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December 18, 2005
Values Then and Now
Then:
"Those who would sacrifice essential liberties for temporary security deserve neither liberty nor security."
-- Benjamin Franklin
Now:
Commander-in-Chief George W. Bush acknowledges that for several years now he has acted preemptively and unilaterally without legally required judicial review* to authorize the sacrifice of individual liberties through government monitoring of phone calls and emails of Americans Bush himself personally believes have posed a threat to security.
* The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 established a Court to ensure judicial review of executive branch requests for surveillance of Americans. Between 1979 and 2002 (the year Bush chose to use his personal, unreviewed judgment for when to sacrifice personal liberties), the FISA Court did not reject a single warrant application. Not a single one.
Now:
"The president does not get to pick and choose which laws he wants to follow. He is a president, not a king,"
-- Senator Russ Feingold upon learning of Bush's personal surveillance program.
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» Doug Smith on Values - Then and Now from ChristianSarkar.com
Doug Smith, the author of the On Value and Values posted this alarming news on his blog today: "...two professors at UMass told their local newspaper about a student of theirs who "was visited by federal agents two months ago,... [Read More]
Tracked on December 18, 2005 05:39 PM
