Inspector Clouseau is Reading Your Mail

In the name of fighting terror, the Bush Administration has made it clear nothing will stop it from monitoring our internet usage, reading our e-mail or eavesdropping on our phone calls. (You think not? Show me a clear, unhedged, on-the-record denial from any senior official that they are doing these things right now. You won't get it.)

So now we learn they are not above steaming open envelopes to read our snail-mail too. This is from the New York Daily News:

WASHINGTON - President Bush has quietly claimed sweeping new powers to open Americans' mail without a judge's warrant, the Daily News has learned.

The President asserted his new authority when he signed a postal reform bill into law on Dec. 20. Bush then issued a "signing statement" that declared his right to open people's mail under emergency conditions.

That claim is contrary to existing law and contradicted the bill he had just signed, say experts who have reviewed it. MORE

Bush loves these "signing statements, " and well he should. In them he claims for himself and all future presidents nothing less than the right to ignore the law. And we're letting him get away with it!

All you conservatives out there who were so up in arms about "the rule of law" when Bill Clinton lied about his affair with Monica need to show some consistency. Otherwise you'll have no grounds to complain when all this new power lands in Hillary's lap.

We have a president, not a king. Or at least we used to.