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December 20, 2005

UnAmerican

When I was young - and a Young Republican - I was taught the principle that America doesn't spy on its own citizens. Domestic spying was the realm of dictators, and the United States was engaged in a cold war to defeat those tactics and the ideologies of those who employed them. Every high school civics class was taught this lesson as well.

Today, the Servicemembers Legal Defense Network revealed that the Bush Administration has been spying on gay student groups who oppose the military's ban on openly-gay personnel. A kiss-in at the University of California Santa Cruz was labeled a "credible threat" to national security. Folks, gay kissing is something that Al Queda is fighting against. The federal government doesn't need to support their cause.

When the extent of the domestic spying program under FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover was revealed, laws were passed to prevent the federal government from repeating his mistakes. Extreme circumstances were allowed under the checks of the judiciary. However, President Bush has flouted the law and the Constitution by violating both. All of his excuses cannot change that.

In recent days, the Bush Administration has appeared as paranoid as the Nixon Administration, where the President resigned while caught the deceitful net he cast while conducting his own illegal spying operation. Using the force of the executive branch to spy on churches and children kissing on college campuses is not only morally wrong. It is illegal.

Posted by John at December 20, 2005 05:01 PM