President Bush makes me feel so safe. NOT

"Good morning. At this moment, somewhere in the world, terrorists are planning new attacks on our country."

This has got to be the worst statement Bush has yet to say in his term in office. I can't believe that the so called leader of the freest nation in the world would have the nerve to try and scare the American people this way.
He claims that if he doesn’t have the right to invade the privacy of the American people at his will then there is a problem. Has he never heard of the 4th amendment.

4th Amendment
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

There are many people out there screaming about “we have got to kill the enemy before he attacks us, and the only way to do that is to eves drop on peoples conversation.” There are many people out there that say “if you have nothing to hide then why should it matter?”

First of all.
There have been people since the creation of this nation that have wanted to attack us. There are people in this nation that if given the chance would aid in an attack on this nation. Yes the worlds terrorist are the new threat to us, but they are not the first nor will they be the last.

Second,
The "President" has the FISA court in which to gain his warrants.

What is the FISA court? The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act resulted from extensive investigations by Senate Committees into the legality of domestic intelligence activities. These investigations were led separately by Sam Ervin and Frank Church in the 1970s after certain activities had been revealed by the Watergate affair (see the Church Committee report). The act was created to provide Judicial and congressional oversight of the government's covert surveillance activities of foreign entities and individuals in the United States, while maintaining the secrecy needed to protect national security. It allowed warrantless surveillance within the United States for up to one year unless the "surveillance will acquire the contents of any communication to which a United States person is a party". If a United States person is involved, judicial authorization was required within 72 hours after surveillance begins.

It is a very simple procedure. The President, or the Government for those who wish to defend Mr. Bush, has to only ask the FISA court for the warrant. There has only been a few times in the courts history that they have refused to give a warrant to the Government.

Third
If the Government has the need for the warrant, a need that is so great as to go after the parties as quickly as possible, and they know that they have up to 72 hours after they start the wire tap then why should it be difficult to obtain the warrant. For heavens sake why start problems for yourself if you don’t have to.

I am in favor of going after those who would want to terrorize anyone in the world. However, I am also in favor of protecting the rights of the American people. You can say what you want about “if you don’t have anything to hide then why worry about it.” I don’t have anything to hide, but that doesn’t mean I want the Government to spy on me. That sounds more like the Soviet Union, or China than the United States of America.

People that claim they are for our freedoms but would allow this President to hold us down in fear, should prepare for your rights to be infringed upon. Believe it or not some of our enemies are not foreign at all but the may in fact be terrorist, and one of them may live at 1600 Pennsylvania ave.

Here is an opinion on the whole deal why Bush is getting mad at the House of Representatives. It is not for the surveillance portion of the Bill that Bush is upset about, the House seemed willing to work with Bush about that issue. What they didn’t want was to give the Phone companies immunity from lawsuits for turning over information on Americans to the Government without warrants.

The American people are going to have to wake up. They are going to have to start making their Government accountable for their actions. We don’t have to live in fear. There is a great chance that we will be attacked again, and God knows that the Republicans are hoping that the attack happens under a Democratic administration so that they can say “We told you so.”

We need to live by another motto’; “If you attack us you will awaken a wrath of such magnitude as to curse your people for many generations.” I guess it is a little bit much but we need to get back to we will defend ourselves, but we do not start the fight.