Playing Stupid?

We are accustomed to having Democrats play stupid in debates that they know that they have lost. For instance ... in the NSA deal, Democrats have to intentionally change the actual circumstances of the surveillance ... trying to give the impression that the Federal Government is listening in on regular phone calls between two people in this country ... which is clearly not what is going on. So in carefully worded surveys, like this moronic CBS poll that just came out (man, I am still fascinated at the total, unadulterated abandonment of anything even close to resembling objectivity on the part of CBS), they get the answers that they want ... "people oppose warrantless wiretaps".

Nevermind the fact that overwhelmingly, people have indicated that if there is any chance that the callers are terrorists planning an attack, they want the government listening in (domestic OR international). Most folks that I have heard would not even care if the government listened in on their own calls (defeats the "I don't care what you do to the other guy" argument), concluding that the Feds would be bored out of their minds in hearing what restaurant they are going to that evening or what brand of cream corn their wife wants them to buy.

This ports issue, however, is getting out of hand. I am tempted to actually side with allowing Dubai to run the ports despite my misgivings about it, just because when people on the other side start lying through their teeth, I do not want to be in that crowd. Note that this is bigger than not having all the facts ... these politicians specifically have the facts and are out-and-out lying about them.

Case in point ... somebody apparently got their hands on some of the proceedings related to the decision to allow the sale. Somewhere buried in this was a note that the Coast Guard had expressed some misgivings about the deal ... and the fireworks are exploding! However, those concerns were all dealt with ... it was simply part of the process for security groups to challenge with anything they could and then make sure all the issues were handled ... indicating that the review as not a simple rubberstamp but a very intense process ... EXACTLY WHAT WE WANT IT TO BE!

So what happens is exactly what you want to happen ... the kind of thing that happens in businesses and organizations all over the world every single day ... bunch of people get in a room and hash out the problem, looking at it from all angles, identifying potential problems and then making sure that they are resolved to everybody's satisfaction.

Then some bumbling idiot comes across the proceedings, pulls out a tiny little snippet of a much broader conversation, and then starts to demagogue the issue literally on the ignorance of the audience.

This is critical ... IF THE NEWS MEDIA WERE HONEST AND OBJECTIVE, THESE TACTICS WOULD NOT BE POSSIBLE. The sleazeball making the case on false information would be challenged and humiliated. In the modern era, however, politicians can figure out where the media is (i.e. opposed to Bush), and then run with whatever they want, expecting that their scam will *never* be exposed.

Fortunately, there is an alternative media ... other ways that the truth can get out. Takes a little while longer, since the discussions between the folks accessing these alternatives and those who do not are necessary to complete the cycle.

Democrats have not learned this lesson, thinking that their pals in the old-world big media control the information flow ... which is why (to a large extent) they have been getting their butts crushed in all modern elections.