What a country we live in, eh? Apart from the multitude of problems which have beset us over the past several years --- war, crushing budget deficits, a shift toward theocratic rule – we now learn that we’ve become the object of George’s curiosity. Living in the bubble that separates our chief executive from the rest of us, W has apparently seen fit to find out just what’s going on in the world around him by unleashing the NSA, the FBI and God knows what other acronyms to listen in on the telephonic and cyber conversations of his constituents and to surveil and gather intelligence on groups and organizations that were viewed as posing a threat to the nation’s security…like PETA and Greenpeace and….
It appears that in giving this direction to his law enforcement agencies, Mr. Bush may have misunderstood the mandate given to him by Congress in the days following September 11th. You may recall, after his return from the smoldering ruins of the World Trade Center, Mr. Bush, with nary a protest from anyone on either side of the aisle, secured authority from Congress to use all necessary force against those responsible for the attacks of September 11th. Somewhere along the line, however, that supposed mandate became confused in George’s mind with the belief that no law should limit the executive in such dangerous times. And so Mr. Bush, with the obvious support of Messers Cheney and Rumsfeld and the tenuous legal support of AG Gonzalez and a law professor at Berkeley, John Yoo, embraced the idea of expanding the reach of his office into the homes and offices of his fellow citizens.
As for the spying itself, it is beyond my understanding how one gets from the legislation permitting the President the use of all necessary force against those responsible for the September 11th attacks to spying on people who oppose the inhumane treatment of animals or oppose deforestation or other abuses of the environment? Unless I’m missing something none of those organizations had anything to do with the attacks in 2001 or any other attacks for that matter unless you count throwing red paint on a fur coat being worn by one of Bin Laden’s cousins as she fled the country on September 12th.
The ultimate hypocrisy of all this, I suppose, derives not from the list of organizations which are under surveillance, but those which are not. As between PETA and Operation Rescue, for example, which poses the greater threat to the safety of the nation and its populace: one that opposes the butchering of mink to be used as expensive clothing by splashing red paint on starlets on some Hollywood red carpet or one that advocates and executes the planting of bombs in public areas to announce its opposition to abortion? Yet nowhere in this discussion do we find any evidence that anyone or anything connected with the anti-abortion movement is falling under the government’s gaze. If this program of domestic spying was truly intended as an extension of the mandate Bush believes he received back in October 2001, certainly the domestic threat posed by Operation Rescue and like-minded terrorist organizations would be included among the organizations viewed as posing a threat to our security. That the anti-abortion industry has managed to escape the government’s scrutiny makes clear, at least to me, that it is not security that George is concerned about, but suppression of views that just don’t sit well with him.
It appears that in giving this direction to his law enforcement agencies, Mr. Bush may have misunderstood the mandate given to him by Congress in the days following September 11th. You may recall, after his return from the smoldering ruins of the World Trade Center, Mr. Bush, with nary a protest from anyone on either side of the aisle, secured authority from Congress to use all necessary force against those responsible for the attacks of September 11th. Somewhere along the line, however, that supposed mandate became confused in George’s mind with the belief that no law should limit the executive in such dangerous times. And so Mr. Bush, with the obvious support of Messers Cheney and Rumsfeld and the tenuous legal support of AG Gonzalez and a law professor at Berkeley, John Yoo, embraced the idea of expanding the reach of his office into the homes and offices of his fellow citizens.
As for the spying itself, it is beyond my understanding how one gets from the legislation permitting the President the use of all necessary force against those responsible for the September 11th attacks to spying on people who oppose the inhumane treatment of animals or oppose deforestation or other abuses of the environment? Unless I’m missing something none of those organizations had anything to do with the attacks in 2001 or any other attacks for that matter unless you count throwing red paint on a fur coat being worn by one of Bin Laden’s cousins as she fled the country on September 12th.
The ultimate hypocrisy of all this, I suppose, derives not from the list of organizations which are under surveillance, but those which are not. As between PETA and Operation Rescue, for example, which poses the greater threat to the safety of the nation and its populace: one that opposes the butchering of mink to be used as expensive clothing by splashing red paint on starlets on some Hollywood red carpet or one that advocates and executes the planting of bombs in public areas to announce its opposition to abortion? Yet nowhere in this discussion do we find any evidence that anyone or anything connected with the anti-abortion movement is falling under the government’s gaze. If this program of domestic spying was truly intended as an extension of the mandate Bush believes he received back in October 2001, certainly the domestic threat posed by Operation Rescue and like-minded terrorist organizations would be included among the organizations viewed as posing a threat to our security. That the anti-abortion industry has managed to escape the government’s scrutiny makes clear, at least to me, that it is not security that George is concerned about, but suppression of views that just don’t sit well with him.
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