Added to the Reading list in the sidebar: Nat Hentoff has a great article reminding us how the colonial Committees of Correspondence--it's tempting to call them the Founding Blogs--that shared news of the assaults of the British monarchy on liberty in the several colonies, and "inflame[ed] the outraged Americans," providing the organizational roots of the Revolution.
It's not news that our liberties--centering around our right to privacy but by no means limited to that--are under assault, and it's no surprise that Hentoff is on it. He reminds us of something that, in the creeping Orwellization of our public discourse, we may well have lost sight of: Congress may be cowed by the presidential power-grab currently under way, but Americans have started sobering up from our post 9/11 security state bender and we don't like what we see. He quotes polster Zogby: This is a "public obsessed with civil liberties."
And not a moment too soon to be obsessed, either.
He finishes up with a question: "Will the Democrats become a truly serious opposition party before privacy disappears entirely?" To that, I'd add: If Bush clears the path to search and wiretap his warrantless way through Americans' private lives--and he's getting close--will an opposition party even be possible?
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