Bush Playing Big Brother

 Ray Buffington, editor-in-chief

As President George W. Bush continues to try his hand at acting like a president, he has yet, not surprisingly, to grasp the idea of performing like a president.

Sure, he travels around and rubs elbows with leaders of other lands, kisses tiny infants on their foreheads, and shakes hands with war veterans or family members who have lost loved ones he sent to battles. But there is a little more to the job description of “President of the United States” than a perfect public relations image.

The president should represent and uphold everything the United States stands for. Freedom, democracy, and the pursuit of happiness are just a few of the things we value as Americans, but what about that old, ancient document called the Constitution? All of our rights and the way this country is organized are governed by the Constitution, yet Bush’s latest idiotic conquest, to me, seems to violate the same legendary article that he is supposed to protect.

Without congressional or judicial consent, Bush has taken the country’s National Security Agency and administered it to his own people in his own land. He has finally brought the War on Terror to our own turf.

The NSA’s purpose, of late, has been to monitor the over-seas activity of Al Qaeda and other terrorists. Basically, they have been eavesdropping on the bad guys to make sure they are not talking bad about us.

Now, Bush is having the NSA monitor any over-seas call and e-mail made from another country to the United States and vice versa. He claims only the known and suspected Al Qaeda members will be monitored. Not so bad, I suppose. I’m all for the protection of my family and myself against menacing maniacs with missiles.

But could he not stretch that key word “suspected” out far enough to cover any and every citizen in the USA, giving him complete freedom to play Big Brother, 2006 style? I guess the “innocent until proven guilty” phrase is just a phrase and not a right.

Having the NSA wire-tapping phones and screening e-mails in the United States is an extreme violation of a person’s privacy. The government should not have the right to invite themselves into our personal conversations, whether it be via phone or e-mail.

Do we try to probe into the secrets of the White House? OK, so we do a little. But we only get the tiny bit of information that the Constitution forces the government to release. Who knows what Area-51 type stuff might be going on behind closed doors, and who says that it isn’t our right to know about that kind of information?

Basically, if the government gets to peek into my secret drawer of unmentionables, I want to be able to peek into its secret hangar of innocent third-world country exploding devices. Fair is fair.

While Bush refers to this rape of rights as a “terrorist surveillance program,” I don’t believe it will stop there. His obsession to keep Americans “protected” will eventually lead to them being suffocated, sans basic rights-less, and victims under the rule of a wannabe dictator who desperately needs to take a Public Speaking class.

Will the next step of “security” have us all bearing numbered tattoos, or microchips, on our hands to prove our allegiance to our homeland? Will we be forced to wear locating devices to assure the government we are not participating in terroristic activities? Anyone smell an Apocalypse coming?

While I still would have been extremely upset at the completely unethical intrusion into my life, I would have understood a little more had Bush actually not gone galloping off on his hero horse and taken the time to ask permission of Congress.

He did “brief” them on the activity of the NSA, but failed to give them all the details of exactly how he was lifting up the skirt of Lady Liberty.

If Congress had passed some small piece of legislation allowing Bush to breach our personal lives, I would have accepted the news a little easier. Granted, I would have hated the fact that such a moronic amendment had been passed. But at least, then, I wouldn’t feel as violated as I do now.

Instead, Bush decided to leave everyone in the dark, save the NSA, to keep a little more anonymity for his precious little program. However, his actions backfired on him.

Bush explained his concerns about the uproar his nonchalant use of the NSA has caused, and the fact that, now, since the story is page one news in the media, he is worried that the terrorists he is trying to find are getting wind of his plans, foiling the whole purpose.

I think this is a good thing. Obviously Bush’s NSA program is not the best idea in the world, otherwise the citizens of the USA wouldn’t be so angered by it. I do believe we need some type of surveillance system to sort out the bad guys, but not to the point where my own every move is being watched.

Bush’s war on terrorism, however hopeful and needed it appears to the people, has had some major stumbles. Maybe we did catch Suddam Hussein, and maybe we did help out Iraq to become slightly more liberated than they were, but at what cost? And what is Bush’s true agenda with his almost proverbial “war” on terror?

Thomas Jefferson once said that the people of America needed to have a good revolution about every 20 years to keep the government in check, to let them know they do not have the power to do whatever they feel like doing. Maybe we are overdue in letting the cocky government be aware that we will not be stepped on and that we do have a say in how our country is run.

We don’t necessarily have to show our feelings and doubts in revolution form (while sometimes fun, anarchy can get kind of messy) but we definitely need to do something to show that while we do need a governing body, the power is still with the people.