Big Brother is Watching
Been awhile since I've posted, mainly because the last thing I wanna think about on my break is politics. But anyway...
Bush Admits To Spying on Americans
Not only does he admit it, he says its the best for the country. Right. That's it. You know what else is best for the country? I dunno, perhaps respect for the rights and freedoms guaranteed in the constitution. I could have sword this was a constitutional democracy, not a totalitarian autocracy. Silly me.
Susan Low Bloch, a professor of constitutional law at Georgetown University Law Center, said Bush was "taking a hugely expansive interpretation of the Constitution and the president's powers under the Constitution."
"I didn't hear him specify any legal right, except his right as president, which in a democracy doesn't make much sense."
Here's my favorite part:
The president had harsh words for those who revealed the program to the media, saying they acted improperly and illegally. The surveillance was first disclosed in Friday's New York Times.
"As a result, our enemies have learned information they should not have," Bush said. "The unauthorized disclosure of this effort damages our national security and puts our citizens at risk."
I wonder who these enemies could be...wasn't Nixon impeached for spying on his enemies too? Hrm...
Bush Admits To Spying on Americans
Not only does he admit it, he says its the best for the country. Right. That's it. You know what else is best for the country? I dunno, perhaps respect for the rights and freedoms guaranteed in the constitution. I could have sword this was a constitutional democracy, not a totalitarian autocracy. Silly me.
Susan Low Bloch, a professor of constitutional law at Georgetown University Law Center, said Bush was "taking a hugely expansive interpretation of the Constitution and the president's powers under the Constitution."
"I didn't hear him specify any legal right, except his right as president, which in a democracy doesn't make much sense."
Here's my favorite part:
The president had harsh words for those who revealed the program to the media, saying they acted improperly and illegally. The surveillance was first disclosed in Friday's New York Times.
"As a result, our enemies have learned information they should not have," Bush said. "The unauthorized disclosure of this effort damages our national security and puts our citizens at risk."
I wonder who these enemies could be...wasn't Nixon impeached for spying on his enemies too? Hrm...
posted by Jon Fish at 6:48 PM
5 Comments:
Actually,
The United States was originally intended to be a federal republic.
But a long line of friendly Democrats and Republicans, all of whom prefer(ed) strong centralized authority to having power dispersed among the states, worked hard to do away with it.
So don't be surprised when Bush acts with impunity to do away with your rights, my rights, or anyone else's rights. He is only furthering the course of events established by such paragons of presidential virtue as Lincoln (had Democratic newspapers forcibly shut down, suspended habeas corpus, and forcibly expelled a sitting congressman in the name of "defending the republic"), Woodrow Wilson (who criminalized the desecration of American symbols, arrested those who fomented resistance against the draft, etc., all in the name of "defending the republic), FDR (Japanese internment camps, for the sake of defending the republic), Kennedy/Johnson/Nixon (invading and then perpetuating the Vietnam War, deliberately lying to the public, and cracking down on dissidents, all in the name of defending the Republic), Reagan (too many infringements to bother naming), and on and on.
Exactly. And they were all wrong then and now.
I couldn't agree more. I suppose the question is, then: what do we do about it?
That's a tough one, given the fact that most people -- be they liberal, conservative, or what-have-you -- have simply accepted federal supremacy as a fact of life.
Why Americans assume that "if only my guy from party 'x' gets elected, THEY'LL use the machinery of federal power for good" is beyond me. I used to think that. And I was, admittedly, a die-hard Republican.
Bush cured me of that -- forever.
I believe that it's not about who is president or who gets appointed to the Supreme Court or what have you. The conduit for change is siezing upon your inalienable rights and refusing to let them go. You can't let the government take the freedoms guaranteed to you, because those freedoms are granted to the people from the same source that the government derrives its power.
Civil disobedience, protests, and oher forms of resistance are time-tested and proven effective in directing the government's actions. The problem is that they aren't quick solutions to immediate probelms. Many people areu nwilling to persue them as options because they take so much time and can result in punishments being levied against the participants. But personally, I'm willing to suffer a little transitory punishment to see success down the line than I am to acquiesce and lead a life of quiet desperation.
As Benjamin Franklin said: "Those who would give up Essiential Liberty for a little Temporary Safety deserve neither."
~Peace
But it doesn't necessarily take outright resistance to evoke change. In many ways, what we're doing right here has an effect. The more people talk and speak out against things the government does, the more government officials will listen. While it may not have much of an effect on the President, it very well could affect your congressman or senator, especially if the majority of his constituancy starts to condemn something the government of the president does. He would be foolish not to condemn it himself, or said constituancy would put someone else in who would condemn it. If a large enough majority starts to condemn it, then congress soon becomes empowered to curtail the power of the president - something I wouldn't be surprised to see happen by this time next year with the ever increasing likelihood of the Republicans suffering major losses in the house and possibly the senate, too.
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