Where Will You Draw the Line?

Thank god for Qwest, one telephone company that had the sack to tell our government to go scratch when it requested the phone records of millions.

But how can one sustain outrage when two-thirds, yes TWO THIRDS, of the American people feel it's okay for our government to monitor the phone numbers dialed by millions, according to this WP-ABC Poll. So there likely goes any hope of sustained outrage on Capitol Hill. What started out as a strong reaction will probably wind up a whimper over the next few days, specially if the gutless wonders think they can't sell it at home.

There doesn't have to be another terrorist attack - they've already won if this is how the citizens of this so-called democracy feel. How does "safety" trump freedom? How does this square with what we teach our children about what it means to live in a democracy? Why do people need to have it explained to them that their government shouldn't be monitoring the calls of private citizens? Period. It's like reminding Oprah that a memoir shouldn't contain fiction; young reporters or authors that plagiarism and falsehoods are wrong; energy company execs that they shouldn't cook the books. Sigh.

Bush said yesterday this was done to protect us. Can anyone show me ONE instance where this survelliance stopped anything? No - they can't. But still the lemmings that make up the populace of the current police state we live in honest to god don't see anything wrong with this.

The American people deserve whatever happens. Hopefully I'll be in Ireland, running a small pub, serving Guiness by the boatload, when the dictatorship becomes official. If the Dems don't take at least one chamber of Congress back in November, that's where I'd rather be.