Sticking it to the (Straw) Man

A commmon tactic to gain support for restricting civil liberties is to build a Straw Man out of the opposition, which is then easy to tear down.

Karl Rove has mad skills in this department when he talks about the PATRIOT Act or the NSA spying scandal, as a good editorial in today's Philly Inquirer points out.

Speaking of the PATRIOT Act, did you know that today is National PATRIOT Act Call-In Day? Yeah, we got the memo kind of late, too. Oh well...they'll probably be just as excited to hear from us tomorrow.