Even as the 9/11 attack recedes into the distant past, the U.S. government still finds ways continuously to increase its powers in the name of Terrorism while virtually never relinquishing any of the power it acquires. So inexorable has this process been that the Obama administration has already exercised the power to target even its own citizens for execution far from any battlefield, and the process has now arrived at its inevitable destination: does this due-process-free execution power extend to U.S. soil as well? ...
Last week's 13-hour filibuster of John Brennan's confirmation as CIA director by GOP Sen. Rand Paul was one of the first -- and, from the perspective of media attention, easily among the most effective -- Congressional efforts to dramatize and oppose just how radical these Terrorism-justified powers have become. For the first time since the 9/11 attack, even lowly cable news shows were forced -- by the Paul filibuster -- to extensively discuss the government's extremist theories of power and to debate the need for checks and limits.
