The President admitted today in his radio address to signing off on the NSA eavesdropping on hundreds, possibly thousands of U.S. citizens without the benefit of a court ordered warrant.

President Bush today acknowledged that he had secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on international communications of Americans and other domestic residents with known links to al Qaeda.

The controversial order has been approved by legal authorities in his administration, Bush said, and he added that members of Congress had been notified of it more than a dozen times.

He defended his decision to sign the secret order, calling the program a "vital tool in our war against terrorists" and "critical to saving American lives."

The problem is Bush doesn't have to worry about his civil liberties being violated does he. Everytime Bush does something like this, he's saying "the terrorists win." Our nation is BETTER than this...aren't we? Are we supposed to be? I thought we were.

I grow up hearing how wonderful our nation is; how people can say what they want, can protest things they don't like, can worship when and where they please or not all. We all have a guaranteed right to be secure in ourselves and our persons from unreasonable searches and seizures. Eavesdropping falls into the category of searches I think.

"This is a highly classified program that is crucial to our national security," a stern-looking Bush said. "Its purpose is to detect and prevent terrorist attacks against the United States, our friends, and allies. . . .And the activities conducted under this authorization have helped detect and prevent possible terrorist attacks in the United States and abroad."

"I have reauthorized this program more than 30 times since the September the 11th attacks, and I intend to do so for as long as our nation faces a continuing threat from al Qaeda and related groups," Bush added.

I was discussing this issue last night with my father-in-law and he sees things a lot differently. His attitude, like many Americans, is "do what ever it takes." I dissagreed wholeheartedly. I believe that if these are the kinds of measures we have to take to "secure" our our "way of life" then perhaps it's not worth it. I would prefer to be secure in my liberty, such as it is. Because that's what's being take away from these days. Our rights, our liberties...they've all been chucked out like so much dirty dishwater.

For those whose religion is in favor right now, what happens when yours falls out of favor and you become the persecuted faith you claim now to be? I'm sorry but a religion run by multimillionaires involved in massive media empires is not a persecuted religion. A religion that has first-hand access to the halls of power in a nation and not only that, face time with those in power, you're not a persecuted religion.

I expect the federal government has been doing this for a while. I'd like to ask Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter if they did such things. I have to figure Bush the elder did as he ran the CIA for a while. I figure he spied on just about everyone from time to time.

The government has these massive organizations that spy on its citizens, that controls and manipulates yet at the same time, they cut funding for things like food stamps and college loans. The fascism of George Bush knows no bounds.

posted by Stithmeister @ 12:18 PM
 
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