December 20, 2005

Okay, so here's the real deal.

In the wake of the Nixon's abuses of our Constitution, our liberties and our privacy, Congress (in 1978) set up a secret court that the Executive Branch must -- by law -- go to if it is seeking wiretaps or surveillance of foreigners or Americans "suspected" of terrorism or espionage.

This is the law.

It was passed by Congress to prevent the kind of abuse that the Bush Administration is guilty of. This law is called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA).

This secret court (the last we knew it was headed by GOP hack partisan federal judge David Sentelle -- who got Poindexter and North off the hook and put Kenneth Starr on the job -- but that may have changed) has never been known to deny a government request for wiretapping, surveillance or searches.

So, if the secret court always approves the White House requests for wiretapping, surveillance and searches, why did the White House get its approval in some cases (with a dramatic increase of court-approved spying under Bush) but not others?

Why did the Bush Administration need to engage in illegal spying on American citizens in hundreds if not thousands of cases, if the court so acquiescently approved of its requests?

We know that Bush fashions himself a dictator who can create the law as he sees fit. But why go to the trouble and potential legal and political problems if all his administration had to do was go to the secret court, which, we repeat, always approves the White House requests? And no one's known of a leak coming out of this secret court.

Ah, there's the rub.

The answer is that the White House didn't go through the legal process on these specific cases and, instead, committed a grossly illegal violation of the U.S. Constitution and a Congressional law specifically designed to provent such executive branch abuses for one reason -- and that reason likely has to do with who was under surveillance, who was being wiretapped and who was being illegally searched.

In short, if the American public were to see the list of hundreds -- and perhaps thousands of people, according to The New York Times -- the Bush Administration violated the law to spy on, we might see names akin to Nixon's "enemies list." Only in this case, it would be Bush's "enemies list."

Why, we might see names like Joe and Valerie Wilson, or Richard Clarke, or Cindy Sheehan, among others. The White House wouldn't want even a secret court to know that it was spying on political enemies. This was exactly why the FISA law was passed. To prevent just such illegal political spying by the White House.

Yesterday, The New York Times (which suddenly has awakened from a decades long slumber) also reported that the FBI was spying on domestic advocacy groups -- and let's just say that they weren't groups complaining that "liberals are conducting a war on Christmas." They were groups that are at odds with the Bush agenda, expressing their viewpoints -- as is their Constitutional right -- under the American Constitution.

So what we have here is a White House that is using illegal actions to spy on American citizens who the same White House considers not a threat to the United States, but a political threat to their one-party, dictatorial rule.

That, dear readers, is tyranny.

It is why there was an American Revolution against King George.

It is why the Democrats would be enabling treason if they reach any "compromise" on the UnPatriot Act.

No one can anymore have an excuse for putting blinders on.

Bush has failed in his "war on terrorism." It is only a political tool for him, not a national security goal. He uses it as a cudgel of fear to cow wobbly, weak kneed Democrats into submission. But, meanwhile, we are less safe as Americans because of Bush's incompetent leadership -- and he is conducting a war on our Constitution and dissent at the same time. That is the war that really interests him.

Those who would sacrifice our liberties and our freedoms can be terrorists, or they can be people in the White House.

Both are a threat to our democracy.

Right now, the Bush Administration is the one who is dismantling our Constitution, spying on us, invading our privacy, denying us our liberty, and acting illegally.

If the Democrats don't push back with passion, courage and conviction, we are doomed to live under the yoke of tyranny.

It will take dedicated patriots to save us.

This is not about business as usual. This is about law breakers and preserving the legacy of the American Revolution.

This is about letting the terrorists win by allowing an administration to do their work of undermining democracy for them.

This is about justice.

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS