The essence of legal liberty in the United States of America is the ability to walk down the street without having to provide identification to anyone. The founders added the Bill of Rights to the Constitution to enshrine that right. That’s what most of us thought we were protecting when we joined WWII. An official of the State is not entitled to require us to present identification unless that official has a rational, legally defensible probable cause. Probable cause is not “just a hunch.”
Now, the Senate has granted the President the ability to commandeer corporations to spy on all of us based on a hunch that a handful of us may be saying something illegal. Mussolini, the founder of 20th Century fascism, defined same as the “merger of the corporation and the state.” Fait accompli.
Kyle Hence sent this message to thousands of people last week. He included his email address and telephone number. I forward it intact to you.
Deb Lagutaris
From: Kyle Hence <
>
Date: July 10, 2008 1:37:33 AM GMT+02:00
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: R.I.P. - U.S. Constitution & Rule of Law -- An Open Letter on Illegal Surveillance and Telecom Immunity
R.I.P. -- the 4th Amendment & the Rule of Law -- An Open Letter to America on Illegal Surveillance and Telecom Immunity
7/9/08
Rumor is circulating that the House leader, Nancy Pelosi, is making a play to put Karl Rove above the law. Reportedly she is saying he should not be held in contempt for refusing to appear before the House Judiciary Committee. Although Pelosi’s office now denies it, many are finding it hard to give the Speaker the benefit of the doubt and for good reason. She took impeachment off the table to prevent the House from responsibly examining likely impeachable violations, just one of which is the President’s warrantless wiretapping program.
As illustrated above, there is a disturbing pattern here. The Rove issue comes shockingly just a week after the Democratic House leadership caved-in to the Executive Branch over the FISA Bill. In the Bill’s passage today in the Senate the Executive Office gets what it wants, and the telecom companies get what they want—a get-out-of-jail free card for a massive, still secret surveillance program operating without warrants or oversight for years in order to spy indiscriminately on the phone, fax, and email communications of millions of Americans.
By passing this Bill, the telecoms gain effective immunity from civil prosecutions over their participation in NSA warrant-less wiretapping directed by the Bush Administration. Some 40 lawsuits, some of them class-actions representing millions of Americans, will be dismissed by District judges as a result of this legislation. To get off the hook, the companies need only produce written evidence of a “directive” (rule by fiat) by the White House affirming the program’s legality, thus ignoring and forgiving the actual violations of the law, and precluding further litigation and investigation. (see EFF lawsuit – Hepting vs. AT&T)
Bottom line on the FISA vote today: the Democratic leadership and a minority of Democratic members in both the House and the Senate aligned with the Republicans have, by their votes on the FISA Bill, declared that the telecom companies and the Executive Office are above the law. The Bill also makes legal wiretapping of any and all Americans who communicate with friends or family overseas without being required to prove suspicion or just cause, without a warrant. Big brother is now sanctified and codified in the passage of this Bill. Hyperbole you say? Well, just ask AT&T whistleblower Mark Klein, who witnessed the installation of secret NSA controlled rooms at his AT&T facility. [http://www.blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2008/06/att-whistleblow.html]
This is a prescription for lawlessness in our country, a prescription, shockingly, written by our own Congress. This is systematic, dissembling of the Constitution. This is violation of the American system of checks and balances. This is the death of a Republic in slow motion. This is usurpation of Constitutional rule of law by Presidential Directive. And by a compliant and complicit Congress and its members who failed to uphold their oath of office.
As Republican Senator Specter said on the floor in arguing for his amendment, “History will look back on this period of history as one of unprecedented expansion of Executive authority, unchecked expansion of authority.” Exhorting his colleagues Specter said “perhaps after the July 4th holiday, Congress will declare its independence from the Executive branch.” It didn’t happen.
How did all this come to pass? The simple answer: the dangerous merging of corporate and Executive power and a lack of courage in the face of the politics of fear.
The passage of this Bill was preceded by millions of lobbying dollars pouring into Washington, D.C. and corporate contributions to members of Congress, including a spike in telecom donations to the Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee, Jay Rockefeller. The lobbying dollars has now insured legal protection of a massive secret spying program accountable to no one but the President. And it has revealed a dangerous even treasonous liaison between unbridled, unchecked executive power and private corporate power that has led to gross violations of the rule of law and U.S. Constitution. This my friends, my fellow Americans, herald a rising Fascism, a merging of corporate and government power, that is now rising up in place of a dying Constitutional Republic, all delivered to the American people by the almighty corporate dollar and those elected to office who by their vote today have utterly and completely betrayed.
We are witnesses, here and now, with the passage of this Bill, to the arrival of dangerous merging of narrow unchecked corporate interest and those of an equally unchecked Executive Office that Congress has utter failed to hold to account, as is their sacred duty under the Constitution. We each are witness now to a de-facto coup by Executive fiat, rule by directives irrespective of the law or Constitution, all veiled by secrecy and to which all dissent is overcome by instilling fear. It marks the death of the Republic unless we act now to tie off the autocratic fear-feeding cancer that afflicts our nation.
Make no mistake about what happened on the floor of the Senate today. With the passing of this FISA Bill the Congress is capitulating, lock, stock and barrel, to the merging of the interests of an unaccountable secret dictatorial Executive governing by “Directive” with the interests of the corporations that feed at the massive and growing private contracting trough. A few score of corporations now gobble up so much of the Federal budget that fully 70% of the intelligence budget is now outsourced to private contractors such as AT&T. [http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2007/06/01/intel_contractors]
This is the same AT&T that received a get out of jail card today, despite the fact that it violated laws on the books, by piping their communications network straight into secret rooms controlled by NSA. Whereas Qwest refused based on a clear understanding of FISA law, and was cut out of pending government contracts, AT&T continues to take government money to spy illegally on Americans since there can be no verification the NSA has shut its secret rooms or ceased its massively trolling of the private communications of innocent Americans.
Thanks to a minority of Democrats, the spinelessness of a Democratic nominee to back up his rhetoric with real leadership, the majority of the Republicans and the Executive Office has yet again employed the post 9/11 fear card to induce a tragic capitulation and betrayal of the U.S. Constitution and the rule of law.
“When laws ends, tyranny begins.” These are not the words of a enraged radical leftist, no, these are the words of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, just quoted minutes ago by Senator Dodd in his closing arguments before this unconstitutional Bill was passed into law, and our country turned brazenly and openly to Corporatism and rule by Executive fiat.
There is no time for despair in the face of this treason so let us hope, pray and most importantly act so that this travesty, this trespass on our rights is not left unchecked and uncorrected by those of us who still believe in the sanctity of the Constitution and Freedom granted each us by our Creator, and who are courageous enough to stand up and defend it.
--Kyle F. Hence
401-935-7715
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Saturday, 12 June 2004
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AMERICA: GEORGE BUSH'S BATTERED WIFE
Friday, 09 September 2005
[This hit home as it has long seemed to us that GWB was not only a dry drunk but abusive in his behavior - from blowing up frogs when he was a teenager to blowing up countries as an adult.]
As a friend of the family I can't sit back and watch you do this to yourself without saying something. Consider this a long distance intervention. Your man is no good. He treats you like crap, lies to you, abuses you, bullies you, exploits you, takes your money. As a friend I want to tell you that you deserve better. You deserve a person that treats you with respect, cares about your welfare, and your children's welfare, but that's not George and it never will be.
Do you tell yourself that he'll stop, or that it won't get worse? He won' t ever stop, every insult, injury and death he has caused are a line that once crossed will never be uncrossed. Forget the dream. You will never have the American dream with George. You have to forget about what might have been, what George might have been, and realize that at the end of the day you are what you do, and look at George's track record.
Notice how he's alienated all your friends? Who can blame them, they can't understand why you stay with him when he treats you like shit and embarrasses you in front of everybody. The more his public behavior overshadows yours, The more doubt creeps over them, they wonder if they knew you as well as they thought they did. You seem to have changed - if you condone his behaviour - and your silence can create the impression that you do. . .
Do you even recognise yourself anymore America? He is a drunken, coke-addled loser and he always will be, you should kick him out of your house today before he can destroy any more members of your family, your history, your culture, before he decimates your bank account so irretrievably that China and Saudi Arabia repossess all your stuff. . .
It all comes down to you, America. I know noone likes other people passing comment on their relationships but this is an extreme situation. You are in very real danger, he is hurting you everyday and he is hurting us, your friends as well. But only you can make it stop. We are all rooting for you, although we don't get to talk to you very often anymore, because he cuts us off from you. We are on your side, we will all be over the moon the day you finally kick him out. You know he really should be thrown in jail for the things he has done to you. Him and all of his gangster friends.
Please, please, do it America, you know I am right. If not for yourself then do it for your brothers and sisters and children. Do it before he kills any more of your family or anyone else's. We are all really worried for your welfare.
