Stop calling it the Patriot Act
posted by Rick at 8:11 AM

The word is that Harriet Miers was on the team that drafted the constitutional abomination that is commonly referred to as the Patriot Act. That fact alone should be sufficient to disqualify her from ever ruling on constitutional law, but that's not the reason I've climbed up on my soapbox this morning.

The official name of the law in question is "The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001," a mosntrosity that was invented for the sake of its acronym, USAPATRIOT. The corporate and independent media alike have acquiesced in using this term, although the latter sometimes puts "so-called" in front of it - as if that absolves them of complicity in the insertion of the "Patriot Act" meme in the American mindset.

We have to do better. We have allowed the right to define the language of the discourse for too long. They foisted "partial birth abortion," "war on terror," and "death tax" on us, to name a ferw. The point is, it's not enough to put "so-called" in front of their term and then continue to use it. We need to use other language that is more expressive of the reality.

For example, the aforementioned giveaway of power to the executive branch would be better referred to buy its true purpose, which was Protecting Authoritarian Rulers Against Needed Oversight by Intelligent Americans - so call it the PARANOIA Act.

And the estate tax is, as has been pointed out, not a tax on death, but a tax on the passing of (extreme) wealth. It is a check on the total passing of riches - including untaxed capital gains - from generation to gentrified generation as the royalty of Old Europe did for centuries before our country was founded. So call it what it is, a ROYALTY (Riches and Opulence Your Ancestors Left To You) tax. When they speak of the "Clear Skies Initiative," we have to correct the inherent lie. Call it the Pollution Permission Project. The "Healthy Forest Act" is really the Wealthy Foresters Act. And so on.

You can't win the argument by adopting the other side's distorted terminology.