8/9/07 Special Edition

Real success requires that we come to terms with reality.

Fight of the Century - Glenn Greenwald is a constitutional lawyer and commentator whose opinions I highly respect. Appearing on C-SPAN he remarked about the new wiretapping powers that congress just passed. Greenwald said, “In fact, the law now allows the government to listen to our conversations, read our e-mails, with no connection to terrorism, with no proof that anyone has ever done anything wrong, without judicial oversight.”
The new wiretapping legislation is one of many reasons that lead me to conclude that Osama bin Laden has kicked our ass. He has realized his primary objective, to damage America. Following the initial loss of lives and destruction from 9/11 we find our military over-extended and weakened, our ability to defend and protect ourselves diminished, our economy drained, our world leadership in question and the fabric of our democracy fraying. Bush and company’s strategy following the initial attack has been ill conceived, ill planned, ill implemented and misdirected while further empowering the executive branch, lessening oversight and minimizing the effectiveness of the legislative branch of our government. Our leadership has failed us because they were unable to devise an intelligent response to the unique threat, as recognized by Eliot Spitzer in a recent speech, of fanaticism utilizing technology with no geographical bounds. Bush’s response has been to defend one failure after another with self-righteousness, arrogance, myopia, rhetorical spin, and legal gymnastics. He has done this with little regard for lives, treasure and freedoms. A dangerous concoction.