Outrage Found

The headline on the Newsweek column of Arlene Getz reads Where's the Outrage?

One doesn't need to read beyond the subhead to find it:

Bush’s defense of his phone-spying program has disturbing echoes of arguments once used by South Africa’s apartheid regime. Why Americans should examine the parallels.

This may be the biggest stretch of Bush-Derangment Journalism yet. What are the parallels that Getz thinks we need to be examining:

No matter that Pretoria was detaining tens of thousands of people without real evidence of wrongdoing. No matter that many of them, including children, were being tortured—sometimes to death. No matter that government hit squads were killing political opponents. No matter that police were shooting into crowds of black civilians protesting against their disenfranchisement.

Apparently Getz has paid attention enough to realize that she will get nowhere comparing Bush to Hitler so so she is comparing him to P.W. Botha.

I'm sure there are many well-meaning Americans who agree with their president's explanation that it's all a necessary evil (and that patriotic citizens will not be spied on unless they dial up Osama bin Laden). But the nasty echoes of apartheid South Africa should at least give them pause. While Bush uses the rhetoric of "evildoers" and the "global war on terror," Pretoria talked of "total onslaught." This was the catchphrase of P. W. Botha, South Africa's head of state from 1978 to 1989. Botha was hardly the first white South African leader to ride roughshod over civil liberties for all races, but he did it more effectively than many of his predecessors. Botha liked to tell South Africans that the country was under "total onslaught" from forces both within and without, and that this global assault was his rationale for allowing opponents to be jailed, beaten or killed. Likewise, the Bush administration has adopted the argument that anything is justified in the name of national security.

Obviously the Bush administration is falling behind on the locking up of its political opponents. I swear I saw Harry Read, Nancy Pelosi, Teddy Kennedy, John Kerry and Hillary on the news just last week. As oppressors go, Bush seems to be incredibly incompetent.

Getz ends this column of stupidity by complaining about assaults on free speech in America. It never ceases to amaze me when pundits speak and write at length about how they are being robbed of their right to free speech. But then maybe Bush is waiting to oppress Getz until after he takes care Howard Dean. After all, he can't oppress everyone at once. He's a busy guy.

Posted by: Stephen Macklin at 12:03 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment