I used to produce a political newsletter but stopped earlier this year. I decided to send out a rant to those people and thought I would share it here too...
The story is that President Bush has been spying on American Citizens.
Some of you may say `So What! He didn't spy on me and if he did, well, I have nothing to hide, so no harm done'. Well, you would be wrong! Kings and Dictators spy on their people without oversight. Leaders of Democracies DO NOT! If you don't mind it, then you do not deserve to live in a democracy. Many of our predecessors fought and died so that we could live in a democracy. We owe it to them and our children to keep the rights that are ours (they were not given to us, they are ours).
Yes, yes, yes, everything changed after 9/11. Well, maybe it did, but I don't think it should and neither should you. Recently it was revealed that a UMass Dartmouth student checked out a book from the school library on Mao-Tse Tung. A few days later, 2 Secret Service Officers showed up at his home and questioned him about it. They also questioned his professors about it. Turns out he was writing a paper about Communism and he had been out of the country a few times recently. That, my friends, is scary stuff! They found out within days of what books he was reading and where he had been and then came after him. That could be me, or you, or someone you know being harassed by our government and picking around in our garbage.
The professor, who assigned the paper, Dr. Williams, said he had been planning to offer a course on terrorism next semester, but is reconsidering, because it might put his students at risk. "I shudder to think of all the students I've had monitoring al-Qaeda Web sites, what the government must think of that," he said. "Mao Tse-Tung is completely harmless."
So Bush wants to spy on Americans. You know what, he is allowed to. There is a 1970's law that all presidents have used since then to spy on Americans. All it asks is that you get a court order from the FISA court which is open 24/7 and is there to handle these types of requests. They very rarely turn them down. The law even allows that in emergency situations, go ahead and wiretap, but get the court order within 72 hrs. But King George (ironic, isn't it) didn't want anyone to know, so he went around this court and did what he wanted, just like he always does. Without oversight, who knows what he might ask for. Bush says `trust me'. Sorry, I know longer can and you shouldn't either. Too many things we have trusted him on have turned out to be incorrect.
On April 20, 2004, Bush said "Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so. It's important for our fellow citizens to understand, when you think Patriot Act, constitutional guarantees are in place when it comes to doing what is necessary to protect our homeland, because we value the Constitution."
Well, he just admitted that was a bald-faced lie! Add it to the list. Why should we trust what the PATRIOT ACT really does? Did you know that PATRIOT is an acronym for "Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism"?
Benjamin Franklin said `Those who will give up liberty for security, deserve neither'! He was correct about that. Democracies are dangerous places to live, but in my opinion, better to be free.
By the way, it is not the Democrats who are letting the PATRIOT ACT expire. It is Bush and a lot of the Republicans. The Democrats offered to extend it 3 months while some of the issue are being worked out. Bush and the Republican leadership said `No, take it like it is'. Where is the Uniter Bush now (of course he never existed)? The Democrats and several Republicans don't like a few of the more intrusive parts of the act so they want to change them or at least set them to expire in 4-5 years so they can be reviewed again. Again, Bush said he would veto it. So don't blame the Dems, they are trying to negotiate with a Dictator!
Lest you think these are just the ravings of a liberal, I have posted some conservative quotes below...
I sure hope my kids grow up in free country, but it looks more and more likely they will grow up in a country gripped by fear and willing to give up its rights.
The only solution is to turn one house of congress to the Democrats so that we can finally investigate some of this. The Republican leadership is in Bush's pocket (there is a lot of money in there too) and won't even investigate the most serious of wrongdoings by this president. So vote Democratic in 2006! And Yes, I am for starting Impeachment proceedings; compare lying about sex to lying about illegal spying!
Happy Holidays to you all!
Peteri2
Former Republican Rep from GA, Bob Barr: The American people are going to have to say, 'Enough of this business of justifying everything as necessary for the war on terror.'
Conservative columnist George Will: Because of what Alexander Hamilton praised as "energy in the executive," which often drives the growth of government, for years many conservatives were advocates of congressional supremacy. There were, they said, reasons why the Founders, having waged a revolutionary war against overbearing executive power, gave the legislative branch pride of place in Article I of the Constitution.
One reason was that Congress's cumbersomeness, which is a function of its fractiousness, is a virtue because it makes the government slow and difficult to move. But conservatives' wholesome wariness of presidential power has been a casualty of conservative presidents winning seven of the past 10 elections.
On the assumption that Congress or a court would have been cooperative in September 2001, and that the cooperation could have kept necessary actions clearly lawful without conferring any benefit on the nation's enemies, the president's decision to authorize the NSA's surveillance without the complicity of a court or Congress was a mistake. Perhaps one caused by this administration's almost metabolic urge to keep Congress unnecessarily distant and hence disgruntled.
Exec Director of the American Conservative Union, David Keene: I think its Presidential overreaching and I think most Americans would certainly oppose it. Just as we have been at the forefront of the call for reform of the Patriot Act.
Associate Deputy Attorney General for Ronald Reagan, Bruce Fein: It's more power than King George III had at the time of the revolution in asserting the theory that anything the President thinks is helpful to fighting the war against terrorism he can do. That was why he claimed he can ignore the torture convention
The Peoria Illinois Newspaper (a very big supporter of Bush), in their editorial: Perhaps the president's heart is in the right place. He says he just wants to protect Americans. Who doesn't? It's really quite simple: The Founders were clear that threats to the republic could come from inside as well as out. No president, of any party, under any circumstance, should be permitted to act like a king. This is troubling.