Here's a good example of why we need to get beyond 'us' and 'them' and realize that everyone does have contributions to make, even if we have our disagreements. We are all in this together. rkm -------------------------------------------------------- Original source URL: http://www.jbs.org/node/740 Federal Judge Strikes Down Illegal Surveillance, Condemns Bush's Assault on Checks and Balances By jbseditor at 2006-08-18 14:52 ARTICLE EXCERPT: U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor in Detroit ruled that the NSA's warrantless eavesdropping program is utterly unconstitutional, and ordered the Bush administration to desist immediately. COMMENTARY: For Judge Taylor, "the public interest is clear, in this matter. It is the upholding of our Constitution." The Bush administration, naturally, is unwilling to let the matter rest, promising to appeal the ruling to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati. "We're going to do everything we can do in the courts to allow this program to continue," insisted Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Rarely, if ever, in the last five years has a federal judge rendered such a lucid critique of the Bush administration's doctrine of presidential power uber alles. "We must first note that the Office of the Chief Executive has itself been created, with its powers, by the Constitution," wrote Judge Taylor. "There are no hereditary Kings in America and no power not created by the Constitution. So all Œinherent power¹ must derive from that Constitution." Ten years ago, those words came easily from the lips and fingers of Republican activists criticizing the Clinton administration's abuses of power. Eight years ago, when Clinton embarked on his "stroke of a pen, law of the land -- kind of cool" phase, in which he tried to rule by executive order, Republicans regularly denounced Bubba as an aspiring dictator. Today, however, those same Republicans are likely to demand that Judge Taylor be tried for sedition. In her 43-page ruling, the judge laid bare the essentially dictatorial ruling ideology of the administration: "The Government appears to argue here that Š. because the President is designated Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, he has been granted the inherent power to violate not only the laws of the Congress but the First and Fourth Amendments of the Constitution, itself." This is to say that from the administration's perspective, the president is, in effect, our living constitution. This is, in a specific and unmistakable sense, fascist. For a flavor of the predictable reaction from the administration and its media allies, we turn to Debbie Schlussel, Ann Coulter 's talk radio understudy. Of Judge Taylor, whom she describes as "a shameless liberal," Schlussel rants: "She seems to hate America and fairness almost as much as the Plaintiffs do. She certainly hates a fair, impartial Judiciary." During the Reconstruction Era, when the conquered South was under military dictatorship, Vice President Andrew Johnson declared: "Whenever you hear a man prating about the Constitution, spot him as a traitor." That's a more elegant way of expressing essentially the same totalitarian sentiments to which Schlussel gave voice: Real "patriots" support unlimited power in the Executive Branch, not the Constitution, in that view -- which reads a lot better in the original German. Follow this link to the complete article, "Judge nixes warrantless surveillance": http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060817/ap_on_go_pr_wh/warrantless_surveillance JBS News Feed, by William Norman Grigg, Senior Editor, The New American Copyright © 2006 The John Birch Society -- -------------------------------------------------------- Escaping the Matrix website http://escapingthematrix.org/ cyberjournal website http://cyberjournal.org subscribe cyberjournal list mailto:•••@••.••• Posting archives http://cyberjournal.org/show_archives/ Blogs: cyberjournal forum http://cyberjournal-rkm.blogspot.com/ Achieving real democracy http://harmonization.blogspot.com/ for readers of ETM http://matrixreaders.blogspot.com/ Community Empowerment http://empowermentinitiatives.blogspot.com/ Blogger made easy http://quaylargo.com/help/ezblogger.html