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This Is Why The Thief-in-Chief's Approval Rating Is 38%
They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
—Benjamin Franklin
Meant to post something on this when the story started breaking two days ago, but busy RL prevented me from doing so. Plus,
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twistedchick and AmericaBlog had posts on this and it kicked me in the ass.Anyone else pissed as all hell about this bullshit?
I mean, what the hell people? When you've got Human Rights Groups in Bangledesh pointing out that your country has gone off the deep end civl rights-wise, you know that you've got problems. But, as the Bangledeshis point out in their article, our problems on this front translates to problems for civil rights groups the world over. If we can't stave off this government's fascistic tendencies with our vaunted Constitutional protections, they note that everyone else can consider themselves pretty much fucked.
What I want to know is, why the hell aren't we more up in arms that we're living under a government that is so terrified of dissent, they'd actually spy on Quakers? Where are the cries of outrage? Where are the protests? Why aren't we getting on the phone to our Congressional representatives right now and demanding an investigation into this shit?
Because domestic spying? Not cool. And no one throw the "sleeper cell" argument at me. Every single terrorist attack on this nation's soil, from our homegrown nutjobs to the nutjobs born overseas, could have been stopped if people in law enfocement used the tools they already had. Shortcuts were made somewhere along the way, warnings were ignored (Hello August 6, 2001 memo detailing that Al Quaeda planned to hijack airplanes and use them as missles), and, in short, the existing system broke down.
Spy on the citizenry? Not going to solve that problem.
But this is clear a case of intimidation. Don't believe me? Check out this list of people and organizations spied on by the DoD.
Because, really people, what the fuck?
Why have we not impeached this entire administration? And why are they still roaming around the streets when their asses should be in jail? Why aren't we shipping these jerks off to the Hague so they can be charged with crimes against humanity?
And before you say, "Don't blame that Vicious Drunk and his Cadre of Sychophants," I do very much blame the Clown Circus. Any Wop like me can tell you, fish rots from the head, and this crew is rotten to the core, from outing a CIA operative as part of a political smear campaign, to lying to the American people to get them to agree to an illegal war of aggression against a sovreign nation, to fighting against a resolution that would ban the use of torture (hell, just that fact that we're now openly using torture and not apologizing for it makes me nervous; and someone tell me when torture became a question), to secret CIA prisons, to abandoning its citizens who've seen their lives destroyed, and now to domestic spying.
We need these people gone and we need them gone now.
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It's disturbing how many people will voluntarily relinquish their civil rights to feel secure. I remember people being interviewed in the wake of 9/11 about the soon-to-be passed Patriot Act and everyone was saying the same thing, how this is what we have to to catch these people. Without batting an eyelash, they were willing to scrap the freedoms for which thousands of people have sacrificed their lives. It's seriously depressing.
As for why Herr Dictator is still in the White House, your guess is as good as mine. Someone nicknamed him the teflon president and it seems to be true, he can get away with anything.
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Amen. sister!
We need these people gone and we need them gone [YESTERDAY]!!!
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:sigh: It's not as if we don't have a Bush-Lap-Dog as our leader...
I suppose I shoud really be more vocal about this sort of thing myself. I'm ashamed I'm not. To be fair I get no news though, (No TV or radio for me, just the internet. Took me 3 days to find out about the flooding).
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"As democracy is perfected, the office of president represents,
more and more closely, the inner soul of the people. On some great and
glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart's
desire at last and the White House will be adorned by a downright
moron." - Mencken
It may also have something to do with the way authority is constructed in the United States, but I'm sick of writing that paper.
Also, Fareed Zakaria's big theory is that the more democracy we have, the less likely we are to be constitutional liberals and thus, populists and assholes have a greater chance of being elected. Then the assholes will gut the government, not having understood or respected the principles of constitutional liberalism, and then we're all fucked. (But Zakaria puts it pretty-like.)
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Or some such.
::shuffles off to fume::
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The problem is not the politicians. They are the same slime mold they've always been, Democrat or Republican it doesn't matter. They will do what it takes to secure their jobs and damn the consequences. Real change will only happen if the electorate is educated. If their heads are pulled out of the hole in the ground (possibly forcibly) and they are made to see the world they are allowing/promoting come to pass.
Ironically enough, this is supposed to be the job of the news. Unfortunately, the main concern of news (in all media) is ratings, and fear is good for ratings.
Have I gone completely cynical? Maybe. But I also believe the wheel turns and will come around again. We just have to be patient and try to keep things from going boom in the meantime.
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In terms of spying on domestic opposition groups, I have to say I think that's pretty much always happened, whatever the political colour of the government. It's certainly the case in Britain that MI5 would spy on groups like CND, even the Anti-Apartheid movement. My organisation, Campaign Against Arms Trade, was certainly infiltrated. We caught the bastard pretty much red-handed two years ago - he was our national campaigns co-ordinator. Now he was working for the arms industry, but we strongly suspect he was passing info to the police as well. Basically if you actively oppose the government on a matter that can remotely be described as "national security", you can expect to be spied on. I'm not saying this is remotely a good thing. But it's not peculiar to Bush & co.
As for torture, I too have been viewing the revelations that have been coming out with mounting horror; but as Naomi Klein points out in a recent article, US administrations have promoted wholesale torture in client states for decades. And the CIA practiced torture on a vast scale in Vietnam. What's new is just how brazen they're being about it. I do think that that is very, very scary in itself. But we should avoid the idea that every evil of US policy is an entirely new thing due to this uniquely corrupt and malignant gang of thugs (though such they undoubtedly are), and that all will be well once they are gone.
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My issue: It's not only open, it's being screamed from sea to shining sea. Forget the overwhelming coverage in the EU (easily accessible thanks to this new-fangled thing called the Internets...). One of the links above is to PBS's Frontline which spells out exactly what we're doing in Iraq. This is, in fact, getting mainstream press coverage (not a lot, but enough). And the administration continues to lie with a completely straight face and is starting to move from denial to outright bragging, "Yeah, we do. So what?" That's the problem. It's out-and-out thuggishness.
As for domestic spying, this country did it during Vietnam and as a result, a lot of guidelines were put in place to prevent abuse. Obviously, no one wants to hogtie military intelligence. However, the DoD could only undertake domestic spying under very, very limited circumstances. As (I think) the MSNBC article makes note: even retired former domestic intelligence officers for the DoD are appalled at the recent revelations.
What has people up in arms is that we are fact descending back to Vietnam-era levels of domestic spying. Coupled with the Orwellian Patriot act, civil libertarians like myself are going ape about this.
But again, as long as the thugs are in power, don't expect apologies or for these domestic operations to slow down.
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Its there, on the news and available for anyone to see. But most us choose not to. I don't understand it. I can't.
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We're in the middle of a federal election here in Canada. Today the American ambassador to Canada was scolding the Prime Minister for daring to suggest, in a speech at the Kyoto accord meeting, that Mr. Bush should remember that there is such a thing as a global conscience. The ambassador basically told us that we should shut up and not speak out against anything the US government does, or face the consequences. Mr. Martin, to his credit, said he'd speak out as he felt necessary, thank you very much.
I sincerely hope that the American people come to their senses, and soon. Your country has so much to offer the world, and so many good qualities, that it's tragic to see it all going to hell.
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Oh yes. I just keep reminding myself of what Winston Churchill once said about democracy not guaranteeing good leadership, but protecting against the worst excesses of bad leadership (if anyone has the actual quote, I've been looking for it (in desultory fashion) for years). This is truly bad leadership, but I hold faith that we will, eventually, throw them out. Of course, I'm still in shock we didn't do it last year.
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