Our freedoms in America are under attack. There is no question about that. Politicians in Washington D.C.have been telling us about the danger we are in for over a year now as part of the government's effort to ram "homeland security" proposals through the legislative process. The most frightening aspect of our current crisis is that are freedoms are not in peril because of Al Queda or Osama Bin Laden, but that our freedoms are under assault because of George W. Bush and his administration, particularly John Ashcroft.
Bill Clinton was arguably the worst President ever when it came to honoring individual freedoms and rights guaranteed by the Constitution - that is, until George W. Bush took office. President Clinton's and Janet Reno's hostility towards our freedom pale in comparison to George W. Bush's and John Ashcroft's plan to destroy our liberty. The same Republicans who, for eight years, rightly decried Clinton's expansive government and intrusion into our lives are now almost entirely silent as George W. Bush shapes our national government in the pattern of something from Orwell's 1984. "Big Brother" is not only here because of the Bush administration, he is being openly embraced and celebrated in the name of "security".
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing that place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized." -- Amendment 4 of the United States Constitution.
In simple terms, the Bill of Rights expressly prohibits the government from searching any of our personal property, records or communication unless evidence can be shown that there is "probable cause" of a crime having been committed. Even when "probable cause" is shown, the government is required to put in writing specifically what it wants to search for as a result of a warrant. Is this cumbersome on law enforcement? You bet, and America's Founding Fathers wisely designed it that way in order to protect us from an intrusive government.
The great men who debated, wrote and ratified our Constitution intentionally chose to value our personal freedoms over the desires and interests of the government. These men knew that it is vital to establish clear boundaries of law that restrain a zealous government and those who want to destroy liberty. Our Founding Fathers specifically designed our Constitution, including the Bill of Rights, to protect us from men like George W. Bush and John Ashcroft.
Since September 11th, 2001, President Bush and Attorney General Ashcroft have spared no effort in destroying the principles and values that made America great. Among the first major initiatives after 9-11 was the T.I.P.S. program. This program would have made postal workers, utility meter readers, trash collectors, bank tellers, cable TV installers, and anyone else who is out in public on a regular basis de facto government agents whose job is to peer into our homes and business transactions while on the job and report anything "suspicious". Then government thugs would take over with an investigation. Bear in mind that this program makes you and I - American citizens - the target of the government's new deputies' prying eyes.
President Bush's T.I.P.S program was designed to circumvent the Fourth Amendment's prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures. This is very different than asking people to be responsible citizens and call legitimate law enforcement when we see evidence of a crime having been committed. The T.I.P.S. plan blatantly assumes every U.S. citizen to be a potential criminal suspect and unconstitutionally enlists pseudo-agents to spy on everyone they encounter, even in our own homes.
Officially, the T.I.P.S. plan was never implemented after a tremendous amount of outcry from those who stood up to protect our Fourth Amendment right to privacy. I say "officially" because I seriously doubt that the F.B.I will refuse to take down information from the mailman who thinks someone should be investigated because they receive too many plain packages or because their mail is from political groups he doesn't like.
On Monday, November 18th, 2002, Ashcroft's Justice Department and Bush's administration won in Federal Court the ability to employ secret wiretaps, surveillance and searches against Americans. Bush and Ashcroft sought, and gained, the ability to get from a secret court a secret search warrant that can be executed without the knowledge of the citizen being searched. In fact, under the provisions of the USA Patriot Act (which was strongly promoted by both Bush and Ashcroft) the subject of the search has no right to ever see the document supporting the search warrant. Therefore, any American citizen the government wants to put under surveillance or make the object of a secret search of their home, email communication or banking history has no right to due process when subjected to this government action. Due process has been taken away, even when there is no evidence of a crime having been committed. All government investigators have to claim is that you are a possible terrorist.
Anyone who feels that Goerge W. Bush could not become more overt in attacking the liberty we cherish should take a deep breath before reading any further.
Now, the Bush administration has commissioned an effort to create a database that will monitor and document every purchase, business deal, travel arrangement and monetary transaction made by everyone in America (see http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,70992,00.html if you do not believe me). The database, if successfully built, would also keep track of any reports - including those from anonymous sources - of suspicious activity. A Pentagon spokesman calls the project a system designed to locate "patterns indicitive of terrorist activity". It is called the "Total Information Awareness Program", and it clearly being built to search our records and activities as though we are all criminal suspects who much be watched by the government.
The fact that George W. Bush, through his administration of the Pentagon, is even allowing such an effort, let alone promoting it, proves his outright contempt for the Constitutionally-guaranteed freedoms he took an oath to protect. No thinking person can possibly believe that the "Total Information Awareness Preogram" complies with the Fourth Amendment. Tragically, this is just the latest in the pattern of George W. Bush's assault on the Constitution and on our individual rights.
There is only one appropriate remedy for President Bush's criminal behavior: impeachment and removal from office. While that certainly will never happen in a Republican-controlled Congress, we must make certain to remember the sins of Bush's tenure in office and remove him the old-fashioned way: by ensuring that he loses his bid for reelection in 2004. Your freedom depends on it.