Utopia 2025Apparently Attorney General Alberto Gonzales wasn’t under oath when he testified today about the NSA spying program. This is because Russ Feingold, bless his heart, demanded that Gonzales be sworn in, and the Republicans blocked it.
Honor and credibility. Yep.
The U.S. Attorney General isn’t willing to say, under oath, why the illegal domestic spying program was, in, fact, legal.
When is enough enough? What’s the tipping point? Does it exist?
AKA “I’m so sick of this shit, Part Deux”
“Secondly, there are such things as roving wiretaps. Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires — a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we’re talking about chasing down terrorists, we’re talking about getting a court order before we do so. It’s important for our fellow citizens to understand, when you think Patriot Act, constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what is necessary to protect our homeland, because we value the Constitution.”
-George W. Bush, April 20, 2004
More evidence now comes out that Bush told Tony Blair months before the start of the war in Iraq that the U.S. was going to attack no matter what – the weapons, any real threat, didn’t matter. Further, Bush floated a plan to disguise a U.S. spy plane as a United Nations plane, trying to goad Saddam into shooting it down and thus justify the already-inevitable conflict.
But that’s OK, right? Yeah. No problem there. Nope. It’s all good. Protecting us. 9/11. Terra. Yep.
Hey, is “Survivor” on?
“I don’t know why Republicans would feel any concern aboout the 2006 election. If Democrats continue on the path they’ve been on for the last 13 or so months – that is, capitulation, wimpiness, flip-flopping – the GOP should expect either the status quo or to pick up seats in the House and Senate. They’ll deserve it, because at least they want to fight for their side, no matter how evil their intent may be.”
Mrs. K: Anyone have any questions?
Bart: How would I go about creating a half-man, half-monkey-type creature?
Mrs. K: I’m sorry, that would be playing God.
Bart: God shmod! I want my monkey-man!
That’s about all it warrants.
Bush, Cheney and Co. will continue to play the patriotic bully card just as long as you let them. I’ve said it before: War brings out the patriotic bullies. In World War I, they went around kicking dachshunds on the grounds that dachshunds were “German dogs.” They did not, however, go around kicking German shepherds. The minute that someone impugns your patriotism for opposing this war, turn on them like a snarling dog and explain what loving your country really means.
-Molly Ivins, “Put up or shut up,” 1/22/06
I don’t support Hillary Clinton either, Molly. Hillary’s always struck me as the worst sort of pandering, triangulating, which-way-is-the-wind-blowing sort of politician. And it disgusts me that the crapweasel right is able to paint Cindy Sheehan as “the left” simply because of the vacuum on the left side of the aisle.
Why doesn’t anyone have the courage of their convictions? Most Americans *don’t* support this President or his war, but yet all we get is Joe Lieberman doing his Droopy Dog impression on Meet the Press. That’s maddening.
Like women in the corporate world, progressives have to be 10 times better than the ruling right in order to be considered equal. But with this crowd, why is that so hard?
Glenn Greenwald has his own (perhaps more cogent and relevant) take on my “what are the odds?” post from a while back.
Putting the terrorist threat into perspective
An eye-opening contrast from Glenn’s article:
The total number of Americans killed by Islamic terrorists in the last 5 years — or 10 years — or 20 years — or ever — is roughly 3,500, the same number of deaths by suicide which occur in this country every month. This is the overarching threat around which we are constructing our entire foreign policy, changing the basic principles of our government, and fundamentally altering both our behavior in the world and the way in which we are perceived.
“Bin Laden was a self-mythologized figure of no historic standing until George W. Bush designated him America’s equal by defining 9/11 as an act of war to be met with war, instead of a crime to be met with criminal justice.”
-James Carroll, The Boston Globe, Jan. 30, 2006
This quote got me thinking again about being “at war,” and the President being a “war President.” The bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City was an act of terrorism carried out by a small group of people in order to effect political change. So were the attacks of 9/11. Why was one an act of war, and the other not?
Exercising my infamous hyperbole, why didn’t we bomb wherever we thought McVeigh’s associates could be hiding? Why didn’t we round up all their families and associates, and imprison them without representation at secret sites until they divulged all they knew? Why wasn’t the OKC bombing the beginning of the “War on Anti-Government Extremism”? This of course would result in the routing and killing of hundreds of militia members across the nation. After all, their anti-government views are an imminent danger to the society.
Why didn’t this happen? Where’s the difference?
UPDATE: More thought-provoking stuff on war here and here at Digby’s place. One snippet:
The fevered one-handed war blogging and the endless evocations of pre-9/11 and post 9/11 thinking reminds me of nothing so much as people who are hooked on a stimulating drug.
“We need somebody to put rat poisoning in Justice Stevens’ creme brulee,” [Ann] Coulter said. “That’s just a joke, for you in the media.”
And when Bill O’Reilly called for terrorists to bomb San Francisco, that was a joke too. I guess conservatives can say whatever insane, vile things they want, as long as they chuckle with that creepy GWB chuckle and say, “Just a joke, folks. When I said I wanted you dead, hey, that was just a joke! Don’t you have a sense of humor, you fascist?”
The word “fuckers” is losing its effectiveness when describing these people, sort of like an antibiotic that’s been overwhelmed by a new strain of ebola. I need a new word.
9/11.
Iraq.
Hard work.
9/11.
Thank you and good night.