Brad Miller, Protecting America from Duncan Hunter and W

I doubt too many have seen some of the recent stories surrounding Brad Miller.  There has been a huge dustup over at NASA lately, over improper activities.  These activities are of the same type as the actions of Karl Rove and Gonzo.

In the view of the Bush administration, the Government has only one purpose, and that is to serve Bush.

You can find some of the back story on Brad and NASA here.

"Mr. Cobb must leave," said Rep. Brad Miller (D-NC), Chairman of the Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight. "He has two clients - NASA and the Congress. His office’s work is suspect and Congress doesn’t trust him anymore."

But, now Brad is having to do even more to protect our country, and to protect our Government.

First up is the fight that got Brad onto the national news monday night.  This story involves an aircraft and Duncan Hunter.  The government has been trying to build a plane, and has spent 63 million dollars on developement.  Except, this plane is not wanted by the Pentagon, or any other actual government group.  It is only wanted by Duncan Hunter.  

Since 1986, Pentagon analysts have consistently rejected the aircraft design as "technically flawed," but Congress has continued to pour money into the project.

Congressman Duncan Hunter, R-Calif., has led the effort on behalf of a hometown company, DuPont Aerospace.
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Hunter has received at least $36,000 in campaign contributions from the owner of the company, Anthony DuPont.

Brad has begun an effort to protect the money that belongs to the taxpayers, and not to George Bush.

The next story involves a new hairbrained scheme by the FBI.  I am sure everyone remembers the TIPS program, the first hints that the constitution would be a victim of "terrorism".  But, how about this?

The FBI wants to compile a massive computer database and analyze it for clues to unmask terrorist sleeper cells.
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The center "will leverage existing data-mining tools to help identify relationships between individuals, locations and events that may be indicators of terrorist or other activities of interest," the Justice documents said, and these efforts "will improve efforts to identify 'sleeper cells.' "

Brad and the ranking member of his subcomittee sent a letter to the FBI complaining about this idea.  They cited a half dozen cases where the FBI has failed to develop similar systems while protecting privacy.

You can see the letter here (PDF!)

In a post 9/11 world we are faced with a very real decision over whether to pursue "safety" at all costs, or to protect ourselves as much as possible, while protecting our constitution.  Brad Miller has consistently stood on the side of the constitution.

That stance is why I hope he will run against Elizabeth Dole for US Senate.  You can find out more about that quest here.  Her no vote on cloture for the Gonzalez resolution is yet another example of Dole putting party above the constitution.

If George Bush told Elizabeth Dole to burn the bill of rights would she say no?