Snoopgate: Freedom vs. Security

What do I think about recent revelations that president Bush authorized a secret domestic spying program?

I think Benjamin Franklin said it best:

Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Conservative apologist talking points seem to revolve around the idea that this sort of erosion of civil liberties is somehow an essential trade off in protecting ourselves from a terrorist attack. I ask them this: Who needs the terrorists to disrupt our way of life and destroy the founding principles of this nation when our own government seems perfectly willing and able to do it for them? With friends like these, who needs enemies?

The terrorists have taken some lives and some expensive real estate. It’s starting to look like my government has taken a lot more.