Iraq hostage used by the left, ACLU's scare tactics

MyDD: Direct Democracy (mydd.com) has a post from Matt Stoller responding to speculations that the survival of Iraq hostage Jill Carroll damages the reputations of bloggers. Stoller blasts right wingers for hating free media and "the truth," and accuses them of being angry over Jill Carroll's homecoming. And where does this all come from? Apparently, this whole affair undercuts support for the war, so that has the Right up in arms. Stoller even says "This has to do with a flat-out racist and warmongering right-wing movement that doesn't like a woman whose survival cuts against their narrative." Apparently, the left has no qualms about taking advantage of life and death situations such as Jill Carroll's to use as spin for spewing hate-filled propaganda. Whatever happened to that touchy-feely, tolerant liberalism that liberals are constantly preaching to conservatives?

The ACLU has a new web video out with a caption that claims that the government and corporations are agressively tracking people's personal habits, hobbies, shopping, and financial information. The video shows a a computer screen belonging to a pizza delivery chain with the mouse pointer alternating between various menus that list a person's library books loaned out, airline travel, health information, credit and loan status, and employment history. This information comes with political overtones, as the viewer is urged to take action and stop the Bush administration from completely elimininating the right to privacy and claims that we are headed towards becoming a "total surveillance society." And all over the wiretapping of suspected terrorist activity. Now, if only the ACLU would take that same stance with the Hillary Clinton campaign's much-criticized voter information databases...