Carnival of Bauer








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Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Are you kidding me?
Allow me to take a brief break from my Kim Bauer obsession in order to address a very serious matter. Craig Crawford writes on HuffPost:
I have been watching dozens of back episodes of Fox Broadcasting's '24' over the holidays, and so far I haven't seen rogue U.S. counter-terrorism agent Jack Bauer stop once for a court warrant -- not even when he sawed off the head of an informant he was interrogating. Come to think of it, I haven't heard the Constitution mentioned a single time as Bauer, played by Kiefer Sutherland, repeatedly breaks the rules to thwart terrorist plots.

This is how the President wants us to see the real world. Indeed, George Bush is the Jack Bauer of presidential power. There are no rules in Bush's world when it comes to the War on Terror[...]
Crawford writes this as an indictment of Bush. Is he kidding? Is he completely unaware of the wild popularity of the show? Is he oblivious to the fact that many, many Americans desperately wish Jack Bauer was leading the war on terrorism?

Furthermore, Crawford shows his distinct ignorance of the show. George Bush is not the Jack Bauer of presidential power. That's absurd. You don't need a Jack Bauer of presidential power, when you, conveniently, have a powerful, fast-acting presidential figure right there to set up as an example—if anything Crawford should have said that George Bush is the David Palmer of the real world. Personally, I'd disagree with even that—but if he was, he'd certainly have my unflinching support.

Seriously, the guy saved the world 4 times already—and Crawford thinks comparing him to Bush is going to hurt the president's image?

Delusional people scare me. And now, back to my regular Kim-blogging...

UPDATE [12/28/2005 - 17:53]: This just in... Rasmussen (via InstaPundit) has polling information that suggests the same thing I was talking about above. The "keeper stat" (as John Madden might say):

Sixty-four percent (64%) of Americans believe the National Security Agency (NSA) should be allowed to intercept telephone conversations between terrorism suspects in other countries and people living in the United States. A Rasmussen Reports survey found that just 23% disagree[...]

Just 26% believe President Bush is the first to authorize a program like the one currently in the news.
Not only are Americans not bothered by the news that the NSA was tapping our phone lines, but 74% of us thought it was already happening. (Come on, we've all heard the stories of massive supercomputers at Fort Meade that listen in for words like "bomb," "terrorist," "president," "assasinate," etc. Who knew they weren't true?)

I think it's time for the U.S. to adopt a new motto:
America: A nation of Palmers—we want Jack; France can have Logan (and Kerry) back.
UPDATE [12/30/2005 - 1:48]: And here's another one! Unbelievable:
After many long nights of contemplating the domestic and foreign policies of our esteemed leader President George W. Bush, I think I have finally figured out both his philosophy and my problem with it.

President Bush obviously has been watching too much of the television series '24.'
Why do these people think this is a convincing argument? In the next paragraph, we get a bit of a hint—it is only persuasive to people who've never seen the show, and the author knows it:
For those of you unfamiliar with the Fox program, '24' depicts a fictional governmental unit called CTU - Counter Terrorist Unit. The main characters are Agent Jack Bauer and Senator/President/Ex-President David Palmer. Together, these two men deal with and defeat terrorists who try and attack the United States and inflict terrible casualties upon innocent Americans.
People who are familiar with the show, of course, think that maybe the President is doing the right thing.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

If President Bush is "Jack Bauer" than the entire left wing of this country is President Logan. A bedwetting 2 faced loser.

Who would you rather have cover your ass when the bad guys are near?

Buckaroo Banzai said...

First, does this moonbat toad realize that IT'S JUST A TV SHOW??? Jack never seems to urinate, either. What's that saying to America's utes? (Did you say "ute?") If the writers had Jack do everything REAL law enforcement officers do, no one would watch. Why? BECAUSE MY JOB CAN BE VERY, VERY BORING! Ass.

Oh, and I agree with you guys: comparing Bush to Bauer is a compliment. When are we gonna wise up and deport Huffington? GO back to the Old Country, you jackass!

Buckaroo Banzai said...

One more thing that frosts my weenie: If people actually believe that the NSA is listening in on their inane chatter (read: what I bought from Acme), they are gravely mistaken. You don't wanna be tapped? Don't talk about bombs with the residents of Iraq and Afghanistan!!!

RFTR said...

Wyatt has touched on an important point—yeah, it is an invasion of my privacy to listen in on my phone calls.

WHO CARES?? It's really not a serious infringement on my liberty for some NSA weenie to get off listening to me have phone sex with my girlfriend.

Oh, and by the way? God only KNOWS who's intercepting telephone conversations—it's not a secure network at any point! Does it really matter if the government joins in?

Dionne said...

Awesome post!! Very well said. I agree that if Bush were compared to Bauer it would be a huge compliment. But you're right, it doesn't work. You could compare him to Palmer but I actually think Palmer is better although he's fictional so it's easy to make him somewhat perfect.

All that to say I would sleep much better at night if there were a real Palmer and Bauer defending our country.

And I was very encouraged when I heard that poll today about the 64%. Maybe the American people have a brain after all.

RFTR said...

I'd sleep much better if Kim Bauer was sleeping next to me... but that's just me.

Tyler said...

There will be a point in the future that people who think like we do could be considered the enemy and this wiretapping would and will be used against us. It just freaks me out that I haven't signed over any of my liberties and some desk jockey in Langley is getting off on my telephone conversation. That is probably the reason I don't use phones very much. But, if there are agents like our hero Jack Bauer out there willing to risk everything they know and love so I can continue in my paranoid bliss, God Bless them.

And another thing, Jo from Jo’s Café wants to post on this site, but she and a few others do not have a blogger account and do not want one. Can the admin please enable comments from other sources please.



Paranoia level = Extreme.

Dionne said...

RFTR: You crack me up :-).

RFTR said...

Tyler, it's a fair point—but as of now, we are not prosecuting (or persecuting) people for what's said in their phone conversations. I don't think that's the intent. The intent is to gather information and prevent crimes.

The telephone system is a public system. I could tap into it right outside my house and listen to any call I want (within a local area) right now, if I wanted to.

And the simple fact is, we aren't screening for people who say things we don't like—we are screening for people plotting heinous crimes. If that changes, and we start arresting people for talking about Allah, I'll be right there with you—but as long as it remains a substantive search for information, I'm ok with it—and I honestly thought it was going on pre-9/11!