Yellow Dog

First we learned the Bush administration disregarded laws and rewrote statutes so that they could torture prisoners. Then we learned of secret (and illegal) prisons in Europe. Now we have learned of secret spying on U.S. citizens. What's even more appalling than this secretive and criminal behavior is the number of Republican apologists who act like a President committing a felony is no big deal. I have to agree with this columnist, who hits the nail on the head:

Anybody who rationalizes George W. Bush’s illegal use of secret, warrantless wiretaps against American citizens is no friend of democracy. They may call themselves “conservatives.” In reality, they are ideologues who place party over country, enemies of the Constitution and its freedoms.

The last time no-warrant, presidentially authorized wiretaps came before the Supreme Court was 1972, courtesy of President Richard M. Nixon, who used the FBI to spy on political foes and famously decreed that “when the president does it, that means it’s not illegal.” The court voted 8-0 against Nixonian presumption. In his concurring opinion, Justice William O. Douglas quoted his illustrious predecessor, Justice Louis Brandeis: “Those who won our independence by revolution were not cowards. They did not fear political change. They did not exalt order at the cost of liberty.”

It’s not much of an exaggeration to say that Bush is claiming powers surrendered by the English monarchy in the Magna Carta of 1215 (although medieval monarchs regained them ). In a nation of laws, not men, warrantless surveillance should be seen as the recipe for a police state.

I’m with Ben Franklin : “Those that would give up essential liberty in pursuit of a little temporary security deserve neither liberty nor security.”

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