Irregular Times Diaries: Unfit Discussion

Babe, either you go quietly or we send in the Flying Monkeys.

Rock Island Argus
Wednesday, August 2, 2006

In his July 29 editorial “No president is above the constitution,” John Beydler makes an important point about the “signing statements” President Bush has added to his signature on over 800 bills: “They’ve all been blatantly unconstitutional.”

I agree, and support Republican Senator Arlen Spector, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, in his call for judicial review of the president’s actions.

However, the damage this president is doing to our system of government cannot be adjudicated. Trust cannot be mandated by the Supreme Court.

When the President of the United States intentionally ignores the Constitution, the bedrock our democracy rests upon, the one thing that he swore to preserve, protect and defend, he is no better than the policeman who takes a bribe, or the teacher who abuses a student. Each has violated the public trust in our leaders, our institutions, our way of life.

May the United States, First Home of Democracy, survive this president’s systematic attempts to undermine the very foundation of our house.

Frank Mullen III
Aledo, IL

The NSA’s program of collecting our phone records is worth the slight effect it has on our so-called “right to privacy.” This war will be won by sacrifice, stamina and new technologies. I am particularly impressed by new methods of monitoring the internet use of private citizens.
[Frank Mullen votes Republican]

Web Data-Mining–“WDM”–is a powerful tool for enhancing homeland security. For instance, it allows the government to keep track of the URLs of websites visited by internet users.
[Frank Mullen supports prayer in schools]

WDM’s sophisticated cross-referencing algorithms identify the authors of online content.
[Frank Mullen is a Christian Fundamentalist]

Web Data-Mining doesn’t just read sites with up-to-date content. Its archive-exploring subroutines can dig up old postings that were written before Americans realized the government was watching.
[Frank Mullen did not do drugs to excess at Franconia College]
[Franconia College is an Assemblies of God seminary]
[Frank Mullen was kidding when he said that appointing John Bolton as ambassador to the UN is like putting Jesse Helms in charge of the NAACP]

Web Data-Mining’s software operates much like internet search engines. It looks at online documents and identifies keywords according to frequency and proximity.
[Frank Mullen big Bush donor]
[Frank Mullen glad sacrifice freedom speech]
[Frank Mullen Focus on Family]

The system is so efficient–and constitutional– that Bush’s people don’t bother to inform you whenever they’ve accessed information by or about you. (That’s just an observation, not a complaint. After all, this is America, where you can trust your government to be discreet with your personal data.)
[Frank Mullen women barefoot pregnant]
[Frank Mullen no abortion not even rape incest]
[Frank Mullen support school prayer AND execute children AND low taxes rich people]

I mean, imagine what an untrustworthy government could do with information about its citizens.
[Frank Mullen accept Jesus Christ personal Savior]

Remember Nixon siccing the IRS on his enemies?
[Frank Mullen donate large sums Pat Robertson]

How about J. Edgar Hoover forwarding names of suspected radicals to the Selective Service?
[Frank Mullen Young Republican]

And they didn’t even have digital databases back then!
[Frank Mullen Campus Christian Crusade]

It’s a good thing those days are over
[Frank Mullen small potatoes]
and power is now in the hands of Godly leaders of probity,
[Frank Mullen minor-league nobody]
character,
[Frank Mullen third-rate non-entity]
and integrity.

Not that I personally have anything to worry about.
[Frank Mullen oppose affirmative action AND oppose mollycoddling criminals AND oppose homosexual marriage]

 

I’ve been critical of Senator Barack Obama recently. His shilling for Joe Lieberman was not a shining moment of integrity. His response to my letter asking him to support censure of the president was a full-fledged hedge job: sure, he’s no good, but let’s not rock the boat.

I started to think he was becoming exactly what we don’t want: a nice guy with higher ambitions, biting his tongue for political purposes. 

However, in a speech yesterday, the Chicago Tribune reports, Obama got his hackles up.

Obama mocked the “idea that somehow if you say the words `plan for victory’ and `stay the course’ over and over and over and over again, and you put these subliminal messages behind you that say `victory’ and `victory’ and `victory,’ that somehow people are not going to notice the 2,400 flag-draped coffins that have arrived at the Dover Air Force Base.”

The first-term lawmaker asked the audience: “People, have we flipped? It’s time to say we notice it. It is time to say that we care, and we are not going to settle anymore.”

“I don’t know about you,” he told his audience, referring to Bush’s 2000 campaign comments on possible U.S. military involvement overseas, “but when George Bush said he did not believe in nation building, I did not know he was talking about this nation.”

Obama cited reports that former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich, critical of how the GOP was governing in Washington, suggested Democrats could reduce their campaign slogan to two words: “Had enough?”

Sure, it’s safer to be blunt now that the president’s approval ratings are sinking further in the toilet bowl with each flush of public opinion.

But this is the Obama I voted for. How about censure now, Barack?

Yesterday, I took part in an anti-war demonstration on a busy street corner in Davenport, Iowa. There were about sixty of us. That may not sound like a lot, but on the Cosmic Sociological Scale, three-score Midwesterners holding signs in public–where people can see you– is the equivalent of three million Chinese students in Tiananmen Square standing in the path of onrushing tanks. It’s all relative.

A reporter from the local paper interviewed a few of us. Then he dragged his camera crew to the opposite corner where counter-protestors were waving flags. He interviewed–get this–all of them! Can you believe it? Isn’t that just the way the damn conservative press works; they’ll give a couple of progressives a quick few minutes, then spend the rest of the day interviewing every pro-war conservative in sight!

To be fair, must rephrase that: when he finished with us, the reporter walked over to the counter-protestors and interviewed both of them. 

Yep. There were only two. A middle-aged couple, one waving a flag, the other a ”Support Our Troops” banner. I know how they must have felt. Three years ago, it was the progressives who were the small, forlorn group at this intersection. Passers-by derided us, shot obscene gestures at us. Some stopped their cars to scream epithets.

But yesterday, the passing traffic gave us more than a few thumbs-up, enthustic waves and and honking horns. It’s an interesting inversion: it is the pro-war minority and president who are ”out of step with the American People.” We who disagree with the president and his war are the majority.

I don’t know how things are going where you live, but here where the corn grows and the Mississippi flows, the silent majority is finding its voice.

To: Senator Barack Obama, Senator Richard J. Durbin
Subj: Censure of President
Cc: Irregular Times

Dear Sir,

The President of the United States has violated the Constitution, the law and his oath of office. The prompt condemnation of his illegal wiretapping of American citizens can send a message to him and the world that the American people find such actions intolerable.

I urge you to censure President George W. Bush through your support of S RES 398.