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• Wednesday, November 19, 2008 07:06 AM

  Sounds generally good

  I believe in things like closing Guantanamo. It is a huge embarrassment. I believe in the debate over torture, etc...

  BUT - and I will get skewered for what I am about to say - I am not up in arms over certain things like wiretapping. I have nothing to hide - the gov't can listen in on my conversations all it wants. The day that uses that information in some unsavory manner, well then I'll have a problem with it. Mostly I have a problem with the Bush administration pushing these things through with a simple "we can do what we want, so butt out" attitude. I do believe on limitations on it, I do believe on oversight and control. I do believe that the possibility of catching under-the-radar people saying very bad and informative things is a greater good to protecting innocents from having their dinner plans overheard.

  To make my point more finely, Liberty Gal said (paraphrasing here) that where the column mentions that under Clinton we did listen to client/attorney conversations, but not without a judge involved and she finds that appalling. I get that on principle, I really do. I am not blind to the cries for personal liberties protections. However, with a judge's involvement means there has been some presentations of evidence for the need/reasonability of the request. And I agree with Holder that I would not have considered Mahammad Atta a POW - he wasn't a hired soldier with no choice but to carry out the orders of his govt against other hired soldiers because it was his/their job to be soldiers. He was acting on personal passion and conviction in the justice of personally slaughtering 3000 innocent people. he wasn't a potential POW, he was a murderer with a big weapon. (and, as with other known murderers, once you've taken away someone else's liberties and human rights, I'm not overly concerned with yours.) There is a difference and I'm not advocating treating criminals (or even just murderers) like pieces of meat. But there are also lengths that I will not go to to protect the human rights of such a person.

  I'm rambling a bit, but suffice it to say that Holder's highlighted comments don't bother me. I like a person who upholds the principles of civil liberties, while acknowledging that those principles can also be employed blindly, so they may hold us hostage and be used against us.

  —Mercedes von Uppity Read Mercedes von Uppity's other letters
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