The People That Spy
Now we have the confirmation of what many millions of nuanced Americans had already known. That the NSA was spying domestically. That they were spying on us Americans. So they treated us Americans like the terrorist they told us they were after. Well they never did catch the "Ghost" did they. That would be Bin Laden; were they really ever after him anyway?
The fundamental problem with spying is that it's usually the case whereby it's the people that spy are the ones that most need to be spied upon. It was never "Ghost" that I was ever worried about. I'm a sixty year old American Black man who was raised in a American inner city. And I love my country and stand up for it and fight for it. I went to Viet Nam for my country; did George Bush? But the fact is Black Americans have always been acquainted with the politics of what the NSA did to Americans. Our communities have always suffered under this type of treatment. The NSA and their "bullshit" is nothing new to us.
George Bush and the American government he ran did this because they could. Very few people stood against him. Even though their was much evidence and history to expect that people like George Bush , Dick Cheney , and Donald Rumsfield would break the law. I was very proud that our Senator from Minnesota , Paul Wellstone , stood against Bush and voted no on his initial war proposition. Paul Wellstone then died in a "plane accident" didn't he! So we had very few people stand against the tyrants of the George Bush administration even though many , who were at the upper levels of administration of our government , really knew what was happening.
The people that spied upon the American people should have never been allowed to have this much power. Hitler should have been stopped before 1933 and George Bush should have never been "given" the Presidency of the United States in 2000.
The precepts and credos of our America are sound. And the idea of what our America should and could be will always be greater then the reality of it. And a price will have to be paid to get closer to that great American idea. The stiff price that Black Americans and other free thinking Americans paid to get Barack to the White House involved shedding blood in many cases; people in my family were hung in the early 20th century while fighting against "Jim Crow" in Texas; it's why my family is in Minnesota today.
Our leaders "Bullshited" us and didn't follow the law; they broke it. So it was them that skewed the reality and the laws of America. The American people did not. The American people deserve better leadership and oversight and we do not deserve just to be treated like the lemmings that they obviously thought we were. The American people are great not because of our leadership but in spite of it.
They've got to do a little spying to keep us safe.
Just don't do anything illegal or violate the law, and it shouldn't make any difference if they're spying on you or not. From what you've written about yourself, I don't think you've got a lot to worry about in any event.
January 23, 2009 9:28 AM | Reply | Permalink
If it is true that a Muslim family has to avenge the death of their siblings, then w may have been afraid of the more then 100 siblings of bin Laden coming after him if he took out their brother, Osama.
It is also a known fact that the Bushes have had familiar relations with the bin Laden family for years. Perhaps sparing the life of their son was a courtesy to them, that could lead to financial rewards for their oil interests.
January 24, 2009 1:38 AM | Reply | Permalink
BTW, that first paragraph caught my eye because for me it is the only explanation for why Bush let bin Laden go at Tora Bora. After my post above, I read the rest of your post, which condemns the Administration for its spying on Americans. I also came to blogging earlier this year on TPM.
The similarities between the first term of w and the soviet union were numerous. We lived with one party rule. The degree to which the Reich pressed their agenda to the exclusion of any debate has been criminal. Not only in Congres, but the "K" street project and the imbedding of party operatives in the bureaucracy are also evidence of their one party program. The media totally dropped the ball by not reporting or challenging these acts.
We have allowed the media to be consumed by a few organizations at this point, as we have with so many other industries. The present banking situation underscores the risk this creates, that we are severaly impacted when one or two fail. The same is true of the domestic auto industry. It is important that we diversify these industries again so that businesses can conformt he the local environments and mistakes/crimes on Wall Street do not impact as many people when they occur/are committed.
January 24, 2009 2:05 AM | Reply | Permalink