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The worst thing that can happen to our country

October 8, 2006

Keith Olbermann:

Yesterday at a fundraiser for an Arizona Congressman, Mr. Bush claimed, quote, “177 of the opposition party said ‘You know, we don’t think we ought to be listening to the conversations of terrorists.”

The hell they did. 177 Democrats opposed the President’s seizure of another part of the Constitution.

Not even the White House press office could actually name a single Democrat who had ever said the government shouldn’t be listening to the conversations of terrorists.

President Bush hears… what he wants.
- Crooks And Liars, Keith Olbermann commentary

As I have said before, the president and many of his followers seem to have lost track of who our enemies are.  In the current campaign he is waging open war on our constitution and those who defend it.  He behaves as if he has forgotten his inaugural oath, to say nothing of our true enemies.

Our Constitution is America’s place on the ‘Periodic Table’ of nations; it differentiates us from the also-ran nations who have yet to discover freedom.  Checks on power defend not only the people from their leaders, but leaders from themselves.  No one in Congress is against listening in on terrorists’ conversations – no one.  But the demand for the removal of any judicial supervision from that effort, and the attack on anyone who calls for such supervision, should raise a warning flag, as should the weakening of such a fundamental limitation on govenrment power as Habeas Corpus.

Olberman goes on to quote Gen. Tommy Franks:

General Franks said some of the most profound words of this generation. He spoke of “the worst thing that can happen” to this country:

First, quoting, a “massive casualty-producing event somewhere in the Western World — it may be in the United States of America.”

Then, the general continued, “the western world, the free world, loses what it cherishes most, and that is freedom and liberty we’ve seen for a couple of hundred years, in this grand experiment that we call democracy.”

It was this super-patriotic warrior’s fear that we would lose that most cherished liberty, because of another attack, one — again quoting General Franks — “that causes our population to question our own Constitution and to begin to militarize our country in order to avoid a repeat of another mass-casualty-producing event. Which, in fact, then begins to potentially unravel the fabric of our Constitution.”

Al Queda is not the only danger to this country.  In losing contact with our principles we risk achieving Al Queda’s goal.  It is a basic conservative principle that government power is dangerous and needs both limitation, and supervision to ensure it stays within those limitations.  It is conservatives first who should be saying; “Just a minute, Mr. President…”  But so often it is the Democrats who must act as true conservatives when the role is abandoned by those who wear the mantle of conservatism.

Categories: Politics
  1. October 8, 2006 at 13:42 | #1

    When you say “Habeus Corpus”, I can sometimes only focus on the ‘corpse’.
    Your constitution is very strong, if you don’t subjectit to the courts, I do not understand why this is done.

  2. October 8, 2006 at 14:37 | #2

    Bush’s speech, as a whole, can be found here.

    The pertinent bit:

    You might remember that I instituted a program through the National Security Agency to establish what’s called the Terrorist Surveillance Program. I felt it was very important for those of us whose job it is to protect you to understand the nature of the enemy. And if somebody from al Qaeda is calling into the United States, in order to protect you, we need to know why and what they’re planning and what they’re thinking. See, this is a different kind of war and we need to know the intention of the enemy now in order to protect you from attack.

    This bill came up—the idea of providing additional authority for the Terrorist Surveillance Program came to the House floor recently. And there was a vote, and people got to stand up and declare whether or not this program was important: 177 Democrats voted against listening in on terrorist communications; 177 of the opposition party said, you know, we don’t think we ought to be listening to the conversations of terrorists.

    If the people of Arizona, if the people of the United States don’t think we ought to be listening in on the conversations of people who could do harm to the United States, then go ahead and vote for the Democrats. If you want to make sure those on the front line of protecting you have the tools necessary to do so, you vote Republican, for the safety of the United States of America. (Applause.)

  3. October 8, 2006 at 17:11 | #3

    Conservatives lost their way a long time ago.  Barry Goldwater (who stated that the religious right “scare the hell out of me”) would be on the warpath right now against the neo-cons.  Even Ronald Reagan wasn’t a true conservative.

  4. October 11, 2006 at 00:43 | #4

    Look no further than McCain for a great example of a conservative gone a rye.  Thank goodness for people like Olbermann.  We need strong voices willing to speak up.

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