The World Is Not Black And White

TW: So many conservatives epitomized by W. Bush seek to break the world down into black and white choices. As most of us learn at some point between nursery school and first grade more subtle shades of gray are more relevant. Another of my least favorite conservative columnists is Victor David Hanson. In this recent piece, he bagged a two-fer, creating the dreaded straw man argument overlaid with a heavy dose of black and white logic where gray is most definitely the operative reality. Hanson implies Democrats would end all intelligence gathering involving wiretaps (the straw man) while claiming that the elimination of wiretaps is an all or nothing proposition (the black or white choice). Andrew Sullivan answered with the right points.

From Sullivan:
"One wonders how out of it NRO can get, and then one reads this from Victor Davis Hanson:

FISA and wire-intercepts of terrorist communications in the pre-Obama president months were once derided as more of Ashcroft-Bush stomping on the Constitution — except that now ABC News reports that, in fact, US intelligence agencies supplied India with general knowledge of the rough time period, place, and
perhaps even method of terrorist attack. Are we to believe that such newfound capability to warn a country 7000 miles away about terrorist infiltration on its
borders would be of no utility here at home?

Does Hanson actually believe that opponents of the Bush warrantless wiretapping were actually against all wire intercepts of terrorist communications? Does he really believe we wanted no intelligence procured through spying or wiretapping? Or is he actually aware that we were concerned about checks and balances so that these powers could not be abused or adopted in secret or given to the president alone? And just lying about it?

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/12/it-gets-worse.html