Letters to the Editor
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Perhaps we need a few more "Pink Panther" remakes.
This NSA scandal just isn’t going to touch very many people in that same personal way, I believe. And that’s the problem, in my view.
If the potential for abuse doesn't scare people, how about the potential for idiocy?
PS: I do think the hospital bed standoff would make great TV!
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@ various
@Harrington Wednesday, May 16, 2007 06:16 AM
I think it was William Timberman who said someone from the Republican party will be nominated to lay a metaphorical sword on Bush's desk for him to fall on. Anyone even slightly vulnerable won't defend him for fear of losing his/her own seat.
And I don't think we're going to have a President Cheney - who is, of course, is involved in the law-breaking up to his soulless eyeballs. He'll be found out too.
Though I'm not a huge Pelosi fan, "President Pelosi" has a nice ring to it...that is, if the MSM finally, finally decides to do its damn job.
@ Malcontent Wednesday, May 16, 2007 06:18 AM
What is it Mark Twain said? Something along the lines of "The only difference between truth and fiction is that fiction must be credible" I believe.
Rephrased: Fiction, to be believable, must fit within our expectations. Truth may be so far outside our expectations (especially with the MSM trying very hard to narrow our expectations to frame the world in neocon terms) that it seems literally not credible.
@ Scientician and bamage - I have tried to Digg this article and I keep getting "cannot display page" and MSN claims the page doesn't exist (!!??). Not that I use MSN - it is just the default when Explorer can't find something. I can see cached pages on Google, but can't link there. I'll try again when I'm at my home computer.
SusanMc (previous thread)
I'm not really clear what you are referring to with your reference to the use of "OT" on other boards. (Maybe I'm using it wrong - I thought it meant "off topic"). I use it to alert busy people that I am saying something not really related to Glenn's post.
Maybe the Intelligent Posters who like engaging the trolls would be so kind as to put some simple indication in their Subject heading-- like, say "(T)(Subject Title)." Then we'd know they were responding to a troll (slumming)(but that's their prerogative) and skip those when we're busy?
That is a fabulous idea.
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Just don't get caught
"And, as I've asked many times before, if we passively allow the President to simply break the law with impunity in how the government spies on our conversations, what don't we allow?"
As much as I abhor the many abuses of the Bush Administration, my inner cynic (who am I kidding? My outer optimist died years ago, the cynic's pretty much the only one left) would like to suggest that we have an opportunity instead to redefine ourselves as the "Anything Goes!" nation, because that seems to be the operating principle that's been in effect for quite some time now. The Bushies are just the most adept and shameless, among other things.
In the Anything Goes! nation, laws are written not to curtail damaging behaviors and policies, but to simply let you know what not to get caught doing at any given time. If you do get caught, lamenting that you've been caught is the only necessary defense. That and having all the power or money at your command to rig the system. So in the best tradition of lead by example, I would suggest to my fellow citizens that we each choose a law (or several, again, Anything Goes!) you find inconvenient, or simply contrary to your desires, and break it. Repeatedly, and as secretly as possible, just like the President! The only limits are your imagination, and the government's ability to monitor your actions.
Oh, uhh... this discussion got started because of illegal secret wiretapping and such, you say?
Hmmmm.
....Well I suppose they may have got us there. That could be a problem.
"Buuuuuuuuuuuuuuusssshhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
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What the president actually knows and does
I don't think it was mentioned in Glenn's original post or in the comments, but the fact that the president may have been directly involved in the NSA scandal is critical to an understanding of the president's potential culpability in these and other criminal acts that have occurred since the 2000 election.
From Think Progress:
COMEY: Mrs. Ashcroft reported that a call had come through, and that as a result of that call Mr. Card and Mr. Gonzales were on their way to the hospital to see Mr. Ashcroft.
SCHUMER: Do you have any idea who that call was from?
COMEY: I have some recollection that the call was from the president himself.
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Media Responsibility?
As regular readers here know well and GG himself notes, the answer to Glenn's question 'Why is this not the biggest scandal in US gov't History?' is that our Main Stream Media is a corrupted, incestuous Royal Court- conscious and loyal only to itself.
I find it amusing, then, that the featured article Salon's homepage is an amusingly juvenile review of the Republican debate entitled "What you missed while watching 'Dancing with the Stars'". That Glenn's article is not featured front and center with alarm bells says something about the pressures on an entity which strives both to report the most important news of the day, and to turn a profit. The added irony of the title is just icing on the cake.
What did I miss while I was watching 'Dancing with the Stars'? Apparently the most dire and egregious violation of US law and principles in our government's history.
P.S. So, Nixon's Unitary Executive failed because of the Press- then Reagan guts media regulation- and now we have the Unitary Executive of W. succeeding quite well because of the massive failures on the part of the Press. Go figure.
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Jake 007
So you believe the illegal eavesdropping program is/will save American lives. Based on what? Has proof lives have been saved been disclosed? Does that mean you believe there is an imminent threat to American soil? If so, are you basing this on a gut feeling since "they" hate us, or more concrete evidence?