When the Senate rubber-stamped the Protect America Act, or the Patriot Act on steroids, it should have been titled the Clemens/Bonds Bill, and they would have paid attention and held hearings before passing it.
How often do we have to wonder what senators (and house members) are thinking when they rubber-stamp administration sponsored laws?
If senators weren't so damn busy raising campaign funds on a daily basis, maybe they'd realize the administration is listening in on them, too.
Think about it, Senators. Your partners in crime in the House may have come to that realization, because they are bucking the Protect America Act as its written and you in your comas passed.
Every phone call, every email is being listen to and read...not just the ones emanating from overseas.
That means ALL your phone calls and All your emails.
Think about it?
Letting it penetrate the ol' gray matter?
Okay, now that you've had a few seconds to let that sink in, ask yourselves how much of what this administration hears and reads is being used against you?
Ask yourselves how much of what this administration gleans from your emails and your phone calls are used to gain your co-operation so the administration can get its way to the detriment of the Constitution and We The People?
Oh, they give these 'acts' patriotic names, but there is nothing patriotic or Constitutional or protective of us about them. Just as doctors take an oath "to do no harm," so should every person working for the government.
Just to be sure you understand how unnecessary illegal wiretaps are...Bush, Rice, Rumsfeld, Cheney and the entire alphabet of security agencies had EVERY piece of LEGALLY-obtained information they needed to STOP 9/11.
Flagged words and phrases
To be clear, not every word of every email or phone call is read or listened to (probably with the exception of congressmen. It's called political spying. How better to know what your political enemies are up to than by illegally wiretapping them under the guise of an illegal law or signing statement?)
What does occur is 'word traps' are set and there is an unbelievably long list of them; some of which are as innocuous as the word 'party'. If any of the 'trapped' words a noted by the computer, the communication is flagged for further investigation.
And for all the alphabet security agencies who are picking up all the 'trapped' words in this message, let me tell you it IS NOT unpatriotic or unAmerican to be critical of the president of anyone else in government, no matter what he and they say.
Sandy Sand began her writing career while raising three children and doing public relations work for Women's American ORT (Organization for Rehabilitation through Training). That led to a job as a reporter for the San Fernando Valley Chronicle, a weekly publication in Canoga Park, California. In conjunction with the Chronicle, she broadcast a tri-weekly, ten minuted newscast for KGOE AM. Following the closure of the Chronicle, Sand became the editor of the Tolucan Times and Canyon Crier newspapers in Burbank. She is currently a guest columnist for the Los Angeles Daily News and contributor to ronkayela.com
