CONGRESS SEZ BIG BROTHER IS OK WITH US!

I usually try to keep things light on the weekend, but my friend Morgan IMed me a link to [http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070804/ap_on_go_pr_wh/terrorism_surveillance|this August 4, 2007 article] from AP.org available at News.Yahoo.com that reports on some pretty depressing stuff. Remember that old parable about the priest during WWII Germany? You know, where they came for the Jews and I didn't protest, they came for the gays, and I didn't protest, they came for the dissidents and I did not protest. Finally, when they came for me, there was no one left to protest.

Well, Congress now appears to be the priest in the story. Check out this cutting:

The Senate, in a high-stakes showdown over national security, voted late Friday to temporarily give President Bush expanded authority to eavesdrop on suspected foreign terrorists without court warrants. The House, meanwhile, rejected a Democratic version of the bill.

Democratic leaders there were working on a plan to bring up the Senate-passed measure and vote on it Saturday in response to Bush's demand that Congress give him expanded powers before leaving for vacation this weekend.

The White House applauded the Senate vote and urged the House to quickly follow suit.

These guys couldn't be bothered to impeach Bush and Cheney when they broke the law over illegal surveillance issues and now they give him the power to do what he did without breaking the law?

It seems like the growing pressure from us citizens has pushed Congress into pushing back.

This is getting to be just like that time, back in 1800s, where a good chunk of America decided the Federal Government was getting too big for its britches and in accordance with the Declaration of Independence seceded from the Union. See, in the Declaration of Independence it actually says that (and I'm paraphrasing) every once in a while a government may get abusive with it's powers and when that happens We The People can either alter or abolish that. Of course, when the South tried to do that in the 1800s, the North didn't let it.

Flash forward a hundred-and-some-years later and Congress won't let us push for impeachment. We push and they give the Executive Branch more power to spy on us. It's a classic threat--keep pushing for impeachment and we'll spy on you just enough to find SOMEthing you're doing and trump it up enough to make your life miserable.

Whether you believe the threat thing or not, the fact is that Congress is letting us down yet again--giving Bush more power instead of less.

So, they've made illegal domestic spying legal, what's next? Legally changing the name of the Executive Branch to the Imperial Branch?

Anything is "legal" after you pass a law to make it so.

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