Swallowing Jonah

Unclaimed Territory posted the definitive piece on Jonah and his ilk today.  It's really worth it.

Reading it led me to read another of Jonah's works. It too almost turned my stomach. But it didn't. The world would be a far far better place if everyone would simply swallow and then keep it down. 

Jonah, of course, is aptly named after the pissy, cowardly weasel from the bible. When the first Jonah was called to duty, he ran the other way.  That's why God put him into the belly of the whale. After crying and begging to be forgiven, God had the whale vomit him up. Then Jonah did God's bidding, until he got mad at God for not doing his bidding. God pardoned sinners who had been condemned to death, and this outraged Jonah.

Lucianne knew her boy.

In today's heroic effort, which the modern Jonah feels is more important than doing his duty,he concludes that Bush's illegal wiretapping is no big thing. This is hardly a surprise. Since his mother's and his prominence are due to illegal wiretapping, it would be unseemly for Jonah not to reach this conclusion.

To come to such a finding, he basically makes 5 arguments:

1. Bush only wiretaps guilty, evil people.
2. Only about 500 Americans have been wiretapped.
3. Any suggestion that illegal wiretapping could lead to, or be indicative of other illegal acts is simply a ridiculous "slippery slope" argument. The Patriot Act proves this.
4. Bush is only complying with the 9/11 commissions "chief complaint" - to be more imaginative.
5. The FISA law was just too inflexible to handle the problem.

His first argument is difficult to argue with. Bush is in fact infallible. And he is just not a vindictive guy. It's not like Bunnadine Greenhouse, General Shinseki, Larry Lindsey were fired for telling the truth.  Cheney's never been a vengeful "fuck you" kind of guy, either.

The second point must be true too - Bush has said it was a very, very small number. Q.E.D.

The third point is harder for me. Sometimes Jonah likes slippery slope arguments (The N.R.A.'s right to bear machine guns, Rick Santorum's gay=polygamy=man/on/dog) Sometimes he hates them. (" ludicrous Abortion argument") He seems to base his assessment of this type of argument on whether or not he likes the outcome.  But in this case there is reason to believe in the possibility of other illegal acts - because the outrage expressed by Bush does not match what he describes as the damage done. As Atrios, and I, have pointed out: no one has explained what possible difference it would make to al Qaeda if we wiretapped them with a legal warrant, or we wiretapped them without one.  Especially since the secret decision about a secret warrant is issued by a secret court. 

To help this hobbling third argument, Jonah says "The Patriot Act was called a banana peel on the path to hell, and yet it has turned out to be very difficult even to keep it alive." So because the Republican controlled legislature is loathe to renew this act proves something about Bush's wiretapping? I don't get it.

The fourth argument he makes simply does not jibe with my memory. At the last news conference of the 9/11 commission, I remember them giving Bush failing grades on doing the basic obvious things required to secure our Homeland. I never remember anyone expecting Bush to be imaginative.

Lastly, Jonah throws up the FISA flexibility canard.  We all know that FISA allows the Feds to wiretap first, and seek a warrant later. So I guess what Jonah is talking about is the supposedly onerous time consuming paperwork involved. Others on the right, including the President himself,  have mentioned this. But we're talking about 500 warrants in over four years. So Jonah's final justification is that the Bush administration, with all the vast resources of the Federal Government, cannot manage to file 2 or 3 requests for a warrant in a week. The Department of Justice alone has about 130,000 employees.

The real insult in all of this is that they just throw these untenable arguments into the air. So what if they are inconsistent, so what if they make no sense?

If only the original Whale had not vomited, if only Monica had swallowed - the Goldbergs, mere et fils, would already be motes on the dust pile of history. They will be soon.

Comments

[ThatGayConservative]

WTF???

Where did you come up with those "five arguements"? I have to wonder if you read the article. And what's with slamming him because of his name? Are you going to suggest that he's also "one of them dirty Jew bastards" because of his name?

How can you be so comfortable in your 9/10 world?

[bbbustard]

Thanks for the loyal comments.
I saw some parallels between the Jonah of the Bible and the one at the Corner. Where do you get off with that being similar to calling him "one of them dirty Jew bastards?"
Of course I read the article. The five arguments I listed are the ones that Jonah makes in the article. If you think I'm wrong, please tell me what are the arguments he uses to reach his conclusion.
I don't live in the 9/10 world, nor the 9/12 world. I actually live in the real world, not some distorted Potemkin Village designed by Karl Rove in order to keep power.