I want my inalienable rights back!

I'm fed up. I know, I know...you've heard me rant and rave about politics before, but things have really, really gotten out of hand. First there was the Orwellian-named "Patriot Act," which allowed the government unprecedented powers to spy on average Americans, including your library records, without any judicial oversite. Then it was revealed that the FBI was keeping tabs on peaceful political groups who opposed the war in Iraq and the government's abridgement of civil liberties. Then the bombshell that the National Security Agency was listening to phone calls without getting a warrant from the super-secret courts established under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1976 (which allows investigators to get warrants after the fact in emergency situations). Now, we have learned that in cooperation with the phone companies, the government has been tracking the phone calls of nearly every American. Efforts to investigate all these issues have been squashed in the name of "national security." How convenient.

What disheartens me the most is that so many Americans have decided that all of this okay because we have to catch terrorists. As one loud senator put it, "You can't have civil liberties if you're dead." That's a great soundbite, but it's terribly misguided because his comment suggests that we are forced to decide between our civil liberties and our security. We don't. I don't mind the government using all the available technology to track and investigate people whom they have a legitimate reason to believe may be terrorists. The law gives us a mechanism for doing this through the secret FISA courts. But our current leaders have ignored this law, and in effect, ignored the basic philosophy of the Constitution. "I don't care if they watch me," you might say, "I have nothing to hide." Alright, neither do I. That's not the point: the point is that there's nobody to keep any tabs, checks or limits on what these government agencies are doing. And that's un-American.

Our nation's founders believed that government power concentrated in the hands of a few is dangerous. That's why they created the system of checks and balances that distributes power into three different branches of government. The founders didn't have a problem with the government protecting people's security, but they believed that the judicial branch ought to have some oversight of the process. While the executive branch is protecting our security, the judicial branch is supposed to be protecting our freedom. The executive branch has now decided they can ignore all that.

Americans of all political persuasions ought to be outraged. We don't have to surrender our liberties in the name of security. The FBI and NSA and White House just need to follow the law as it is written: go to the secret courts, get warrants, and spy away. Whether you are liberal, conservative or libertarian, that ought to be common sense, common ground suggestion.

I'm fighting back. I don't necessarily expect to win, and you may think I'm paranoid, but I fully expect to be the target of more government surveillance for doing so. But somebody has to defend these basic American ideas. I've started by signing this petition to the phone companies demanding that they stop cooperating with warrantless government spying. encourage you to sign the petition also. I plan to follow up with a phone call directly to BellSouth. I'll keep you posted. I also encourage you to call your congressional representatives to demand a full investigation of the FBI/CIA/NSA/White House spying program. You can get more information here. I also plan to start a local chapter of the Bill of Rights Defense Committee, which lobbies local governments for resolutions that call for local support of civil liberties. I'm going to document my battles on this blog.

This feels like a meager, tiny little stab at a vast, secret, pervasive government power structure, but it's the best I can do for now. I hope you'll consider joining me in this struggle.