The Fat's in the Fire

And the Bush pushback is proceeding apace. The president has tried for 5 years to refrain from returning the bile of the Democrats and the negative spin from the media. He's finally decided that such restraint doesn't work in Washington. When people show there is no limit to what they'll accuse you of for political gain, you have to slam it back in their faces.

I've been saying for the last four years that this obsession with privacy and libertarian extremism that would prevent the agencies we've created to protect us from doing so, when we know that there are terrorist cells operating in this country, is madness. There has to be a balance, and the resistance of those who would like to destroy the state and those who are paranoid about Big Brother government is endangering our safety. When you're dead, the fact that you maintained your privacy won't matter that much to you. If anything our courts are excessive in their protection of the rights these people obsess over. I am for democracy, meaning the right of the people to establish the laws under which they live, and, with the exception of invidious discrimination, the court's have no business imposing their own policies over those established by the people throught democratic measures.

If the founders had wanted a general, absolute right to privacy, they would have said so. What they did say is that the people have the right to be "secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures." What, you may wonder, is a reasonable search or seizure? It is one founded upon "probable cause," as determined by a judge in advance after reviewing a sworn affidavit stating the grounds for the warrant. However, the courts recognize that there are emergencies when you can't wait while an affidavit is typed, signed and notarized and a magistrate found to rule and issue a warrant. The typical case is an automobile in which the officer has probable cause to believe that a crime is being or has been committed and that the offender or important evidence is in the car. The courts allow the vehicle and people to be detained while a warrant is obtained. Reasonableness is the key.