As usual, Josh Marshall finds the real nugget of data that ought to concern us
Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall May 12, 2006 12:18 AM
This line, packed a decent way down into the article in the Washington Post, jumped out at me as the most significant …Government access to call records is related to the previously disclosed eavesdropping program, sources said, because it helps the NSA choose its targets for listening.
This seems key. This isn’t yet another program with civil liberties concerns hanging around it. It’s an integral part of one program. This is the initial cull, from which targets of interest — that wouldn’t be able to meet ‘probable cause’ standards — are chosen for actual monitoring.
I’ve had another revelation today, and it relates to the title of this post in several ways — and I love multiply twisty metaphors.
"WOLF!" is the cry of the boy who lied. And lied and lied and lied, because he liked the attention and the power of being able to rouse an entire village to do his bidding. Only there was no wolf, those many times, and eventually when a real, live, actual wolf showed up, nobody listened. The kid and his flock of sheep became wolf-chow.
We are all too familiar with the "WOLF!" cries of the Bush administration and have come to learn they mean nothing whatsoever, other than trying to make us afraid so we’ll let them do whatever they want, including take away every last one of our essential liberties.
Now they claim they need to know all the details about every phone call you’ve made and email you’ve sent, so as to catch the wolves among us. Only they never do seem to find any actual wolves, do they? Anti-war activists, progressive writers, attorneys representing suspects, Quakers, Vegans, and environmentalists, sure — judging from the FBI files, they’re real good at spying on those folks. But actual violent terrorists? Not so much.
Secondly, and this is my clever snarky bit, it’s related to how the Bush/GOP people constantly refer to the ‘war on terror’ or ‘WOT’ (sometimes appending it as ‘GWOT’, to make it ‘global’). (Funny side thought: For a bunch of yahoos who say they’re fighting terror, they sure to seem to encourage a lot of it, don’t they?)
My realization is that they’re not fighting a war against terror or terrorism at all! That’s all a ruse. It is actually a War On Liberties and Freedom.
Hence, W.O.L.F.!
And next time they can check our private properties without warrant, put us in jail for violation of the Patriot Act or put it in jail on suspect without bail or giving an opportunity to call your lawyer!!
Hopefully democrats have good strategy to counter that ‘War on Liberties and Freedom’.
Right now, if it was in India, we would have half a dozen political leaders going on hunger-strike in from of the US Capitol! Why do not we see such symbolic protest here?
Probably because our leaders aren’t half as courageous as the Indian leaders. But also because as a culture, we Americans don’t typically respond to that specific kind of symbolic gesture.