Flag Day

With Flag Day just behind us, it's time to look at patriotism.

Or more specifically, the Patriot Act.

As a long-time library booster I'm pleased to see that House Republicans of all people have agreed that allowing the feds power to root through my library checkout record without cause or oversight is just ... un-American. The national librarians' group and the ACLU had been fighting this for years, and when right wing Neanderthal Bob Barr finds common cause with the ACLU you just know something's gone waaaaay too far.

The U.S. declarations of war against the Axis in December 1941 was followed by various Articles of War, including provision for censorship and restricting civil liberties. Few complained because most understood it was for the duration of the war. The Patriot Act, on the other hand, has no conceivable end because there's no enemy capital to march into and declare victory. It will be waaay too easy for these anti-constitutional provisions to simply because part of our body of national law.

This is why, to protect the freedom our soldiers are not protecting in Iraq because Iraq was never threatening it, we need to move with the extremest of caution in this regard. Laws which allow free-roaming investigation can't be tolerated without a clear given end to them. Otherwise, let's just tear up the Constitution, and don the shield of the cross for a new Crusade. We won't be defending freedom but at least we'll fight our pointless battles against the brown Muslim hordes knowing that if killed we're all going straight to Heaven (hmm, wonder if there's one side of heaven for blue staters and another for red?).

The administration could have helped itself out here, once again, by declaring war against either Al Qaeda and its allies or Iraq. We're being asked to surrender our freedoms and our young sons and daughters without a consequent call for national sacrifice. So there's no wonder support for the Patriot act is weakening inside the president's own party, that recruiting is down and that the guy who called for "freedom fries" is now insisting on a timetable for troop withdrawal from Iraq. Without a clarion call for national effort, you don't get one.