A Conservative Blogger Really Gets It

[AtomicKitten]

from AMERICAblog.com
A conservative blogger weighs in on modern conservatism:

"I almost feel I don't know these people anymore. It seems now they feel government cannot have nearly enough power. Secret courts, secret warrants, secret prisons, suspect torture, massive data gathering on all aspects of US citizens including medical records, library records, and financial records are all wonderful things. They hold up the Patriot Act as a great piece of legislation that the Bush Whitehouse pushed through to combat terrorism (little seem to understand most of it was written during Clinton's years).

I truly and honestly do not understand. People who once proudly quoted Franklin's "Those who give up essential liberty for a little safety deserve neither" now cheerlead the executive branch on in removing any judicial oversight, congressional oversight, and in fact ANY oversight (as most of these laws are secret) from the land. Far from the transparent government the founders imagined, we are now entering a system where laws are kept secret, prosecutions are kept secret, and national security is a password to removing any and all liberty that stands in the way of anything government wishes to do....

People who support a clandestine program of warrantless domestic spying are not “conservatives” or “libertarians.” Neither are people who support the creation of a worldwide archipelago of secret torture sites. Neither are people who support the usurpation of the functions of government by the executive branch; who espouse the theory that the executive branch is the final arbiter of the legality of the actions of the executive branch; and who call for the investigation or prosecution of a free press that dares to report on the executive branch’s secret programs of domestic spying and outsourced torture.

Those people, my friends, are called the radical right."


more at: http://www.michaelberube.com/index.php/weblog/they_hate_our_freedoms/

[Cha]

1. And they're Radically

Wrong!

[quiet.american]

2. Who knew Clinton would turn out to be the beacon of "conservatives."

They cannot make a move without reference to the Big Dog. Thing is, they always leave out the fine print as to what Clinton did, and there is always fine print. "Conservatives" and Kool-aid drinkers like this fellow are always an enigma to me. I knew in 1999 that Junior was an idiot, a murderous man-child (national record for executions, without any hint of humanity or conscience, for one), and unworthy of the office of POTUS.

Now these idiots have buyer's remorse?!

[radio4progressives]

3. kicked and recommended!

:kick: :hi: :applause: :hi:

[Supersedeas]

18. this deserves a recommendation

[AtomicKitten]

4. Ah, but if the radical wrong turn against the mothership,

it is they that will influence the red state representatives to perhaps entertain impeachment.

I must applaud this cosmic revelation on their part because it could be the crack in their solidarity.

[bvar22]

5. My new bumpersticker:

Goes on the car tomorrow.

[AtomicKitten]

7. Bravo!

I want one too!

[buddysmellgood]

8. SWEET!

[Eric J in MN]

6. Thanks. Unfortunately, people who describe themselves as

conservatives and oppose Bush's destruction of civil liberties are rare.

[buddysmellgood]

9. Hmmmm. Except for the dig at Clinton... sounds like a Librul.

[AtomicKitten]

10. Either that or a compliment to Clinton,

basically saying they plagiarized it.

Ps: I doubt very seriously the Big Dawg authored that turd.

[bobbieinok]

11. when I said instant readiness of Patriot Act helped convince me LIHOP

or maybe even MIHOP, several at DU said most of Act was prepared by Clinton

would like to know if this claim is correct

[gratuitous]

13. Well, it WAS mostly written during Clinton's years

By our friends in PNAC. When their puppet got installed by the Supreme Court, they just waited for their Reichstag Fire moment, and had their little bundle of fascism all ready to go.

[crispini]

12. K&R.

:thumbsup:

[info being]

14. They think the Republicans will always be in power

They support government power as long as it is their party..."them" who have it. They think this is a power grab to make sure no Liberals ever take control again, and they are fine with that. Get it?

[AtomicKitten]

15. sounds like some are having buyer's remorse.

[Auntie Bush]

21. They know they can depend on diebold...so ultimate power

for the president is a good thing.

[Boojatta]

16. Are there any books that are classified as definitely okay to read?

"I almost feel I don't know these people anymore. It seems now they feel government cannot have nearly enough power. (...)massive data gathering on all aspects of US citizens including medical records, library records, and financial records are all wonderful things."

If someone borrows a copy of The Emperor's New Clothes by Hans Christian Andersen and the book is one week overdue, but the book is then returned and the fine is paid in full, then does that information stay on someone's permanent record? Does the federal government have no need for that information or might that information be part of a pattern of suspicious activity?

[greiner3]

17. Sounds like a DU'er;

But I sense anger and sadness also. Maybe one has come in from the cold!

[Dr Fate]

19. I have a similar sentiment- Who are these people?

???

[Arkham House]

20. My congratulations to this gentleman...

...he sounds like exactly the sort of decent, principled conservative whom we on the Left could have an intelligent and educational national debate with--if our country had a modicum of sanity...as it happens, though, people like him and people like us might find ourselves in an uneasy alliance of patriots, to rid ourselves of a regime that even he seems to think borders on fascism. He doesn't quite bring himself to use the word...but his meaning, I think, is apparent...could we be facing another 1688--when Whigs and Tories combined to bring down the radical reactionary James II of Britain...?

[GOPBasher]

22. That's refreshing. A conservative with sanity. n/t

[ddeclue]

23. AMEN!