The useless idiot of the day today is Dan Swarthout, the head of the "Christian" activist organization Christians Reviving America's Values (CRAVE). Swarthout is pressuring Congress to pass laws limiting the actions of civil liberties organizations such as the ACLU. Presumably since the very name of the organizations speaks of "reviving" America's values, you would think these people would stand for a strict reading of the Constitution.

Well, it appears such is not the case, as Swarthout has criticized the ACLU for calling into question New York City's new policy of randomly searching people in the subway system. Unsurprisingly, Swarthout shows himself to be completely ignorant of constitutional limitations which prohibit such blanket searches of individuals. The courts have widely held that in order to stop someone and search them, there must be clear, articulable, specific facts or circumstances which justify the search. Of course random searches do not in any way meet this requirement.

Furthermore, Swarthout has claimed that the ACLU isn't standing up for American citizens, but for criminals and terrorists. Implicit in this statement is that anyone accused by the government of anything is a criminal or a terrorist, since the ACLU only works to ensure that all the accused are granted the full protection of due process. Swarthout probably fully supports Bush's new policy of eschewing due process and detaining any American citizen he wishes indefinitely without charge or recourse to civil courts. Because of this, one can reasonably conclude that Swarthout is a MORON, and that nothing he stands for has anything do with Christianity or Constitutionalism or anything like that.

He is a mindless sycophant, an apologist for power, and an obstacle to freedom. As such, his opinions mean little or nothing, and if he is taken seriously by Congress, that will only be one more reason this corrupt establishment of violence deserves our contempt.