“If this were a dictatorship, it’d be a heck of a lot easier. Just as long as
I’m the dictator.” Bush (just before the Supreme Court appointed him)
It
is with 911 that we see the best and worst of Bush. Yes, he has acted swiftly.
Yes, he has "grown" and seems more presidential than before -- many people have been won over by
him. But, what of the USA Patriot Act. How was this huge act, with impact on
countless aspects of daily life in the US, how was this act put together so
quickly and passed before anyone could begin to grasp its impact? How did John
Ashcroft move from covering half-naked statues to rewriting, some say 'shredding',
the Constitution? Whatever damage was done by the USA Patriot Act may well
have been magnified by the acts creating the Homeland Security Act. Ironically,
many of the provisions of this act were recommended before 911 by a bipartisan
commission. mjh
"Misadvised by a frustrated and panic-stricken attorney general, a president of the United States has just assumed what amounts to dictatorial power to jail or execute aliens. Intimidated by terrorists and inflamed by a passion for rough justice, we are letting George W. Bush get away with the replacement of the American rule of law with military kangaroo courts.
"[I]t's time for conservative iconoclasts and card-carrying hard-liners to stand up for American values." William Safire, Seizing Dictatorial Power, 11/15/01 (2 months after 9/11), http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/15/opinion/15SAFI.html
During one of our last conversations, the late Supreme Court justice William Brennan said, "Look, pal, we've always known—the Framers knew—that liberty is a fragile thing."
Liberty has become much more fragile under the Bush-Ashcroft-Rumsfeld administration...
According to the Bush administration, an American citizen can be held indefinitely, incommunicado, on its say-so that the government's facts are actually factual. This is due process? This is America?
[I]t isn't Bush's rationale for war that concerns me here (although it is no less phony than Johnson's). It is the constitutional legitimacy of it.... [S]houldn't Congress invoke its constitutional prerogative?" William Raspberry, Bush Is Usurping Congress' Role in Declaring War, 1/6/03
"[I]n a front-page story (Washington Post, December 1), Charles Lane explores how far-reaching the Bush administration's plans are to undermine the Bill of Rights more radically than during any other presidency in our history" Nat Henthoff, The Village Voice, Crossing Swords With General Ashcroft, 12/20/02, http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/0252/hentoff.php
Bush made Democrats' tune his own
Marc Sandalow Monday, November 25, 2002
ANYONE who still dismisses President Bush as a political lightweight should take a careful look at his efforts to create a Department of Homeland Security.
Six months ago, the White House pooh-poohed the idea, which at the time was championed primarily by Democrats. In the summer, Bush embraced it as his own. By fall, he was using it as a club to pummel Democrats running for the Senate. And this afternoon, at an East Room signing ceremony, Bush will claim it as a crowning achievement of his presidency.
"The penchant for secrecy in the Bush White House is also retroactive. ["Pool reports" written by reporters for other reporters] were not even government papers 20 years ago. ...[N]ow you can't read them. Also, the White House is busily removing all documents relating to sex education, birth control and population control from government Web sites. Why? Silence." Richard Reeves "Texans Caulk White House Leaks", 12/23/2002
Or how about locations out of the range of this fixed surveillance mesh? In 1998, DARPA began funding a project to create spybots that can fly day and night and that use infrared and video sensors. These spybots, being designed by Lockheed Martin and code-named MicroStar, will have a six-inch wingspan, weigh only 86 grams and cost about $10,000--an affordable price point for surveilling Americans from above.
And what of the spybots' larger cousins, capable of hovering higher and seeing more for a longer duration? Last week The Washington Post reported that the federal government may permit unmanned aircraft to fly above the United States. "I believe that the potential applications for this technology in the area of homeland defense are quite compelling," said Sen. John Warner, R-Va., chairman of the Senate Armed Services committee, who added that the drones could be used by domestic police agencies.
George Orwell, here we come
By Declan McCullagh
January 6, 2003, 10:58 AM PT
It
is with 911 that we see the best and worst of Bush. Yes, he has acted swiftly.
Yes, he has "grown" and seems more presidential than before -- many people have been won over by
him. But, what of the USA Patriot Act. How was this huge act, with impact on
countless aspects of daily life in the US, how was this act put together so
quickly and passed before anyone could begin to grasp its impact? How did John
Ashcroft move from covering half-naked statues to rewriting, some say 'shredding',
the Constitution? Whatever damage was done by the USA Patriot Act may well
have been magnified by the acts creating the Homeland Security Act. Ironically,
many of the provisions of this act were recommended before 911 by a bipartisan
commission. mjh
