Jonas Rushman – 2/27/08

This page was last updated on February 27, 2008.

We have become the USSR; Jonas Rushman; Beaver County Times; February 27, 2008.

This is the eighth letter during the last couple of years I’ve noticed from Mr. Rushman. In addition to being a consistent Bush basher, two of those letters claimed there is no liberal bias in the media and that “Fahrenheit 9/11” is a good source of documented facts. As you’ll see below, Mr. Rushman has another source as credible as Michael Moore.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“I would like to express my utter dismay at the Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the American Civil Liberties Union’s lawsuit to investigate the Bush administration’s illegal wiretapping of American citizens.”

[RWC] Mr. Rushman failed to note the Supreme Court simply refused to hear the ACLU’s appeal, thus upholding the ruling of the 6^th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which dismissed the case.

“The neo-con, Republican-packed Supreme Kangaroo Court stated its reasoning as the ACLU could not prove it was directly impacted.”

[RWC] I guess Mr. Rushman forgot Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. According to the SCOTUS website, Justice Ginsberg “was instrumental in launching the Women’s Rights Project of the American Civil Liberties Union, and served as the ACLU’s General Counsel from 1973–1980, and on the National Board of Directors from 1974–1980.”

Oh by the way, the Supreme Court didn’t issue the statement Mr. Rushman claimed. According to the AP, the Court turned down the appeal “without comment.” You can see for yourself at “CERTIORARI -- SUMMARY DISPOSITIONS” on page five (ACLU, ET AL. V. NSA, ET AL.). Then again, Mr. Rushman never seems to let the facts get in the way of a good rant.

“So, following the same logic, local authorities would not be able to prosecute a bank robber because they were not directly impacted. How ludicrous!”

[RWC] What Mr. Rushman didn’t say – and for good reason – is the ACLU went to court without any evidence to support their case. Their whole case was something like, “It’s possible someone listened to our conversations. Let’s go fishing and see.”

Mr. Rushman’s definition of “same logic” differs vastly from mine. For the “logic” to be the same, a bank would have to go to local authorities and say they thought they were robbed with no evidence to support the allegation.

“Once again, the Bush administration is given a free pass.

“Its record of trampling the Constitution, skirting the law and subsequently stone-walling all attempts to apply the checks and balances guaranteed in the Constitution makes me fear for the November elections.

“I’m afraid that W Almighty and Darth Cheney may try to pull a Reagan. In 1984, Ronald Reagan, in full throes of dementia, contemplated canceling the presidential election in a bid to indefinitely retain power. (Source: Ted Rall, “An Iron Fist in a Velvet Glove: How American Democracy Relies on Fascism)”

[RWC] In case you aren’t familiar with Mr. Rushman’s “source,” Mr. Rall is a flame-throwing, far-left editorial cartoonist. In a July 5, 2004, cartoon, Mr. Rall showed then-National Security Advisor and present Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice referring to herself as President Bush’s “HOUSE NIGGA.” When Mr. Rushman considers people like Mr. Rall and Michael Moore to be credible sources, that tells us much of what we need to know about Mr. Rushman.

Anyway, here’s the Rall screed to which Mr. Rushman refers. In it, Mr. Rall wrote, “On April 6, 1984, President Ronald Reagan signed National Security Decision Directive No. 52. Reagan targeted 400,000 people for arrest and confinement at concentration camps in mothballed Army bases. The National Security Council’s ‘secret government within a government,’ as Congressional investigators later described it, planned to cancel the 1984 presidential election so Reagan could remain in office indefinitely.” Unfortunately for Messrs. Rall and Rushman, you can see NSDD 52 (signed in 1982, not 1984) isn’t remotely related to what Mr. Rall claimed. Apparently these two gentlemen assume no one will check out their assertions.

FYI, Mr. Rall’s myth wasn’t even original. In one form it goes back to at least a 1996 book entitled “Resisting Reagan: The U.S. Central America Peace Movement.”

Really, do these guys just sit around and make this stuff up?

“Now, we torture our prisoners, spy on our own citizens, invade sovereign nations and American citizens have no recourse when facing abuses by our own government. We have become the USSR that we so vehemently abhorred during the Cold War.”

[RWC] Blah, blah, blah.