How anyone could have made it to today without hearing about President Bush authorizing blatantly illegal surveillance of American citizens by way of the NSA is beyond me. Suffice it to say that, if you have missed it somehow, you are either comatose or dead.
Our beloved president, holding himself above the law, has specifically called for covert spying on the American citizenry. At least three-dozen examples are documented and have been the foundation of the dramatic outcry spawned from this revelation.
If you look here, you will see that the law is quite specific on this precise issue. No president is beyond reproach on this matter, and the law is quite clear on restricting such activities and ensuring proper checks and balances to protect denizens of this once great country. Bush, however, appears to believe what Nixon wrongfully said before the Watergate scandal brought him to his knees: “when the President does it, that means it’s not illegal.” While this was a serious comment by Nixon, he later came to realize with the public backlash that it was completely inaccurate.
Bush won’t confirm the reports of this spying. That’s certainly no surprise. He doesn’t have to, however, as sufficient information has already come to light which clearly demonstrates it has indeed taken place on his explicit authority.
Congress needs to investigate this immediately, as does whatever law enforcement capacity is available which does not fall under the President’s direct control. If the evidence bears out that this indeed has happened in direct contradiction to the law, Dubya must be impeached and removed from office. Our country is founded on laws and the expectation that they bind the government equally with the people. If he’s allowed to get away with this, our country has fallen beyond hope and it’s time to plan a move out of the reach of this tyrannical government which demonstrates repeatedly that it has no respect for international law, human rights, or the very law upon which our country is based.
With the outing of CIA agents, torture of terrorist suspects, the maintaining of illegal jails scattered about the globe, the torture of captives in Iraq, the constant erosion of civil liberties and constitutional protections, violation of laws regarding government propaganda, a laundry list of other offenses, and now the blatant and direct violation of our own law in order to surreptitiously spy on Americans, the Bush administration is turning America into the Cold War enemy we once hated: a government above the law, no checks and balances, no accountability, no respect for the ideals Americans hold dear, blatant trampling of the Constitution, and a KGB mentality with regards to the operations of our law enforcement entities.
How far our nation has fallen…