Big Brother Bush Strikes Again...At Bloggers

Bush Administration Throws Daggers

With 84 percent of the public not fully accepting the government’s strategy behind the “war on terror,” and support for the Iraq war plummeting, the Bush administration has had to, ”…sharpen their knives against the new breed of perceived ‘enemy propagandists,’ bloggers, journalists and online activists who dissent against the ‘war on terror.’” Read the story in Prison Planet.com. Although I try to keep unrelated politics out of this blog, this strikes at the heart of individual control over sensitive data.

The article, by Paul Joseph Watson, also comments on the hypocrisy of the Bush/Cheney dynasty, and the high level of deceit and propaganda directed toward the American people. How could they possibly point their fingers at anyone else, Watson concludes. But they have and The Dunning Letter is probably on some list of disgruntled bloggers that believe the Bush administration has over-stepped its authority in almost every area, but most of all, in the invading of the individual’s privacy.

Individual Legitimate Need for Privacy

In a ZDNet article by Declan McCullagh, FBI Director Robert Mueller talks of finding “…a balance between the legitimate need for privacy and law enforcement’s clear need for access.” This is like admitting the necessity to spy on innocent Americans, and at the same time saying you may even have to stack the scales against them. The legitimate right to privacy, although not covered in the Constitution—our country’s founders in their wildest imaginations could not have foreseen a Bush/Cheney Big Brother movement—is generally agreed to be an implied right.

Chertoff Blames Future Terrorism on Internet

Then, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff talks about “disaffected” people in this country developing “radical ideologies and potentially violent skills” as a threat to our security, according to Reuters. Because we are the melting pot of the world, people have been doing this for years. By contrast, in the past we have had a competent government to protect us. Today, that is no longer true. As is Chertoff’s whining about cyberspace, it is the normal approach to the problems of this country by the Bush administration.

I bring this up because another Bush rubber-stamper, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, wants ISP’s to retain your Web surfing activity, and make it available to the FBI. That would seem to fit in nicely with the DHS Secretary’s plans to stalk the Internet for “evil-doers.” Chertoff will send his field agents to “intelligence fusion centers” to work with local police agencies. Fusion centers are the feds’ latest answer to collecting and analyzing supposedly terrorism data, and making it available to the agencies that need it. On the other hand, civil libertarians see it as an extension to the Bush/Cheney Big Brother.

Control Your Name and Personal Data

If the people of the U.S. don’t get off their butts and demand control over their names and personal data soon, it will be too late. Call me a doomsday prophet, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see where this administration is going with its intimidation of the individual’s right to privacy. Within the next two years left to this president, you can expect a continued assault on your private information to build the Bush/Cheney power base, disguised in the name of fighting terrorism.

Contact your Congressional representatives now. House of Representatives. Senate.