customers the opportunity to opt out of abortion coverage – and the RNC did not choose to opt out.

Maybe because the RNC wants to offer its employees the same kind of coverage almost every other employer does.

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Joe Lieberman tried to make nice with Democrats to retain his committee assignments, but now that he continues to threaten to filibuster a health care reform bill, his stock with Democrats is on the decline.

Sen. Patrick Leahy, one of 13 Democrats who voted last fall to strip Joe Lieberman’s gavel of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, answered sharply when asked if Lieberman should be kicked out of the Democratic Caucus if he filibusters the health care bill.

“Let’s see what happens. I don’t think anybody should be filibustering — nobody should be filibustering health care. Either vote it up or vote it down.”

Nomentum!

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• More than six decades after the end of World War II, 13 of the Navajo Code Talkers – U.S. Marines whose coded messages helped defeat the Japanese – marched for the first time today in New York City’s Veterans Day Parade. Two of the Code Talkers, Bill Toledo and Frank Willetto, sit down with Alan to share their fascinating experiences.

• Should President Obama expand the war in Afghanistan? Alan discusses the issue with Marine Corps veteran Rick Reyes, who co-founded Veterans for Rethinking Afghanistan, and retired Air Force Gen. Thomas McInerney.

• Alan examines the latest troubling report of corruption in Iraq by the private contractor Blackwater.

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Top advisers to President Obama are coalescing around a plan for 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan.  Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton are in the loop, but the president. Obama is reportedly skeptical as to how much the governments of Afghanistan and Pakistan can execute a US strategy.

Three of the options call for specific levels of additional troops. The low-end option would add 20,000 to 25,000 troops, a middle option calls for about 30,000, and another embraces Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal’s request for roughly 40,000 more troops. Administration officials said that a fourth option was added only in the past few days. They declined to identify any troop level attached to it.

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In her new book Carrie Prejean claims that Miss California USA director Keith Lewis pressured her into getting a boob job.

“Have you ever thought of getting a boob job,” Lewis asked her days after she won the Miss California pageant. Prejean describes how Lewis ran his hands all over her body, including examining each of her breasts, while she stood in Shanna Moakler’s living room in a bikini in front of a handful of pageant representatives.

[...]

Prejean [said] in her book: “Actually, the only thing Keith Lewis put to me were his two big hands and an insistent request, bordering on a demand, that I get breast implants.”

Prejean, whose new book is advertised as proving what courage she has, and who loves to brag about her courage when she speaks to conservative groups, apparently did, if this is true, courageously go along with getting her breasts done.  But, then, maybe that is all part of God’s plan:

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