I'm glad I deleted my CNN rant earlier. The Star Tribune has a
great editorial (they seem to roll them out pretty regularly) lambasting "King George" and his "state secrets" policy.
Figure this one out: The U.S. government can't be asked to justify its secret eavesdropping on American citizens, it says, because the reason for such spying is a secret itself. That's more or less what a Bush administration attorney told a federal judge last Monday in urging dismissal of a challenge to the National Security Agency's domestic eavesdropping scheme. Given what's already known about its skulking wiretapping program, hiding behind the "state secrets" shield may be the Bush administration's best bet.
Continued below...
The editorial quickly cuts to the point of the case, that the 4th Amendment as well as the FISA act were violated as part of this program.
It brings up potential attacks on other quaint "pre-9/11" concepts like the 1st and 5th Amendments:
What will King George think of next? Today he's invoking the theory -- and the endless, ubiquitous "war on terrorism" -- to justify warrantless spying on innocent Americans. And tomorrow? Why not an executive edict for house-to-house searches, or a suspension of the Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, or the tidy establishment of a virtuous and upright state religion?
The Editorial also brings up a point often mentioned on Daily Kos and other Liberal websites: if we follow this path we progress to dictatorship.
Such notions may sound absurd, but are they? If it's agreed that executive authority really does trump law and judicial review, there's really nothing the president can't do. That theory -- sauced by the claim that any public assessment of government conduct jeopardizes the keeping of "state secrets" -- is a recipe for dictatorship.
There is a great finish. They combine 1984 and Tudor England (or 19th century France) seamlessly:
Welcome to the world beyond the looking glass -- where the president is king, a war prevails eternally and the rule of law applies only to some. How long until the beheadings start?
Read the entire editorial. Also check out these other commendable letters
1. The "Letter of the Day"
2. Just the first letter, although the last one is a pretty funny Republican talking about ethics as a 2006 issue.