And for those of you who might want to quibble with my opinion that this administration seeks to do whatever it wants, using the threat of terrorism as its excuse for an unending series of power grabs, we have this (via the Washington Monthly):
Big Internet and telephone companies are girding to fight an unprecedented call by the Bush administration for them to keep detailed records of customers’ online activities for two years.
The request by Atty. Gen. Alberto R. Gonzales and FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III would dramatically expand the government’s ability to track what people do online and with whom they communicate.
It follows disclosure this year that the Justice Department had solicited potentially billions of online search queries from some of the same companies and that the National Security Agency had requested calling records of virtually all U.S. customers.
They will keep amassing more and more power and centralized control, all in the name of keeping you safe, until the biggest fear we have is ourselves. Since I have given up on my party actually standing up for privacy rights and fighting for limited government, let me put it this way- some day, and some day soon, I predict, it isn’t going to be the Lord and Saviour Bush and a Republican Congress (I can not believe 33% of the poll respondents would vote for him again in 2008- this may be the most troubling thing I have seen in years) thumbing through your phone records. It will be a Democratic President with a Democratic Congress refusing to provide any oversight.
To make that clearer, it could be President Hillary Clinton and Attorney General Sydney Blumenthal who will be thumbing through your phone records, Limbaugh acolytes.
Still sound like a good idea?
BTW- I am willing to bet if they do get this power, you know what they will use it on? Fighting the evil menace of porn.
Ancient Purple
Oh, please, John.
Don’t you know that Big Brother is our friend and wants only the best for us. Why must we fear him?
And that 4th Amendment nonsense? That was all well and good for those uppity Founding Fathers, but Adams, Franklin and Jefferson were duped by their own naive visions of a free republic.
If only there hadn’t been a 4th Amendment, think of all the lives that would have been saved at Antietam.
Oh, and Hillary killed Vince Foster, with the candlestick, in the conservatory.
betamu60
John, thanks SO much for that last bit, about how a democratic congress/president might (would) use the same powers/information. I have taken this tack numerous times in speaking to my my family members that are of the mind that “we MUST vote republican and accept no criticism of the current administration”. Regardless of what happens in the next election, or the one after that, etc., one day there WILL be a liberal president. If they feel is it acceptable for Bush and his administration to do these things, they should shut up when a liberal president decides to use the same tactics and use them for political purposes.
In my mind, these actions are most certainly not acceptable and unjustifiable.
Marcus Wellby
Well, Mr. Cole, you have hit what I consider the essential problem of Bush and his supporters — a complete inability to think, plan, or act in any way that is good in the long term. Time and time again this administration has shown its only concern is short-term gain. Pennywise and pound foolish as the saying goes.
Anony Coward
The POTUS gives the phrase “Come to Jesus” a whole new meaning….
Joel
“if they do get this power, you know what they will use it on? Fighting the evil menace of porn.”
Sort of. They will expose the porn usage of Democrats, independents, and insufficiently loyal Republicans. But that’s all.
SeesThroughIt
“I gave myself to Jesus, and now he never calls.”
One of the lessons learned from 9/11 is that if Lily Thai is allowed to participate in filmed hot, hot sex scenes, then Islamo-facists are hiding right around the corner waiting to behead you.
The Other Steve
If you’ve done nothing wrong, you ain’t got anything to fear.
Jill
I really hope that “The Other Steve” is joking. Because if not, then the dumbing down of America really HAS taken hold.
What makes you so sure, John, that the Bushistas have any intention of leaving on January 20, 2009?
Pooh
Jill, TOS is most assuredly joking.
And FWIW, the intrawebs was the first step in the “Flypaper” plan for fighting porn – the only problem is that they caught a few more than they thought (and that’s just in the WH Briefing Room)
Perry Como
Or Debriefing room in Gannon’s case.
Krista
Glad I’m not the only one who’s wondered that. And why do I have a feeling that the terror level will be set to orange or red right around that time?
The Other Steve
No way am I joking.
I feel sorry for the President. His approval is down into the 20s, he’s got no friends. Nobody to help him.
So I’ve decided to devote the month of June to helping the Presidents approval rating. I’m just one man, but if we all pitch in and help, we can make big things happen. Just like when David killed Goliath.
Sirkowski
…and then David became a despot.
RobertL
It amazes me that more people haven’t grasped the obvious point that no party has a monopoly on virtue. Someone becomes president precisely because he believes he knows better than everyone else in the country how best to run things. Anyone with that kind of ego is, of course, going to do all he can to expand his power to implement his ideas. When Nixon was nabbed during Watergate for taping all his conversations and engaging in illegal break ins his defense was that previous democratic presidents had done the same. Bush has tried to use the same defense on his power grabs. If congress or the courts do not now stop his signing statements, warrantless searches and wiretaps, and other “unitary executive” crap it is guaranteed that future presidents, Democrat or Republican, will use those powers AND EXPAND THEM. The U.S. is not a police state (yet). However, Bush and the Congress of Victors have put us firmly on the path.
Jon H
Can we start referring to him as Attorney Generalissimo Francisco Gonzales yet?
I’m surprised the immigrant-hatin’ right hasn’t started using AG as an example that Latin Americans in power inherently incline towards dictatorship and thus should be kept away from the US political system.
– JH
Jon H
“I feel sorry for the President. His approval is down into the 20s, he’s got no friends. Nobody to help him.”
Except Jesus and the bottle.
Someone needs to send Bush a hip flask with Jesus on it.
Brian
“Attorney Generalissimo” – that’s funny. I’ll be using that.
Remember how Clinton was the first black president? Bush is the first Latin American president. Just put the guy in some cheesy fake general outfit like Fidel wears. Put some fake medals on his chest and a moustache.
Viva Presidente Jorge Boosh!
Bruce Moomaw
So tell me: how the hell do you explain the fact that Quinnipiac found that — by almost the same landslide margin by which the voters regard Bush as the worst postwar president — they regard Reagan as the best? This is another of those clues I keep seeing recently that God has officially resigned and left Lewis Carroll to run things.
DougJ
Remember how Clinton was the first black president? Bush is the first Latin American president. Just put the guy in some cheesy fake general outfit like Fidel wears. Put some fake medals on his chest and a moustache.
That’s right on the money.
Quien es mas macho, Jorge Bush or Fidel Castro?
Jay
BTW- I am willing to bet if they do get this power, you know what they will use it on? Fighting the evil menace of porn.
It’s not clear who exactly you mean by “they” here. If it is us, the Democrats, you can be sure that we’ll be too busy using this power to punish the rapture monkeys to waste much time on the porn mongers.
Mark-NC
What kills me about all this is that the Republican side has traditionally been for smaller government and less intrusion in our private lives.
What happened?
And how long before all this information is used to screw 99% of America out of money, or basic freedom, or – pick just about anything nasty and it applies!
Person of Choler
Well, it has finally happened. Other previously decent countries have been bullied by Bush and the Neocons into violating the rights of their citizens by snooping in their phone records and other sorts of Big Brothering.
(See http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=de3f8e90-982a-47af-8e5e-a1366fd5d6cc&k=46849)
And all this for what? Just to harass some guys with Middle-Eastern-sounding names and 6000 pounds of ammonium nitrate. In multicultural, peace loving Canada of all places. The war against Brown People is spreading.