"Civil liberties do not mean much when you are dead," said Senator Jim Bunning, R-Kentucky, today.
Best declaration of tyranny in the country to date.
Civil liberties are the things you give your life for, Senator.
Civil liberties are why hundreds of US troops are dead, in a country halfway around the world, surrounded by hidden enemies and pseudo-allies, none of whom he or she ever understood.
Civil liberties are the things my father's generation fought and died for, in Europe and the Pacific.
We are, of course, talking about the renewal of the Patriot Act, that hideously spin-doctor named piece of legislation that essentially says that a career bureaucrat can do whatever he wants, so long as he can justify it as a part of the war on . . . sorry, The Long War.
Jim Bunning, naturally, does not fear the Patriot Act - not because he is a patriot, but because he is a Bush supporter. I'm sure that, should a Democrat government be elected, he will vigorously campaign for the repeal of the Act, accusing the government of using the powers granted by the Act for partisan purposes. But for now, he and his colleagues have a home field advantage.
I am a libertarian leaning conservative, and I don't need the government looking over my shoulder. The system of law allows for warrants given probable cause. We don't need more than that.
Civil liberties may not mean much when you're dead, Senator, . . . but they mean everything when you're alive.
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1 comment:
I just read your note about the senator -- you hit the nail on the head. The only other thing i might have mentioned was the forefathers and the British.
That statement he made ranks right up there with the "if you do not have anyrhing to hide, why are you afraid?" -- idiots, the lot of them.
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