NOTHING PATRIOTIC ABOUT IT

As the banner above boldly states, The Average Man fights for truth and justice. So, I hope you'll forgive me when I make this embarrassing confession: I was originally for the Patriot Act. Yes, it's true, I admit it. As strong as I try to be when it comes to sticking up for what's right in all circumstances, 9/11 freaked me out to the point where I let my guard down. And for the briefest of moments, I went against my better judgement and felt we had to give the government more flexibility in catching terrorists. It was so bad that I even had arguments with my conservative friends (yes, I have a couple) where they took the other side.

Why was I wrong? You might think the answer to that question has to do with the wire tapping event or the government collection of phone records. No, those are just symptoms. I was wrong because it's always wrong to give up freedom and civil liberties for safety. As Ben Franklin famously said, "Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." How true.

I was also wrong because I forgot that power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely... which leads me to Alberto Gonzales. Much has been written about the firing of those eight U.S. Attorneys, so I won't rehash the entire sordid affair. However, I would like to talk about something that has been grossly underreported, and that's the fact that those attorneys were sacked because of a provision in the Patriot Act. Wikipidia does a good job of outlining the situation ...

A key issue in the controversy is the political nature of any Senate-confirmed appointment to office, and the 2006 revision of the USA PATRIOT Act, amending the United States Code to permit the term of an interim U.S. Attorney to last until a presidentially nominated replacement is approved by the Senate. The amendment gives the United States Attorney General (the Presidential Cabinet officer authorized to appoint interim U.S. Attorneys) the power to appoint U.S. Attorneys without Senate approval.

For me, this is the story. Unlike the wire tapping and phone records incidents, there is no guise of safety here. You can argue until your blue in the face about the legitimacy of the firings, but you can't argue that the Patriot Act wasn't abused for something other than its original intention. If you don't believe me, then I ask you to think of Mr. Gonzales's aid, Kyle Sampson, who stated about the provision, "if we don't ever exercise it, then what's the point of having it?" And if that still doesn't convince you, consider that -- after the controversy erupted -- the Senate voted to overturn this provision by a vote of 94-2, and the House of Representatives overturned it as well, by a vote of 329-78. Seems a little panicky to me.

Average-Man is not perfect, but he learns from his mistakes. It's kind of scary how quickly we were willing to hand over everything that makes us great for a little feeling of comfort and security. Alberto Gonzales has vividly shown us what happens when we do that. Instead of listening to my inner demons on 9/11, I should have remembered the words of wisdom stated so eloquently by one of our greatest philosophers ...

WITH GREAT POWER COMES GREAT RESPONSIBILITY

It won't happen again.