Bury Me Broken

Atty General Gonzalez, Poor Analogy Defending Patriot Act

From the NY Times online:

Mr. Gonzales's forceful defense of the expanded antiterrorism powers granted under the USA Patriot Act came at the start of what is expected to be months of hearings in both the Senate and the House. Sixteen provisions in the law are to expire by year's end, and a decision over whether to extend them, and whether the government's expanded powers have eroded civil liberties, is shaping up as one of the biggest legislative battles in the current Congress.

Noting that the Justice Department had not used the law to demand library records, Mr. Gonzales said: "It should not be held against us that we've exercised, in my judgment, restraint. It's comparable to a police officer who carries a gun for 15 years and never draws it. Does that mean that for the next five years he should not have that weapon because he had never used it?"

That is an absurd analogy, Mr. Gonzalez. The new powers of intrusion given to the Justice Department by the passing of a bill that the MAJORITY of Congress did not read before casting their yea vote are not the same as the gun police officers have been carrying since this country began. Now if you gave the police officers expanded powers, say, to pull people over for "No Blood for Oil" bumper stickers and breathalyze them but the police officers didn't do it, to argue that they've shown restraint does not legally or morally justify the new powers granted to them.

posted by niteskolar @ 1:49 AM