Putting the ace in disgraceful
President Bush denounced the newspaper leaks of his covert financial surveillance program as "disgraceful." I can't really beat the Post's characterization of his comments:
"What we did was fully authorized under the law," Bush said in an angry tone as he leaned forward in his chair and wagged his finger. "And the disclosure of this program is disgraceful. We're at war with a bunch of people who want to hurt the United States of America, and for people to leak that program, and for a newspaper to publish it, does great harm to the United States of America."
He wagged his finger. Imagine. He's scolding the entire United States of America for being...disgraceful. He is sitting in moral judgement on us (or maybe just on newspapermen). Is that we elected him for? (well, I didn't elect him)
To recap the situation, two rich white men, both of whom used power and influence to duck military service have sent our country to war based on false pretenses, which so far has resulted in the deaths of 2500 American youth, crippled many times that and killed untold tens of thousands of Iraqis. These two have damaged a century of hard fought privacy laws in the United States. They have elevated cronyism to an Olympic event. They have been caught lying...repeatedly.
So why are newspapers so disgraceful for doing their job? They're supposed to be a check and balance on the government, there's even an amendment about that.
I said this in another blog post, I think that the tracking of bank records is a reasonable thing for the U.S. to do. However, I don't buy this moral high ground from a couple of draft-dodging yahoos. If we trusted the White House, this wouldn't be an issue. I do not trust these creepy old oil millionaire; everything that they say and do should be checked by the media and questioned by the Press. I would not trust them with my tax dollars, I would not trust them with the future of my country, I would not leave them alone in a room with my penny jar.
Posted on June 27, 2006
