During the 1930s and 1940s, Germany was subjected to what we are being subjected to in the United States today. People's fears were preyed on by the government. They used a small group of people to justify everything from mass extermination programs of people who did not meet their ideals of perfection (not just the Jews) and to engage their country in unfettered and unprovoked war with Europe with the grand belief they would expand their way of life to the rest of the world.
Instead of Hitler, we have Bush. Instead of the Jews, we have Islamic extremists (and to distill it even further, basically every Arab person in the world). Instead of Europe, we have Iraq and Afghanistan. Instead of concentration camps, we have Guantamano Bay, Cuba (and I doubt even Bush knows where the rest of the secret prisons are).
We live in a dangerous time. The Constitution which has been the bedrock of our democracy for over 200 years is in peril. Bush believes he is outside the scope of the Constitution. He believes he can simply shrug his shoulders and say with a smirk that America is under attack and he can justify all he has done. He can say that the other branches of the government don't matter (and from where I sit today, they don't). The Legislative and Judicial branches of government have sat on their asses long enough. They have sat by allowing this deranged demagogue, in the form of the president, derail everything for which the United States stands. The US Congress is filled with sycophants who relish in the light that Bush brings them. They are only concerned with serving their true master, Bush, and not the people who elected them to their high offices.
Today, we found out that not only does George Bush keep illegal lists of our phone calls, but he is also looking at our banking. He doesn't need a warrant from a court to conduct this type of activity. That takes too much time and effort. Besides, that would be too legal for him. No, he's protecting us from a "bunch of people" who want to hurt the United States of America. What does that mean exactly? By saying this, he is also saying that we need protection from you, because you he is part of the bunch of people who want to hurt the United States of America. You want to troll our lives and listen to our conversations so you can have absolute power.
That's what is all boils down to: power. Bush is so frightened that if he doesn't control every aspect of our lives, if he doesn't eavesdrop, that he will lose it all. He is truly a scared man. But of what? Is he scared of the Constitution of the United States? Is he scares of the Congress? Is he scared of the Court? Easily, we can see, the answer to all of these questions is yes.
From all these things we have learned about the eavesdropping on our lives, watching with whom we conduct financial matters, we can assume that he watches ever aspect of our lives. Certainly, he watches the Internet. He has a list of all the websites we visit. Our patterns of its usage: who we chat with, what we buy online, what blogs and to which bulletin boards we subscribe. He also probably knows what I bought at the store Saturday using my MasterCard. The NSA could probably create a list of the things I like to eat and drink, based on those records. I am sure it will be a matter of minutes before this blog entry is logged into an NSA archive somewhere for processing at a later date. Who knows, it might even get flagged for some special attention. In Bush's view, the things I have said in this blog, I am a terrorist.
Based on the evidence of the gross abuses by the Bush Administration, at the rubber stamp pleasure of the Courts and Congress, I believe we are headed to a perilous place in history. We are heading into a world of xenophobia and paranoia. From my personal standpoint, if things continue as they are, I will leave the United States of America. I will emigrate to a country which truly values my independence and civil liberties and rights. I was born in the United States of America, my family was born here (they've been here in some cases over 200 years), and I have lived my whole life under the assumption that I can do and live as I choose, because I have the distinct privileged to be an American citizen. I can't get used to living in a country where that isn't so anymore. I can't live in a country where the people are simply overwrought with ignorance and fear. They embrace the ideas and beliefs of a single, ignorant man. A president who can't carry out a news conference without berating the freedom of the media because it publicizes his illegal activities.
It's simply foolish and it's time it stopped.
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