Originally Posted by host

I think that we are on the doorstep of a more desperate time, a time where freedom of the press and official lipservice paid to the concept of "democracy", will be suspended and replaced by more forceful and restrictive edicts of an increasingly desperate administration. They want to keep the control and lack of accountability that, after five years, they have become accustomed to. It is however, 5 years since 9/11 and the administration's performance and reputation are on display for all to see and evaluate.

Originally Posted by redlemon

What I do know is that Presidents in wartime assert that their constitutional responsibility for national security trumps any issue of civil liberties. Often that has meant trampling on them. From John Adams' Sedition Act to Lincoln's suspension of habeas corpus to Woodrow Wilson's draconian Espionage Act to F.D.R.'s internment of American citizens of Japanese descent, Presidents have constitutionally overreached. Last week's Supreme Court decision in the Hamdan case suggested that Bush had too--although his actions hardly compare with the examples above.