Attorney General Alberto Gonzales defends the U.S wiretapping program in front of the senate Judiciary Committee. He basically saying that "the president has the authority to order the warrantless eavesdropping program under the Constitution as commander-in-chief; and that, after Sept. 11, Congress authorized the president to use all necessary force to prevent future attacks." (NPR.org). Since when the United States of America allows a President to invade the privacy of the people?
Back in the old days, We, Americans, began to mobilize ourselves to fight against Great Britain for freedom and liberty to govern ourselves. We wanted to be free from that country because we were unable to do anything. Our rights did not exist yet. We fought against the superpower for liberty to express ourselves and to govern our own government. The constitution and the Bill of Rights were written to ensure that people's rights are granted and protected by the government. We, average American citizens, have our rights to speak up our minds and the right to privacy. It seems that the American Revolutionary War: the fight for freedom is pointless; when President Bush decided to allow the FBI and other agencies to listen to peoples' conversations just in case if they're involved with terrorists.
Has our protection gone to far?
Yes, it has. No way on earth should a president decide to take away our rights (i.e freedom of expression; right to privacy etc). This is the funny part about America. The government promises to give our natural rights. At the same time, it plans to take them away from us. What is it? This is not America. It's the hypocrisy of America. America is a land of freedom, not a land of eavesdropping warentlessly. We have a consititution. One of the admendments states "no search without a warrent" for a reason. Why is Bush ignoring that? I know that the President can take any necessary actions to protect people from enemies. But, since September 11 attacks, the laws have been tougher than ever. What make you, Mr.Bush, think that a terrorist would come back to America again? You have shown how strong, dangerous and powerful America is by invading Iraq, passing laws that crack down illgeal immigrants, and strengthening the border patrol. You spend more than 400 billion dollars on War in Iraq. What else do you want? Taking away our privacy?
Nowadays, the President is acting above the law, and the Consititution. He is the one who is ruining the consitution that was created hundreds of years ago. The purpose of the Consitution is to protect the citizens' rights from being taken away. We have checks and balance to make sure that the President doesn't abuse his power like what he is doing right now with the wiretapping program. Yet, no one has taken any action about it.
This is the hypocrisy of America where our rights are now being taken away little by little.
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nice article.
Senator Russ Feingold refers to it as a "Pre-1776 Mentality" over on Daily Kos.
I do agree with you that Bush's plan to take away our rights guaranteed to us is crossing the line. But it's the hypocrisy of the president, not of America, because only half voted for him.
Once anyone says "take away rights" proceed with caution. Bush didn't. He thought he was above the law, and could sneak his crap in. It doesn't matter if you have nothing to hide, the only way to secure your rights is to not be scared of your government. America is owned by the people, not the government.
It is pretty disturbing isn't it? I continually wonder how we will manage to extracate ourselves from these executive overreaches.