So this is how democracy dies
by Keith Gottschalk
December 27, 2005
Sorry to interrupt what has been a very entertaining election season in Canada this holiday period, but I regret to inform you that your neighbour's house is on fire.
As reported by Ron Hutcheson of the Knight Ridder new service on Tuesday: A defiant President Bush said he didn't need explicit permission from Congress or the courts to establish a secret domestic surveillance program to eavesdrop on suspected terrorists.
“We've got to be fast on our feet, quick to detect and prevent,” said Bush. “Do I have the legal authority to do so? The answer is, absolutely.”
What this means, I'm afraid, is that a dictatorship is being born on your southern border.
Check this out from the Knight-Ridder article:
Bush bristled when a reporter asked whether a decades-long war against terrorism might lead to “a more or less permanent expansion of the unchecked power of the executive in American society?”
“First of all, I disagree with your assertion of 'unchecked power,'” Bush snapped. “To say 'unchecked power' basically is ascribing some kind of dictatorial position to the president, which I strongly reject.”