Saturday, December 17, 2005

The Jerk

It's not Steve Martin, it's George W. Bush:

President Bush confirms he authorized secret domestic eavesdropping by the National Security Agency. But he lashed out at those who object, saying the spying is aimed only at people believed to have a clear link to terrorist organizations. [emphasis mine]

The last time a president said this, his eavesdropping targets were the likes of Paul Newman and Jane Fonda! Glad we're fighting on the frontlines of the war on terror, Mr. President.

Seriously though, this man does not deserve the office he holds. Any president who thinks it is his right to infringe on Americans' rights to privacy, and then to get defiant when he is questioned about the practice of spying on Americans without court approval, of effectively desecrating civil liberties, this is a man who does not respect what this country was founded on. Maybe the most disenchanting part of this revelation is that it is not even a surprise.

And we have three more years of this.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, respectfully, Jane
Fonda is no friend of the
USA. If Bush had a tap
on her phone, it would
be *for* the USA, not against
it, and right in line with
what Mr Bush says about
protecting us from the enemy.

Thanks.

Anonymous said...

By the way, did you think
that *other* US presidents did
not spy also ?

Of course they did.

Elaine said...

Hahaha, Jane Fonda?! What did Jane Fonda ever do to threaten US National Security. Proof of a threat to national security, my dear friend Anonymous, is why the gov't gets court ordered permission to spy on someone; disagreeing with what someone says is no reason to spy on someone, none at all. I'm not saying spying didn't take place under other U.S. presidents: I will say that other U.S. presidents did not try to bypass the court order.

Elaine said...

Personally, my favorite Steve Martin is King Tut. "Born in Arizona, moved to Babylonia, King Tut!"

Anonymous said...

Apparently you're either too young or too brainwashed to realize that Jane Fonda went to HANOI during the Vietnam war, while American military men were held as prisoners, to bash the United States, and thereby causing even more sufferring and torture to the prisoners. Apparently you don't understand the meaning of betrayal unless somebody rains on your own pathetic little parade.

Elaine said...

Well, I'm glad you came back. I know Jane Fonda went to Hanoi. My problem with what you're saying is it's so vague. It's the typical Republican justification for doing something which is otherwise illegal like spying on someone without court approval. You say Jane Fonda went to Hanoi to "bash the United States, and thereby cause even more suffering and torture to prisoners." How? Because she said something bad about America? How did this cause people to be tortured?

I don't know why, but the people who are the loudest about fighting whatever the scourge of our time might be--whether it's the communists or the anarchists, etc--usually choose the wrong people to get upset at. While HUAC was trying to get members of Hollywood, Joseph Stalin was having millions of people killed over in the USSR. While Osama Bin Laden is surely training more young men in terrorist acts, the Bush administration is probably busy wiretapping the home of Cindy Sheehan and Tim Robbins and fighting an absolutely baseless war in Iraq. Do you see the disconnect here?