[Politech] Essay on NSA spying: What's wrong with America [priv]

From: Declan McCullagh (declan.mccullagh@private)
Date: Mon Jan 02 2006 - 23:00:47 PST


Previous Politech message:
http://www.politechbot.com/2005/12/24/more-revelations-about/


-------- Original Message --------
Subject: What's wrong with America
Date: Fri, 30 Dec 2005 03:10:57 -0700
From: David Mercer <radix42@private>
To: declan@private

Hi Declan, I've been following the whole NSA madness on politech and
elsewhere (who hasn't?).  My latest essay, which has been triggered by
this situation, is included below.  I think that it addresses the root
problem underneath this and many other problems in this country right
now.  Feel free to send it to the list, post, forward or ignore as you
see fit, with or without attribution.

Have a Happy New Year!

-David Mercer
Tucson, AZ

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Did my ancestors eke out a bare existence on Plymouth Rock to practice
their faith for this?

Spying on ourselves as the Russians only could have in the most
fevered dreams of the KGB.

Did my ancestors fight and die for the American Revolution for this?

Calling it necessary to stop terrorist attacks when all that was
needed to stop 9/11 was strong doors and locks in cockpits.

Did they fight and die on the battlefields of the Civil War for this?

Even Lincoln suspending habeaus corpus was at least done in the open.

Did my grandfathers fight in Europe and the Pacific for this?

Inherant power under the Constitution to do this is beyond laughable.

Has the entire last 400 years of struggle of my ancestors been utterly 
in vain?

Has America forgotten utterly what it is?

Have the darkest nightmares of George Washington and the dangers of
party politics finally been realized?

Why is all of the debate about the NSA spying revolving around it's
legality? How is that even possible here?

Can anyone see right from wrong anymore in America?

Can anyone remember what it means to be an American?

Where is the Spirit of America?

Do not vote for any incumbent, Democrat or Republican, in coming
elections, or it will be the worse for us all.  They are both corrupt
parties, fighting over power that they are loathe to give up.

We The People are Sovereign here.

The Republican and Democratic Parties are not Sovereign, and have no
inherant right to exist.

We The People ARE the Government of this Nation, and it seems to be
long past time that we administered a refresher course in that lesson
at the ballot box, to both of those old and corrupt parties.

How is it that the rules to stand for office in this nation are so
convoluted and nearly impossible to meet for anyone not personally
wealthy or backed by the Republicans or Democrats?

Does either of those parties truly even remember what those words MEAN?

Have we truly become the worst in what we hate?  How is unquestioned
rule by one or the other different from unquestioned rule by one
party?

Does anyone understand what this program means?

It WILL lead to abuses of personal power that make the 47 year rule of
the FBI by it's first director seem tame and pale, and whomever grabs
the reigns of such an apparatus will not easily give them up.

Who in the Democratic party has already been blackmailed by data
gathered by this program?  If they haven't yet, give it at most one
more election cycle.

How would electing another batch of Democrats truly make things any 
different?

What excuse would they grab hold of to do the same, and how long would
that temptation of power take before they gave in to it?

My God, what ever happened to the plain meaning of the text of the 4th
Amendment?

What ever happened to the plain meaning of the law being what it meant?

What ever happened to individuals actually running for office and
truly representing the interests of those around them in their
communities?

When was the last time that the outcome of elections for the House of
Representatives was not almost entirely a foregone conclusion?

It no longer matters if any individual candidate means well
personally, if they are a member of one of the two major parties they
are supporting a corrupt apparatus.

Would you sell your birthright for a mess of potage?

Do not vote for major party candidates if you still know what the
Spirit of America is.

If it still lives, prove it at the ballot box. Start write in
campaigns for independent candidates, and do not donate to the two
major parties.  Vote with your wallet as well.

Vote the two parties out of power while you still can, as electronic
balloting will soon make anonymous voting a dream of the past, and it
will then be too late.

Ask these difficult questions, forward and post this message, and do
not take excuses for an answer.

-David Mercer
Tucson, AZ

This essay is public domain and may hence be distributed in any media
with or without attribution, in whole or in part.

_______________________________________________
Politech mailing list
Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Mon Jan 02 2006 - 23:59:04 PST