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Editorial: Wyden delivers a blow to Bush's info awareness program The Total Information Awareness program, put forth by the Bush administration under the defective guidance system known as Admiral John Poindexter, was dealt a crushing blow last week by the U.S. Senate, with Oregon's champion Sen. Ron Wyden wielding the hammer. The program is aimed to develop technology to collect information on the financial transactions, travel, medical records and other activities of U.S. citizens. All that is at stake is the U.S. Constitution, more specifically the Bill of Rights - that fussy organ that has guided America through more than two centuries of turmoil, protecting the individual liberties upon which this country was founded. As James Madison penned in 1792, in response to the question who are the best keepers of the people's liberties: "The people themselves. The sacred trust can be no where so safe as in the hands most interested in preserving it � What a perversion � to make power the primary and central object of the social system, and liberty but its satellite." Throw in the U.S.A. Patriot Act (which stands as the biggest stretch of an acronym in the history of acronyms: Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism) alongside the TIA (this acronym should be: Turning Intelligence against Americans) and you have government run amok. If you believe these infringements on our civil liberties are OK because the world has changed so much since Sept. 11, ask yourself if you are prepared should the government come knocking on your door? Especially, are you prepared for the convicted Iran-Contra felon Poindexter (later conveniently pardoned) to determine your worthiness as a target? This Orwellian attack by our government, for the moment, has been thwarted by Wyden and a host of co-sponsors. Wyden's legislation limits the spending of the department's proposed TIA program until Congress can review the privacy and civil liberties issues related to the plan. "As originally proposed, the Total Information Awareness program is the most far-reaching government surveillance plan in history," Wyden said in the aftermath of his victory. "The Senate has now said that this program will not be allowed to grow without tough Congressional oversight and accountability, and that there will be checks on the government's ability to snoop on law-abiding Americans." In these days of dilly-dallying, lock-stepping, do-nothing, rubber-stamping lawmakers, Wyden has broken rank. How positively - and smashingly - Oregonian of him. LINKS: DAILY TIDINGS: Main | News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Opinion | Columnists | AP News | Subscribe | Archives | Weather | Classifieds | Contact Us | Privacy REVELS: Main | Calendar | Dining | Movies | T.V. OTHER: Road Cams Copyright 2003 Ashland Daily Tidings 541.482.3456. 1661 Siskiyou Blvd., Ashland, OR 97520. Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. - Advertisers -