Anyone notice how, when things started going well in Iraq, we suddenly have a subject change in the national debate? Before the elections, just a week or so ago, we were all talking about Howard Dean telling Americans that we're losing in Iraq and John Murtha calling for an immediate retreat from that country.
Then the elections happened. The Iraqi insurgent groups we've been fighting engaged in the political process and protected polling places. Iraqis cast their ballots and celebrated. It became clear that once the training of Iraqi security forces is completed and the nation can defend itself against enemies foreign and domestic our troops will be coming home.
So, rather than focus on that good news in Iraq, we got a big fat subject change. Now we're talking about NSA surveillance programs the likes of have been used under every President since Jimmy Carter. We're talking about the FBI monitoring activist groups. We're talking about pre-war intelligence (again!) and impeachment rumors. And while this stuff is interesting and worthy of discussion, none of it is particulalry new. Everybody knows that the FBI monitors the nuttier political activist groups for criminal/terror activities, and the powers used by the President in the NSA surveillance program have been reserved to his office by Congress for over 30 years now. As for impeaching Bush, Democrats have been trying to make that one happen since the 2000 election.
And a lot of the talk surrounding these stories isn't even remotely accurate. Ed Schultz was on his show today telling his listners that President Bush was probably "taping his political enemies," and the story is being widely played by the media as the NSA "spying on Americans." Really, we have no idea who the subjects of this surveillance were or are. We know that they're in America, but we don't know if they are citizens or foreign nationals. The details are very murky, yet the media rolls ahead as though it were a settled fact that Americans are getting their phones tapped without warrants.
Funny how this all works, isn't it? I mean, the day after the elections in Iraq the NSA story broke and drew the nation's attention. Left-leaning media pundits and politicians around the nation were all over it immediately, castigating the President for overstepping his bounds.
If I were a conspiracy theorist I'd say its almost like the media and the left are working together to keep this President down.
You can read more from Rob Port at SayAnythingBlog.com
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Comments: 3
Second, you are really doing your best to obfuscate the fact that this aministration has displayed total contempt for the law which is the real reason behind this scandal. Bush broke the law when he failed to follow procedure, procedures that he has spoken so highly of in the past, hence, he is a criminal.
Oh, and the fact that the NY Times sat on this story for over a year, in an election year no less, does not bolster your argument that some loony left press is out to get this sad excuse for an administration. But thanks for playing.
" The Shia religious coalition has won a total victory in Baghdad and the south of Iraq. The Sunni Arab parties who openly or covertly support armed resistance to the US are likely to win large majorities in Sunni provinces. The Kurds have already achieved quasi-independence and their voting refllected that.
The election marks the final shipwreck of American and British hopes of establishing a pro-Western secular democracy in a united Iraq.
Islamic fundamentalist movements are ever more powerful in both the Sunni and Shia communities. Ghassan Attiyah, an Iraqi commentator, said: "In two and a half years Bush has succeeded in creating two new Talibans in Iraq."
Iran will be pleased that the Shia religious parties which it has supported, have become the strongest political force.
Another victor in the election is the fiery nationalist cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, whose Mehdi Army militia fought fierce battles with US troops last year.
"People underestimate how religious Iraq has become," said one Iraqi observer. "Iran is really a secular society with a religious leadership, but Iraq will be a religious society with a religious leadership." Already most girls leaving schools in Baghdad wear headscarves. Women's rights in cases of divorce and inheritance are being eroded."
Mission Accomplished.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/middle_east/article334476.ece
As for the remarks of Howard Dean, I still don't understand why we make such a fuss over his comments when Rep. Senator Chuck Hagel said the same thing in June, 2005.