Bush Doesn't Care About Civil Liberties, Either!

After a jaw-dropping scoop by the New York Times on Friday that President Bush authorized the National Security Agency to electronically monitor the telephone calls and emails of certain American citizens and permanent residents, the blogosphere and mainstream media have been very active! (I have been locked in my bedroom grading final exams and computing semester grades--all done now!) The President has admitted that this domestic spying program has been used 30 times, says that his lawyers tell him that he can legally do this (which many other lawyers and politicians spiritedly dispute) and says that he will continue to use the program.

The immediate fallout of the news of warrantless searches of Americans being conducted in apparent violation of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 was the United States Senate's inability to end a filibuster against the renewal of the USA PATRIOT Act, the most controversial provisions of which expire on December 31, 2005. In addition, heads of the Judiciary Committee in the House and in the Senate promised hearings into the constitutionality of the President's domestic spying program to be held early in 2006.

In his end-of-year press conference today, President Bush implicitly referenced Kanye West's comment that "George Bush doesn't care about Black people" comment from earlier this year in response to a reporter's question about Hurricane Katrina and race relations in general. Bush's answer to that question was disappointing, but it brought up the thought in my mind that Geoerge Bush doesn't care about civil liberties, either!