Five Letters to the Editor were written in response to Shredding our Civil Liberties, a column written by Florida Today editor John Glisch.
Four of the five sided with President Bush, citing the loss of civil liberties is the price of war.
Only one sided with the columnist, indicating Glisch stood–and is fighting for–the Bill of Rights.
The column–impressively liberal coming from right-to-the-right Brevard County–discusses the trampling of the Fourth Amendment and our rights as citizens right along with it.
Glisch writes:
The White House has been trampling these sacred civil liberties since 9/11 with its secret warrantless wiretapping program, which allows the National Security Agency to sweep up information on countless innocent Americans while searching for terrorists.
(…)
The Founding Fathers understood the danger of concentrating power in one person, which is why they gave independent judicial oversight a central role in the Constitution’s checks and balances. Checks and balances arrogantly dismissed by a White House that peddles fear and intimidation, and members of Congress of both parties more concerned about reelection than honoring the laws of the land.
(…)
You’ve been warned.
Is that what it’s going to take…fighting fear of terrorism through the use of fear of the loss of civil liberties? Judging by the written responses, many citizens appear ready to hand over the freedoms enjoyed by Americans.
How do we deprogram this country from the thinking of Bush?
***
***crossposted from the Florida Progressive Coalition***
4 comments:
Hey! Great site!
FLToday's editorial board sometimes does surprise us. Glisch is to be commended for taking a stand FOR the US Constitution, a rarity these bu$hler-cursed days.
Sometimes they're suckers, though. FT - usually NASA's house organ - didn't see through it and steno'd the highly bogus "Astronauts Fly While Drunk" BS that was thrown like distracting meat on the day FBI's Mueller contradicted Albatross Gonzales' "sworn" testimony.
FT opines today on that election-fixing crook, Feeney. Congrats to them for watchdogging, also a rarity.
They've also printed a letter from Sen. Bill Nelson, defending his vote on the illegal wiretapping law: "Congress needed to fix the law quickly this summer, for reasons that our national intelligence director says arose from a classified court ruling."
???
"My goal always has been and will continue to be safeguarding the freedoms that protect us from government intrusion." he claims, in the same letter.
This guy has totally lost me.
I think Brevard County is so far right that the editorial page is working hard to give the left a voice without alienating the huge number of conservatives in the area...I very much enjoyed the Feeney editorial this morning...I happen to know he refused FT a face to face interview and now, he's a cooked goose as far as that paper is concerned.
Nelson has lost a lot of people. His reelection bid--still some years down the road--will prove of interest.
Hey, thanks for stopping by and come back again!
well, five letters were published, four of which agreed with bush.
our ajc does that occasionally as well. publishes an editorial that rubs the local readership the wrong way, imho just so it can publish the crazy replies.
still, even four out of a thousand would be too much. what do these people think we're supposedly defending, anyway?
That's a great observation, dirk gently...how very unlike the press to manipulate its readership by slanting the letters received by the editor!
But I have a feeling most of the Central Florida area leans way right--I think they have to swear Republican loyalty before working for Harris, Rockwell or NASA.
Post a Comment