i-sako.com

I worry a great deal these days that the American people are giving up their freedom to a power-grabbing executive branch that has failed to justify the many new powers it demands.

From Ashcroft’s worrisome spy plans and determination to create a new surveillance society in America, it seems clear that the Bush administration seeks to sweep away the very freedoms it claims to be defending in its so-called “war on terror” (frankly, I find that I must agree with Terry Jones of Monty Python fame: you can’t wage war on an abstract noun). “War on freedom” would be more like it. Given his “with us or against us” behavior both at home and abroad, “war on democracy” wouldn’t be much of a stretch, either.

Hasn’t anyone in the Bush administration gotten the hint yet? Apparently, our judiciary hasn’t.

So we have a Congress that willingly abdicates its authority to declare war to a power-grabbing president, and courts that are unwilling to assert their right to challenge his judgment. What exactly happened to the idea of checks and balances in government? Has it been discarded, along with civil liberties, as a threat to our security? Is there any way this bedrock principle of our Founding Fathers can be restored? Or have we unwittingly ensconced America’s first king?

I do hope that all of these sweeping powers help Bush defend us all from the terrorists, but who will protect us from Bush?