the heroic t. j. rodgers

Great piece by T. J. Rodgers, CEO of Cypress Semiconductor, in the December 29th issue of San Jose Mercury News, "British, US Spying Draws Us Closer to Orwell's Big Brother":

What's the worst thing that Al-Qaida can do to America? We have probably already seen it. Of course, the government can talk about bigger things, like the use of weapons of mass destruction, to justify its use of totalitarian tactics.

I would much rather live as a free man under the highly improbable threat of another significant Al-Qaida attack than I would as a serf, spied on by an oppressive government that can jail me secretly, without charges. If the Patriot Act defines the term "patriot," then I am certainly not one.

When I first heard the news of the illegal spying on U. S. Citizens, I actually felt a bit hopeful. I thought, maybe, just maybe, Bush has finally pushed things too far and the tide will start to turn against him. I hope Rodgers is the first of many prominent pro-freedom private citizens to stand up and denounce what the Bush administration is doing.

I predict that the Rodgers piece will be almost uniformally ignored by the right wing/pro-war weblogs. Rodgers is staunchly pro-freedom/pro-capitalism so he can't be denounced as a moonbat by the screeching harpies and sycophants on the right.

As I write this, the only major blog to link to Rodgers' piece is Hit and Run. I urge all right-wingers to finally "get it" as well. No hard feelings here, fellas. All will be forgiven if you just give up your war-mongering ways and start to support peace and freedom.