On Terror and Spying
Thoughts on a NY Times article today entitled On Terror and Spying, Ashcroft Expands Reach
This is a particularly uninspiring piece of reporting – even for the New York Times. I too am very concerned about the governments expansion of powers. While I applaud the intent of the Patriot Act, greater power should only be granted in conjunction with greater oversight – whether it be judicial or congressional. Somewhere, a check must be put into place to maintain the delicate balance our founding fathers put into place (and has since been upset by an activist judiciary, but that is another conversation).
What I find particularly uninspiring about this article is the source of the opposition: the ACLU, the Violence Policy Center, and the Council on Arab-Islamic Relations. Couldn’t they get some time with Ralph Nader and Phil Donahue while they were at it? Maybe a quick call to Babs Streisand and any other radical nut they could dig up.
The old gray lady is fading fast. It is past time to put her in our past, kinda like we are with the whole ‘listening to France’ thing.
