A letter I sent to both of my senators...

Hello Senator's aide who might read this.

First thing, this is not a form letter. I wrote every word of this.

Second thing, I'd like to assure you that I'm not part of your ideological base, nor of your opposition's. This is the first time I've ever written a letter to a public official of any kind, and I beg you not to consider my opinion representative of only a fringe element of the public; I am very much a moderate. By implication, that means that the issue I'm writing about is very important to me and to people like me. (most everyone I know)

What I want to rant about is the recent publication by the New York Times (specifically editor Bill Keller, and reporters Eric Lichtblau and James Risen) of a classified financial 'tracking' program used by elements of the US government to trace and thereby help eliminate terrorists and their funds. Following this 'outing' of a perfectly legal and apparently highly useful program, Secretary of the Treasury John Snow released a letter highly critical of the Times crew that lists with some specificity the lengths that Congressmen and Executive officials took to try to convince the Times to not publish this story because it would harm the national interest, efforts that the Times ignored.

To me and many other Americans (and not just your typical Right-wing Defense nuts) this action by the Times staff borders on treason and is certainly illegal. Why does this nation have Classifications for sensitive information if such restrictions are meaningless? Why is it a crime to seek out and publish national defense information (Title 18 > Part I > Chapter 37 > § 793) if such laws will not be enforced? Will the Times (or any other organization or individual who does the same thing) be held accountable when terrorists, foreign agents, or other enemies who could have been stopped by such a program strike and slay American civilians or service-members like myself? Will these reckless and unpatriotic fools be allowed to comfort themselves with the mantra "Freedom of the Press!" then? How about those who leaked the information in the first place? Small comfort for the dead or their families.

Free speech has limits. If it is illegal to dishonestly defame another in print (libel) or scream 'Fire!' in a crowded theater, how can it be tolerated when a major American news organization publishes information obviously and unarguably detrimental to the safety of Americans by informing our terrorist enemies how we fight them?

Please, as a constituent, military intelligence soldier, and citizen, I ask that Senator Cornyn do everything in his power as Senator from the great state of Texas to act against this kind of irresponsible, illegal behavior by urging whatever legal options are available including prosecution of the offending parties, additional legislation to tighten the national security of this nation with regard to an out of control press, and whatever personal lobbying, persuasion, or other insider trick he can manage to try to stop these kinds of dangerous things from happening.

MY NAME HERE, US Army

P.S. If for some reason you or anyone affiliated with your office would like to publish or otherwise recreate this letter, in part or its entirety, feel free. You have my express permission, and tentative encouragement.

Songs

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Returned from Exile

I've begun to awaken from my Arabic-induced coma. As I may or may not have mentioned, I'm in California to learn Arabic and those first 8 weeks or so are killer. Doing fine now however, more like 13 weeks in; did well enough on my last test that they actually send me home a little early. Or at least, they did today. So I've got more leisure time now to do things like rant and bitch to an imaginary audience on the Internet.

A few days ago, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi's death was broadcast, confirmed, and reconfirmed, and the expected villains (Hamas, other Islamist assholes) shed their tears and promised their vengeance, while others (like most of Iraq, the US, Jordan, and civilized people in general) gave a little cheer and whistled away the day in a happy mood.

Immediately following the Blue Dude's highly satisfying expiration, the Iraqi government finally pieced together its final components and began to act like a governing body. A number of places on the Internet have hosted speculation that the immaculate timing of Zarqawi's death with the final establishment of a permanent Iraqi government was no coincidence; I agree with this assessment. Without just making stuff up, the idea that he was traded by the Sunni political faction to the Shi'a in exchange for the Defense Ministry is not that far-fetched, though simplistic. But hey, that's how conspiracy theories work best.

Speaking of conspiracies, the moonbat battalion has been churning over how Zarqawi was really an American plant, or a bogey man who never really existed in the first place. They must have truly astounding mental abilities to reconcile those ideas with the government of Jordan banning the introduction of his corpse into their country because he would 'stain their soil,' or his family saying how his death removed a 'stain on their honor,' or the pictures, eyewitness testimony, autopsy, et cetera. Hearing him repeatedly referred to as a stain makes me smile. Another imaginative Internet comment called him a 'Human Nightmare.' Hehe.

This post has a complete lack of links because it's not really current; these things have been in the news and overly commented on already. This is more like a measuring point for my own continued blogging, like a starting line.