Surrendering to the terrorists

By Jim Hightower

Published Thursday, March 6, 2008

Good grief. With Democrats like these, who needs Republicans?

Last week, 19 Democratic senators surrendered to bullying and fear mongering, extending the executive autocracy of the Bush-Cheney regime.

By joining every Republican senator to OK Bush's blanket program of mass wiretapping that he had secretly launched, these 19 defectors from fundamental democratic ideals are surrendering your and my Constitutional rights.

In the name of "protecting" us, they voted to invade us.

This law extends unprecedented and unconstitutional power to the White House, letting a president decide on his own whim to have the government listen in on hundreds of millions of our phone and Internet messages.

No courts, no warrants, no oversight.

Yes, terrorists are a threat, and, yes, we must be vigilant as a nation - but that doesn't mean being stupid.

Bush likes to say that terrorists "hate us for our freedoms." If so, how pathetic for him and Congress to be so cowed that they react by removing our freedoms.

Liberty is America's greatest treasure, our defining ideal - why are today's craven leaders surrendering something so essential to terrorists?

The founders understood that you don't gain security by locking down liberty, and subsequent generations fought, bled and died to secure that wisdom.

Are we so weak today that we can't stand up both to the terrorists and to those who would shred our Constitutional principles?

Most of the media coverage of this legislation has focused on whether AT&T and other telecom giants should get retroactive immunity for having illegally helped the president spy on us.

I think they should not, but let's not lose sight of the bigger issue.

By massively expanding the executive branch's spy powers, it's our own elected representatives who are surrendering our civil liberties and betraying some 230 years of the rule of law.

You can reach Jim Hightower at www.jimhightower.com. His column is distributed by Minutemanmedia.org. The Messenger welcomes your comments on its editorial columns, which are printed to promote discussion.