A progressive political blog that highlights the infringement of religion upon today’s government.

Good to hear you’re back.

Now for a short rant.

I am pissed. No one should ever consider snooping in on my conversations or writings, digital or otherwise, legal and I THOUGHT this had been a protected right, as it is firmly embedded in the fourth amendment to the constitution. Bush disagreed, and to be fair, so have prior administrations. But so far, any actions they have taken violating this have been noted and shown to be illegal.

But not anymore. Bush asked the telcos to wiretap before 9/11. They obliged. He did so afterwards in a big building outside DC snooping through millions of internet transmissions. And now we find that these actions and the acquiescence of the telcos is to be dismissed as retroactively legal (a concept that boggles my mind). And who effectively said this was okay? Why republicans (to be fair not all of them) and 105 democrats. Some of the democrats state that this is now okay because the president won’t do this again without asking them nicely because of some silly wording in the bill.

C’mon guys! Do you expect us to believe that? Did Bush do this last time? Do you think he or any other president like him will do so later? NO WAY. This is pretty simple but I’ll spell it out for you anyway. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. You’ve given him, and because of your bill, any telco that wants to look at our communications the PERFECT, LEGAL RIGHT (according to this illegal bill) TO SPY ON US ANY TIME THEY WANT! Bull-Hockey!

If this isn’t illegal search and seizure without a warrant, then nothing is. It doesn’t matter if the reason is terrorism, child molestation, or anything else you come up with. Without a warrant, it should never be done. FISA be damned! It is not hard to call up a judge at 3 AM and tell him what’s up. They can issue a warrant within a very short - less than an hour’s - time. No fancy “24″ scenario makes me believe that lives depend on this when it is plain, if life saving was actually their desire, they would have acted on the prior available evidence and done something about the terrorists before 9/11. They chose to ignore evidence, despite warnings from the Clinton Administration then yet they still want to right to do spy on me to prevent more bad things (they say) from happening. Nope. I don’t buy it. This is a power grab pure and simple, to benefit those in power.

This is a tool that WILL BE used to hurt those people those in power don’t like, no matter if they are acting legally. I am a prime target and so are you. If you believe this will only be used against those who are a threat, you are a fool. If you believe your right to say or write what you want isn’t abridged, you are a fool.

And I’m not going to let it happen, if I can do anything about it. Everyone should go out right now and download a copy of free encryption technology such as OpenPGP (www.openpgp.org), install it and encrypt everything you send over wires.

This will make you more of a target for our nation’s snooping agencies (CIA, FBI, The White House, Blair House) but if you make your encryption high enough, it will take them a long time to crack it and all they’ll find is you saying how rotten they, and the Republicrats who signed our inalienable liberties away are.

These rich kowtowers deserve nothing from us, let alone the ability to vote for us and if it were possible to kick them out of office by pressing a button, I would.

I’m pissed. So should every American of good heart.