May 26, 2006
Greenberg : Gen. Hayden's just sooo awesome!
Paul, you weren't paying attention (or maybe you're just not getting good information up there in Arkansas) but no one cares about eavesdropping on calls that could possibly be terrorism related. The problem is, the Administration was doing it without so much as a 'by your leave' from the FISA court. They were doing it illegally. The pat response from the administration was that FISA took to long, then came the revelation that they could put on the tap immediately AS LONG AS THEY AT LEAST APPLIED FOR A WARRANT WITHIN 72 HOURS. Bush, from the get-go lied to the American people about this program and about Congressional oversight. That makes him a liar. While not an impeachable offense (unless it involved an oath and a blowjob), it does create a little animosity toward el Presidente.Remember those scare headlines about domestic spying? They turned out to refer to wiretaps on international calls to and from this country, not domestic calls. And the hullabaloo died down.
Paul needs some help... there are a few things he missed on this. There were no warrants for the data. Companies were intimidated into giving it up. There was no Congressional oversight. We don't know what filters they were using. So many questions and illegal activity and we're supposed to accept that Hayden and the President know what's best? Hayden may be OK, but I'm never going to trust el Presidente's judgement. He told us tax cuts wouldn't cause deficits; They have. He told us Social Security was in dire straights; It's not. He and his Administration misled us into a war with a country that hadn't attacked us. He told us tax cuts would create jobs; They've done no such thing.Remember the big story about possibly hundreds of thousands of phone calls having been "monitored" by the National Security Agency on Hayden's watch? It turned out to be about phone company records being run through a data-mining operation designed to detect any suspicious pattern of calls from terrorists to their accomplices.
Trust el Presidente? I'd sooner trust a used car dealer who'll 'tote the note'
Domestic spying! What defense is available to those whose duty it is to protect us? Only to patiently explain the decisions they've made, even if the explanation is a good deal more complicated than the accusation. Even then, much of the explanation must remain behind closed doors, for the enemy is listening, too.
Yes, they've patiently explained their decisions. They've also lied. They've over and over used the threat of the terrorists to scare us into accepting what they say. The one conclusion I can draw is that they're doing a lot of illegal stuff and that I should mistrust them. Any official who swears an oath to defend this country and uphold the Constitution, then breaks it, deserves nothing but scorn. Most of all they don't deserve Paul's commentary on their character.
There is a fine line between balanced commentary and being an obsequious shill. Paul Greenberg walked up to that line, took a shit on it, then got in your car and drove 80 miles past. Nice work, Paul. You're a real asset to your profession.
Posted by mcblogger at May 26, 2006 10:35 AM
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