Thursday, December 22, 2005

How Quickly We Forget

Arthur Silber recently put a post on his blog discussing the warrantless wiretapping issue.

One thing in particular that I noticed was this part, where he discusses a James Bovard piece on Waco (Bovard in red):

This film may help repair the profound national embarrassment that occurred in the initial reaction to the FBI's final attack. Snap polls taken on the day of the Waco fire and the following week showed that the American people overwhelmingly supported the action of the FBI. Rep. Jack Brooks (D.-Tex.), chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, commented that the Davidians were "horrible people. Despicable people. Burning to death was too good for them. They'd like a slower method."

That last statement is one that commentators like Limbaugh now make routinely about our enemies today.


Heck, Rush Limbaugh was making statements like that at the time, as L. Neil Smith talks about in this piece.

In fact, the famous quip by Bill Clinton:

Did you like the way Rush took up for Janet Reno the other night on his program? He only did it because she was attacked by a black guy.

was about Rush defending the actions that Janet Reno took in Waco.

So if you think that Rush has changed a lot, he hasn't.

Or that Rush only belittles civil rights when Republicans are in power, he doesn't restrict himself like that.

That is all.

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