Godless Mom in the Bible Belt

We are only as sick as our secrets.
That makes W. a great big sicko then.

Or a fascist. I vote fascist.

Fascist is a loose term. And if Bush using the NSA is fascist, then he must take a step back to his predecessor, William J. Clinton, who was keen on the organization himself.

I'm not in favor of complete government freedom to wiretap anyone. In time of War, which is what we are in, by the way, to wiretap international calls only with A-Qaida operatives and their ilk is a worthy venture.

Oh, did I mention that we are in a time of war? I don't think liberals see that yet. They are still thinking GWB is the greater threat and the cause of terrorism and if we just be nice, all this will go away. There is a lot of people who think this because the media "drones" (using Plato's analogy for demagogues) have successfully left their sting in people. The number of people who think this to be the case doesn't prove that it IS the case. It just shows the media is very effective in "droning" on and influencing people, including yourselves.

Let's not classify people by the narrow caricatures of liberal and conservative. I understand that at times it is necessary for a president to spy on people for various reasons. The issue isn't that Bush used the NSA to do so, the issue is that he bypassed the legal channels. If Clinton bypassed legal channels when he used the NSA then he needs to suffer the legal consequences, just as Bush should suffer them. No president is above the law.

Polanco Consulting is well aware that we are at war, she has suffered much personal loss because of it.

Yes, please. Let's not classify people as a liberal. In fact, since these classifications so often come from limited knowledge of a person, let's not classify people at all. Let's take what they have to say about each issue at face value and not dismiss them by thinking, "Oh, of course she thinks that way. She's a liberal." We're all Americans. Political parties don't mean a thing.

GWB is a greater threat than Iraq ever was. The damage he has done will take 50 years or more to recover from. If he was a Democrate I would be saying the same thing. I didn't love Clinton. I just didn't have such a public forum for discussion when he was in office.

My lable of "fascist" for the President comes from a variety of his actions, not just his unbridled disregard for our civil liberties or his suggestion that free speech be curtailed. As Godless, said, NO President is above the law. Georgie seems to think he has wings.

As for the war, Godless is right again. I am WELL AWARE that we are at war. My life has been forever changed because of it. I see soldiers whom I was once very close with suffering for a war that should not have been started in the first place and it rips my heart out. There are no words to express the pain this war has caused me.

I love the whole "but we are at war" theory Bush has to excuse everything he does.

1. When we are at war, are we still a nation under the rule of law?

2. There are laws that would have allowed these wiretaps to happen, but they were ignored.

3. Is the president above the rule of law, or is he subject to it?

And Underground - what about the "war on drugs"? Is that a war too? If so, then Clinton had every right to allow unrestricted wiretaps too! A war is a war!

The problem for Bush is that the taps were done outside the framework of current federal law. How do we know he is not wiretapping political rivals or foes? How do we know that all the wiretaps are terrorist related? Are we supposed to just take his word for it?

This could turn into a re-run of that terrible Nixon Reality Show that aired in the mid 70s.

What I want to know is what the republicans who support Bush and everything he has done will do if a democrat wins the White House next. Will they scramble to reverse all these "wartime powers" granted to Bush, or will they line up behind the new president and continue to support constitutional presidential powers like secret unrestricted wiretaps against anyone for any reason?

Just as Lazy Iguana has suggested, today NPR reported that the ACLU has claimed that these wire taps have been listening in on such notorious terrorist organizations as People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.
Thank goodness W. is protecting us from those guys.