{"id":6438,"date":"2006-01-25T13:25:29","date_gmt":"2006-01-25T18:25:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=6438"},"modified":"2006-01-25T13:25:29","modified_gmt":"2006-01-25T18:25:29","slug":"the-white-house-tries-sarcasm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/the-white-house-tries-sarcasm\/","title":{"rendered":"The White House tries sarcasm"},"content":{"rendered":"

In its continuing quest to debate the president’s warrantless-search program without actually addressing the substance of the controversy, the White House released another<\/a> campaign-style “Setting the Record Straight” document yesterday. This time, the issue was “domestic spying” — not the policy, mind you, but the wording. This comes directly from the talking points, with emphasis in the original.<\/p>\n

Definition: Domestic Vs. International.<\/b><\/u><\/p>\n

* Domestic Calls<\/b> are calls inside the United States. International Calls<\/b> are calls either to or from the United States.
\n* Domestic Flights<\/b> are flights from one American city to another. International Flights<\/b> are flights to or from the United States.
\n* Domestic Mail<\/b> consists of letters and packages sent within the United States. International Mail<\/b> consists of letters and packages sent to or from the United States.
\n* Domestic Commerce<\/b> involves business within the United States. International Commerce<\/b> involves business between the United States and other countries.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Yes, the arrogant, condescending attitude of the White House comes out nicely in print, doesn’t it? You can almost hear Karl Rove’s voice saying, “If I explain this to you as if you were a child, maybe you’ll understand.”<\/p>\n

A few thoughts in response. First, the reason the program is frequently referred to as “domestic spying” is because the spying is happening here<\/i>. We have a domestic agency tapping into domestic calls featuring at least one domestic caller. Some wacky people consider this reason to call it a domestic program. Sheer madness, I know.<\/p>\n

Second, the White House may be factually wrong. According to officials at the NSA, some of the monitored calls were purely domestic<\/a>, featuring one person inside the U.S. calling someone else inside the U.S.<\/p>\n

And third, the semantics debate over the meaning of the word “domestic” may be important to the White House, but for Bush critics, Rove, McClellan, Gonzales & Co. are missing the point. Let me put this in a way the White House may understand…<\/p>\n

Definition: Legal Vs Illegal.<\/b><\/u><\/p>\n

* Legal programs<\/b> are programs that follow the law. Illegal programs <\/b> are those that circumvent the law.
\n* Oversight<\/b> refers to some level of accountability through checks and balances. Autocratic government<\/b> is when one branch believes it can do as it pleases.
\n* Accountability<\/b> addresses a process through which one is responsible for his or her behavior. Lawlessness<\/b> is when the rule of law no longer matters.
\n* A law-abiding president<\/b> is a chief executives who believes we are a nation of laws, not men. The current president<\/b> is confused about these subtle constitutional nuances.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If we explain this to the Bush gang as if they were children, maybe they’ll understand.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In its continuing quest to debate the president’s warrantless-search program without actually addressing the substance of the controversy, the White House released another campaign-style “Setting the Record Straight” document yesterday. This time, the issue was “domestic spying” — not the policy, mind you, but the wording. This comes directly from the talking points, with emphasis […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6438","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6438","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6438"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6438\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6438"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6438"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6438"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}