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I suppose the ADL isn’t concerned about things like the Patriot Act and consequently the massive surveillance state that ensued as well as minor things like GITMO, or extra territorial renditions (AKA kidnappings), and other things...

Funny how words like republic and democracy are thrown around.

The biggest fault of Bush and a legacy that will eventually come to tarnish his presidency isn’t the war in Iraq, nor is it a budget he was coerced into when Congress went democrat and used the Iraq war as leverage. It is the framework of regulations and policies, the shroud of national security and classification systems used to hide a massive surveillance apparatus that was put in place which will become his legacy. Without any public debate or true legal review, systems were created that violate any understanding of the 4th and 5th amendments and the US became a place no different than the “evil empire” it once referred too in the East. The difference between the US and Russia, or China, are a mere matter of polemics today. It is merely self restraint, convention, and self imposed policies and regulations within government bureaucracies that prevent wide spread misuse (which has already happened and been proven) but the systems and their capabilities are all in place.

Thanks President Bush-

> Without any public debate or true legal review, systems were created that violate any understanding of the 4th and 5th amendments and the US became a place no different than the “evil empire” it once referred too in the East. <

There was no Iron Curtain around this country, and what you say is a great exaggeration. I’m no great fan of Bush myself, but it has been routine in American history for the government to become more authoritarian in time of war or major crisis. It happened not long after the founding of the Republic with the Alien and Sedition Acts (1798), and happened again during the Civil War, World War I, and World War II. In time of war maximum freedom isn’t compatible with maximum effectiveness. Each time, though, the pendulum swung back toward more freedom after the crisis diminished.

Franklin’s saying, “They who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety” doesn’t apply to temporarily giving up some liberty to protect the country, which history shows has happened often. (People who serve in the military give up much of their liberty — temporarily — and the rest of the people do too, to a lesser extent, in time of war.)

I’m not saying that we shouldn’t remain vigilant and oppose unjustified limitations on our freedoms (I’m concerned about Obama’s attempts to rule by executive order), but let’s not pretend that Bush went beyond what Lincoln, Wilson, and FDR had done. They were more authoritarian than he was.