Chicken Little Brooks. Could we imagine how he might construct a defense of the Watergate break-in? The US government harassment of Martin Luther King? Siding with the apartheid regime of South Africa because those ANC activists were allied with the communists? Indeed, we could. With Nexis, we may not have to.

Is Brooks really so limited to believe that the law cannot be updated if need be to accomodate new technology? Ever heard of the telephone? The Internet? The automobile? The credit card? America has survived such innovations with the rule of law intact. Data mining technology is no different. What's needed is an administration that believes itself subject to the rule of law - or one forced to get religion on this issue by the Congress. Even while fighting this grave threat of global terrorism, as this nation has after all faced grave threats in the past.

Posted by Laura at December 22, 2005 02:56 PM