The President Broke the Law · Jan 21, 12:14 PM by Dave Polaschek
I got an email this morning that said:
Hi, President Bush admitted to personally authorizing thousands of allegedly illegal wiretaps, and he doesn’t plan to stop. Circumventing the Constitution is serious business. This is a big moment. People from across the political spectrum are standing together to protect the rule of law and the principles that are core to our identity as Americans. Can you sign this petition to show Congress that Americans want a thorough investigation of the president’s secret wiretapping program?
http://political.moveon.org/ruleoflaw/
I responded:
President Clinton broke the same law.
President Bush before him did.
President Reagan did.
President Carter? Probably.
President Ford might not have. He was too busy falling down.
President Nixon did – still J. Edgar.
President Kennedy – that was when J. Edgar was tapping MLK.
President Eisenhower? Almost certainly (fighting Communism, you know), but there was a lot less to tap.
How far should I go back? J. Edgar Hoover took over the FBI in 1924, under Calvin Coolidge. I expect going back that far would not be a problem.
Al Gore’s speech on MLK day was pretty accurate, except for the part where he neglected to mention that he knew so much about it because he was part of an administration that had been doing the exact same thing.
MoveOn started as a group that wanted to (among other things) abolish the 9th and 10th Amendments in order to “get people to move on” from the investigation of President Clinton. No, I can’t sign a petition by them.
If you want to support freedom, try one of the following groups, who are non-partisan:
The Electronic Frontier Foundation – First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendment advocates.
Gun Owners of America or Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (which is open to Gentiles, as well) – They are the only pro Second Amendment groups I’m aware of that would actually be happy not to need to exist. The NRA is pro-gun-control, since if they were successful in their stated goals, their immense amount of power (and money) would dry up, and that scares the current NRA board and staff silly.
The Institute for Justice – Agressively protecting the 5th Amendment, especially in cases such as Kelo v. New London which deal with abuses of Eminent Domain.
The Fully Informed Jury Association protects the right to trial by jury (the Seventh Amendment), and also the right of Jury Nullification, which comes down from the Magna Carta. Even mentioning that you know about them during voir dire will get you out of Jury Duty anywhere in this country if you don’t want to serve.
Or if you’re not a “joiner”, spend a few days reading Constitutional Chaos by Judge Andrew Napolitano if you want to read about all the governments who have circumvented the Constitution. You can pretty much go all the way back to John Adams with the Alien and Sedition Acts and find an unbroken string of lawbreaking by the government right through to today.
I welcome you to the fight, but I hope you’ll keep an eye on folks from both major parties. The problem is not with any one person or party—it’s institutional. And my personal opinion is that organizations like Move On are more a part of the problem than any part of the solution. They’re just mad that THEIR crooks are out of power at the moment.
Dave,
I received the same “broke the law” email as you, or something similar. My response echoes your own …
———————————-Law? Law?
Our so-called Laws exist mainly to keep wealth in the hands of the wealthy.
I believe we’ve established—to my satisfaction, anyway—that the Owners, and their mouthpiece Bush, are above the law. The chances of actually doing anything about it are somewhere in the range from quixotic to suicidal (RIP, Paul Wellstone).
This business of Feds illegally wiretapping the country for covert political-military purposes isn’t news, it goes back to … the nineties, the eighties, the seventies, the sixties, the fifties, the forties, the thirties … I’m not sure about the twenties. But it’s an old story; it won’t go away; they will keep doing it; and, I’m sorry to conclude, it can’t be stopped. Now shut up and enjoy your democracy.
Karl
— Karl Jones Jan 23, 10:48 AM #
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