The Somali pirates are not terrorists. They are criminals.

The Somali pirates who are stalking the waters off the horn of Africa are not terrorists. They are not motivated by ideology or by the desire to gain political advantage over any country or society by terrorizing its citizens. They are not engaging in the indiscriminate killing of civillians.

The pirates are criminals. They are motivated by money. They hijack seafaring vessels and hold the crews and cargo for ranson. They are kidnappers and thieves. That is not terrorism. That is crime.

With that in mind, it is distressing to see Time's Joe Klein attempt to fit for-profit hijacking into the "War on Terror" frame even as he praises the Obama administration for its successful resolution of last week's hostage crisis.

[P]resident Obama appears to have been crisp and decisive throughout...and what can one say about the SEAL sharpshooters--firing from a bobbing ship at a bobbing dinghy and recording three headshots?

But it could easily have gone wrong, through no fault of the President and the SEALs--a gust of wind, whatever...and then the Administration would have had to waste all sorts of energy on damage control, fending off the second-guessers--Republicans and, all too often, people like me--and perhaps overreacting to the pirate "threat" as a result. Presidencies are, sadly, built or crippled on such quirks of fate.

As it stands, our socialist, pacifist, crypto-Muslim President has bagged three terrorist in the most dramatic fashion and saved a Captain. Congratulations to all concerned--and let's hope that the good luck continues to roll.

I expect this kind of intellectual laziness from the likes of Debbie Schlussel and Red State.

But Time Magazine? One would imagine they can do better.

'The Prime Directive'

Right-wing nutcase paranoia meets Star Trek fanboy geekdom as Red State blogger praises GOP Undisputed Heavyweight Champeen Rush Limbaugh:

Hey, anybody else want some? McConnell? Boehner? McCain and the rest of the RMSP party traitors? The gang at Weekly Standard? O’Reilly? Would any more of you high-ranking muckety-mucks in the Republican Party, and self-appointed ‘conservative’ pundits, like to dish (yet again) on conservatives and conservatism? Any more of you care to try to suck up to leftists and racists by accepting their criminally ignorant, slanderous depictions of Republicans and conservatives? Is it important to you to be seen as reasonable and independent by the hard-left Marxist media and the Democrats in Washington? [you may not know it, but their name for you is 'useful idiots'. Just sayin'.]

[...]

We’ve rejected your so-called vision for the party, and we’re finally upset enough to organize and do something about it. Conservatives are taking over the party. You are already seeing the signs. Primaries are coming, too [hello, Arlen!]. Thanks to your lack of vision and courage, the left is one month into a 4-year full frontal assault on the Constitution, on freedom, on the free market, and on everything that made America great, saving America from the left has become the Prime Directive. It’s a war footing now, and you can either lead, follow, or get trampled.

You just know this guy is beating the hotties away with a stick.

[h/t TBogg]

'Unclean! Unclean!'

I had no idea that the recriminations phase of GOP Meltdown '08 would be this much fun. It's like July 4th, the Superbowl, and Cinemax After Dark rolled into one.

Perhaps intending to kill Democrats with a massive overdose of schadenfreude, the blog Red State announces: Operation Leper.

We're tracking down all the people from the McCain campaign now whispering smears against Governor Palin to Carl Cameron and others. Michelle Malkin has the details.

We intend to constantly remind the base about these people, monitor who they are working for, and, when 2012 rolls around, see which candidates hire them. Naturally then, you'll see us go to war against those candidates.

It is our expressed intention to make these few people political lepers.

'Cuz Sarah Palin is the future of the Republican Party, dontcha know, and nothin' can be allowed to delay her date with destiny.

But, guys, you don't need to wait until 2012 to go all Michael Corleone on the Palin haters. There's an election in 2010. Did you know that, or are you planning to blow that one off?

UPDATE

The American Conservative wonders if the Red Staters have thought this all the way through.

[E]rick did stumble onto a very solid bit of inferential reasoning. One can only “make” someone a leper, short of bio-weaponization techniques a bit beyond even RedState’s competence, by contracting the infection and then transmitting it. Now of course, leprosy is a particularly nasty bug, and it’d be asking a lot of RedStaters to get themselves sick with it. But this isn’t just any political cause; we’re talking about the long-term viability of the woman who is guaranteed to lead the GOP to crushing victories in at least half the states that border Appalachia, and crushing defeats absolutely everywhere else. No burden is to heavy to bear to see to it that Barack Obama breezes to a second term effectively unopposed.