BOGUS POLL #2398102

"Tonight, on CNN Special Report: Broken Government..."

Part of CNN's special and especially bias-free report "Broken government" was this story about a poll. It seems that most people polled in America do not believe their civil rights have been horribly violated by the Bush administration. Hard to believe that could be true, given all the mass purges, doors kicked in, silenced dissent, and protests broken up with dogs and fire hoses.

The first line of the story?

Most Americans do not believe the Bush administration has gone too far in restricting civil liberties as part of the war on terror

It turns out in their poll of a ridiculously tiny portion of the more than 300,000,000 people living in America, only 34% thought that the administration has gone too far restricting civil liberties, the poll claims. The question here was this:

Question: Do you think the Bush administration has gone too far, has been about right or has not gone far enough in restricting people's civil liberties to fight terrorism?

Note the presumption that civil rights have been restricted, not "have they been" but "how much have they been?" in the poll. This is what is known as a leading question which is designed to get a result. I've asked and asked trying to get people to give one civil liberty they've lost in the last 6 years. One. The closest anyone can come up with is the system the NSA uses to track where and when people call - taking this information from phone companies, who have done so for decades, and sell the data to anyone who wants to buy it (such as telemarketers). The only civil right I can think of being taken away was the Kelo decision that removes our 4th amendment right to property.

The Confederate Yankee has a different way of putting the CNN poll:

CNN Poll Says Bush Failed: America Not Completely Fascist Yet

Commenters there responded to this story.

We can attribute the lack of fascism to the Department of Homeland Security's gutlessness in enforcing various and sundry crimes against the state proved by examinations of the reading lists of all Americans and foreigners dangerous enough to use a public library or to buy patchouli incense. The ineptness of bureaucrats in bringing about the Republic's descent into the dark night of totalitarianism is truly appalling.
-by wjo


This means that 33% of Americans are ignorant of history. Prior wartime presidents (Lincoln and Wilson come to mind first) exercised much more severe and actually REPRESSIVE powers. (arrest and trial of American citizens by military authorities? Civil war under Lincoln)

How sad.
-by Dawnfire82


Just wait until Bush starts declaring those of us who oppose him vociferously as "enemy combatants" and throwing our a--es in jail.

Then, Bush's fascism will become very clear to everyone.
-by TD Larkin

Just wait until Bush starts declaring those of us who oppose him vociferously as "enemy combatants" and throwing our a--es in jail.

When they went after the child molesters I didnt pipe up, because I wasn't a child molester;
when they went after the suicide bombing terror leaders, I didnt pipe up, because I wasn't a suicide bombing terror leader;
then, when they went after the burglars and thieves, and I cowardly said nothing because I wasnt a thief;
*then* they went after the drug dealers, and I said nothing as I wasnt into drugs ...
and then they went after the shoplifters ...
and then the hustlers and con men ...

And I did nothing to defend these from the ravages of the police state that tried, convicted and jailed these for being 'enemies of the state'...

But by that time our town was pretty well cleaned up on crime, and I said "Hey, being tough on criminals really works, doesnt it!"

This means that 33% of Americans are ignorant of history. Prior wartime presidents (Lincoln and "Wilson come to mind first) exercised much more severe and actually REPRESSIVE powers. (arrest and trial of American citizens by military authorities? Civil war under Lincoln)

Let's not forget the liberal hero FDR who with another liberal hero Earl Warren rounded up Japanese-americans, including thousands of US citizens, and sent them to camps.
-by Patrick


TD,

Are you more worried about Hezbollah? How about Hmmas? Islamic Jihad? Muslim Brotherhood? The Iranian Revolutionary Guards or whatever?

By the way September 2006 was a milestone of sorts. It was the month that military fatalities in the GWOT (from October 2001 onward - almost 5 years) exceeded the civilian fatalities of 9/11 (almost two hours). It is a nice way of remembering that our adversaries do not seek military targets - they seek you TD.

Two thousand, zero, zero party over oops out of time... So tonight let's party like its 9/10...

During a war our Congress passes a bill the President signs which provides military tribunals for non-citizen illegal combatants and terrorists.

That terrifies me as a citizen who is not a combatant and is not initiating any terrorist activity.

Who would have thought that espionage, sabotage, and murder would be illegal in a time of war?
-by Boghie


It continues to amaze me that those taking the position that data mining phone records in order disrupt terrorist activity is a serious invasion of privacy, but appear to have no problem with publishing the identity and private emails of a senate page in order to score cheap political points in a meaningless race for a house seat.
-by TO

Polls, Schmolls.

Civil Rights Polls