Thursday, May 11, 2006

The sky is pink. And it is NOT falling.

cnn
Reuters

"The privacy of ordinary Americans is fiercely protected in all our activities. We're not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans," Bush said.

The president came out to defend the administration's domestic spy program after USA Today reported the National Security Agency was secretly collecting phone records of tens of millions of Americans from phone companies to analyze calling patterns in an effort to detect terrorist activity.


How the hell this president can be so bold and just out and out lie about things that are very very obviously untrue is beyond me.

"We're not mining or trolling through the personal lives of millions of innocent Americans," What? No, you're just recording all their phone activity. Ahem, that's not personal life, I guess. Not in Bush's mind? (sorry, did I use "Bush" and "mind" in the same sentence?)

"Our efforts are focused on links to al Qaeda and their known affiliates," Bush said. "The privacy of ordinary Americans is fiercely protected in all our activities."
OH! OK, phew! You're only spying on BAD guys! So if I'm not bad, I have no reason to worry! Thank God! But, wait...
"domestic telephone call records from millions of Americans beginning shortly after the attacks on September 11, 2001."
Millions? So, there are MILLIONS of al Queda operatives in the USA? Shocking. But I won't worry, 'cuz if I'm worried, that must mean I'm a terrorist right? Uh, not worried!

Keep your head down, don't raise a peep.

I keep getting these stupid mails and bulletins from military folks, slamming on anti-war and other protesters, saying they shouldn't be speaking out, that they're somehow unpatriotic or unamerican. Next military person that tells me they're fighting for the USA, that protesters are too cowardly to fight for, might want to re-examine what exactly they are fighting for. A country that tightly controls freedom and monitors everyday people and their telephone conversations? Not so much worth fighting for then, is it? Protesters? That is what you ought to be fighting for, the right to call out and struggle for change as needed, that is the essence of our Great Democratic Experiment. There is nothing so American as protesting.

Once we betray those ideals, we might as way lay down our weapons and admit that what we have is nothing worth protecting.

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