As for the other aclu stuff, seems to me you guys dislike the aclu because they represent people you don’t like. You conveniently forget that the aclu also represents people like Rush Limbaugh and others. In America, justice is blind. It doesn’t matter if you’re a rich or poor, young or old, saint or an axe murderer; you are still guaranteed the same constitutionally granted rights. Thank goodness there are organizations like the aclu that look out for us all.

George W. Bush was once known as the C.E.O. President, a term his handlers eagerly coined in order to convey that the country would from now on be run like a business. That quickly evolved into the less flattering Enron President… then the War President… now it’s looking like we can all finally settle on one. George W. Bush: the Disaster President.

“I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees.”

He honestly said that. If that brings up more than a passing twinge of familiarity, being a more than remarkable restatement of Condi Rice’s now-famous assertion to the Senate panel — then I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised.

But it does bring up something that we joke about often, but apparently have never taken quite seriously enough: our President is an idiot. I don’t mean an average, run-of-the-mill idiot. I mean an idiot who apparently, for the entire duration of his presidency, literally was paying absolutely no attention to even the most life-threateningly critical tasks of government.

The administration specifically cut the funds to fix these specific levees, in order to specifically divert that Corps money to Iraq, despite urgent warnings and predictions of catastrophic disaster if the levees were breeched. The administration specifically cancelled the Clinton-backed flood control program to preserve and restore the wetlands between New Orleans and the gulf, instead specifically opening parts of that buffer zone for development.

Nobody anticipated this disaster? It was identified by FEMA as one of the top three likeliest major disasters to strike America. (That link, one of countless stories, was from 2001, by the way.) It has been a major disaster scenario for years. Everybody anticipated it, which makes this single statement by George W. Bush possibly the most dishonest, lying, craptacularly false thing he has ever said in his presidency — even surpassing his now-infamous State of the Union Address. Truly, this is President Bush’s blue-dress moment.

And yet, funneling the money into Iraq was more important. You better bet your crapulent, lying, one-track, drink-addled ass that’s a political issue.

He also said today:

“I hope people don’t play politics at this time of a natural disaster the likes of which this country has never seen.”

Oh, I’m touched. Utterly touched. After 9/11, the entire Republican Party went en masse to get Twin Towers ass tattoos. The Republican convention was a wholesale tribute to crass exploitation, the sets themselves designed to evoke the aftermath of the attack. Every domestic and international policy this administration — no, this entire Republican government — has produced has been heaved up before the public while waving the spectre of 9/11 as the catch-all vindication of every administration whim. Every tax cut, every civil rights issue, every budget cut, every budget expansion, no matter how tortured the logic must be, has some Republican senator standing on the Senate floor and proudly raping the corpses of that day as justification for their particular agenda item.

Oh, we’ve seen politicization of disaster. Every Republican campaign for the last four years has revolved around the politicization of disaster.

But Lord help us, George W. Bush is going to get the vapors if anyone asks him to explain his administration’s active cuts of the very programs designed to keep New Orleans safe.

Disagree with Glenn as strenuously as you wish. But this public de-linking is just making you look bad. Reasonable people who are closer to your views than Glenn’s don’t need this.

And the “link looting” was a very pointed joke in the spirit of basil’s offer (which is essentially and intentionally a joke). The fact that you can’t see the humor in it is not a good sign.

I suppose that in saying you want to stop the ACLU you could just be aiming high, hoping that what you do eventually get will be enough. If so, at the moment you’ve aimed way too high – straight up, it looks like, and the shot’s coming straight back at you.

Get some perspectuve, a sense of humor, and a clue (not necessarily in that order).

It’s not Glenn that needs to grow up children – go look in the mirror.

Glenn is very publicity-attuned. Strictly as a stunt, de-linking him is fine, but when new folks arrive, they need some of your most powerful stuff to read, not necessarily what Glenn chooses to link to.

Turn it into a dialogue, not a shouting match. Honey vs. vinegar. Etc.

WRT the cases you psoted – even the devil does good, once in awhile …
/TJ

Recent ACLU involvement in religious liberty cases include:

December 22, 2004: ACLU of New Jersey successfully defends right of religious expression by jurors.

December 14, 2004: ACLU joins Pennsylvania parents in filing first-ever challenge to “Intelligent Design” instruction in public schools.

November 20, 2004: ACLU of Nevada supports free speech rights of evangelists to preach on the sidewalks of the strip in Las Vegas.

November 12, 2004: ACLU of Georgia files a lawsuit on behalf of parents challenging evolution disclaimers in science textbooks.

November 9, 2004: ACLU of Nevada defends a Mormon student who was suspended after wearing a T-shirt with a religious message to school.

August 11, 2004: ACLU of Nebraska defends church facing eviction by the city of Lincoln.

July 10, 2004: Indiana Civil Liberties Union defends the rights of a Baptist minister to preach his message on public streets.

June 9, 2004: ACLU of Nebraska files a lawsuit on behalf of a Muslim woman barred from a public pool because she refused to wear a swimsuit.

June 3, 2004: Under pressure from the ACLU of Virginia, officials agree not to prohibit baptisms on public property in Falmouth Waterside Park in Stafford County.

May 11, 2004: After ACLU of Michigan intervened on behalf of a Christian Valedictorian, a public high school agrees to stop censoring religious yearbook entries.

March 25, 2004: ACLU of Washington defends an Evangelical minister’s right to preach on sidewalks.

February 21, 2003: ACLU of Massachusetts defends students punished for distributing candy canes with religious messages.

October 28, 2002: ACLU of Pennsylvania files discrimination lawsuit over denial of zoning permit for African American Baptist church.

July 11, 2002: ACLU supports right of Iowa students to distribute Christian literature at school.

April 17, 2002: In a victory for the Rev. Jerry Falwell and the ACLU of Virginia, a federal judge strikes down a provision of the Virginia Constitution that bans religious organizations from incorporating.

January 18, 2002: ACLU defends Christian church’s right to run “anti-Santa” ads in Boston subways.
-Link

The ACLU:

Defended Oliver North during Iran- Contra.

Defended Rush Limbaugh.

Defended Jerry Fallwell.

Continuously defends people’s religious rights.

I guess you people wipe your ass with “The Bill of Rights.”

I still fail to see what opportunity you say I failed at. He linked to us BECAUSE we delinked, not because of any information that people should know.

So if you ask me, Glenn blew a perfect opportunity to share valuable info with a lot of people. He could have linked to any of the many posts here that are very informative, but instead chose to link to the one he did.

Wah, I’m not Glenn’s friend anymore, he doesn’t totally hate the ACLU.

ACLU is as leftist as it gets. It defends terrorists. Its legal actions may well have contributed to the reasoning behind Gorelick’s wall.

But your (and I mean the three posts I’ve read here by Jay and JCB) comments and actions are the childish ones. “Demonizing the ACLU” IS SILLY.

Because people will look at hyperbolic style and ignore the substance, just like Democratic Underground or the Kool Kos Kids.

If you’re trying to change minds, you just blew a great opportunity.