Letter: The law counts

Here yet is another follower of the Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Rove, Wolfowitz, Gonzales fascist doctrine of “any means justifies the ends” (as in, “We don’t need any stinking laws”).

Letter writer Ron Townsend lauds Franklin Roosevelt for incarcerating American citizens of Japanese descent for the duration of World War II.

The Supreme Court held constitutional the law, thus establishing the “clear and present danger” doctrine.

Townsend states it’s still a good law today. He laments that there is a “clear and present danger” we can be “attacked by a bunch of Islamic-fascists“

To thwart this attack we could round up every Muslim in the U.S. — that’s only about 5.2 million — hire Halliburton, et al., to build the camps and manage them to boot. That would increase their stock nicely and reward Bush’s base handsomely.

He berates “those who weep and whine over the so-called domestic spying program ... because it erodes their constitutional rights.”

He must be the one Ben Franklin was thinking of when he wrote “they that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty or safety.”

I agree, Mr. Townsend: I’m not concerned who reads my mail, taps my phone, checks what books I read, etc.

Where we disagree is this must be according to law.

The government must show probable cause to require a warrant from a judge — not some Nazi, Gestapo, sneaky, secret, dishonest, underhanded way of bypassing our laws.

Heil Bush — the worst president ever. Bar none.

John F. Riccio/Naples