Benjamin Franklin Has Whirled Himself Into Oblivion

"Those who would exchange liberty for security deserve neither liberty nor security," according to the author of Poor Richard's Almanack. Were we to dig up Ben Franklin's earthly remains, we'd find he'd disappeared--events and attitudes in the USA since 9/11 surely have spun him in his grave so fast that the friction alone has erased him.

Dubya still won't acknowledge that what he's done in the name of "domestic security" is unconstitutional. And now Attorney General Alberto Gonzales says that purely domestic warrantless wiretaps are not per se unconstitutional, either.

Dubya was answering a man, Harry Taylor, at a town hall meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina. Taylor told the president, "[w]hile I listen to you talk about freedom, I see you assert your right to tap my telephone, to arrest me and hold me without charges, to try to preclude me from breathing clean air and drinking clean water. I have never felt more ashamed of nor more frightened by my leadership in Washington."

Dubya did chide the audience members who booed Mr. Taylor, a real estate broker. However, he replied, "I'm not going to apologize for what I did on the terrorist surveillance program."

And Gonzales told the House Judiciary Committee that the NSA would have to determine whether a conversation was related to al Qaida and was "crucial to fighting terrorism" before deciding to listen without court supervision, and that this meant listening in on entirely domestic (as opposed to international) calls and reading entirely domestic email exchanges was not ruled out.

That goes far beyond the administration's initial justification for warrantliess wiretaps of international calls and emails, which was that the president had the inherent power to do so as Commander in Chief.

Note that many of us citizens, including many Republican members of Congress, disagree with that assessment, let alone with this extension of executive authority. The whole point of not allowing warrantless wiretaps is to provide independent confirmation that the intrusion is necessary. Has anyone in the adminstration heard of checks and balances? Not to mention the 1978 intelligence law that set up a secret court to monitor such things. Not to mention that that 1978 law lets organs of the executive branch listen for up to 72 hours before getting the warrant in the first place.

The last time someone said "trust me, I know what's best for you," I declined to buy a used car from him without getting my mechanic to evaluate the car first.

There is no undue burden on the executive branch that allows the president to authorize totally warrantless wiretaps. Period. Dubya is usurping the authority of both the legislative and judicial branches of our government . . . and if he is allowed to get away with it, he is destroying the foundation of our system.

Ben Franklin is gone. My skin is crawling to the degree that calamine lotion doesn't help. And the idea that is America is dying, too. All in the name of "domestic security." I mourn America's death, the demise of what made America the beacon of freedom and the hope of the world.