"so gross and notorious an act of despotism"

Maybe I'm tired but I almost feel discouraged as I read about what is being dignified with debate of late. I almost despair that people haven't recognized the fact that Emperor Codpiece is wearing no clothes. When I read Glenn Greenwald's latest post about John Yoo's OpEd, I find that Glenn and I are on the same page.

Just look at the things we're debating -- whether the U.S. Government can abduct and indefinitely imprison U.S. citizens without charges; whether we can use torture to interrogate people; whether our Government can eavesdrop on our private conversations without warrants; whether we can create secret prisons and keep people there out of sight and beyond the reach of any law or oversight; and whether the President can simply disregard long-standing constitutional limitations and duly enacted Congressional laws because he has deemed that doing so is necessary to "protect" us.

These haven't been open questions for decades if not centuries. They've been settled as intrinsic values that define our country. Yet nothing is settled or resolved any longer. Everything -- even the most extremist and authoritarian policies and things which were long considered taboo -- are now openly entertained, justifiable and routinely justified.

Glenn then goes on to quote that "shrill lefty partisan blogger", Alexander Hamilton, for support and edification (and a joy to read).

To bereave a man of life, [says he] or by violence to confiscate his estate, without accusation or trial, would be so gross and notorious an act of despotism, as must at once convey the alarm of tyranny throughout the whole nation; but confinement of the person, by secretly hurrying him to jail, where his sufferings are unknown or forgotten, is a less public, a less striking, and therefore a more dangerous engine of arbitrary government.

... and then Glenn closes with this observation:

The vision of John Yoo and the Bush administration is exactly what this country was founded in order to avoid. The powers Yoo insists the President possesses are exactly those which were identified by the Founders as the hallmarks of tyrants and despots. Of course, if Hamilton said anything like he said in the above-excerpted quotes as part of our current debates, he would be branded a shrill, unserious, soft-on-terrorism, partisan hysteric by the Washington Post Editorial Board and certain highly serious and very responsible magazines.

If only Alexander Hamilton and the other Founders had understood the grave, existential, unprecedented threat posed by Islamicfascist Nazi jihadists, they would have understood all of this and would have enthusiastically embraced all the things they waged war to prevent and which they impetuously and shrilly called "notorious acts of despotism." But there is no need to change the Constitution they created and for which they advocated. It can just be decreed to be different by the President whenever national security demands it. Just ask John Yoo or Richard Posner or any Bush followers. That's what they'll tell you.