Another boiling the frog moment: this headline and story on MSNBC--
Chertoff calls for stronger anti-terror laws
Constitutional barriers could prevent wider police powers
The nation's chief of homeland security said Sunday that the U.S. should consider reviewing its laws to allow for more electronic surveillance and detention of possible terror suspects, citing last week's foiled plot.
Michael Chertoff, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, stopped short of calling for immediate changes, noting there might be constitutional barriers to the type of wide police powers the British had in apprehending suspects in the plot to blow up airliners headed to the U.S.
But Chertoff made clear his belief that wider authority could thwart future attacks at a time when Congress is reviewing the proper scope of the Bush administration's executive powers for its warrantless eavesdropping program and military tribunals for detainees held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
We now have gotten to the point where it is okay for a member of the administration to essentially call for the suspension of the constitution, and nobody screams. All of the America firsters, every one of the anti-flag burners, all of the holders of the mistaken view that only they know what patriotism is, where are they? They should be running around with their hair on fire, calling for impeachment. But no. The same people who for all the years of the cold war pointed out that the thing that made us better than the commies was our freedoms, they are strangely silent.
And congratulations, George Bush. If in fact they they hate us for our freedoms, then you have done a yoeman's job of reducing that irritant. Soon they will have nothing to hate us for.