The right-wing attack dogs are so very predictable. They do so love to kill the messenger and call the messenger insane. Whatever it takes.
Get a load of the following blog headlines referring to Al Gore’s speech today in which he calls it like it is in regard to our President and the NSA wiretapping issue:
From GOP Bloggers: “Al Gore’s New Tinfoil Hat”
From Blackfive: “Al Gore- Bush Is Bad, Mmmkay!”
From Polipundit: “Dinosaurs Assail The Industrial Revolution”
And, from Suitably Flip: “Al Gore: Twirling, Twirling Toward Flapdoodle”
All of the above repeat the same old talking pointz lies, which is no surprise. Ever the bold one, Mark Noonan at GOP Bloggers pitches a tent pole into sand and calls it a castle:
There’s no other way to describe this:At present, we still have much to learn about the NSA’s domestic surveillance. What we do know about this pervasive wiretapping virtually compels the conclusion that the President of the United States has been breaking the law repeatedly and persistently.
So, we don’t know much about it, but we’re sure that the President has broken the law. This is paranoid conspriacy theory spinning at its worst, and Al Gore has bought it hook, line and sinker. (emphasis mine)
First, one must note that Matt Noonan is linking to The Drudge Report as if it is hard news, which is dubious at best. Brendan Nyhan astutely catches that wobbly bunt and throws it to first for an easy out.
Second, let’s look at the first rhetorical gem offered in the second paragraph:
So, we don’t know much about it, but we’re sure that the President has broken the law.
Mark plays with a very obvious bit of misdirection here. (As I noted in the comments at GOP Bloggers. We’ll see if they actually post it. Interesting if frustrating discussion going on.) Gore’s statement: “we still have much to learn about the NSA’s domestic surveillance” is entirely different from Mark’s statement: “we don’t know much about it (NSA domestic surveillance)”. Gore’s words mean what they say: “we still have much to learn”, which implies, in the context spoken, that what we do know is just the tip of the iceberg. Mark throws some misdirection at this by asserting Gore is saying: “we don’t know much about it”, which is a delibrate misreading in order to construct his logical fallacy. It’s a badly constructed one at best, but it doesn’t matter. A propagandist such as Noonan knows that.
So, get the facts, make up your own mind, go watch some video exerpts (Windows Media) from that speech courtesy of Crooks and Liars.
Here’s the full text of Gore’s speech. (Corretion: Excerpts at the link, full link at Raw Story… Thanks Avedon.)
Here are some good words to check out as well:
(Links via Sideshow)
