Barbin MD wrote an outstanding diary on this subject here:
http://www.dailykos.com/...
I just hit the net for the first time today and the outrage is seeping through my pores. There is simply nothing this administration won't say or do to keep the country in fear. I just read this article on yahoo:
http://news.yahoo.com/...
I will no longer call anyone a tin foil hat conspiracy theory junkie, because this administration puts anything the junkies could dream up to shame. They really are creating their own reality and their reality is fucking scaring the shit out of me.
Here is what I thought happened yesterday. A Federal Judge who was appointed sometime before 1980 by Jimmy Carter declared that spying on American citizens without a warrant is illegal. That seemed pretty reasonable to me. I even took the time to read her decision. It was based on this thing called the Constitution. I am not one for "strict interpretation", but anyway I read the 4th Amendment it always says the same thing. It says Americans are to be free from government searches absent probable cause or a warrant. The Judge's opinion seemed to me to say that wiretapping Americans absent a warrant or probable cause is unconstitutional. Again, just my opinion, but this does not seem like the Judge had to read too much into the Constitution to come to this conclusion. So, I assumed that today we would get some equally well reasoned response as to why the Judge was wrong. Instead, we got President Bush saying this:
"I put this program in place. We believe -- strongly believe -- it's constitutional. And if al Qaeda is calling into the United States, we want to know why they're calling."
and this:
"Will we use every tool in our arsenal to respond to emerging threats, or embrace the Democrat-ACLU position that just made it harder for our intelligence agencies to detect terrorist plots inside the United States?"
I didn't realize that the new standard for Constitutionality in this country was whether or not the Bush administration thinks it's ok. Even if they "strongly believe" someting to be constitutional, I still thought the Constitution called for judicial review. I didn't know that upholding the Constitution was some evil plot hatched by the Democrats and the ACLU. I didn't understand that technology had evolved to the point that the government could just know whether or not Al Qaeda was calling. I had no idea that we were all going to die, according to Ken Melhman, if the 2006 midterm elections didn't go his way. This reality was unclear to me until today.
The reality that became clear to me today is that I need the government to listen to my calls, because if they don't then Al Qaeda will kill me. The fear is palpable. I can see Al Qaeda in my sleep now. The RNC released a video today entitled "Democrat Judge Weakens National Security." I now know that upholding the Constitution is just plain weak. You might as well let Al Qaeda marry your daughter if you believe that the Constitution is the controlling law of the land. I am so happy that I now understand this reality. Now I have the requisite amount of fear that will allow me to vote for Santorum and Swan. I will ignore the fact that under this administration we lost one and maybe two wars. I will forget, when I am in that booth, that New Orleans and most of the Gulf Coast were destroyed while Bush vacationed. I will not allow myself to worry about the spiraling deficit, Social Security privatization, the Energy Bill (including ANWAR), the Medicare prescription Bill, the Bankruptcy Bill or tax cuts for the rich. I will abandon my long held belief in a women's right to choose, and my belief that gays and blacks and women should be treated just like me. Forget all that, Al Qaeda is coming to get me.
Back to my original question...Does anyone still believe this crap? I guess they do. I mean every time the shit hits the fan it comes right back to Al Qaeda. Things are bad in Iraq- AL QAEDA damn it. We are wiretapping you without warrants- AL QAEDA damn it. Lamont beats Lieberman- AL QAEDA damn it, and oh yeah there were a bunch of "terrorists" in England about to blow up more planes. Be afraid...Be very afraid! I am just stunned that this bullshit continues to work. Are people really still stuck in their duct-taped houses? What type of person responds over and over and over again to the exact same fear mongering bullshit?
I was struck by the end of Senator Allen's racist rant the other day. The good senator was speaking in rural backass Virginia (no offense), and after he got done making racist insults he slid right into the we are at war crap. Are the good people of rural Virginia really that freaking scared of AL Qaeda. Do they think Al Qaeda is targeting the local Wal-Mart. Don't they have anything more important to worry about? Like say their jobs? Oh, I forgot there are a lot of gays wanting to get married on the VA/KY border. They need to be scared about this too.
I will end this rant by saying that I still have faith in the American people, but I am now extremely concerned for the future of our nation. We are a nation built on the idea of freedom from government intrusion. We allowed our fear of drugs to erode a large part of our Constitutionally protected freedoms. Now, the fear of terrorism threatens to finish the job. You simply can't have democracy without the accompanying freedoms that are contained in the Bill of Rights and elsewhere in the Constitution. There is simply no way to overstate the importance of the government respecting the Constitution and the rights the Constitution affords to our citizens. I never thought I would see the day when the President of the United States equated a well reasoned decision by a Federal Judge with an ACLU plot to destroy America by ceding power to the terrorists. We are seriously fucked if this decision is overturned on appeal. I, for one, want no part of that reality!