Michele Bachmann is Clueless!

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist


I received an email from the American Civil Liberties Union today that was not only informative, but also thought-provoking and even somewhat entertaining.  The ACLU, as most Americans are aware, is a selfless group of individuals focused on protecting our civil liberties as outlined in the first ten Amendments to the United States Constitution - a.k.a.  The Bill of Rights.

Sometimes the ACLU is unpopular with certain groups of individuals because "everyone" means "everyone," and the venerable civil liberties organization will go to court to defend the speech rights, for instance, of odious entities like the Klan, the Fred Phelps family, and even the Koch brothers.  But the Constitution and its Bill of Rights protects all of us, and without it none of us would be safe to voice our opinions.   The ACLU attempts to be as blind as Justice herself in defending the constitutionally- guaranteed rights of every American.

There are some in this country who are basically opposed to rights for many under-priviliged or overlooked Americans, and constantly demonize the ACLU.  Ms. Bachmann obviously regards the ACLU as an enemy of freedon - freedom as she defines it.  Ms. Bachmann is pandering to those Americans who wave their flags and speak proudly of "freedom," all the while maneuvering to deny basic freedoms to certain groups of individuals - groups such as the poor, racial minorities, women, union members, and gay Americans.   When it comes to defending the rights of those groups in court, the ACLU is often somewhere in the mix.

During last Saturday's umpteenth Republican debate Michelle Bachmann, a great thinker with a degree from Oral Roberts "University," apparently said this:  "Today, under Barack Obama, he is allowing the ACLU to run the CIA."    After successfully wedging that soundbite into the debate, she followed it up the next day on Meet the Press with a clarification - stating that she meant to say the CIA is being run in accord with the "philosophy" of the ACLU.

Well, the good folks (and they are good folks) at the ACLU could not let that pass, and today they released a rebuttal to Ms. Bachmann, an individual whom the organization sees as being clueless. In that rebuttal, the ACLU offered "Five Clues that the ACLU does not run the CIA."  They follow:

CLUE #1: If the ACLU ran the CIA, we wouldn't have undermined our security and values by using waterboarding and other forms of torture. 
CLUE #2: If the ACLU ran the CIA, we would have helped restore our nation's standing in the world with a full and complete accounting of any past involvement in torture. 
CLUE #3: If the ACLU ran the CIA, the senior officials who authorized U.S. involvement in torture would have been brought to justice in a court of law. 
CLUE #4: If the ACLU ran the CIA, there wouldn't have been any secret CIA prisons operating around the world. 
CLUE #5: If the ACLU ran the CIA, the American people would never have seen extraordinary rendition, indefinite detention, targeted killing of people far from any battlefield, and other human rights abuses carried out in our name. 

So, Michele, the ball is in your court.  May I suggest that you use some of your government Medicaid income or your government farm subsidy income to buy a vowel - or a clue - or perhaps a brain.   Or if those accounts are running low, maybe you could tap into the millions that your angry campaign has begged off of America's feeble-minded.  You definitely have a lot to learn about the ACLU and the CIA.

For those wishing to support the fine work of the American Civil Liberties Union, please visit:  www.aclu.org.   Here's a clue:  the American Civil Liberties Union has nothing at all to do with the management of the Central Intelligence Agency - though America's honor would be in much better shape if it did!