See, folks like John and Q, who claim to be all about "freedom and democracy" seem to know very little about how it actually works.

Q can't understand what the big deal is about spying on US citizens, and is apparently pig ignorant of what it actually says in the Bill of Rights and US Constitution about said proclivities of despots, tyrants, and dictators (like Saddam Hussein, for instance) to spy upon the citizenry.

John doesn't agree that we should demand accountability and oversight of the extra-constitutional intelligence agencies, because it might mean we'll get attacked by terrorists again. Which we will, no matter how much spying, legal or illegal, our government does. Folks like John and Q argue as if the reason why the terrorists got through was because the NSA was waitin' on a warrant from some lily livered bleeding heart liberal judge.

But that was most certainly not the case, as FBI whistle blower Colleen Rowley uncomfortably pointed out to anyone who would listen. The 9/11 Commission actually backed her up, when they found one of the main reasons the 9/11 terrorists got through was because of widespread incompetency of the US intelligence infra-structure to do it's fucking job. And as we saw with Hurricane Katrina, creating another bloated bureaucracy, the Homeland Security Agency, didn't exactly fix the problem.

So I would love to hear from John and Q just how giving up our 4th amendment protections to speak truth to power, is gonna stop the terrorists from attacking us again, hmmm?

The scariest part of all of this, is that the Bush/Cheney cabal decided to overturn the 4th amendment and subvert the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act "because they said so" and so many Americans from all walks of life accepted that at face value!

All US intelligence agencies, which are directed by the executive branch, must be held accountable by the judicial and legislative branches by law FOR VERY GOOD REASON. Because despotic tyrants like the Bush/Cheney cabal can always be counted upon to turn US law on it's head when they believe it is to their advantage to do so. It's because our nation's founders understood the nature of power corrupting absolutely that we the people MUST PROTECT OURSELVES AGAINST THE TYRANNICAL REACHES OF OUR OWN GOVERNMENT!

When you heap this scandal on the Bush administration plate, adding to the torture policy, the ignoring of habeas corpus, detention without trial, etc etc that this government has been engaging it, a rather damning pattern does begin to emerge. It's just that the Bush Republicans don't want to acknowledge it, because they know the US voters will realize the time has come to stop ignorning the man behind the curtain, and silence the great and powerful Oz.

I guess the Johns and Qs of this world would rather see we the people take all this lying down, shutting up, and up our constitutional we the peoples' ass.

I don't think so.

Which is why I'll be voting for this guy in November 2008. The only one who had the guts to stand up for our most important freedoms in the US Senate, in the post-9/11 hysteria that gave the Bush/Cheney cabal free reign to run roughshod over the Bill of Rights and Constitution.