Things That Worry Me More Than Illegal Wire Taps

Man mistakenly targeted in drug raid, blares yet another headline that flies under the radio of the national media and most of the blogosphere. (Thanks to Randy Balco for pointing this out last week.)

But just ask yourselves who you would rather be?

1) Mr. Buerosse, whom the story says was thrown into a closet door, knocked down, and hit with a shield before the SWAT team realized they had the wrong apartment.

or 2) Joe Schmo, whose conversation with his grandmother was accidentally recorded by the NSA in an illegal manner.

On one hand you have a government violation of privacy in the name of combating international terrorism. On the other hand you have a government violation of privacy in the name of arresting a few men for small amounts of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.

As I've mentioned time and time again, defining the rules of fighting the war on terror is a drastically important, often ignored exercise. And none of my positions should be taken as a wholesale endorsement of illegal government spying. But any debate on the war on terror should not put us in the position of forgetting the everyday war on the American people that is the War on Drugs.