Patriot Act | lullaby pit

Tag Archives: Patriot Act

Legal, but not constitutional: how the government is weasel wording the public about Edward Snowden and the NSA

Posted on 2013.06.11 by winterSmith 18 comments

The Edward Snowden/NSA/PRISM uproar continues, and in the argument over whether or not he’s a Real American Patriot or your basic criminal vigilante the whole fucking point is getting lost. In fact, that argument is precisely the one that the Obama administration and the GOP’s security-state architects want us waging because it distracts us from the actual issue we need

Shootout at the DC Corral

Posted on 2010.03.03 by Bonesparkle 14 comments

The independently minded political animal always wrestles with times of transition, and the changeover from the Bush to Obama regimes has been worse than most. During the Dubya years it was easy to identify the enemy and to hate him with a blinding passion. Sweet Jesus, George II and his sidekick, The Dick Cheney, played their roles with less nuance

Politics/Law/Government

George Will can’t stop lying!

Posted on 2008.06.04 by winterSmith 83 comments

I now know why Elvis shot that TV set. If you missed it, Stephen Colbert’s special guest last night was conservative pundit George Will. I almost typed “addle-headed pathological liar George Will,” but didn’t because I think a cursory look at what he actually said will make that clear enough. Show, don’t tell, as I always instruct my writing students.

There is no opposition party in Washington

Posted on 2007.11.19 by winterSmith 15 comments

In describing the Democratic response to Bush’s sabre-rattling toward Iran, Power of Narrative’s Arthur Silber summed things up neatly: They don’t object because — they don’t object. The only thing wrong with Silber’s assessment is that it was limited to Iran. In truth, you could just as easily use those seven succinct words to characterize the Democratic Party in general.