Oh, yeah, that pesky 4th amendment. I did a blog post on that at the old, no semi-retired blog. Something about being secure FROM unreasonable searches and seizures. Oh, and a side bit about actually requiring an actual warrant, a sworn warrant based on, get this, probable cause. Why, who knew those old "founding fathers" would have been so dang radical as that? Yes sir, Mr. judge, a funny thing happens when you actually sit down and READ that old US Constitution. Yeah, the one I swore to uphold and defend against ALL enemies, foreign AND domestic way back in 1968. Oh, and when I was released from active duty and even later when my final honorable discharge was delivered to me, I was never asked to revoke that oath. Many of us vets seem to believe (honest we do) that means the oath is STILL a valid one. Now, if we could just get every one of those 535 members of the two houses of congress to read that document. Yeah, bets things might be different then?
Even more amazing is that they could very easily go the FISA route, which itself is a pretty egregious loss of rights...allegedly only for "foreign" intelligence matters, but c'mon, we both know the bar is set pretty low on that stuff.
But once power is grabbed, it's damn hard to pry it from those that have it.
Funny though, when this was all being established during the Bush/Cheney regime (not necessarily in that order), very few of the wingnut persuasion were hollering about it...oh, I remember Bob Barr being surprisingly good, but that's the exception proving the rule. And Barr's pretty much an asshole otherwise.
And...I'd be VERY upset about the Obama administration's own ugly embrace of the national security state, but...it's not like the "alternative" is...Bob Barr. Nope, we're now truly at "lesser of evils" from here on out.
Now, I suppose at one time it could be said that the bread and circuses sure were a nice consolation...but the bread's getting stale, and I never much liked the circus...too many clowns...
Oh, yeah, that pesky 4th amendment. I did a blog post on that at the old, no semi-retired blog. Something about being secure FROM unreasonable searches and seizures. Oh, and a side bit about actually requiring an actual warrant, a sworn warrant based on, get this, probable cause. Why, who knew those old "founding fathers" would have been so dang radical as that?
ReplyDeleteYes sir, Mr. judge, a funny thing happens when you actually sit down and READ that old US Constitution. Yeah, the one I swore to uphold and defend against ALL enemies, foreign AND domestic way back in 1968.
Oh, and when I was released from active duty and even later when my final honorable discharge was delivered to me, I was never asked to revoke that oath. Many of us vets seem to believe (honest we do) that means the oath is STILL a valid one.
Now, if we could just get every one of those 535 members of the two houses of congress to read that document. Yeah, bets things might be different then?
Even more amazing is that they could very easily go the FISA route, which itself is a pretty egregious loss of rights...allegedly only for "foreign" intelligence matters, but c'mon, we both know the bar is set pretty low on that stuff.
ReplyDeleteBut once power is grabbed, it's damn hard to pry it from those that have it.
Funny though, when this was all being established during the Bush/Cheney regime (not necessarily in that order), very few of the wingnut persuasion were hollering about it...oh, I remember Bob Barr being surprisingly good, but that's the exception proving the rule. And Barr's pretty much an asshole otherwise.
And...I'd be VERY upset about the Obama administration's own ugly embrace of the national security state, but...it's not like the "alternative" is...Bob Barr. Nope, we're now truly at "lesser of evils" from here on out.
Now, I suppose at one time it could be said that the bread and circuses sure were a nice consolation...but the bread's getting stale, and I never much liked the circus...too many clowns...