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I absolutely love this retort.

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You're welcome.

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Let me see how it goes:

First, somebody else posted it before me. OK

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Indeed.

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Second, I can't read.

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Who said that? I don't know whether you can read or not. I know only that you are wrong. Whether that is because you can't read or because you are a partisan hack or for some other reason, who can say?

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Since I obviously can't read I obvously can't understand what the words on the pretty computer screen say. I hope Elliot will tell what they mean and he comes through.

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You're welcome.

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Let's see - what Clinton authorized was wiretapping on US soil without a court order, but not really.

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Actually, not at all. What Clinton authorized in the executive order that BluffTHIS linked to and that Drudge relied upon was physical searches -- not wiretapping, on foreign soil or "foreign controlled" soil which I suspect meant things like embassies -- not "in the U.S.".

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It doesn't count because of the way the words are arranged in the executive order. OK. I follow that so far.

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Amazingly, words have meanings and are used to communicate. Is this a new concept?

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And oh, don't forget Clinton supported having legislation enacted which would give him the power to conduct domestic survellance without the court, too. So all that makes it even more OK.

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Um, no. Actually, Clinton supported having legislation enacted which brought physical national security searches within the FISA framework. That means, for doemstic searches, with court involvement and with oversight.

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It gets even better. There are quoted paragraphs where the Clinton Administration states it's oh-so-good intentions to use the power vested in it and keep happy-happy feelings between all branches of Government while it uses that power.

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See above.

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I suddenly remember Orwell for some reason. "All animals are equal but some animals are more equal than others."
"Four legs good, two legs bad."

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So do I.

"At this moment, for example, in 1984 (if it was 1984), Oceania was at war with Eurasia and in alliance with Eastasia. In no public or private utterance was it ever admitted that the three powers had at any time been grouped along different lines. Actually, as Winston well knew, it was only four years since Oceania had been at war with Eastasia and in alliance with Eurasia. But that was merely a piece of furtive knowledge which he happened to possess because his memory was not satisfactorily under control. Officially the change of partners had never happened. Oceania was at war with Eurasia: therefore Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia. The enemy of the moment always represented absolute evil, and it followed that any past or future agreement with him was impossible.

The frightening thing, he reflected for the ten thousandth time as he forced his shoulders painfully backward (with hands on hips, they were gyrating their bodies from the waist, an exercise that was supposed to be good for the back muscles) -- the frightening thing was that it might all be true. If the Party could thrust its hand into the past and say of this or that event, it never happened -- that, surely, was more terrifying than mere torture and death?

The Party said that Oceania had never been in alliance with Eurasia. He, Winston Smith, knew that Oceania had been in alliance with Eurasia as short a time as four years ago. But where did that knowledge exist? Only in his own consciousness, which in any case must soon be annihilated. And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed -if all records told the same tale -- then the lie passed into history and became truth. 'Who controls the past,' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.' And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple. All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory. 'Reality control', they called it: in Newspeak, 'doublethink'."