Robert Steffes – 5/21/06

This page was last updated on May 21, 2006.

Be wary of totalitarianism; Robert Steffes; Beaver County Times; May 21, 2006.

The last time I critiqued a letter from Mr. Steffes, he was singing the praises of a woman on a crusade against electronic voting machines and offered to send her a check. I wonder if he ever followed through?

For a little more background, a Post-Gazette letter indicates Mr. Steffes believes the only scientists who don’t believe humans are causing global warming are those who work for the energy industry. In another letter, Mr. Steffes tried to get us to sign a petition so Bob Edwards could keep his job at NPR. According to Mr. Steffes, “Mr. Edwards’ calm baritone stands alone in the sea of slime that has become commercial talk radio.” I could be completely off base, but I suspect Mr. Steffes really meant “conservative talk radio.”

Below is a detailed critique of the letter.

“I particularly applaud the condemnation of the Bush administration’s domestic spying program in Sunday’s editorial ‘Fear factor: Another big lie from America’s Big Brother.’”

[RWC] As a reminder, at this writing, the USA Today story that served as the foundation of “Fear factor” appears to be falling apart. See my critique of a letter to the editor entitled “Trashing the Constitution” for more details.

“I have trouble imagining how any American can swallow the excuse that their government (and especially this president) must intrude into its citizens’ private lives to ‘keep us safe.’”

[RWC] Man, if Mr. Steffes thinks disclosed programs are bad, he would have been really mad at Presidents Lincoln and Franklin Roosevelt. To refresh your memory, President Lincoln suspended habeas corpus during the Civil War. During World War II, FDR imprisoned U.S. citizens just for being of certain ethnic backgrounds. Oh yeah, he also ordered that first class mail to/from soldiers be read without warrant. That was in addition to all the other counterespionage activities conducted on U.S. soil during World War II.

“U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, R-PA., chairman of the Judiciary Committee, has also sounded the alarm on the executive branch’s flouting of the law, demonstrating that this not a partisan issue.”

[RWC] Mr. Steffes should have found a better example. In practice, Mr. Specter is a Democrat with an “R” after his name. Lest we forget, with alleged support from the Specter campaign, Transportation Communications International Union management sent Pennsylvania union members a letter encouraging Democrats to switch temporarily their party registration so they could vote in the 2004 Republican primary. Union management wanted Sen. Specter to defeat Rep. Pat Toomey.

“As chair of the Judiciary Committee, he plans to hold hearings that have the potential to rein in Bush’s emerging police state.

“Please call his office and thank him for standing up. While you are on the phone, urge him to pursue a full investigation of domestic spying, as Bush’s story keeps changing with every new revelation.”

[RWC] I know Mr. Steffes probably doesn’t believe this, but “domestic spying” is perfectly OK when done within the law. Domestic spying goes on all the time. If it didn’t, we’d be overrun with foreign agents. Besides, the terrorist surveillance program as disclosed is about international spying, not domestic. Folks like Mr. Steffes apparently believe “international” and “domestic” are synonyms.

Notice the drive-by accusation of “Bush’s story keeps changing with every new revelation.” Mr. Steffes chose not to provide examples.

“Ask the senator to cutoff spending for eavesdropping and to oppose legislative ‘fixes’ that the administration is seeking to retroactively legalize past criminal behavior.”

[RWC] Let me get this straight. We’re to eliminate a perfectly legal means of gathering intelligence about terrorists who want to kill us? Perhaps Mr. Steffes believes terrorists will tell us their plans if we ask nicely.

I haven’t heard about any “legislative ‘fixes’ the administration is seeking …” Based on everything I’ve read, the only people who want legislation are those who believe the disclosed programs are valid but illegal. To date, the Bush administration and a lot of experts assert the disclosed programs are legal so they’d have no reason to seek new legislation.

“The technology is now available to the government to monitor literally every aspect of our lives.

“The fight to maintain our right to be left alone is now joined in earnest. America has opposed the march of totalitarianism in every corner of the globe.”

[RWC] Where has Mr. Steffes been regarding income, Medicare, and Socialist Security taxes? If the information we must provide for those taxes isn’t intrusive, what is? I don’t know about Mr. Steffes, but you can learn a lot more about me from my financial records that from my e-mail, phone call records, and wiretapped phone calls.

“Now it is up to us to do so at home.”

[RWC] If you noticed, at no point did Mr. Steffes acknowledge we’re at war with terrorists who have killed our citizens and continue to try to kill us.

Does anyone want to bet Mr. Steffes at one time or another bashed the Bush administration for not “connecting the dots” prior to 9/11? Of course, I believe folks like Mr. Steffes want us to forget 9/11, as well as the terrorist acts against us on U.S. and foreign soil for more than 10 years preceding 9/11.