The State of the Empire

Is not good, but it seems that the sleeping giants are awake. And hungry.

Spies, Lies and Wiretaps - New York Times: "Sept. 11 could have been prevented. This is breathtakingly cynical. The nation's guardians did not miss the 9/11 plot because it takes a few hours to get a warrant to eavesdrop on phone calls and e-mail messages. They missed the plot because they were not looking. The same officials who now say 9/11 could have been prevented said at the time that no one could possibly have foreseen the attacks. We keep hoping that Mr. Bush will finally lay down the bloody banner of 9/11, but Karl Rove, who emerged from hiding recently to talk about domestic spying, made it clear that will not happen — because the White House thinks it can make Democrats look as though they do not want to defend America. 'President Bush believes if Al Qaeda is calling somebody in America, it is in our national security interest to know who they're calling and why,' he told Republican officials. 'Some important Democrats clearly disagree.'"

They don't quite call him a used car salesman.

Just trust us. Mr. Bush made himself the judge of the proper balance between national security and Americans' rights, between the law and presidential power. He wants Americans to accept, on faith, that he is doing it right. But even if the United States had a government based on the good character of elected officials rather than law, Mr. Bush would not have earned that kind of trust. The domestic spying program is part of a well-established pattern: when Mr. Bush doesn't like the rules, he just changes them, as he has done for the detention and treatment of prisoners and has threatened to do in other areas, like the confirmation of his judicial nominees. He has consistently shown a lack of regard for privacy, civil liberties and judicial due process in claiming his sweeping powers. The founders of our country created the system of checks and balances to avert just this sort of imperial arrogance.

Checks and balances. What an arcane concept. Who needs balance?

War changes everything. Mr. Bush says Congress gave him the authority to do anything he wanted when it authorized the invasion of Afghanistan. There is simply nothing in the record to support this ridiculous argument.

The administration also says that the vote was the start of a war against terrorism and that the spying operation is what Mr. Cheney calls a "wartime measure." That just doesn't hold up. The Constitution does suggest expanded presidential powers in a time of war. But the men who wrote it had in mind wars with a beginning and an end. The war Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney keep trying to sell to Americans goes on forever and excuses everything.

The Forever War.We must fight them over there, so we don't have to fight them here. Because you are weak and spineless and you need me to take care of you, make all your decisions for you and then nothing bad will happen to me.

Isn't it time we grew up, stood up for ourselves and say "we aren't going to take this anymore"? Or wait just a little bit longer so we can look around at the destruction of our liberties and say "what the hell happened"?

Tags: Bush, Iraq, wiretap, cheney, NY Times