Civil Liberties Attacked, Or the Nation Upheld?

You've read the posts throughout the Blogosphere, seen the TV shows (even that horrible Fox News!), probably listened to the rational and reasonable NPR or, worse yet, dared to listen to those Right Wing bastions of chest-thumping screeching screwball screeds, radio shows on the order of the dangerous Rush Limbaugh, Hugh Hewitt, Sean Hannity, Michael Medved and, and, those types --

You know the kind -- the ones that grab the sheepish, uneducated, unwashed masses by the glottis and brainwash the groundlings, likely by subversive, hypnotic machinations (how else would these NASCAR-watching, bloated-belly, trailer-trash, white, gun-toting, dentally-challenged, wife-beater-wearing, 12-pack-chugging dolts, their women, as chattel of course, kept barefoot on the hardpack dirt floors and oppressed by being forced to cook, clean and churn out little whelps like production lines despite womens' Right to Choose - be duped!) -- these are the people that are supporting (Can you possibly feature this?? Supporting!!) President Bush's lame justification of domestic spying on American citizens.

This all came about, and rightly so, because the New York Times dared to print a story (on 12-16-2005) about the NSA spying on our own citizens, within the shores of the continental United States. Our citizens! What an abrogation of power! What an abuse of executive authority! And who is responsible, who ordered these abuses you ask? Why, none other than the Master Abuser himself, President George W. Bush!

Jonathan Alter, in Newsweek, wrote yesterday that George Bush is acting like a Dictator, though in his own mind, Bush is not thinking he's a Dictator. In this case he was working in an extra-Constitutional, dictatorial fashion, a violation of the separation of powers. Alter said Bush is in fact acting dictatorially, as Bush insists his authority is coming from the Congressional resolution after 9-11 regarding the use of "all necessary force." Alter was not making a 4th Amendment argument -- he was saying that Bush was in violation of the 1978 FISA Act itself.

"It was the work of a patriot inside the government who leaked the NSA program," Alter also wrote. Yes, the individual did break the law for that individual to leak. But he should not necessarily be prosecuted for doing this because of the overarching good. Doing so would have a chilling effect on future leakers or whistleblowers. In a larger historical sense, considering the good of the American people, FISA says you have to seek approval from the FISA court. Period. Read USC 1809.

Alter, on Hugh Hewitt's program this date, said Gore was the actual winner in 2000. Bush should have conceded. Gore made a mistake in cherry-picking a certain county and should have insisted on a recount throughout the entire nation.

9-11 gave Bush license to act like a Dictator, Alter said. The original draft of the Patriot Act gave carte blanch to eliminate habeus corpus. Alter supported The Patriot Act, but wants it done according to the law. Bush cited the Constitution in giving him the right to tell the NSA to make its taps. In the larger view, Bush believes he has the ability to simply violate the law. And so Alter wrote.

The House, unfortunately, recently passed the re-crafting of The Patriot Act, which sunsets December 31st. If the Senate doesn't re-authorize, then the House (currently adjourned) may find itself re-summoned to attack the Senate. How wrong is that?

What a ridiculously lame argument the Right makes, to say that technology is such that the FISA court cannot be sought after, within 72 hours as it should. It is not about technology, or the so-called safety and security of our country, but continuing national oppression by the Fascist Bush Regime.

So someone belonging to some innocent Islamic organization acquires a cell phone with a US area code and uses this phone internationally? Big hairy deal. Everyone, and I mean everyone, has a right to privacy; no, an expectation of privacy in the United States. The claim that those may have connections to so-called government designated terrorists factions is wrongly declarative and judgmental on its face -- consider the source, people; consider the source!

• The Right brings up Craig Livingstone
• The Right brings up the United States vs. United States District Court
• The Right brings up Hillary's 400 missing FBI files
• The Right argues that the Constitution is not a suicide pact

Even the occasionally-respected Wall Street Journal strays off the reservation with its newest editorial:

Wisconsin Democrat Russ Feingold wants to be President, and that's fair enough. By all means go for it in 2008. The same applies to Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican who's always on the Sunday shows fretting about the latest criticism of the Bush Administration's prosecution of the war on terror. But until you run nationwide and win, Senators, please stop stripping the Presidency of its Constitutional authority to defend America.

That is the real issue raised by the Beltway furor over last week's leak of National Security Agency wiretaps on international phone calls involving al Qaeda suspects. The usual assortment of Senators and media potentates is howling that the wiretaps are "illegal," done "in total secret," and threaten to bring us a long, dark night of fascism. "I believe it does violate the law," averred Mr. Feingold on CNN Sunday.

The truth is closer to the opposite. What we really have here is a perfect illustration of why America's Founders gave the executive branch the largest measure of Constitutional authority on national security. They recognized that a committee of 535 talking heads couldn't be trusted with such grave responsibility. There is no evidence that these wiretaps violate the law. But there is lots of evidence that the Senators are "illegally" usurping Presidential power--and endangering the country in the process.

Clearly, journalism at its unmitigated, Right-Winged worst.

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Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, Children of All Ages: I will be away on vacation for the next few days with my honey, enjoying mud baths, massages and Irish music in an authentic Bay Area IRA pub where once rested a photo of Lord Mountbatten with a big X through it. I'll clutch a Guiness for you!

Please, have a very Merry Christmas one and all!

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And thank you all, once again, all my Usual Suspects (and newcomers as well!) for visiting my blog, leaving your wonderful comments, supporting my existence in the Blogosphere and for conducting yourselves with aplomb and dignity.

2006 will be better still for each and every one of us!

Excelsior!