New York Times: Eavesdropping Worse Than Internment Camps
The New York Times most recent absurdity from the Op Ed page is that listening to phone calls into or out of the US to targeted overseas locations is a more graphic example of ‘’scrapped civil liberties” than the internment of Japanese in America during WWII.
In times of extreme fear, American leaders have sometimes scrapped civil liberties in the name of civil protection. It’s only later that the country can see that the choice was a false one and that citizens’ rights were sacrificed to carry out extreme measures that were at best useless and at worst counterproductive. There are enough examples of this in American history - the Alien and Sedition Acts and the World War II internment camps both come to mind - that the lesson should be woven into the nation’s fabric. But it’s hard to think of a more graphic example than President Bush’s secret program of spying on Americans.
While the Times is making this patently ridiculous comparison, they fail to point out that these temporary measures were carried out during extraordinary times, and that the Constitution of the United States remains quite intact. They also assert that there were no benefits to America from any of these measures, another debatable point.
In one respect I hope the Times is right, that in hindsight the paranoia induced by the destruction of the twin towers and murder of 3000 people was really worse than the threat we actually faced. But until we can enjoy that luxury, given a choice between the New York Times and President Bush, I think I’ll stick with the President.
Cross-posted at SactoDan BLOG.
January 19th, 2006 at 11:58 am
It’s getting harder and harder to tell the difference between the NY Times op-ed page and the fake news sites like The Onion.
January 19th, 2006 at 4:30 pm
[...] California Conservative found some ridiculous statements on the New York Times op ed page. (The NYT printing something looney? Big shock there.) [...]
January 19th, 2006 at 9:47 pm
NYT: NSA scandal is worse than WWII Japanese Internment camps
Can the editors the NYT display their anti-Bush bias any more blatantly? With emphasis added:
In times of extreme fear, American leaders have sometimes scrapped civil liberties in the name of civil protection. It’s only later that the country…
January 20th, 2006 at 9:59 am
Dang! I’m more backwater than I thought! There’s a difference between the likes of the Onion and the NYT?