Great Issues face the US: Unwarranted Spying on the General Public


March 8th 2006
Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee reported that they had reached agreement with the White House on proposed bills to impose new oversight but allow wiretapping without warrants for up to 45 days. "Democrats called the deal an abdication of the special bipartisan committee's role as a watchdog, saying the Republicans had in effect blessed the program before learning how it worked or what it entailed." --NYTimes This "aggreement" disavows a large public and broad-spectrum outcry for a proper legal investigation by Congress.

Issues
Threats to civil rights posed by a changing world. Can we find a balance between protecting overselves from terrorism and protecting freedom and the constitution?
The FBI reported that the NSA sent a steady stream of data - phone numbers, emails, addresses, etc. The data that was analyzed gave no leads to terrorism -- it only lead to private citizens and dead ends. These investigations required hundreds of agents massive amounts of resources.

F.B.I. officials repeatedly complained to the spy agency that the unfiltered information was swamping investigators. The spy agency was collecting much of the data by eavesdropping on some Americans' international communications and conducting computer searches of phone and Internet traffic. Some F.B.I. officials and prosecutors also thought the checks, which sometimes involved interviews by agents, were pointless intrusions on Americans' privacy. --- New York Times - 2006/01/17/politics

Two leading civil rights groups have filed law suits against George W. Bush on Jan 16th because of the spying program on US citizens and specifically since it was used to monitor 10 defense lawyers, journalists, scholars, political activists and other Americans with ties to the Middle East .
The two lawsuits, which are being filed separately by the American Civil Liberties Union in Federal District Court in Detroit and the Center for Constitutional Rights in Federal District Court in Manhattan, are the first major court challenges to the eavesdropping program. --- New York Times - 2006/01/17/politics

+ Monitoring Dissent continued


Counterterrorism agents at the Federal Bureau of Investigation - FBI - admitted to conducting surveillance and intelligence-gathering operations that involved groups active in causes as diverse as the environment, animal cruelty and poverty relief, newly disclosed agency records show.
- Spying on Americans without warrant goes under question of Justice Department.
- Senate Intelligence Committee was not properly informed. A vague response was given to how the Senate committee was informed: "The committee has been informed, in good faith by the president of the United States," a spokesman stated.

+ Doctors and hospitals profit by treating complications of diabetes, and they lose money when they try to prevent them.

+ The Rich Help Themselves & The Middle Help Others
NewTithing Group, a San Francisco-based philanthropic research organization concluded after studies that the least generous of all working-age Americans in 2003 were among the young and prosperous - the 285 taxpayers age 35 and under who made more than $10 million - and the 18,600 taxpayers making $500,000 to $1 million. Working-age Americans who make $50,000 to $100,000 a year are two to six times more generous in the share of their investment assets that they give to charity than those Americans who make more than $10 million.

+ Bush maintains opposition to cutting back on emissions, as well as any discussion of creating targets for cutting back on such polutents. Prime Minister Paul Martin of Canada singled out the US for not joining in on a global effort to reduce polutents.

+ Update: Harriet Miers Bush's nomination for Supreme Court Steps Down with pressure from both parties for different concerns.
+ Did Republicans feel that Miers was not radical enough -- the switch to Alito could mean that Republicans are looking towards extremes, rather than representing the American people in a professional manner,

In reaction to a such a Right Wing agenda, one senator has made some quite daring moves to dig deeper and evaluate whether such appointments will represent the American people. Harry Reid .. >
Lend support to multiple or selected candidates for the Senate >>




+ Update: Harriet Miers - Resigns.
Questions are raised as to whether Mr. Bush's decisions are made from personal preference, instead of a presidential obligation to represent the people of the United States.
+ Is Bush making a personal decision over a public decision?
+ Does one president's personal belief outweigh the carefully constructed threadwork of this country's constitutional foundation?

President Bush said Wednesday October 12, 2005 that Harriet Miers' religious beliefs figured into her nomination to the Supreme Court. Harriet Miers is unversed in constitutional law, which is a prerequisite for any Supreme Court nomination. Warnings about a "wink and a nod" campaign for confirmation is set in place by Mr. Bush. For those of us who do not share Bush's exact evangelical view of the world, we are not being represented equally by such actions.

+ Cover-up story (?): Although the admission of his next choice for Supreme Court was seemingly poised at a time when preoccupation with hurricane recovery and affairs of state would overwhelm any form of controversy.