Making Conservatives Cringe Since 1977

I'm not Liberal, I'm paying attention.

23 October 2005

. . . and all the King’s men.

The reaction to my last post was bigger than I expected and I’d like to thank everyone for their interest. I’d like to thank NavySwan once again for bringing this situation to my attention. I’d like to thank NightBird for helping me get the word out and really get the story rolling.

Mark at The Tattered Coat really raised the profile of this thing beyond anything I’d ever be able to manage by myself.

I'd also like to mention The Defeatists and Broken Windows

Now that all the nicey nice stuff is out of the way, time to vent. I guess you could say I busted my cherry on this one. I spiked 400+ hits above usual. I should be happy, but I’m not. I’m pissed. Out of the hundreds of positive comments posted on all the blogs that covered Daniel’s story I’ve heard a couple that accuse myself and others in a roundabout way of disingenuousness and the politicization of Daniel’s situation.

Let me state right here and now that nothing could be further from the truth. Let me be clear; what motivated me to post this story was pure unadulterated self-centeredness. This could be me next week! This could be you! If this soldiers situation goes by without scrutiny–and I know this is a big leap, but stay with me–our right as citizens to criticize our government, no matter whose in power, right, left or indifferent, slowly starts to slip through our fingers. Doesn’t matter if you ran across this story to day, or first heard of Daniel with the Operation Truth piece, or earlier. Do you really want our government to take away the next Hemingway’s pen?

It is important to remember that our freedoms, such as they are, were never given to us by any government, they have been wrested by us. If we do not use them, if we do not guard them constantly, they will be taken away from us. If we do not demand more and more, we will be left with less and less. - Arundhati Roy

. . . and in the, "we didn't start the fire, but it was always burning category," Let the swarm begin: