Posted on 12/22/2005 5:01:11 AM PST by governsleastgovernsbest
by Mark Finkelstein
December 22, 2005 - 07:50
Who would have thought the peaceful Quakers would be used as a spearhead?
Yet ironically, in the debate over national security and surveillance, liberals are attempting to beat the Quakers' plowshares into swords.
This morning's Today show offered a prime example.
In to debate was elegant lefty Katrina vanden Heuvel of The Nation and that most unreliable of Bush defenders, Pat Buchanan.
Credit Katie for at least identifying The Nation as a 'liberal' magazine. Needless to say she labeled Buchanan "conservative."
And in fairness, Couric hit vanden Heuvel with a tough first question:
"Many people say, including the President, including VP Cheney, that there's a reason why there hasn't been a terrorist attack, that the country is safer, it needs the Patriot Act, it needs to be able to conduct these kind of spying things. They need more latitude because it's a different environment."
Vanden Heuvel responded with breathtaking condescension. "Katie, Katie," she purred, with a tone befitting a kindly teacher putting a recalcitrant third-grader back in place, "there must be a balance struck between security and liberty . . . but this President has committed the most abuse of executive power in modern American history. He thinks he's above the law."
Echoing Russ Feingold, vanden Heuvel declared: "we need a President not a king," and accused Bush of "crushing the Constitution."
Katie quickly got on board. She responded "some liberals are concerned," then 'corrected' herself, "some Americans are concerned that it's not just potential Al-Qaeda plots that are being spied on. We're talking about Quaker meeting houses, animal rights activists. Are there other organizations that cause you concern over this?"
For Vanden Heuvel, it's shades of '1984':: "We're seeing only the tip of the tremendous surveillance state that is being built up in these last few years. 9/11 is being used and abused by this administration."
Vanden Heuvel again referred to surveillance of Quaker meeting groups, declaring "these are innocent Americans."
She then added, among groups being surveilled: "Catholic Workers Groups? These are not terrorist organizations."
Buchanan agreed that "they ought not to be going to Quaker meetings."
Couric would not be mollified: "You kind of blew off the notion of the Quaker meeting house. Doesn't that concern you? Maybe it's gone too far?"
Buchanan had to go further: "if they wasted their time with Quaker meetings, they ought to be fired, Congress should take a look at it. But there are enemies in our midst who did these things right in the United States."
Vanden Heuvel accused President Bush of "shredding" the Constitution.
Buchanan called the Dems' bluff: "if he shredded it, they should impeach him, but you and I know they don't have the guts to put a bill in the hopper."
Mused vanden Heuvel darkly: "if the Democrats take back the House, look for articles of impeachment."
Look, I don't know if or why surveillance was conducted of the Quakers. But when vanden Heuvel lumped them in with the Catholic Workers, she seriously overplayed her hand.
Despite its innocuous name, the Catholic Workers is a radical, far-left group. Right here in my home town of Ithaca, a group of Catholic Workers was convicted in federal court for having sprayed blood over a military recruiter and a recruitment center.
Today Show/NewsBusters ping.
I am reminded on another thread that Clinton ordered warrantless searches of public housing facilities.
The collective amnesia of the left is really amusing.
Aren't Quaker peaceniks just as nutty?
"Katrina, what makes you so humorless? Does it go way back to your childhood when your dad gave you the toaster and the radio as bath toys?"
Then vanden Heuvel must support the release of the Barrett Report? Nothing to see there, Katrina, right?
I saw a little of this today. I cannot stand the three of them--difficult to watch.
Have they done anything on the strike?
Watching Fox & Friends again this morning.....
Alison, Brian, & Steve
The ladies bathrooms no doubt - National Security matter. :) It is easy to see how conservatives could come down on all sides of this issue. The "It Takes a Village" liberals being concerned about civil liberties is a bit much though. Since 2000, I have said that if George Bush declared a war on hemorrhoids, every liberal would want them.
And BTW...Happy Hannukah!!!
Catholic Workers sounds a lot like World Workers Party. I can't find it on Discover the Network http://www.discoverthenetwork.org/default.asp
but I sent them the question. I hope they investigate.
Just ROFL!
Catholic Workers sounds a lot like World Workers Party. I can't find it on Discover the Network http://www.discoverthenetwork.org/default.asp
but I sent them the question. I hope they investigate.
I wonder who was at that Quaker meeting. Do I want useful idiots watched when being used by those who would do harm to Americans? You bet I do. Use the word Quaker and people get a mental picture of the peaceful Pilgrims settling in this country. They need to look beyond that mental image. These people were willingly used during the Viet Nam war and they are just as prone to being used again.
Fox & Friends showing their bus unloading again.
Seems the bus is provided by CitySightsNY.
The group of four "peace activists" that were "kidnapped" in Iraq last month belonged to the Christian something something group. The one American in this group is a Quaker, according to publicity by his daughter.
Perhaps, if there has been surveillance on Quakers, it has been on people like this guy. Women who support Code Pink activities camouflage themselves as Friends when they go into high schools to recruit young girls to theur radical leftist causes.
Bernie Goldberg is suppose to be coming up soon on F&F.
More about the Catholic Workers and their attack on a military recruitment center in Ithaca:
The St. Patrick's Four and Resistance to the War in Iraq
by Bill Quigley
"Have you heard about the St. Patrick's Four? Of course not. They aren't going to tell you about the St. Patrick's Four. The St. Patrick's Four were four people from the Catholic peace movement who, on St. Patrick's Day last year, poured their blood around at a military recruiting station in Ithaca, New York, and they were put on trial. And the jury refused to convict. It was a hung jury. So I'm hopeful about the future of this country based on the idea that people have a certain common decency and that when they learn the truth, the truth has a power that can overcome even the most sophisticated of propaganda machines that they government has and the media collaborate with."
- Howard Zinn, May 8, 2004, "The Power of the People," The Progressive, May 8, 2004. This was Zinn's speech to The Progressive's 95th Anniversary Party. www.progressive.org/95/zinn95.html
Two years ago today, March 17, 2003, four peace activists in Ithaca, New York, poured their own blood on the walls, posters, windows, and a US flag at a military recruiting center in order to try to stop the imminent invasion of Iraq. They took action based on international law. Then knelt in prayer and waited to be arrested. Though one state court jury refused to convict them, today they face serious federal charges.
Last year the peace activists convinced nine members of a state court jury that their actions were consistent with international law. Daniel Burns, 43, Clare Grady, 45, Teresa Grady 38, and Peter DeMott, 57, all members of the Magnificat Catholic Worker community in Ithaca, admitted to the jury from the very beginning that they poured blood in the recruiting center in order to try to stop the war in Iraq. They testified they risked arrest in order to protect our sons and daughters in the military and to protect our sisters and brothers in Iraq.
Entire article:
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0317-32.htm
The libs really truly believe that Bush lied to get us into Iraq. From that perspective, these fears of spying must be very real to them.
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