I'm getting exceedingly annoyed with those who would argue that fear of "keyword searches" and "data mining" are irrational and hysterical for fearing these things, based on the laughable assumption that only those who use, say, "muhommad" and "bomb" in the same sentence would ever be in danger. There are two reasons such arguments are A) false, and B) inherently self-discrediting.

First of all, in a police state, only those who might question the government are in any danger. Those whose every "keyword" and bit of data represent unpaid fellatio to the powers that be indeed have "nothing to hide." They even might receive a gold star to pin on their brown shirts, or at least be put on the short list for a no-bid government contract. To their minds, being recognized as a "real American," while those who disagree might be shipped to Gitmo are equally attractive. Therefore everything they say about liberty not being in danger is not only false, but unintentionally reveals that what they really want a government that punishes those who disagree with them and simutaneously elevates them from their deserved obscurity and powerlessness to a star position on the winning team.

Second, they are not really as afraid of terrorism as they are afraid of being questioned, and therefore Bush's failures to prevent or defeat terrorism are a distant second to his demonstrated ability to stifle dissent and defeat enemies at home, when they are deciding how to pick their heroes. That's why they would rather be here, than Mosul or Afghanistan.

If I were them, I'd pick a dumber audience, but I'd surely keep writing the same things.

Mike, Have them email me. I have a link to print more, but there still a couple left that I can share.

T

LWM.... I like to assume that everyone knows how to make their own cocktails. This isn't quite that superfluous. I can show you the creation if you email me at sig at gmail dot com.

Bop.... Here, the moon which is so often invisible, is a beautiful orb, mostly brown and dark, with a brilliant cat claw of white at the bottom. Life on the 13th floor is dangerous, I suppose, but nights like this I can stand it.

I've been scaling up the down escalator all evening, but I finally got to the top, panting but glad for the trip. Who is this elephantine person? He makes shooter look smart. Can any human capable of fogging a mirror think that a disfugured septugenarian with a fascist Barbie for a trophy wife really capture anybody's imagination?

It was mentioned many hours ago, then lost in the discussion, but I would like to remind y'all that the sound bite of Michelle Obama's speech wherein she said that in all of her adult life, this time was the first that she was "proud" of her country was a crudely edited piece of RWA crap. She said "really" proud, but her determined and brazen detractors thought it proved their point so much better without that pesky and context-altering "really." So they took it out. It's quite fascinating... you can see her lips say "really" even as there is a gap in her words. Better yet, there is a clip of the real quote against the false one, posted at ThomHartmann.com.

Now, if I were an African American woman her age, or really any normal American of any age, the quote even in its edited form would be perfectly fine, and long overdue, but it's pretty revealing that such absurd shenanigans are what the Noise Machine is now reduced to.

Guardedly as always, I'm optimistic.

Sysprog.... I can't imagine the reason for the editing, if they had a "clean" tape of what they wished she'd said. But the tape I heard clearly had an "r" sound and a gap, and it's original was the same with the "really."

Any ideas?

This subject hearkens back to the discussion of armchair warriors from the other day. Since World War II, the right has had an unhealthy obsession with using the military to "git" somebody, anybody. The appeal appears to be psychological, rather than strategic, because the target is essentially interchangeable, and the goal, unimportant.

The same mindset that wanted to "pave and stripe" Vietnam is equally satisfied by fantasies of "taking out" Iran, Syria, whatever. Setting to one side the morality and/or strategic consequences of such lunacy, as a political strategy, it is quite ingenius. It seems that one can never underestimate the rank, unfocused hatred and bloodlust of many Americans, and the ridiculous equation of this disorder with toughness and bravery.

Worse, on some level the media understand this, and rather than point out, correctly, that these warmongers ought to be in a rubber room, they fret about the "naivete" of those who are rightly appalled, or at least expect the proposed violence to accomplish something.