The Bush administration has been engaged in an unprecedented effort to spy on the average American. Not even the Nixon administration was as lawless and unethical as Bush has made the current government, and Republican shills for this lawlessness appear to be arguing that American citizens are, in some way, an "enemy" which needs to be monitored.

CNN’s report on the NSA spying says:

Republican Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona said the debate is “nuts.”

“We are in a war, and we’ve got to collect intelligence on the enemy, and you can’t tell the enemy in advance how you are going to do it,” Kyl said. “Discussing all of this in public leads to that.”

The NSA is gathering intelligence on millions of Americans. Are they “the enemy”? The government is gathering intelligence on newspapers and reporters who write stories critical of unethical, illegal, and questionable government programs. Are they “the enemy”?

Republican Sen. Trent Lott of Mississippi said Specter should back off his call for hearings. “What are people worried about? What is the problem?” asked Lott, a former majority leader. “Are you doing something you’re not supposed to?”

Trent Lott seems to be basically making the argument that people who have nothing to hide shouldn’t be worried about the NSA gathering information about their phone calls. How much do you want to be that Trent Lott would refuse to make public all of his own personal phone records? What do you suppose he has to hide?

I wonder if Jon Kyl is aware of the fact that Congress hasn’t declared war, thus the “war” on terrorism is on the same legal ground as the “war” on drugs and the “war” on poverty. It appears that Jon Kyl would be willing to justify any sort of government action in order to further even metaphorical “wars.” That’s a way to give license to the government to become lawless.

 

Quick Poll: Should the government monitor the numbers being called by Americans in order to find patterns which might conceivably lead to an investigation into alleged terrorists?

1. Yes, but only on a limited basis - specific suspects and with warrants.
2. Yes - warrants aren't necessary, but only specific suspects.
3. Yes, they should collect trillions of phone records, but only with a warrant.
4. Yes, they should collect trillions of phone records and warrants aren't necessary.
5. No, no matter what.
6. I don't know.
7. I don't care.

Click an option to vote, or View Current Poll Results

 

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