Abuse Of Power

After 9/11, George Bush asked for the unlimited power for his administration to spy on anyone anywhere without a search warrant. He wanted to opened mail, listen to phone calls and intercept e-mails without showing probable cause or getting permission from a judge. He told us it was necessary to protect our country from a ragged bunch of muslim terrorists. Sadly, far too many of our lawmakers believed him, and they gave him that power.

We can't say we weren't warned, because we were. Our forefathers warned us over two hundred years ago. The founders of our country knew that government cannot be trusted -- no government. That is why they gave us a government of checks and balances, and a Constitution that limited the power of that government. They warned us, but we were to smug and too scared to listen.

Bush, Cheney and their cohorts assured us that if we gave them this unlimited and unconstitutional power, they would not abuse it. They said they would only use that power to monitor al-Queda, and would not violate the privacy of ordinary Americans. If that privacy was "accidently" violated, they assured us any recordings would be destroyed. After all, they were only trying to protect us -- right?

Of course, they were lying to us. It is now coming out that the spying was far more widespread than we were told. It wasn't limited to terrorists. Many thousands of ordinary Americans were spied upon, including our own soldiers calling their families, wives and lovers (how's that for supporting the troops?).

Were the tapes of these conversations destroyed? Of course not. They were saved by our government. The sexiest and more salacious conversations were even shared among NSA listeners and operatives. They were using the private conversations of Americans for their own perverted entertainment. Anyone that complained was told to shut up and get back to spying on their fellow Americans.

Now some of our lawmakers are acting like they're surprised this has been happening, but they shouldn't be. This is their fault. Both Republicans and Democrats voted to let this happen, and they should all be ashamed of themselves. And they should fix it -- NOW!

They were warned. They were just too stupid to listen.