Hello, from a non-thinker!
Blogger Owen Courrèges has called me out as “mindless and fanatical” with an argument “beneath any real thinker”. He was referring my post from yesterday where I hinted that the Bush Administration was treading the line of treason if they were using terror warnings to rile up public fears in order to divert attention from questions. Well, Owen is certainly entitled to his opinion, but he kind of missed what I was doing with the end of that post. See, for the last 9 months or so, anytime anyone has questioned anything about the Bush administration, we get Cheney and Ari and Armey and his gang making mindless, fanatical, and wholly unsupported claims that the questioners are divisive, unpatriotic, and on some occasions, even treasonous. I think I pointed that out pretty well in this post. I just thought it was time someone turned the tables. It kind of sucks, doesn’t it?
For the record, as much as I may not like Ari, he is not that stupid. Even if the administration did knowingly raise terror alerts just to divert attention from the “who knew what”, there is no way he would give it up like that in a press conference (The article I linked to did make that supposition however).
Of course, I do feel that if the alerts were in any way raised to stop the questions that would be reprehensible. If it were true, that would be an abuse of the power of the executive office, and I’ll argue that until I am blue in the face.
As I have said many times, I am tired of Bush getting a free ride in the media. I am tired of congressmen and members of the administration carelessly bandying about words like “unpatriotic” and “divisive” and phrases like “giving comfort to terrorists”. I too get annoyed when someone falsely accuses someone else, or questions someone’s patriotism for political ends. The fact remains that asking questions about the events leading up to 9/11 and the events that have taken place since is not unpatriotic. It is quite the opposite.
I completely agree that it shouldn’t be “unpatriotic” to question the executive at this time. I haven’t heard many comments directly from the Administration driving such accusations, although it may often be implied. They’ve simply been chasitizing Democrats for “playing politics,” which isn’t necessarily the same as playing the patriotism card. That’s done by both sides on a regular basis.
That being said, the quote you provided from Rep. Porter Goss (R-Florida) WAS inappropriate. It was an outright accusation of treason, and that is mindless and fanatical. Most everything else has been typical political fare - the Administration is afraid that an investigation will turn partisan. And so far things have broken down largely along party lines.
Comment by Owen Courrèges | 5/25/2002
I think there is a bigger threat than treason or any “Wag The Dog” scenarios we might concoct from all of the administration’s warnings. I think we are already dangerously close to a point where the warnings are going to be seen not as advance terrorist warnings, but a boy calling wolf once too often.
If the White House administers a warning every time it is criticized, people are going to become immune to it all…or cynical. It also starts to raise critical questions about what the “war on terror” is being used for: making sure we can live in freedom, or covering any just questioning of the White House.
Comment by Brian Petro | 5/30/2002