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Rip-off 'liberty'
To those who follow the workings of the American bureaucracy, one thing should be very clear: We the people have lost control of our government. Let me give you a stark example.

Rarely does the President sign a bill into law on a Saturday. In fact, the last time Bush did so was more than a year ago when he signed a spending bill to keep the federal government from shutting down.

But on Saturday, December 13, 2003, as Americans watched Saddam Hussein’s head being probed for lice, President Bush signed into law a bill that grants the FBI, among other intelligence agencies, expansive new powers, including the power to probe Americans’ financial records -- even if they are not suspected terrorists.

Congress passed this latest legislation around Thanksgiving. However, reportedly in order to avoid individual accountability, the Senate passed it with a voice vote....

...Why are we witnessing such end-runs around our Constitution? First, there is a dangerous mentality that permeates the upper echelon of the American government. This is the notion that the government can push through its agenda, even if it undermines basic protections of the U.S. Constitution.

Second, those who supposedly represent us have developed an unnerving tendency to approve and vote for legislation that they do not study carefully. Then there are those in Congress who are mere sycophants of the administration in power and push through the administration’s agenda without considering the fact that it is the people they represent, not the government. ...

...Finally, we the people have too often not been involved in the governmental process and have failed to protest the increasing governmental encroachment on our fundamental freedoms. We often fail to even ask the important questions. As David Martin writes in the San Antonio Current, “If these new powers are necessary to protect United States citizens, then why would the legislation not withstand the test of public debate? If the new act’s provisions are in the public interest, why use stealth in ramming them through the legislative process?”...