“To grant immunity or not to grant immunity, that is the question”. As if it even should be a question in the first place.

I want to report in to you about experiences of being censored. I do this not because I think it is I, myself, who am being targeted, but instead that we all are.

And it’s time for us to come out in the open with this, especially given the debate about whether or not to grant the telecom companies immunity. Because some people hold innocent beliefs such as “the telecoms are being forced into this: They should be granted immunity”, We must go on an exposee, in order to convince them of the absolute necessity for privacy.

Plus, the claim that the telecoms are being "forced" is bogus to begin with. It is no coincidence that free speech is the very first amendment of the Constitution. The fourth amendment protects us from unwarranted search and seizures. And to be wiretapped is the first step to paving the way for such warrantless searches/seizures/arrests to occur under the Patriot Act, which grants the FBI the power to arrest American citizens without warrant, probable cause or connection to terrorist/criminal activity (www.aclu.org).

So for the telecom companies to "comply with laws" such as warrantless wiretapping is bogus. What about the first and fourth amendments as "laws to comply with" ? What about the judiciary's fundamental role in putting a "check" on government power? Warrantless anything means, by definition, to undermine that judicial power and to hand unilateral, unchecked powers over to the Feds.

And power will always be abused. That's why our founding fathers set up the system of checks and balances, to begin with.

No, the telecom companies are not being "forced". THey are making a choice. And that choice affects Us, the People. It is We, the People who must be protected, not the corporations.

Imagine this:

I was on the phone with an author who is very politically vocal and widely published. He said he had a state-of-the-art cell phone and this has never happened to him before, so it was very strange to him: Every time we used the word “impeachment” we were fuzzed out, so as to be unintelligible to one another. Then I also told him I had called Congressman Robert Wexler’s office and talked to one of his Aides who had this to say about impeachment:

“We may not all agree about impeachment, but perhaps we all can agree that hearings are indicated. Then we all can check in later again about impeachment”.

Go figure that THE ENTIRE PARAGRAPH I QUOTED ABOVE WAS FUZZED OUT AND COULDN’T BE INTELLIGIBLY RECOGNIZED BY THE PERSON ON THE OTHER END OF THE CONVERSATION (or even myself, as I heard it garbled back into the phone line)! I then said “I think we are being listened to”, and he agreed with me: Suddenly, after having said that, the whole thing stopped. Hmmm.

Then I was on the phone with another friend who had attended an anti-war rally. The Secret Service had rolled up in a car behind him, and he gave them The Finger, in public. This was caught on camera and publicized in newspaper articles locally: Ever since then, his phone has been tapped. We were talking and suddenly, at a strategic moment in our activist conversation, the connection was terminated. I thought it was just coincidence and thought nothing of it, and called him back. He responded no, it was not coincidence and guess what? By golly, after I called him back, we both heard beeps on the line. We were being recorded!

Then my computer recently and as usual offered me the opportunity for a free update. Sure, I thought to myself. Guess what? Since updating my computer:

A) I can’t cut-paste from email or word processor to the Internet, or vice versa (you bet it's a process for me to post here to Opednews!)

B) URL links to activist websites or web pages come up as “invalid address” so I can’t look them up (Except on Google: Thank you Google!) But since I also can’t cut-paste to the Internet, I also have to hand-copy and hand-type in any URL links I want to look up. A pain in the neck which would stop many people less determined than I happen to be.

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