Quote of the Day
From the New York Times:
I think this is a good example of what President Bush once described as "the soft bigotry of low expectations." Could Specter be a bigger clown?
Mr. Dempsey, policy director of the Center for Democracy
and Technology, said at the hearing that he appreciated
Mr. Specter’s efforts to bring the N.S.A. program under
judicial review but that “the price you paid for that simple
concession is far too high.”
The proposal, he said, “would turn the clock back to an era
of unchecked presidential power, warrantless domestic
surveillance and constitutional uncertainty.”
Mr. Specter grew testy over the attack, saying President
Bush’s agreement to submit the program to the intelligence
court was no simple concession.
“Have you ever gotten a concession from a president?” he
demanded of Mr. Dempsey.
“I would just suggest to you,” the senator said, “that given
the president’s attitude on the surveillance program and his
attitude on executive power generally that it was not a simple
concession, but really was quite a breakthrough.”
I think this is a good example of what President Bush once described as "the soft bigotry of low expectations." Could Specter be a bigger clown?
posted by A.L. at 10:48 PM
7 Comments:
Nope.
"Have you ever gotten a concession from a president?"
A concession like the one you got, Senator? I get 'em by the fistfull, every day, without even asking!
Hell, I could get concessions like that from the North Koreans, too, if you'd like to send me over there!
All I'd need is a pen and some paper to write down what they'd like, and then some gift wrap.
Ha! Well put, Kagro.
"..turn the clock back to an era
of unchecked presidential power, warrantless domestic
surveillance and constitutional uncertainty.”
An era like that of, say, Abe Lincoln or FDR? Of the suspension of habeas corpus, of the incarceration by Executive Order of thousands of entire families of American citizens? Of the kidnapping and deportation of candidates for public office on the grounds of their opposition to an unpopular war? Is that really what the NSA program portends? Is this man quite sane?
Are those the chapters of the Lincoln and Roosevelt administration's you'd most like to relive?
Every administration has its low points. And, by definition, its lowest.
That great men presided over their own greatest failures is your justification for repeating them?
Surely even you can acknowledge that these aren't the accomplishments for which Lincoln and Roosevelt are celebrated as heroes. You can't seriously be expecting anyone to applaud you for suggesting we revive them, can you?
It is not at all honest to imply that I have suggested that these acitivities be revived. I mention them to provide some perspective to the NSA program, which so far as I am aware had harmed no one at all. Contrast that program with, for example, Lincoln's practice of tapping telgraph lines on a wholesale basis, utterly without so much of a thought of seeking a warrant. And wasn't the Emancipation Proclamation something of an unprecedented grab of executive power, to say the least?
Yes. And?
I don't see how that's supposed to put NSA spying in a better light.
And the best part is, neither do you. But you just can't help yourself.
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