Try Googling 'Constitution'

Once again, our civil liberties are being threatened, quietly and dubiously, by President Bush. According to the Associated Press, the administration has issued Google a subpoena in order to force the company to fork over details on what its users have used the search enging to look for online.

Obstensibly, the reason is to protect children from adult materials. I might be crazy, but I think that's what parents - and search filters - are for. As a professional journalist (lapsed), civil liberties, especially First Amendment issues, are practically my religion. The fact that Bush and his people are trying to revive a law the Supreme Court already struck down is reprehensible, though unsurprising. This administration has shown again and again and again how little they care about the Constitution.

Let's look at what the White House wants:

Google has refused to comply with the subpoena, issued last year, for a broad range of material from its databases, including a request for 1 million random Web addresses and records of all Google searches from any one-week period, lawyers for the U.S. Justice Department said in papers filed Wednesday in federal court in San Jose.

That's a hell of a broad blanket. I'm still confused as to what exactly this is supposed to accomplish. Plus - and I think I've been pretty clear about this - I don't trust Bush or his people. Who's to say the one-week period they decide to look at won't be from the week leading up to the last presidential election?

Believe me, I know I sound paranoid. I just wish I didn't have so many reasons to think this way.

But of course, I think we already know what Bush thinks about all this.