meet the new boss
When the Bush administration asterisked the bill of rights with claims of executive privilege and state secrets they woke many a citizen to the frailty of our system. The so-called city on a hill was ready to sacrifice its constitution for the safety offered up by an unchecked executive branch.
Yes our concept of checks and balances, co-equal branches of government, and the rule of law were nice ideas, but when faced with the hard reality of guys with box cutters it was those in the choir of American exceptionalism (ironically many of the same voices who use American ideals as justification for all sorts of expansionist policies) who were among the first to advocate sacrificing liberty for a little security.
Now it appears the Obama administration is ready to pick up where these self-styled pragmatists left off. If you haven’t been tracking these issues read on and weigh in:
Wiretapping, FISA, and privacy: Obama vs. Courts, Obama Channels Cheney
Extraordinary rendition: Obama preserves renditions as counter-terrorism tool.
Obama on Surveillance of Citizens: Obama Goes to Bat for Secrecy.
Telecom Immunity: Obama Administration Supports Telco Spy Immunity , Obama loses state secrets argument setting up possible judicial showdown
Surveillance vs Democracy
“Watergate and a lot of things around Watergate and Vietnam… served, I think, to erode the authority … the president needs to be effective, especially in the national security area” – Vice President and Former Nixon Staffer Dick Cheney
Imagine White House operatives were caught wiretapping Democratic National Committee headquarters during the coming Presidential election season. That according to the head of the DNC, those listening in had overheard the conversations of what the Chairman speculated to be “perhaps every prominent Democrat in America.” Imagine senior White House staff with the help of current and former U.S. intelligence agency personnel conducted illegal break-ins, wiretapping, and espionage against ordinary citizens, journalists, Democratic Party candidates, and even members of its own administration for the purposes of political dominance and electoral victory. Now imagine the President justified it all and sought to conceal its existence with a claim of national security and executive privilege.
It was called Watergate, and it may be more relevant today than it has been at any time since Nixon resigned the presidency in disgrace more than 30 years ago.
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