Pink Eyed Jim’s Blog

In a speech today, President Bush defended the secret wiretap program. He says that spying on citizens is legal, that he’s not guilty of using “unchecked power,” and that those who blew the lid on this program are shameful.

Hold on a minute.

(Jim loudly slaps himself across the face)

Ok, I’m back.

Seriously folks, I can see the scenario now…

It is mid-September, 2001. George W. Bush is in his office (yes, the oval one) wracking his brain to come up with the best way to protect the nation in the light of the recent attacks. He’s had little sleep since the 11th, so he dozes a bit at his desk as he thinks.

“I’ve got it,” he says, “we can set up a program where we can listen in on the phone conversations of suspected terrorists. They can’t know we’re doing it of course, otherwise it’ll ruin the surprise and the terrorists might not use the phones to talk about sensitive information anymore. So we’ll have to keep this one a teensy little secret. We can’t even tell the judges who would normally sign our warrants, because we don’t know if they’re terrorists.”

He lowers his pen and begins to jot down a few notes…

Has this guy never heard of “due process” before?

Has the man who claims to be such a true American patriot really fallen this out of touch with our forefathers’ views of what governments should and shouldn’t be able to do to their citizens?

Of course what irks me most of all about this whole thing is that Bush now has the unmitigated gall to suggest that those who broke this story are a shameful lot.

Excuse me?

I thought our press was supposed to be free. According to the Reuters article, the New York Times knew about this, but kept the program confidential for over a year before running the story. I’m mad that even that happened.

Who are these people at the New York Times to decide to keep information out of the hands of the United State’s citizens? I thought journalists were supposed to report the truth, regardless of the sensitivity of said truth. How much longer was the New York Times going to let our government spy on its citizens illegally before they printed it? How long were they willing to let the government do its thing without our notice?

Nobody gives a shit about the average American citizen anymore. Not our government, not our press, not even most “average American citizens.”