Except that the Weekly Standard is a conservative publication is it not?
I don't think President Bush is a dictator and I don't ascribe bad motives to him, but I think some of the powers the federal government has accumulated in the recent anti-terrorism acts are not necessarily in our interest when exercised by future presidents. The recent legislation undermines Fourth Amendment protections against search and seizure, undermines attorney-client privilege, weakens privacy with respect to our finances, e-mail and telephone communications and elsewhere, and does not define "terrorist" or terrorism" well enough to confine the application of such legislation.
I think some of these policies are constitutionally dubious at best. When faced by new powers assumed by the federal government, Freepers should ask themselves not whether they trust George W. and John Ashcroft with them, but whether they would trust Bill Clinton and Janet Reno with them (or Hillary and/or Algore in the future). That is a better measure of whether these constitute an acceptable abridgement of our civil liberties.