Welcome to Oceania

Welcome to the new American Police State. Big Brother is watching us in more ways than Orwell imagined.

By now most of us have heard about the violations of the Fourth Amendment and Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) perpetrated by the Bush crime cartel. Their criminal encroachments on our personal liberties have been accomplished through what they call the Terrorist Surveillance Program (TSP).

The White House has asserted itself the power to tap phones and monitor electronic communications they claim are between terror suspects overseas and Americans at home. We are told to just trust them on this limited use. No disclosure or explanation is necessary for us, or for the courts. This program has been veiled in deceit and fed to Americans as a foul swill richly seasoned with lies.

The program was declared illegal by a federal court in Detroit. No matter. The administration has insisted on its continuation. Tyranny will not be deterred merely by a court's admonition. We will probably never know the full extent of the warrant-less program. Many of us are justified in our suspicions that there are no constraints whatsoever over the unwarranted domestic spying by the radical right-wingers presently infecting our Executive Branch. Even before Bush falsely assured us that his searches and wiretaps would be conducted only with a court order, his TSP was already secretly initiated.

The TSP is so blatantly illegal, that even John Ashcroft and top deputies in the Justice Department threatened to resign rather than approve it. This dissention over the program was denied by Alberto Gonzales' during his testimony for the Senate Judiciary Committee. And this is only one of many lies for which Gonzo may soon face judgment.

The Bushies love to frighten people with hypothetical scare stories, and then tell us their program is our best protection against the evil doers.

This dirty business would, in itself, provide ample grounds for the impeachment of much of the administration. Unfortunately, the Democratic leadership in Congress is more devoted to it's own partisan agenda than to the Constitution. They are guilty of the same ideology of putting the interests of their party over the nation's need for justice.

Now an even more disturbing revelation has surfaced regarding our disappearing privacy.

A friend sent me this link to a clip about a novel method of law enforcement surveillance. I was stunned.

http://break.com/index/are-you-friggin-kiddin-me.html

What the...?? You mean to say we are all subject to the eavesdropping of our personal conversations even when not using the phone? Just our talking in the proximity of a cell phone can be monitored by a secret remote activation of the phone's microphone. Yikes! I was a bit skeptical, given the source of the report. But alas! Verification has been provided.

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1035_22-6140191.html

Nothing left now but our trust in the Decider. He tells us, "all kinds of lawyers" approved his TSP. We take comfort in his proclamation, "Anytime you hear the United States government talk about wiretap... it requires...a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about gettin' a court order before we do so."

Thus speaks the man who swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States.