Utterly Meaningless

Is Bush finally impeachable? Has he lied to us enough yet? Has he treated us like idiot children enough yet?

Impeachment is a possibility. A resolution to investigate impeachable offenses was introduced Sunday:

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But it aint gonna happen, in my opinion. I could be forced to eat crow, though 😉 We shall see.

Here is a good blog post that lays out the issues minus the political hyperbole.

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Key quote, IMO.

//Terrorism is a serious risk to our nation, but an even greater threat is the centralization of American political power in the hands of any single branch of the government.//

But some of those groups have actually been involved in premeditated acts of criminal property damage (or terrorism, if you prefer). Earth Liberation Front (ALF), Earth Liberation Front (ELF), among others. ‘Surveillance and intelligence gathering operations’ are all legally permissible on subjects of ongoing investigations. FBI has been ‘spying’ on criminals and individuals with criminal links for decades – because that is what we pay them to do. Also: Ashcroft hasn’t been the Attorney General for awhile now. Thank god!

Duh! Gonzo, then. I think it’s a bit of a stretch to call criminal property damage “terrorism.” I have no problem with the FBI surveilling groups that are truly violent. I have a hard time believing that the vegans qualify.

So how would you define the ‘criminal property damage’ that resulted from crashing two passenger jets into two buildings? Terrorism, right? ELF has been burning down houses in Maryland for awhile now. In addition, both ALF and ELF (both vegan groups, by the way) have released public statements that authorize acts of violence against humans. Earth First has an established track record of violence against humans, as well. The problem with surveillance is that when FBI surveils a known criminal / terrorist organization (like ALF / ELF), they will inevitably collect information on individuals from other organizations as well. This is how FBI ended up ‘collecting’ on Dr. Martin Luther King – they found out MLK was a wife beater as an indirect result of their real target, Louis Farrakhan. Farrakhan was meeting with members of foreign intelligence services (Libya, I believe it was) as well as members of the American Communist Party. Guilt by association? Not quite, but sorta.
I guess my point here is that some vegans are truly violent, and those vegans can and should be surveilled by FBI and other law enforcement agencies as appropriate.