It's cold and getting colder. I hope everyone found a moment of peace this weekend (hard as that can be these days). Remember to check out Mike's site (Mikey Likes It!) for his commentary.
Bush Okd Secret Wiretapping of Americans Without Warrants (Democracy Now!):
President Bush has admitted that he secretly ordered the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans without ever seeking constitutionally required court approved warrants. The president initially refused to answer any questions about the secret program but on Saturday he spoke openly about it and defended the practice
President Bush: "I authorized the National Security Agency, consistent with U.S. law and the Constitution, to intercept the international communications of people with known links to al Qaeda and related terrorist organizations."
The admission came just days after NBC News reported the Pentagon has vastly expanded its domestic surveillance operations including the monitoring of peaceful anti-war protesters.
He has betrayed the nation. Someone can try to pretty it up all they want but that is what he did. Let's move to the second one.
Sen. Leahy: No More Secret Orders, Secret Courts, Secret Torture (Democracy Now!):
Many legal experts have accused the President of breaking the law by ordering the wiretappings without a court warrant as required under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT): "This warrant-less eavesdropping program is not authorized by the patriot act, it's not authorized by any act of congress, and it's not overseen by any court. And according to reports it has been conducted under a secret presidential order, based on secret legal opinions by the same justice department, lawyers who argued secretly, that the president could order the use of torture. Mr. President, it is time to have some checks and balances in this country, we are a democracy. We are a democracy. Let's have checks and balances, not secret orders and secret courts and secret torture, and on and on."
King Bully Boy and his court of fools. They aren't working for America. They're working for King Bully Boy. They're loyalties aren't with the public, aren't with the Constitution, the Bill of Rights or any belief, written or not, that speaks to the higher nature of what our nation is supposed to aspire to.
They are working for a crook. Outing CIA agents, lying and scare mongering a nation into war, spying on citizens, refusing citizens access to public events . . . It's a long, long list. Mike told me about our online latter day Dylan (C.I.'s term) and how he embarrassed himself today. He used to stand tall but now he rushes to hold hands with someone he's inferred is the enemy. That's truly sad. It's also truly sad that he (and his hand holding mate) think they can hand down rules on how people must converse. A bit of the Bully Boy seems to be seeping in. That's all I'll say on it because C.I.'s biting the tongue re: latter day Dylan and, if I write more on this, I won't be able to.
The affront isn't from people who speak in their own voices, it's from those who remain silent.
What's going on in the oval office needs to be called out by people in their own voices, in their own way of speaking. Not to call it out is far more dangerous and destructive than to use what someone feels are the "wrong words." We need to be discussing this, all of us, because if we don't, if we stay silent, we're saying it's okay and we're turning our backs on what we are supposed to believe in.
When you do that, you destroy your own character as well as the nation's character.
"Peace Quotes" (Peace Center):
We used to wonder where war lived, what it was that made it so vile. And now we realize that we know where it lives, that it is inside ourselves.
Albert Camus
