Soapbox

There is a fundamental truth that George Bush and his dictator-apologists in the media hope the American people don’t see:

It’s not about the spying.

Because it’s not about the terrorists- it’s about the law. In America, the idea that no one is above the law is the absolute bedrock of American democracy. If the president doesn’t have to follow the law just like evryone else, it isn’t a law, and we have no democracy.

It is insulting in the extreme for the right-wing spin machine to flap their arms and shriek that if the president were to bother to get retro-active warrants, we would all be murdered in our beds. It is not an either/or situation: we can have surveillance of suspects AND civil liberties. But they don’t want you to know that.

President Bush was in fantasy-land yesterday when he snippily chastised the press and the democrats for caring about illegal white house wiretaps, saying that by breaking and discussing the story, they had alerted the terrorists to this vital program. Is he kidding? Hello! The terrorists already KNOW that the U.S. spies on suspected criminals! The only revelation is that Bush thinks the Constitution says that he can break laws at will. Maybe he should wander across the mall there in Washington and take another look at the thing.

The problem isn’t spying, it is that the government didn’t inform the courts AT ALL about whom they are spying on. If they don’t have to tell, what’s to stop them from listening in on anyone- congressional democrats, peace activists or whomever they consider to be their political enemy? (These days that would have to include anyone with 3 functioning brain cells!)

And if you don’t think a president would stoop to this sort of behavior, you need to read up on a little thing called “Watergate”.