Friday, August 18, 2006

Kaus on Whack-Job Judge Ruling on NSA

Mickey Kaus has the correct perspective on the meaningless decision by a rabid Carter-appointee concerning wiretaps:
Why is the press making such a fuss about a District Court opinion striking down the administration's NSA eavesdropping program? It's a District Court opinion! The actual decision will obviously be made by the Supreme Court, two levels up, and when it makes that decision the lower court's opinion will have less weight than an editorial in Roll Call (unless the opinion's brilliantly innovative, an exception that apparently does not apply in this case, or the judge has made a decision against his or her known tendencies--e.g. a states' rights champion ruling for the feds--which also isn't the case here). ... The ritual in which the winning side extrapolates triumphantly from the meaningless event ("It's another nail in the coffin of executive unilateralism"--ACLU) is a particularly disreputable bit of Kabuki.. ... Of course: The same point would apply if the lower court had decided in favor of the Bush administration. ...

But of course, the MSM doesn't mind how stupid this crack-brained "ruling" looks a week after a terrorist Al-Qaeda venture is thwarted by wireless intercepts, among other police work. The MSM has the attention-span of a housefly, which is what the moral weight of Judge Anna Diggs Taylor's diatribe also resembles, that of a housefly, and as significant as what a housefly does.

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