From
Swords Crossed:
Trevino writes:
As the normally odious Billmon points out, "The whole point of having civil liberties is that they are not supposed to be subject to a majority veto."
According to Princeton, Edmund Burke used odious in this fashion:
Adjective
- S: (adj) abominable, detestable, execrable, odious (unequivocally detestable) "abominable treatment of prisoners"; "detestable vices"; "execrable crimes"; "consequences odious to those you govern"- Edmund Burke
It is clear from this definition that Billmon is not "odious" in the Burkean sense. Nor is Trevino. When you consider his reaction to the
odious Dick Cheney and the odious Bush Administration.
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Like Senator Chuck Hagel, of whom
atrios writes:
As Hagel, who is the conservative that everyone pretends McCain is (note I said "conservative" and not "some guy liberals should love because he's secretly liberal"), says, the whole Guard -on-the-border-plan is stupid.
Trevino disagrees with Democrats, but will do so honestly. Trevino says in the latest post what you won't read from other Right Wing bloggers. Many on my side have called me a dupe and worse for engaging in this venture - rarely do they cite anything I have written in saying so, but what do the facts matter? Well now I cite something to them and ask - who else on the Right is writing this honestly about the Cheney Administration?
Of course, Trevino only knows, or speaks to, the half of it. In his post, I commented:
On the legal, are you asking if the surveillance being domestic means FISA does not apply? You have it backwards. UNLESS it is for foreign intelligence purposes, a conventional warrant with probable cause, etc., is required. That is one of the pernicious effects of the continued Right argument that the 4th Amendment only requires that searches be reasonable without noting that it is presumed that searches are NOT reasonable if they are warrantless. Of course, some exigency and special needs exceptions have been carved out but the need for warrants remains the general rule.FISA creates the mechanism by which the Executive can engage in foreign intelligence gathering domestically - by getting approval of the FISA court.
It is "the exclusive means" by which domestic surveillance for foreign intelligence purposes can occur.
It is why it is patent that the Bush Administration has deliberately violated the law and why we are in a Constitutional crisis - one the Media and most Right Wing commentaters do not acknowledge. But it is a crisis just the same.
In my next post I will explain again (I explained why to Representsative Jane Harmon at daily kos, and I believe she agrees now, she has co-sponsored legislation with John Conyers on the issue) why we are in a Constitutional crisis.
In the meantime, it would be good for pundits Left and Right to remember what is truly odious in these times - and disagreement about issues is not one of the odious things.
But Dick Cheney is.