"I am concerned that some of my Democrat colleagues used this unique public forum to make clear that they believe the gravest threat we face is not Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda, but rather the president of the United States,"He is absolutely correct in this assessment and is seriously, "gravely" wrong himself to think otherwise. The simplest basic math reveals the truth. To date, the US military deathtoll, in Afghanistan and Iraq, (and counting training deaths in US [at the Box, 29 Palms, Pendleton, Benning, etc] ), is over 3100 citizens. This exceeds the total number killed during the 9/11 attacks (including rescue workers, those aboard the planes, others on the ground killed by debris, etc.) by more than 100 at this point. In other words, Bushco has killed more US citizens than Osama. Pretty damn straight forward really. But that isn't all. Al Qaeda is not a threat to the US Constitution; neither they, nor Osama, created the Patriot Act, ordered every intelligence unit in the US (NSA, DoD, CIA, FBI, DSI, NCIS, ad infinitum) to spy on the US population, or detained without due cause or due process, citizens and foreign nationals, and so forth. Bushco did that, is doing that, will continue to do that. And Bushco will castigate, destroy, remove, slander, libel, and whatever else it can do to stop any US citizen who questions or challenges them.
Yes indeed, it is very prudent and wise to consider Bushco the larger, gravest threat we face as a citizenry. But the GOP wants all of us to believe that we need to turn our country over to the militarized security state first, then working together, those with privilege and money and property can begin to enjoy the freedoms of the original white, male, moneyed/propertyed classes who "framed" (more like dominated and controlled) this continent and new nation. Afterall what the f~#k do you think "originalism" really means to objectivist libertarians, Straussians, neo-cons, Randians, corporate capitalists, et al? And how does the GOP expect this to play out. Listen to Roberts some more:
Mr. Roberts and other Republicans said that the "most serious issue was the unauthorized leak of sensitive information on intelligence." "There is no doubt in my mind there are marching orders to the minority members of this committee to question and attack, at every opportunity, the president, the vice president, the secretary of state, attorney general and now members of our intelligence agencies."Listen to that as you read it out loud again. Here we have Rumsfeld and Roberts admitting that the most serious issues are not, in fact, Osama or Al Qaeda, but rather whistleblowers and protestors near US bases. People to dissent and people who try valiantly to uphold their Constitutional oaths, sworn to protect the rights that others seem now to no longer have, are the gravest and most dangerous threats to this nation. Put another way, in a way that actually makes sense, the most severe threat to this country is the group hallucination of Bushco that everyone, other than their closest friends, are out to get them. Indeed, those evil protestors, you know nuns and grannies and Quakers, are spying on our military bases and drinking with our troops, thus creating the most serious threats to national security. And only the Democrats have talking points that attack character and flaws, because only the GOP knows the truth, and only the GOP should ever know the truth.
Rumsfeld, at a news conference revealed on Thursday that "civilians in the United States are under surveillance in a program to protect military personnel and bases." The "counter- surveillance" program, in line with the Defense Department's responsibility to protect U.S. forces, is aimed at preventing civilians gathering sensitive information and taking pictures of security installations. "To do that, you obviously end up scooping up information, whether it is names or films or whatever to protect your base, and that information then comes into the databank," he said.
