Who you gonna call?
So it didn't come as a surprise to me when the news came out today that the government is secretly obtaining phone records of all Americans in order to "combat terrorism". After the release of the story about the NSA wire-tapping program, it was obvious that the government wasn't just tracking those who were definitely Al-Qaeda types, but innocent Americans as well. It's about time that we finally bring this administration to court in order to protect our civil rights to privacy and illegal search and seizure. Think the government should be allowed to look at your phone records? What about the websites you visit? Maybe they should track our credit card purchases too...what's to say that the next time you go to a head shop to buy some inscence that the government wont use your patronage of a head shop as a way to harrass you?
The most dangerous part of this program is the fact that the Bush administration claims that it's necessary to defend our nation and they use that irrational American fear to scare away our civil rights. When the warrantless wiretapping program was leaked to the public, it revealed the willingness of the administration to sidestep laws designed to protect the people from the government. We have a system of checks and balances to ensure that the government isn't spying on us, and isn't using an irrational fear to erode our civil rights. Afterall, they are ignoring the right to stand trial for many SUSPECTED terrorists and holding them indefinitely in solitary confinement whilst torturing them in order to extract information that they don't even have. Look at the result of the Moussaoui trial: he pleaded guilty, sentenced to life for the 9-11 attack despite the fact that he was already in prison weeks before the attack. After the sentencing he renounced his guilty plea and is asking to be retried so he can plead not-guilty.
What is most frightening about this is not that the government is doing all this spying on innocent Americans, but that there are enough people in this country dumb enough to ignore all the warning signs of authoritarianism. The Weimar republic began as a perfectly designed democracy and within a decade had become the Totalitarian Nazi nation that committed the atrocities of WWII. Think the US is too good to have their own holocaust? Remember how we interned the Japanese in concentration camps during WWII despite the fact that most of those interned were innocent Americans who had no connection to the bombing of Pearl Harbor and just happened to be ethnically Japanese. The first people who will suffer as a result of this invasion of privacy are those who have Arab names. My friend Samer Sharaiha is Christian, but is from Jordan and calls back home frequently, and speaks Arabic in most of those conversations. I guarantee that the government is in possesion of his phone records, as they claimed the reason for the seizure was to watch for patterns and they might have even listened into his phone calls.
Defenders of the wiretapping program claim that the government is only tapping those who are connected with terrorist organizations. Maybe it's just me, but if there was evidence that someone was in a terrorist organization, wouldn't it be safer for us to have him in custody? If they have the evidence that he's a terrorist, shouldn't that be enough to charge him with something? If there's not enough evidence to charge him, how can they be sure he's a terrorist? Even if they have evidence, how do we know that it's not fabricated or a figment of Rumsfeld's imagination like the WMDs in Iraq? Our nation was founded on the principal that governments are not to be trusted and the people should always be protected from overreaching authorities. In 2001 as many people died every 26 days on US roads as died in the terrorist bombings of 9/11 (http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=34352) Think terrorism is our biggest problem? How many Americans have died since 9/11 in terrorist acts? How many people died in car crashes today? What about from the effects of alcohol? The administration has used terrorism as a way to forward an agenda of a controlling and authoritarian regime.
If this isn't grounds for impeachment, what the hell is? Clinton was getting blow jobs in the Oral Office and he got impeached for covering his ass from getting kicked by Hilary. Bush has lied, cheated and stolen (an election) while running up a massive debt and cutting taxes on rich people. He's thumbed his nose at the FISA courts and the bill of rights, and he's not exactly done anything that I can pinpoint as good. So how come the Democrats can't do anything about it? As long as we continue to let this regime bully their way around our rights, they will continue to erode them. If you don't want the FBI kicking down your door the next time you buy a book on "The Teachings of Allah", take a stand against this regime. Otherwise, you'll find yourself living in a nation without privacy, without a bill of rights, and you'll be sitting in a solitary cell awaiting a trial that will never come. Just don't say that I didn't warn you.
The most dangerous part of this program is the fact that the Bush administration claims that it's necessary to defend our nation and they use that irrational American fear to scare away our civil rights. When the warrantless wiretapping program was leaked to the public, it revealed the willingness of the administration to sidestep laws designed to protect the people from the government. We have a system of checks and balances to ensure that the government isn't spying on us, and isn't using an irrational fear to erode our civil rights. Afterall, they are ignoring the right to stand trial for many SUSPECTED terrorists and holding them indefinitely in solitary confinement whilst torturing them in order to extract information that they don't even have. Look at the result of the Moussaoui trial: he pleaded guilty, sentenced to life for the 9-11 attack despite the fact that he was already in prison weeks before the attack. After the sentencing he renounced his guilty plea and is asking to be retried so he can plead not-guilty.
What is most frightening about this is not that the government is doing all this spying on innocent Americans, but that there are enough people in this country dumb enough to ignore all the warning signs of authoritarianism. The Weimar republic began as a perfectly designed democracy and within a decade had become the Totalitarian Nazi nation that committed the atrocities of WWII. Think the US is too good to have their own holocaust? Remember how we interned the Japanese in concentration camps during WWII despite the fact that most of those interned were innocent Americans who had no connection to the bombing of Pearl Harbor and just happened to be ethnically Japanese. The first people who will suffer as a result of this invasion of privacy are those who have Arab names. My friend Samer Sharaiha is Christian, but is from Jordan and calls back home frequently, and speaks Arabic in most of those conversations. I guarantee that the government is in possesion of his phone records, as they claimed the reason for the seizure was to watch for patterns and they might have even listened into his phone calls.
Defenders of the wiretapping program claim that the government is only tapping those who are connected with terrorist organizations. Maybe it's just me, but if there was evidence that someone was in a terrorist organization, wouldn't it be safer for us to have him in custody? If they have the evidence that he's a terrorist, shouldn't that be enough to charge him with something? If there's not enough evidence to charge him, how can they be sure he's a terrorist? Even if they have evidence, how do we know that it's not fabricated or a figment of Rumsfeld's imagination like the WMDs in Iraq? Our nation was founded on the principal that governments are not to be trusted and the people should always be protected from overreaching authorities. In 2001 as many people died every 26 days on US roads as died in the terrorist bombings of 9/11 (http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=34352) Think terrorism is our biggest problem? How many Americans have died since 9/11 in terrorist acts? How many people died in car crashes today? What about from the effects of alcohol? The administration has used terrorism as a way to forward an agenda of a controlling and authoritarian regime.
If this isn't grounds for impeachment, what the hell is? Clinton was getting blow jobs in the Oral Office and he got impeached for covering his ass from getting kicked by Hilary. Bush has lied, cheated and stolen (an election) while running up a massive debt and cutting taxes on rich people. He's thumbed his nose at the FISA courts and the bill of rights, and he's not exactly done anything that I can pinpoint as good. So how come the Democrats can't do anything about it? As long as we continue to let this regime bully their way around our rights, they will continue to erode them. If you don't want the FBI kicking down your door the next time you buy a book on "The Teachings of Allah", take a stand against this regime. Otherwise, you'll find yourself living in a nation without privacy, without a bill of rights, and you'll be sitting in a solitary cell awaiting a trial that will never come. Just don't say that I didn't warn you.
posted by Dan Pasternack at 2:58 PM
1 Comments:
I enjoyed readıng your artıcle. especıally the part about the oral offıce and ofcourse the one about me. hope ıs well brah. Samer
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