Dangerous Times

By: Mr. Wilson on December 19, 2005

I was out of town when the New York Times broke the story about the eavesdropping our government is doing, without warrants or judicial oversight, here in the United States. It's probably just as well. The story pretty much speaks for itself, so it's not like I would have had any earth-shattering insight to add to the discussion. But I simply must reiterate, as many others have done, how frightening it is that our President thinks that shredding civil liberties is the best way to protect civil liberties. In his own words:

The American people expect me to do everything in my power under our laws and Constitution to protect them and their civil liberties. And that is exactly what I will continue to do, so long as I'm the president of the United States. [Emphasis added]

And he actually believes that stuff! Bush honestly thinks that violating our country's laws and Constitution is consistent with his "power under our laws and Constitution", and he thinks that violating basic civil liberties is the best way "to protect [us] and [our] civil liberties." The man lives in a twisted, bizarre little world. If domestic spying really needs to be done to protect our lives and liberties, fine. But there is no reason -- zero -- to circumvent judicial oversight of the process. If the spying is really necessary, the courts will allow reasonable covert activities to take place. The courts are comprised of Americans, after all, and judges no more want to end up dead at the hands of terrorists than does Joe Public. These are dangerous times we live in, and unfortunately some of the dangers originate right here in the U.S.A., including Washington, D.C.

Comments

See what your friends and neighbors have to say about this.

Gary

December 19, 2005 at 5:25PM

Well said!

Joshua Wiltshire

December 21, 2005 at 4:04AM

Don’t forget, on a speech he gave on April 20th of last year, he stated explicitly (well, he wasn’t swearing or being dirty or anything) that his administration does not use wiretaps without a court order, and that they follow the constitution on this matter.

Somebody please tell me that this an impeachable offense.

Share your thoughts with the community.

Commenting is no longer permitted on this post.