It has been over a year since I made a diary here at Daily Kos, as other blogs have taken my attention. However, with my severe disappointment and depression over the capitulation of Democratic Congressmen over the FISA bill, I felt I had to speak, both to them and to fellow Kossacks, to voice my disgust and malaise. So I present my letter, which I plan to mail to the Congressmen of all three states I have resided in before and now, as well as the Majority leaders of each house, to explain my sadness with their actions.
"Dear Honorable Senators/Representatives of the United States Congress,
I wish to start by saying that I respect the work that you do in Washington, D.C. and I have respect for the offices that you represent, both in states that I was a former resident in and am currently a resident in. (Complete letter) below the fold)
"Dear Honorable Senators/Representatives of the United States Congress,
I wish to start by saying that I respect the work that you do in Washington, D.C. and I have respect for the offices that you represent, both in states that I was a former resident in and am currently a resident in.
However, secondly, I wish to call to mind these quotes from men who were far wiser than I am and could ever hope to be:
"Evil prevails when good men do nothing." - Edmund Burke
"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen." - Samuel Adams
"There is a time when the operation of the machine becomes so odious, makes you so sick at heart, that you can't take part; you can't even passively take part, and you've got to put your bodies upon the gears and upon the wheels, upon the levers, upon all the apparatus, and you've got to make it stop. And you've got to indicate to the people who run it, to the people who own it, that unless you're free, the machine will be prevented from working at all!" - Mario Savio
"Those who would give up Essential Liberty to purchase a little Temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." - Benjamin Franklin
I call to mind these quotes in order to express my extreme displeasure, dissatisfaction, disappointment, and disgust with a key bill and vote over the weekend with the quite oxymoronic name of "Protect America Act". As a concerned resident of New Jersey, a concerned individual with family abroad, a concerned Democrat, but most of all, a concerned citizen of the United States, I find it appalling that Congress has let pass a bill which would invest so much trust and power to individuals deserving neither.
The gutting of FISA through this bill gives our dishonorable president George W. Bush sole arbitrary right to continue what a court has already deemed illegal (I would refer you to the Reuters report written in an article in the Washington Post titled "Court Secretly Struck Down Bush Spying: Report"). Furthermore, it gives oversight to a man who has already shown himself not to be above lying and obstruction in our Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales. With the vague and possibly misleading language, the bill seems to give authorization for the President and the Dept. of Justice spearheaded by Atty. Gen. Gonzales, to wiretap, without warrant, any and all phonecalls they may deem to be of some importance of national security that they may suspect to be 'directed overseas'. Leaving such judgment to them leaves this open to such abuse as to leave it useless, as they can reasonably wiretap a United States Citizen, calling to another United States Citizen, within the borders of the country, simply on the suspicion that it was 'directed overseas'.
This directly and wholly destroys the freedoms and rights granted to all people, citizen and non-citizen alike, under the 4th Amendment of our Constitution, one of the original ten amendments under the Bill of Rights. As I quote:
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
This bill leaves the people secure neither in their houses, papers, or effects in an insidious way.
I mean not to disrespect or demonize specific Senators/Representatives here, but to cast shame and regret on the acts of Democratic Senators/Representatives as a whole for letting this legislation go through against the will of the American People, in deference to a Unitary Executive over the will and rights of the American People which you have sworn an oath to represent in the Federal Government.
When the Emperor has no clothes, why are so many in Congress, including a sad number of fellow Democrats, willing to compliment him on his robe, when a majority of the American People, like the boy of the fable, have the insight to point out that the Emperor has no clothes, that our President has not the interests of the people in mind in his wayward ruling, but party and personal interest above all?
And so, it is with extreme regret that I write this letter to you, honorable Senators/Representatives of the United States Congress, to remind you that you serve at the will of the People, and not the President, and that ceding your will to fight against the excesses of the President and his office is a betrayal of Democratic, Liberal, and Progressive ideals, but a betrayal of the American People and the American Ideal itself.
Former Resident of West Virginia
Former Resident of Maryland
Current Resident of New Jersey
Currently Dispassioned and Dispirited Democrat"