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From The Prince, Chapter XV

An excellent read, if one wants to be an effective dictator. America, however, has a history of disliking kings named George, so you might want to withhold a full-on endorsement of authoritarianism for the time being.

The shredding-the-Constitution rhetoric does tend to grate a bit, though.

I try to give equal time to “shredding,” “trampling” and “using as toilet paper.” Might have to work “burning” into the mix… play off the recent flag-burning wankery. But all jokes aside, the President’s sworn oath is to the Constitution, and I voted for him, so I feel compelled to hold him to a high standard of protection, especially as other interests (war, national security, border security etc) take more of the spotlight.

Saw this earlier, but I’ve been swamped today:

Sen. Arlen Specter on Thursday revealed a bill that would require a court to review the constitutionality of the National Security Agency’s controversial intelligence-gathering program, saying the dea…

…it appears to me more appropriate to follow up the real truth of a matter than the imagination of it; for many have pictured republics and principalities which in fact have never been known or seen, because how one lives is so far distant from how one ought to live, that he who neglects what is done for what ought to be done, sooner effects his ruin than his preservation ; for a man who wishes to act entirely up to his professions of virtue soon meets with what destroys him among so much that is evil. … And again, he need not make himself uneasy at incurring a reproach for those vices without which the state can only be saved with difficulty, for if everything is considered carefully, it will be found that something which looks like virtue, if followed, would be his ruin; whilst something else, which looks like vice, yet followed brings him security and prosperity.

Applies perfectly to the subject matter of this thread.

It’s unfortunate,” goes the advice I’m imagining, “but more people are going to have to die before Americans once again distinguish citizen from noncitizen, domestic from foreign, or even war from peace. When enough people have died and enough have suffered, future Presidents will be allowed wider discretion, assuming the country survives the coming attacks. Accept that, for now, doing the right thing amounts to doing the wrong thing.”

(my emphasis)

Nail. Hit. On. Head.

Via the Associated Press:
WASHINGTON – The White House has conditionally agreed to a court review of its controversial eavesdropping program, Senate Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter said Thursday.
Specter said President Bush has agreed to sign legisla…

Good? Bad? Call it ugly! Constitutionally sound if we weren’t in a war like no other in the history of our nation. A great victory for al-Qaeda….

Another possibility is that “Intelligence Agency X,” the one known to us only by its necessity, has become functional and is working wholly clandestinely and, therefore, beyond almost any restraint. One day, “Intelligence Agency X” will become a matter of public knowledge, just like the NSA eventually did, and then it’ll become just as hobbled and mediocre as the NSA, CIA, Secret Service, and FBI. But that’s a problem for the future.

Both of these possibilities are matters of sheer conjecture for me.

Options are good, and it might be worth it since it expands the time for emergency warrants secured from three to seven days, and give the attorney general the power to consolidate the lawsuits. We don’t need a hord of fleas biting at the AG right now. He has more important things to deal with.

Expect more rhetoric from the nut roots. The President’s polling numbers are up.

The shredding-the-Constitution rhetoric does tend to grate a bit, though.

Fortunately, this puts all that to bed, at least for anyone who’s watching reality and not some B movie in their head.

I see a “smirk” behind the scenes here folks. All is well….

Under the Geneva Convention, you only have to follow standard court proceedings if you CHARGE them with somthing… you can still hold them to the end of hostilities without charging them.

If you give them this Circus venue, and give them full trials, they are just about all gonna walk… why? the battlefield is a lousy place to gather evidence… and they were not given Miranda rights when placed in custody…

So, if the Ruleing is that they should have had those rights all along… and we give them trials… under our own laws they will walk.

Congress NEEDS to step in right now, and figure this one out. But it aint gonna happen cause Bush is caving, and its an election year.

Furthermore, although this will probably be looked upon as a defeat for the Bush administration that does not automatically meant it’s a defeat for the Republican party as a whole as well. For instance, there were quite some conservatives, among whom …

The shredding-the-Constitution rhetoric does tend to grate a bit, though.

This is a matter of taking a “whatever it takes” statement and constraining it appropriately so that “whatever it takes” doesn’t end up trampling our Constitution and destroying the protections that have thus far prevented America from sliding into an authoritarian demise.

Allah says…

Allah Pundit has all the details.

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