"Twilight Zone"

When I am in the middle of divining some sort of wild metaphor to make a point, I realize the enormity of the differences in my life experiences to those of the people who govern us.

I struggle to have an understanding of the Bush policies. I am not a scholar, I am not a politician, but I am a 73-year-old who grew up as a street kid in the Bronx, and who, as purported grown up, held relatively senior positions in a variety of media companies.

In my not too humble opinion, people who work perceive that they have a limited amount of power and want to use whatever power they have as often as they possibly can. I am familiar with that as it appropriately describes me.

Fifteen years ago, when I was a senior executive of MGM/UA, I had limited authority to commit the company without approval by my chairman. I made a deal with CBS to acquire long-term rights in the United States for 94 episodes of the new "Twilight Zone" television series. The deal involved almost $20 million, so I brought the matter to Lee Rich, the chairman of the company's board, to whom I reported.

After a few minutes of discussion with the president, the CFO and a few others, Lee decided it was something that he wanted to approve.

The next hour was dedicated to discussions as to whether the deal needed to be approved by the board of directors, and it was apparent that Lee wanted to approve it WITHOUT bringing it to the board. He wanted to limit the board's involvement however and whenever he could.

It seems to me that our president is behaving in a similar manner to my chairman. Apparently, his attitude is "I am the president and I can do whatever I wish, particularly as it pertains to terrorist activities."

I am puzzled by the position taken by the administration: going to congress to obtain whatever authority they needed would tip off the terrorists that we might be monitoring their communications. This cannot be taken seriously. Is it reasonable that the terrorists did not think that we were monitoring anything until they read about it in The New York Times?

I am astounded by the level of disingenuousness expressed by the president and his people when they state, "we have briefed the congress". They spoke to only 8. Talk about parsing words. Wow, this even exceeds the "I did not have sex with that woman" Clinton position.

The administration's attitude towards the courts is similar. Why didn't the administration go to the FISA court and, if they found the process inadequate, proceed without the court or go to congress to have the act amended?

Using my favorite expression that I wish I had written, " what is the use of having power if you don't abuse it"? The president certainly supports that premise.

Did Lee Rich exceed his authority? He probably did, but it didn't really matter one teeny weenie bit. What the president of the United States did regarding domestic surveillance exceeded his authority and it does matter a lot.

The broad justification given by the attorney general at his testimony before a congressional committee was not in keeping with what America has always stood for.

We must protect ourselves without jeopardizing either our constitution, our laws, or our freedoms.

Norman Horowitz
Violator of limits of authority

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