3 Points Against Bush

In my original posting on this topic, I listed the following three points:

1. Illegally authorized and supported a warrantless wiretap program, and when caught had the audacity to claim he had been given the authority by Congress, and then claimed the Constitution gave him the right, anyway. Anytime you use the Constitution to justify violating the Constitution, you’re way off on the wrong track.

2. Supporting and promoting the Patriot Act. One of the most invasive, unnecessary, and unjustifiable pieces of legislation ever written.

3. Using the threat of “terrorism” as a tool to turn neighbors against each other, prevent activism against his agendas, and cow the population and its representatives into accepting more and more outrageous assaults on their liberties in the name of an indefinable sense of “safety”.

I will show here how all three of these have undermined the unity of our society, eroded our civil liberties, and laid the groundwork for a greater departure from the ideals of democracy than we have ever seen before. It is not my place here to propose counter-measures and alternatives to these problems, but I do want to state that I feel strongly that listing the problems is only constructive if action follows. It is my dearest hope that these debates can prompt their readers into responsible action designed to take back control of their government and affect a change in the direction of its growth.

That said, I will plunge on in…

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Illegal Surveillance Boons

I am confused about the recent furor over the President’s wire-tapping program. Yes, the program may be illegal, according to the FISA guidelines which were written in 1978. But everyone knows a document written that long ago is archaic to the point of uselessness. Just look at the Constitution! Yes, the attorney general has been unable to give us assurance that innocent Americans were not spied upon using this program…but after all, if you’ve nothing to hide, why should you mind if the govenment is listening in on your private conversations? This may reduce income to overseas phone-sex businesses…but think of the boon to the internet! And after all, technology is the future. And we all care about the future.

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