No Such Agency

This from cbsnews.com: "President Bush said any domestic intelligence-gathering measures he's approved are "lawful," and said "appropriate" members of Congress have been briefed." For starters, we now know, thanks to The Boston Globe that "lawful" is a relative term. Lawful according to whom? To Congress? Ok. To the Senate? Ok. To the president? This is where we have a problem. If the president says something is "lawful," we're in trouble, since W.'s interpretation of lawful usually means "I'm the decider and I decide [what's lawful]." Of course, the lawfulness or not of something traditionally was the realm of the courts, but our president doesn't play that way. He's the decider, remember?

Apparently, our privacy is "fiercly protected." That's why Big Brother now has records of my conversations with my boyfriend. Thank you, Verizon, for giving away my personal information. And what does "appropriate" mean? If "appropriate" is no one, then this could have been completely unilateral. I wouldn't put it past this administration. Thank you, George Bush for telling no one that you were protecting my privacy by letting the National Security Agency into my private communications. "One big telecommunications company, Qwest, has refused to turn over records to the program, the newspaper said, because of privacy and legal concerns." Do they have cell phone service? I want to switch to them. Apparently, they didn't have to turn over information "because of privacy and legal concerns," unlike Verizon. I wonder why?

"'The Terrorist Surveillance Program is a highly classified and exceptionally sensitive intelligence-gathering program, and only those with a special need to know are provided details about this classified program,' Roehrkasse tells CBS News." I need to know. I was told by this president that my privacy was "fiercly protected." I fiercly want to know why the hell I'm being monitored by the NSA, and why the fourth ammendment is being violated.

"The program does not involve listening to or taping the calls. Instead it documents who talks to whom in personal and business calls, and whether they are local or long distance, by tracking which numbers are called, USA Today said." And this is supposed to make it okay? Of course, Bush's newest choice in a military man to head the civilian CIA is something everyone is supposed to swallow. He'll have no problem passing through the Senate, since it's owned by the GOP. It really is. The GOP bought it. Jack Abramoff gave them the money, if they would just keep sweatshops open in the Northern Marianas Islands.

Why is it that the citizens of this country can't control government payroll? After all, they are our employees. We should be able to withhold our income tax in protest. I don't want any of my money to go to people I find unfit to do their jobs! This wiretapping program is in violation of the fourth ammendment! I have never committed a crime, and yet my phone records are being scritinized by the NSA. There is no probable cause here. And there are millions more out there in the same situation! The constitution is being raped.

I'm sick of giving up my civil liberties in order to be safer from some phanthom nemesis. "Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both." No, it was not some crazy bleeding-heart liberal that said this. It was Benjamin Franklin (and I hope everyone reads this and repeats it). He was one of our founding fathers. The current state of this country would be an embarassment to those who founded this nation.