An American Lion

The ship of state is a peculiar thing. It changes hands when one political party takes it away at the ballot box from another political party (sometimes, there are more than two). Very little change actually happens. This allows a Republican like myself to sit and wonder at the fuss caused when liberals are on the upswing. I’ve seen it many times in my life. Jimmy Carter was supposed to be a trend, not a fad. Same with Bill Clinton. The only constant is this—power is corruption, and Americans don’t seem to realize this. Otherwise, incumbents wouldn’t be locked into a system that returns them to office far more often than not. In the Obama era, the ship of state seems to be sailing along as if George W. Bush were still calling the shots:

The Obama administration has informed a federal judge it will continue to invoke the “state secrets” privilege in a legal battle with an Islamic charity suspected of funding terrorism.

The United States has designated the Oregon-based al-Haramain Islamic Foundation as a terrorist organization. The group, which has sued the government over alleged warrantless wiretapping, is demanding classified information about the program.

U.S. officials have refused to tell the charity’s lawyers whether the group was subjected to presidentially authorized, warrantless, foreign intelligence surveillance in 2004 and, if so, what information was obtained.

In a court document filed overnight in San Francisco and released early Saturday in Washington, the Justice Department said its case-by-case review of the government’s use of the state secrets defense has not changed its position in the al-Haramain case.

The defense allows courts to block lawsuits against the government on grounds that the litigation could harm national security.

“An additional review was conducted at the highest levels of the Department of Justice to determine whether continued invocation of the privilege was warranted,” the government told the court.

“Based on that review, it is the government’s position that disclosure of classified information … would create intolerable risks to national security.”

The Obama administration has criticized President Bush’s Justice Department for invoking the state secrets defense too quickly.

The Obama people know that if they deviate from a set path, the threat of terrorism will rear up as an electoral issue. That is, if a terror attack were to happen because the Obama adminsitration abandoned common sense and started acting as if it didn’t have to protect American lives, the Obama administration would be thrown out of office as being “soft on terror.” That phrase “soft on terror” is one I would plan on hearing more about, because the Obama administration has made up its mind that it will let the Republicans have that as an issue. That being said, I have to shake my head and laugh. What did you think you were voting for, liberals? Change? The only thing that has changed is that people think they’re getting good government and the rule of law back. They’re simply not getting anything of the kind. They’re getting another administration terrified of being thrown out of office.