First thing we do, let's kill all the newspapers

The NYT recently exposed yet another "anti-terrorist" program of this Administration, the systematic data-mining of bank and financial institution records: NYT story.

Just to remind you of the litany, here are the programs we know of now thanks to the combined efforts of whistle-blowers & journalists:

• Blanket NSA wiretaps of calls with one terminus (or sometimes both, oops!) in the United States (NYT, which delayed publication at the Administration's request until after the Nov 2004 elections);
• Datamining of all domestic calling records (USA Today; one or two phone companies refused to comply);
• Datamining of international financial transactions for individuals suspected of terrorist ties (NYT, above).

The Administration and GOP allies are calling for a criminal investigation of the NYT and its reporters in this latest case: NYT story. This goes beyond the leak investigations spurred by the earlier stories - which threatened only the unknown officials, who may violate the law in the course of leaking classified information.

I would argue that there is nothing more threatening to our system of government than having the Executive and Legislative Branches banding together to kill the newspapers and their right to report on the doings of that government, both covert and overt. The current round of press attacks, led by Cheney and Bush personally, represents the absolute Nixonian apotheosis of this Administration.