Analysis of the Week

I've seen it mentioned on other blogs as a great post, but I just got around to reading it. XRLQ received a letter from the ACLU and he handily deconstructs all the liberal propaganda. For example (text of ACLU letter in italics):

The USA PATRIOT Act - passed hastily by a Congress afraid to appear “unpatriotic"….

See above re air quotes. No one actually accused anybody of being unpatriotic, but never mind that.

… not only expanded the government’s power to invade our privacy…

Who’s “we?” The Patriot Act didn’t give the government any new power to invade my privacy, only that of criminal and/or terrorist suspects. Does this mean the ACLU itself is run by criminal suspects who have lost privacy under the PATRIOT Act? I’ve often heard them referred to as the American Criminal Liberties Union, but it never occured to me that they might actually be a union of American criminals seeking more liberty. Then again, I’m also one of those silly Americans who think that no means yes, pissed means angry, and curse word means something other than a word that is cursed. So what do I know?

…imprison people without meaningful due process…

“Meaningful” means, of course, “meaning what the ACLU wants it to mean.” Imprisoning people without actual due process - as defined by the courts - would never fly anyway. See U.S. Const. Amends. V, XIV, which the ACLU played no role in enacting.

…search homes and offices without prior notice…

Translated: search offices without prior notices, which regulators have done for years. As to searching homes, see U.S. Const. Amend IV, which the ACLU played no role in enacting.

…and punish dissent…

How? By discouraging individuals from buying Linda Ronstadt’s Greatest Harangues, or by persauding Babies ‘R’ Us not to stock it in the first place?

…but also deliberately and dangerously undercuts the ability of judges to check and balance the potential abuses of these sweeping new powers.

Good God, you’d think the federal government were about to impose any checks and balances on judges. OK, so they did try that with the Marriage Protection Act, but that bill is mentioned nowhere in the letter.

Attorney General John Ashcroft introduced new rules that allow the FBI to spy on Americans in their house of worship, on the Internet, in bookstores and in libraries - without evidence that a crime might be committed.

Translation: Attorney General John Ashcroft introduced new rules that allow the FBI to pay attention to what people do in public and, worse still, to actually do something about it if evidence of a serious crime emerges.

Read more here. Thanks, Alphapatriot.