Manufacturing fear

"Desperate times call for desperate measures" appears to be the rallying cry of this Administration.

I consider this to be the conduct of desperate men.

The irony of all of this is that we now are in Iraq "for Freedom" while people in power in the U.S. intentionally erode our freedom's in order to maintain their powerbase over the Nation.

I have heard NO ONE argue with the logic of having the NSA, CIA, or FBI spy on potential or suspected terrorists. NO ONE says this is bad for America. All we're saying is follow the law, embrace the Constitution. Shit, you can get a Warrant, or Court approval "after the fact" in urgent cases.

Undercutting the Constitution and erode our freedoms, because you are too lazy, or just don't want to do the paperwork is inexcusable. I would like to think that more than a few of us are getting tired of the president's endless warnings about dangers to our national security. Keeping the citizenry under a pall of fear is a proven way of expanding executive power, increasing government controls and justifying huge expenditures to support current war policies. It's not that terrorists are not a problem, but that nipping away at the Constitution can ultimately become an even more serious threat to this nation. If we can now justify carrying on hostilities without an official declaration of war, excuse imprisoning suspects indefinitely, without indictments or due process, allowing the president executive privilege to keep policy decisions from the public under the cloak of protecting the national interest, allowing surveillance of citizens on the president's say alone, playing clever games with the use of torture selectively defined, then I can easily imagine many other dangerous encroachments on our democracy occurring in the future.