If you were to read the reactions of many conservative bloggers regarding the revelation that Bush ordered the NSA to conduct potentially illegal wiretaps, you'd get the impression that the majority of terrorists are dumb as a box of bricks and get all of their ideas from our "treasonous, commie, liberal media." It's as if they never had an original idea and were always just getting their ideas from the New York Times. Does that really sound right? We have a terrorist group, Al Qaeda, which blew up two embassies, nearly sunk a destroyer, hijacked two airplanes and blew up two of our most impressive commercial buildings in the financial seat of our country.

But really, they're just too stupid to come up with anything original without the help of the New York Times. Can you see it now? "Hey Ahmed, the New York Times says the NSA might actually be spying on us. Can you believe this?" "Allah be merciful, may it not be so for I could NEVER have seen THAT coming!" Given how paranoid much of the world is about the American military and intelligence agencies, wouldn't it kind of naturally follow that they are pretty sure that the NSA and CIA are at least trying to spy on them? All the New York Times actually did was confirm that yes, we really were spying on you and chances are there is a nice man with a high-powered rifle who is just dying to reach out and touch you.

We underestimate our enemies all the time. Look at all of the conservatives who cannot accept the fact that it is an unforgivable flaw in our national security policy that we have open borders in this dire "time of war." Who wants to take bets on the probability that the next terrorist attack on American soil will be the result of a terrorist waltzing right past our almost non-existent border security with a full case of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons? But then it would never occur to our enemies to try to get across the southern border, just as it would never occur to them that we might have compromised their communications when we took down a bunch of their people and they "mysteriously" never heard from those guys after American troops entered the area. Oh no, as I said, our enemies never have original thoughts and are simply too stupid to think that they may be at any given moment in the crosshairs of our spy network.

This is how wars are lost. Stop ragging on the New York times and start going after the Bush Administration for engaging in such gross negligence on the border security that daily threatens our country. Of course, just wait until 2008 when a Democrat is elected and these same conservatives will be screaming bloody murder when the police powers they fiercely defend for Bush are turned against them. That's when they'll dust off their civil libertarian clothes and rediscover the joys of principle.