Thank You For Wiretapping

So I'm on the commuter train home yesterday and I get to the editorial page of the paper. A large than normal editorial, taking up nearly half a page, slapped me and the U.S. Constitution in the face with the title, "Thank You For Wiretapping." I let out a laugh and looked to the front page to make sure I was reading The Wall Street Journal rather than The Onion. Nope. It's The Wall Street Journal. Thank You For Wiretapping. Can't wait for "Thank you for Torturing" or "Thank You For Internment Camps" editorials. I thought these guys were less government, more personal freedom conservatives. I guess the only thing these guys are conservative with is common sense and an understanding of the Bill of Rights and a constitutional democracy.

It's just a continuation of defend the man, W, no matter what. If W said he was going to set up internment camps just like in World War II because it saves lives and everything is different after 9/11 cult followers like the editorial page of the WSJ would support it. It's a cult of personality. Defend the man rather than principles. Party politics over the country. Actually, if anything, Republican "principles" are plain to see. It's just a question of whether you want to be on that team. Do you want to be associated with that brand? Are you for torturing suspects? How about torturing a whole village? What about torturing the teenage son or daughter of an Al-Qaeda suspect? Is there a Torture for Dummies book I can read up on? How about wiretapping Americans without a warrant? Maybe searching all the homes in Dearborn, Michigan or Jersey City, New Jersey because many Arab-Americans live there? Full-search checkpoints in cities and roads? They'll all save lives in theory as you might be disupting some people who might be planning some attack. Is this how you want to live? Do you really trust W and his band of capos? After being wrong about WMDs, the cost of the war, the self-funding of the war through Iraqi oil revenues, the length of the war, that we would greeted as liberators or how we would exit the area, why would you trust them on anything at this point? How many times do you need to be misled or lied to before you end the relationship?

What the WSJ editorial board did was a disgrace. And it's a disgrace to see seemingly respectable people going on the screaming head shows and saying the president has all these powers and more. A "robust" executive authority Darth Cheney argues. He's not kidding. And if these issues appear to be headed for the Supreme Court? Just get your corrupt partners in the Congress to remove those issues from Supreme Court jurisdiction and review. It's the perfect crime. Make what was illegal, legal. Call black, white. Call up, down. Call night, day. But don't call the Republicans conservative, compassionate or principled.

"Thank You For Wiretapping." Could be the best inscription on the tombstone of constitutional democracy I've ever read.