Goodbye Birthers; Hello Deathers

That's it? We had all of two days to relish the news about Osama bin Laden's take down before politics broke out.



President Obama chastised Daffy Donald that he had more important things to do than dealing with allegations about his place of birth from "carnival barkers." Now we find out, WOW! he did.



Even as the loonies were insisting Obama's long-form birth certificate is phony, something easily photoshopped, they turn around and demand pics of the slain bin Laden to prove Obama wasn't lying; evidence that could easily be -- photoshopped!



Four days after his death, al-Qaeda confirmed the news, but suppose it hadn't? Here's just how absurd the deathers' assertion would stand: Obama, his National Security Council, the CIA and the Joint Special Operations Command not only rigged-up this incredible scam but also arranged with the undead bin Laden to not publish a picture of himself holding a May 3 edition of Al Jazeera thereby demolishing their sinister plot.



What total nitwits.



Obama has wisely chosen not to release the pictures; to "spike the football" as he says, much to the dismay of the crowd who so admired George W. Bush's macho-cowboy antics. We saw how well Bush's "bring 'em on" response to the 2003 Iraqi insurgency worked out.



The pictures would surely enflame some segments of the Muslim Street that, looking around right now, don't seem to be all that worked-up. I'd say a pretty good call.



The other issue raising it's ugly, waterboarded head is whether the use of torture provided any useful information in the operation. Those who know aren't talking, but it certainly hasn't stopped people who don't know, like Liz Chaney and Rush Limbaugh, from running their mouths claiming vindication of Bush administration "enhanced interrogation" practices.



I don't know either but since the torture of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Hassan Ghul, the guys who knew about bin Laden's courier, was ended by 2005, either the government sat on the address for six years or there was a whole lot more involved than what may or may not have transpired in the Dick Cheney Torquemada Memorial Dungeon.



At the same time it's a little hypocritical, don't you think, for liberals who are so anguished by torture, Guantanamo detentions, rendition and CIA black holes to be exulting in a government sanctioned assassination.



I don't know whether torture works or not, or whether the payoffs make up for repercussions on our troops, bolstered enemy propaganda or damage to America's soul. That requires knowledge way over my pay grade.



I do know this is not a frolic. There are bad guys plotting to kill us. So I have to trust the pros whichever way they roll. Liz Cheney and the other chowder heads should do the same and zip it.