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May 15, 2006
Dems: Connect the dots, but not too aggressively
The Democrats and other assorted Bush Haters have been in a tizzy ever since the press released more classified information about how we're protecting Americans, information that'll help our enemies better plan how to kill us.
The NSA's data-mining project, looking for patterns and connections amongst the billions of phone calls placed every day, does not involve listening to what's being said, thank goodness; I've been forced to eavesdrop on just a few hundred of those conversations -- people yakking into cellphones at privacy-defying volumes -- and the sheer inanity makes me pray for sweet, sweet release (via aneurism, myocardial infarction, or asteroid hitting the Starbucks) from the problems of my fellow Americans.
Mark Steyn, as usual, has some thoughts on the press coverage of the NSA program -- as well as the anti-War Dems -- that I think are rather well put.
Template A (note to editors: to be used after every terrorist atrocity): "Angry family members, experts and opposition politicians demand to know why complacent government didn't connect the dots."
Template B (note to editors: to be used in the run-up to the next terrorist atrocity): "Shocking new report leaked to New York Times for Pulitzer Prize Leak Of The Year Award nomination reveals that paranoid government officials are trying to connect the dots! See pages 3,4,6,7,8, 13-37."
[...]
"Look at this headline," huffed [Sen. Pat Leahy (D-Vt.)] the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee. "The secret collection of phone call records of tens of millions of Americans. Now, are you telling me that tens of millions of Americans are involved with al-Qaida?"
No. But next time he's flying from D.C. to Burlington, Vt., on a Friday afternoon he might look at the security line: Tens of millions of Americans are having to take their coats and shoes off! Are you telling me that tens of millions of ordinary shoe-wearing Americans are involved with al-Qaida?
Of course not. Fifteen out of 19 of the 9/11 killers were citizens of Saudi Arabia. So let's scrap the tens of millions of law-abiding phone records, and say we only want to examine the long-distance phone bills of, say, young men of Saudi origin living in the United States.
Can you imagine what Leahy ... would say to that? Oh, no! Racial profiling! The government's snooping on people whose only crime is "dialing while Arab." In a country whose Transportation Security Administration personnel recently pulled Daniel Brown off the plane as a security threat because he had traces of gunpowder on his boots -- he was a uniformed U.S. Marine on his way home from Iraq -- in such a culture any security measure will involve "tens of millions of Americans": again by definition, if one can't profile on the basis of religion or national origin or any other identifying mark with identity-group grievance potential, every program will have to be at least nominally universal.
Last week, apropos the Moussaoui case, I remarked on the absurdity of victims of the London Blitz demanding the German perpetrators be brought before a British court. Melanie Phillips, a columnist with the Daily Mail in London and author of the alarming new book Londonistan, responded dryly, "Ah, but if we were fighting World War Two now, we'd lose."
The ever-present bleating by the Dems about protecting our privacy -- even if it kills us -- is the only thing that'll ensure that The Stupid Party (aka GOP) retains control of Congress. If you didn't know better, you'd think Karl Rove had Leahy, Kennedy, Schumer, Pelosi, Reid and all the rest of the Democratic Moonbat Brigade on his payroll.
They're not, are they?
Read the rest
Posted by Mike Lief at May 15, 2006 12:51 AM
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