Bush spends a few years, with the collaboration of right wing psycho members of congress, ordering a spy agency that's not supposed to operate in the US to spy on US citizens.
The sycophant mainstream media pick up the spoon-fed Republican spin that it was about national security. They fail to ask the big question. What the hell were you doing violating federal laws against non-court-authorized spying? If the nation was in danger, why couldn't you get court authorization? Why did you use the NSA to spy illegally. Why not use legal agencies that have conventional rules, oversight and protections?
But these pathetic media pawns, these stenographic transmitters of the right wings lying spin didn't ask any of these obvious questions. Or they gently offered them and let Bush's evasions pass.
That leaves the alternative media to ask the questions. And we can ask the right questions. The problem is, we don't get to ask Bush, or the NSA, or the criminal congressmen who he told, who abetted if not collaborated in his crime.
We don't get to broadcast an answer to millions of viewers.
But at least we are taking a shot at seeking the truth. At least we are concerned about the truth and about the law and about the safety and future of American democracy.
Somehow, this insane situation can not stand. Bush broke the law. His confidant congressional partners in crime also broke the law. They cannot spin their way out of this one. They cannot block an investigation. The chronically spineless, ineffectual Democrats are going to have to get off their asses and take this one. Russ Feingold did it. He got up in congress and expressed his outrage. And enough senators, including Republicans, who, perhaps have begun to wake to see that they have been supporting a stupid, lying, idiot criminal, got together to block the continuation of the patriot act.
They told Bush to go f*ck himself. They sent a message tp the neocons that their "protecting the nation from terrorism" line is a pile of bullshit. And that was huge. But it is not enough. The lying idiot is still in the Whitehouse, still running the spy ops.
Alberto Gonzalez claims that the congress's authorization to go to war gives Bush the right to engage in spying, to "engage in signal intelligence."
It is time for the congress to make it clear that Bush was NEVER, not EVER authorized to spy, that the authorization to go to war was not a blank check.
We need to raise our voices, get out on the streets, holler bloody murder and make it clear to our elected representatives that we don't accept Gonzalez's half-assed, bullshit explanation of Bush's criminal actions.
We need to ask our legislators who voted to give Bush permission to go to war if they intended to give him permission to spy on Americans, violating our laws.
Write to your elected legislators. Write to your local paper. Demand that they clearly pass a bill that makes it clear that Bush does not and never had the right to spy on Americans and break clearly defined laws.
Remember, this is not about security. Even in an emergency, spying can be ordered and then, shortly afterward, a court order can be obtained to cover it. There is NO EXCUSE for spying without court authorization. There is every reason to believe that the only reason this would be done was because Bush had something to hide, that he was doing things that US courts would not allow. This is totally intolerable. At the least, contact your legislators and local paper. If we don't act on this one, we are lost.
Rob Kall is executive editor and publisher of OpEdNews.com, President of Futurehealth, Inc, inventor . He is a frequent Speaker on Politics, Impeachment, The art, science and power of story, heroes and the hero's journey, Positive Psychology, Stress, Biofeedback and a wide range of subjects. He is a campaign consultant specializing in tapping the power of stories for issue positioning, stump speeches and debates. He recently retired as organizer of several conferences, including StoryCon, the Summit Meeting on the Art, Science and Application of Story and The Winter Brain Meeting on neurofeedback, biofeedback, Optimal Functioning and Positive Psychology. See more of his articles here and, older ones, here.
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This is the defining moment in our democracy. Card and Rove are testing the waters to see if the American people will accept a dictator. If Bush gets away with this, we are living in a dictatorship. Imagine if Bill Clinton had wiretapped American citizens and then held a press conference and announced he broke the law and he intended to keep right on breaking it.
by
terri Kionka (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 83 comments)
on Monday, December 19, 2005 at 2:27:10 PM
I agree with the above and Mr. Knopka wholeheartedly. And.. now it is the time to quote Hitler,'As the Chief Executive Power in the Country I do not need the authorization to protect the country from the enemies.I ordered the executions..." That is 1933, the aftermath of the Night of Long Knives. From the Night we come and to the Night we come, it seems.
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Mark Sashine (42 articles, 19 quicklinks, 227 diaries, 3219 comments)
on Monday, December 19, 2005 at 2:55:54 PM
By making their argument specifically that the Congressional authorization of force against Afghanistan is their justification for illegal wiretapping of U.S. Citizens, the Republican Administration is carefully setting up their safety net if this issue should continue to percolate after the new year.
IF the pressure should build in congress to make the question of whether or not Bush broke the law anything but mute, then Bush's supporters in congress will simply pass a bill "clarifying" that their original bill did NOT authorize illegal spying. By doing so, they open up the door for the Administration to claim that the issue was "unclear" and that the Republican Administration "believed" that they had the right, and were not acting in bad faith. The burden of proof is shifted, and the thugs are off the hook.
These guys are good. Of course, when I say "good" I mean in the most evil, vile, disgusting and horrible way.
I'm getting closer and closer to believing that we will not be able to remove these Republican criminals and thugs from power by the democratic means existent in our system of government, such as elections and/or impeachment. I'm starting to believe it will take something more 1776-like to pull it off, and I'm quite sure that the "American People" don't have the stomach for it. I suspect too many of us are way too spoiled by having lived the good life to ever imagine having to fight for our republic.
Here, I think a quotation from a document that too few of us have read past the first paragraph of…
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security."
Think about it.
Charlie L
Portland, OR
by
Charlie L (2 articles, 2 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 612 comments)
on Tuesday, December 20, 2005 at 1:22:17 PM
Patriot Act
He was given all these rights and more, with the Patriot AcT! Therefore he didn't break the law. If the 'Patriot Act' is legal,( then the Costitution, which Bush swore on the Holy Bible to uphold, to become President)Then the Constitution is no longer the Law Of The Land.
The Patrot Act was a n act of treason.
by (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 41 comments)
on Saturday, December 24, 2005 at 7:00:17 PM
