So What's New?

Bush and company are hopping mad because they have been caught spying on people in the US without a warrant. They are so mad that they have lashed out at the people who leaked the illegal activity and the press (the NY Times) that suppressed the story for a year. They claim they have every right to do so under Article II of the Constitution (Condi Rice on Hardball 12/19/05-no transcript yet available), War Powers-Article II and the September 14, 2001 resolution that gave the president the ability to use "all necessary and appropriate force" (Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez) and "the Constitution" (Bush-he's the guy who keeps it simple). To state that Article II is their basis for domestic surveillance shows the level to which our democracy has been debased. If that was actually the defense of the administration they would be laughed out of court. Article II gives the civilian executive control over the armed forces to stop a authoritarian military type from doing things like rounding up citizens, shutting down newspapers or spying on people in the United States. It does not give the President the right to override the Bill of Rights, the Legislative or the Judicial branches. This is such an obvious point it is embarrassing even to repeat it but given the talk around the water cooler at my work these "finer" points of the constitution don't seem to trouble the local public school teacher.

Here's what they have admitted to and what the Times says they are doing:

"While many details about the program remain secret, officials familiar with it say the N.S.A. eavesdrops without warrants on up to 500 people in the United States at any given time. The list changes as some names are added and others dropped, so the number monitored in this country may have reached into the thousands since the program began, several officials said. Overseas, about 5,000 to 7,000 people suspected of terrorist ties are monitored at one time, according to those officials."

Here's the problem: This is an impeachable and criminal offense. Beyond the fourth amendment the US Congress passed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act in 1978 to try to reign in the executive branch (not just the Nixon administration) because of its massive surveillance on such radical organizations as the National Hockey League and the known anarchist Dr Suess. They also were busted for a program that sought out to disrupt and infiltrate anti-war, civil rights, socialist, communist and other organizations deemed undesirable called COINTELPRO. FISA, it seems, is not good enough for the administration even though this secret court is no friend of the civil liberties of the citizenry allowing thousands of warrantless searches over the years.

So let's see, it OK to kidnap and drug people in any part of the world, take them to a secret prison and torture them where these types of things are embraced more freely by the populace and spy on groups that protest the war.

Quite a democracy. I think we should invade other countries so they can have democracy and freedom also.

Is the FBI spying on you?

I recommend reading, at least, the introduction to the Church Report which is an extensive congressional examination of domestic spying from 1951-71.