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December 20, 2005

The Ministry of Logic

What passes for logic on the right is akin to looking in a funhouse mirror--what you get is a vague shape of reality, twisted and bent. 

Not only has the right wing shrugged off the leak outing CIA operative Valerie Plame, who was out in the field, investigating some leads in George Bush's precious war on terror. They're shrugging off the fact that Bush ordered the unauthorized surveillance of private citizens' phone conversations.

Bush insists that we need to listen in to such exciting phone conversations as the Saga of Aunt Ida's Bunions because it will help keep us secure from Al-Qaeda, the very people we ignored in favor of invading Iraq.

My outrage turned to exasperation, however, when I read read this account of his defense, which turned into an offense against any dissenters. Apparently, outing a CIA operative is not a big deal. But leaking a gross violation of the civil liberties of private citizens is unconscionable.

Blistered by allegations he violated federal law by ordering wiretaps without court approval, President Bush shot back Monday that disclosure of the secret program was a "shameful act" and a blow to counter-terrorism efforts.

No, what was a shameful act was the fact that you're so boring and pathetic that you had to listen in on phone conversations of private citizens with no warrant.

He asserted that the Constitution and the resolution authorizing force against al-Qaida gave him the right to conduct such eavesdropping, and suggested that such efforts could have prevented the Sept. 11 attacks if they had been in place sooner.

Only in your mind, kiddo. Maybe if you stuck to hunting down al-Qaeda and refrained from invading and occupying a sovereign nation, we would have caught the spineless morons who were behind 9/11.

"The fact that we're discussing this program is helping the enemy. ... We're at war, and we must protect America's secrets," Bush said during a hour long news conference. He offered assurance to the public that "I am doing what you expect me to do, which is to safeguard civil liberties and at the same time protect the United States of America."

We violate your civil liberties to safeguard them. We protect war by censoring you. Next up: George Bush set up a Ministry of Love.  We may as well set up a Ministry of Logic, considering the woeful lack of it in the right's "arguments" these days.

You know, I'm getting bone tired of the yapping dogs who take what he says as gospel truth and questions nothing. How much more obvious does it have to be that this man and his lackeys are un-American? They don't give a whit about freedom, civil liberties, or preventing terrorism. If they did, they wouldn't be so eager to give our enemies recruitment fodder in Iraq.

And for once, can we just drop the "if you do this, the terrorists win" drek? I get pissy when people insult my intelligence, and it's pretty obvious this has nothing to do with terrorists. Peace activists are th targets of survelliance, and are considered to be a threat (Via Kevin Drum and Jeff here at Preemptive Karma).

A year ago, at a Quaker Meeting House in Lake Worth, Fla., a small group of activists met to plan a protest of military recruiting at local high schools. What they didn't know was that their meeting had come to the attention of the U.S. military.

A secret 400-page Defense Department document obtained by NBC News lists the Lake Worth meeting as a "threat" and one of more than 1,500 "suspicious incidents" across the country over a recent 10-month period.

Quick! Bar the door, hide the children and pets! The peaceniks are coming! Those Quakers are nothing but trouble.  They'll stop the military from scooping up cannon fodder from giving good American citizens the opportunity to serve their country.

But if you criticize the war, the terrorists win. So you're probably a terrorist and should expect to be stalked.

Posted by at December 20, 2005 06:37 AM