uicksilver workshopThe response to this invasion of privacy - which I'm gonna go ahead and say is in violation of our rights to remain "secure in [our] persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures..." - has been fierce. But not from those in opposition to this high crime.
Indeed the most vehement response has come from the Administration and its functionaries. The President himself has called the disclosure of this illegal program to the American people "disgraceful." Vice president Cheney has deflected criticism by stating that this fast and loose interpretation of the Constitution is "absolutely essential" to America's success in the war on terror. Others have gone further.
Peter King (R-NY), Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, who called for individuals in the media responsible for implicating White House adviser Karl Rove in the Valarie Plame scandal "be shot," has requested the New York Times be investigated by the Department of Justice for treason under the Espionage Act of 1917.
I get the whole "protect America at any cost" argument, but this Administration is riding rough-shod over the Constitution; the only thing that separates the American democratic experiment from an American despotism.
Phone records, Internet histories, financial data, driving records, tax filings, and other data collected and indexed by our government may never be used against us, but no Administration - least of all this one - can guarantee that.
If we are to continue to maintain that ours is a nation of law, logic, and justice these transgressions must be investigated and, if found to have merit, punished. Any other course of action calls into question the status of the Constitution itself as the inviolable foundation of the American way of life.
It's either time to stop taking our rights as Americans seriously, or its time to start.
Labels: Peter King, tia, warrantless wiretaps
