Ok, normally I avoid talking about politics, for several reasons. First off, political discussions tend to devolve into flame wars, and I despise flame wars (if you every find yourself in a flame war, stop posting. Seriously. Remember the adage about arguing with an idiot). Secondly, the vast majority of political discussion is absolutely meaningless noise; nothing more than smoke and mirrors. Today's scandal is forgotten tomorrow. Take things like the Clinton sex scandal or Whitewatergate. Huge scandals that, in the end, were just sound and fury.
Today, however, I would like to to chat briefly about George W. Bush, Google, and Jack Abramoff. Now, as you may know, the Bush Administration is trying to force Google into releasing their search records - all of them for a one week period - so that the government can check everyone's search queries to find terrorists. Google, for their part, says that they value their users' individual right to privacy, and has refused to do so.
Now Bush says that Google is bad, because they need to be able to fish through Google records looking for possible bad guys. They don't have any evidence of actual bad guys, or any evidence that indicates that this data contains information about any specific bad guys. They just want to fish through the results to see if there are any bad guys there.
Now, on a seemingly different but related note, the Bush administration is being called upon to release records of all official government meetings with Jack Abramoff, a lobbyist recently convicted of nasty, illegal activities (wow, who would ever have suspected a lobbyist of illegal activities? The fact that the US still allows lobbying is fucking insane). The Bush administration is refusing to release this information, because they refuse to "engage in a fishing expedition."
So lets break this down.
GOOGLE RECORDS: MAY contain evidence of illegal activities, but there is nothing to indicate that this is true.
WHITE HOUSE RECORDS OF ABRAMOFF MEETINGS: MAY contain evidence of illegal activities; in fact, there is very good reason to suspect that they do.
So, the White House refuses to allow others to "fish" for information in situations where their own privacy is violated, even though there is very good evidence to indicate that illegal activities took place. However, they are more than happy to fish for information in Google's records of the activities of private citizens, who seem to believe that they are entitled to a certain degree of privacy. Even though they are not following any specific leads, and just want to see what they might find.
A Rantback Fortune Cookie for the White House and Mr. Bush: If you want to fish, you ignorant fucks, do it in your own pond.
Source: http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/PollVault/story?id=1547685
Today, however, I would like to to chat briefly about George W. Bush, Google, and Jack Abramoff. Now, as you may know, the Bush Administration is trying to force Google into releasing their search records - all of them for a one week period - so that the government can check everyone's search queries to find terrorists. Google, for their part, says that they value their users' individual right to privacy, and has refused to do so.
Now Bush says that Google is bad, because they need to be able to fish through Google records looking for possible bad guys. They don't have any evidence of actual bad guys, or any evidence that indicates that this data contains information about any specific bad guys. They just want to fish through the results to see if there are any bad guys there.Now, on a seemingly different but related note, the Bush administration is being called upon to release records of all official government meetings with Jack Abramoff, a lobbyist recently convicted of nasty, illegal activities (wow, who would ever have suspected a lobbyist of illegal activities? The fact that the US still allows lobbying is fucking insane). The Bush administration is refusing to release this information, because they refuse to "engage in a fishing expedition."
So lets break this down.
GOOGLE RECORDS: MAY contain evidence of illegal activities, but there is nothing to indicate that this is true.
WHITE HOUSE RECORDS OF ABRAMOFF MEETINGS: MAY contain evidence of illegal activities; in fact, there is very good reason to suspect that they do.
So, the White House refuses to allow others to "fish" for information in situations where their own privacy is violated, even though there is very good evidence to indicate that illegal activities took place. However, they are more than happy to fish for information in Google's records of the activities of private citizens, who seem to believe that they are entitled to a certain degree of privacy. Even though they are not following any specific leads, and just want to see what they might find.
A Rantback Fortune Cookie for the White House and Mr. Bush: If you want to fish, you ignorant fucks, do it in your own pond.
Source: http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/PollVault/story?id=1547685
3 comments:
You know what's really funny? The US government is allegedly the World's LAST great super power yet it needs the help of a web search engine to find terrorists? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Is it me? Am I the only one that finds this funny?
Oh WOW. Exceptional entry, Asher. Absolutely divine.
Thanks for posting this, I even mailed my dad a copy.
BTW, I added you to my blogroll.
Monkey Diarist: You're definitely not alone.
Samuel: Thanks so much, very kind words! I'll be returning the favour shortly.
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