August 7, 2007

Infrequent Posting and Loss of Right to Illegal Search and Siezure

One of the things about (not really) maintaining a Web log is that sometimes (read: more often for me than not) one gets sidetracked and forgets about his blog.

Guilty.

ThisHere has been on hold since my last post in October (almost a year ago) when I wanted to write something non-political. Success found its fashion in writing about the worst service one could've gotten at a restaurant. Ever.

However, I think there's something that's happened in the last couple of days that makes my liberal skin crawl. Unbelievably, our Democratic majority in Congress saw fit not just to change the rules for the NSA to do its job "protecting" our "freedom," but found a new way to jump up and down on the 4th Amendment giving American socialism (read: the Bush-43 executive branch) even more power.

Before I go on, know that I want nothing more than the security of the country I love so much. I want, just as much as the next person, to be able to walk the streets of any American city, big or small, unmolested, unhindered, unworried and without paranoia that "The Terrorists" are going to swoop down out of thin air and detonate some kind of of explosive to end my life or the lives of my countrymen.

That said, I also want to rest assured that I can walk the streets of any American city, big or small, unmolested, unhindered, unworried and without paranoia that "The Government" is going to monitor anything I do simply because I might call a friend overseas on my mobile phone.

With this new legislation, I can't do that anymore. Per The Washington Post's story by Ellen Nakashima and Joby Warrick, if anyone on U.S. soil is communicating with anyone "reasonably believed to be outside the United States" that communication can be monitored without order or oversight by the courts.

Read: No check or balance for action by the Executive branch at all. If The Framers of the Constitution were around to see this, I think they'd vomit.

It makes me want to vomit, too.

- Rich