Monday, January 23, 2006

todays headline: "Bush to go on offense on secret listening"

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/01/23/MNGBNGRIFI1.DTL

How long will it be before "secret listening" goes from strictly national security to spying on political opponents? The temptation to use wiretaps to spy on the "domestic political enemy" is often too difficult to overcome. Power corrupts patriotism, and turns it into a justification to take measures to preserve that power.

"Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."
-- Samuel Johnson (Boswell's Life of Johnson)

(The Ben Franklin quote in the previous post also applies)

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