NOW That’s What I Call Wanking! (Volume 1)
The Big Trunk clogs up the memory hole with a steaming pile of elephant dung:
And so today, in the furor created by the New York Times stories by James Risen and Eric Lichtblau, the Times and its media allies seek to impose the yoke of their thought on readers in order to stifle if not control the debate — “to make all other modes of thought impossible.” Let’s call the lingo “Timesspeak” in honor of Orwell. Here are two critical examples of Timesspeak in action:
1. References to the NSA eavesdropping program as “domestic spying.” See, for example, the Times story on the investigation of the leaks underlying the story: “Justice Dept. Inquiry into leak of domestic spying.” Contrary to the language used by the Times, the program is one of foreign intelligence surveillance; it is not a domestic spying program. Like the authorities in Oceania, the Times seeks to dictate the politically correct attitude to the subject.
Let’s go back to the original Times story (my emphasis):
Months after the Sept. 11 attacks, President Bush secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence of terrorist activity without the court-approved warrants ordinarily required for domestic spying, according to government officials.
I’m continually amazed by the willingness of Powerline to pee directly in reality’s face. They are truly the R. Kellies of punditry.
[Gavin adds: See, that’s just what he was saying! The Times reported that it was domestic spying, therefore since the Times is always wrong, it was…not domestic spying — but then, if you look back at the Times, they say that it IS domestic spying. So that proves it.]
BT is being even extra Orwellian with his big bad lies. He deserves to be slapped with a non-tumescent wiener. Teh l4m3, do the honors.
PowerLine: The boot stamping on Reality’s face…forever.
Does anybody else find Johnson’s attempt to rebrand the word newspeak rather orwellian in itself?
Or how he takes a quote about whistle blower laws and links to a espionage law and points out how they are not the same thing. Scott’s Johnson is on the ball today!
‘Limited’ spy power is needed, Bush says
SAN ANTONIO — President Bush strongly defended his domestic spying program Sunday, again calli
It doesn’t matter if his facts are all wrong; his prose is still conspiratorial, ominous, and portentous – let’s call that “douchespeak” – and that’s what really matters.
P.S. I wonder if all these people who keep throwing around “Orwellian” have actually read 1984 and reflected on its significance w.r.t. their own positions (espeically the military-industrial complex, etc.)
Hemlock–
I’m not sure how important the military-industrial complex was to the story. The military was quite important, but I don’t think that he touched on much of what we would call the military-industrial complex.
By the way, I saw 1984 with my parents. That was uncomfortable.
That’s right- the NSA’s eavesdropping on US soil doesn’t constitute “domestic spying!”
How could one think that listening in on the activities of others without their knowledge domestically is such a thing!
Uh, oh. Our security has been compromised. That double-post by GG is indicative of a NSA cyber-bug, reading our public comments without our knowledge.
It takes chutzpah to say that a government involved in warrantless spying on American citizens is the innocent victim of Orwellian overlords.
So… even though the targets may have been foreign terrorists, they were having conversations with Americans. Whcih the government listened to.
This is what I like to call the “Big Pete” strategy.
Remember how on The Adventures of Pete and Pete, big Pete would always talk about his friend Ellen by saying “She’s a girl, and she’s a friend, but she’s not a girlfriend”?
Well, I heard the same thing when the White Phosphorous story was going around. Wingnuts basically said, “It’s a chemical, and it’s a weapon, but it’s not a chemical weapon”.
And now the same thing. It’s spying, and it’s domestic but it’s not domestic spying.
I love the term “douchespeak”, by the way. Let’s use it at every opportunity.
Damnation- Marq’s right: I think the Matrix has us…
Right. See, the NSA conducts foreign surveillance, and this was a foreign surveillance program. So, even if this foreign surveillance program involved domestic spying, it’s OK! Because it’s a foreign surveillance program. Got it?