Friday, December 30, 2005

That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it

The brilliant Molly Ivins on why we should care about the NSA spying on citizens without a warrant:

I don't like to play scary games where we all stay awake late at night, telling each other scary stories -- but there's a reason we have never given our government this kind of power. As the late Sen. Frank Church said, "That capability could at any time be turned around on the American people, and no American would have any privacy left, such is the capacity to monitor everything: telephone conversations, telegrams, it doesn't matter. There would be no place to hide."

And if a dictator took over, the NSA "could enable it to impose total tyranny." Then we always get that dreadful goody-two-shoes response, "Well, if you aren't doing anything wrong, you don't have anything to worry about, do you?"

Folks, we KNOW this program is being and will be misused. We know it from the past record and current reporting. The program has already targeted vegans and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals -- and, boy, if those aren't outposts of al-Qaida, what is? Could this be more pathetic?

This could scarcely be clearer. Either the president of the United States is going to have to understand and admit he has done something very wrong, or he will have to be impeached. The first time this happened, the institutional response was magnificent. The courts, the press, the Congress all functioned superbly. Anyone think we're up to that again? Then whom do we blame when we lose the republic?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Since they've done nothing wrong, let the folks still in those red states hand over their private conversations, and we'll form a new country that respects human rights, constitutional rights, and the environment.

http://www.newcaliforniarepublic.org/

http://www.californiasecession.org/

-- Blue State Rebel

vikkitikkitavi said...

Yeah, it's a tempting thought, to suceed from this increasingly troubled union, but the US would never let us go.

Yes, just like LA loathes the Valley but would not let it suceed from the city of LA a couple of years ago, the US would never let CA go, no matter how burdensome our progressiveness becomes.

Why?

Because like the Valley, CA pays more money in taxes than we consume in services. We therefore support other states (yes, mostly red ones) that cannot support themselves.

And the US ain't gonna let their sugar daddy go without a fight, sugar.