Two Op-Eds of Interest

In the cruising of my usual haunts for news and information, I ran across two very good op-eds that I wanted to highlight for you. The first is by David McNaughton writing for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. His article is titled Bush shouldn't have carte blanche on wiretaps. I agree. Here's an excerpt from this piece:

[Sen. Arlen] Specter has proposed a bill that would permit the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court to determine if Bush's warrantless domestic spying is constitutional. Federal law requires that court's approval for such eavesdropping; the president insists he can overlook the requirement because he is conducting a war against terrorism.

A definitive court decision is needed to resolve the conflict between the rights of individuals to their privacy and the president's power as commander in chief. But Specter's bill would not require the White House to submit to a court ruling. Nor would it ensure that if a ruling were made, the decision would become public.

That's not a compromise, as Specter describes it. That's a surrender.

The next op-ed was found at The Salt Lake Tribune and was unsigned. This piece is titled A law unto itself: Administration assumes all power. The article explains how the Bush administration has been gathering more and more unchecked power while impeding attempts by Congress and the courts to restrain it. From the article:

This is an administration that brooks no dissent and admits no possibility of error. The checks and balances so carefully designed by the founders are seen as 18th century barnacles on the modern ship of state. Independent reviews by career Justice Department ethics experts, elected members of Congress or the federal courts are actively disdained as impediments to the administration's primary goal.

That goal, it is increasingly apparent, is not to protect the American people from terrorism. It is to acquire as much unreviewed power unto itself as it possibly can, in the name of protecting the American people from terrorism.

Its nice to see that it's not just libertarians who see through the smokescreen of national security that's being used by the Bush administration to trash our Bill of Rights and our Constitution. People from all over are finally starting to realize that if they do nothing and say nothing about this encroachment of power, they'll end up with nothing--no freedoms, no privacy, and most definitely no security.