Ah, I Remember that from French Class! Or was it Social Studies?

The Bush Administration’s arrogance concerning eavesdropping on citizens without even a momentary thought given to warrants or any kind of civil liberties reminded me of another arrogant dictator (besides Big Brother):

And you thought it was just your library books they were looking at!

Update:
I also caught this choice quote from an incredible essay with the title: Fear destroys what bin Laden could not by Robert Steinback of the Miami Herald:

President Bush recently confirmed that he has authorized wiretaps against U.S. citizens on at least 30 occasions and said he’ll continue doing it. His justification? He, as president — or is that king? — has a right to disregard any law, constitutional tenet or congressional mandate to protect the American people.
Is that America’s highest goal — preventing another terrorist attack? Are there no principles of law and liberty more important than this? Who would have remembered Patrick Henry had he written, “What’s wrong with giving up a little liberty if it protects me from death?”

There’s much more in this, and some of it is what I’ve been nearly screaming for the past 4 years, that America is not the same country that I knew. Steinback also says earlier:

…I would have expected such actions to provoke — speaking metaphorically now — mobs with pitchforks and torches at the White House gate. I would have expected proud defiance of anyone who would suggest that a mere terrorist threat could send this country into spasms of despair and fright so profound that we’d follow a leader who considers the law a nuisance and perfidy a privilege.
Never would I have expected this nation — which emerged stronger from a civil war and a civil rights movement, won two world wars, endured the Depression, recovered from a disastrous campaign in Southeast Asia and still managed to lead the world in the principles of liberty — would cower behind anyone just for promising to “protect us”.

It’s a call to arms. Is it too late for anyone to hear it?

PS: I noticed that this is my 100th posting in this blog. Guess I made it to triple digits by the end of the year!