I’m going to do something that I’ve mostly stayed away from, and steal from someone else’s post.

But hey, at least I’m honest about it.

From one George W(ashington) to another George W (Bush)…

[A] solicitude for your welfare… and the apprehension of danger natural to that solicitude, urge me on an occasion like the present to offer to your solemn contemplation and to recommend to your frequent review some sentiments which are the result of much reflection, of no inconsiderable observation, and which appear to me all important…

It is important… that the habits of thinking in a free country should inspire caution in those intrusted with its administration to confine themselves within their respective constitutional spheres, avoiding in the exercise of the powers of one department to encroach upon another. The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create, whatever the form of government, a real despotism…. If in the opinion of the people the distribution or modification of the constitutional powers be in any particular wrong, let it be corrected by an amendment in the way which the Constitution designates. But let there be no change by usurpation; for though this in one instance may be the instrument of good, it is the customary weapon by which free governments are destroyed. The precedent must always greatly overbalance in permanent evil any partial or transient benefit which the use can at any time yield.

(I added the emphasis.)

That, ladies and gentlemen, is from the farewell address of this nation’s first President, George Washington. If you were to try and single out one person who, in those formative days, made the United States what it has become, Washington would surely top your very short list- him, maybe Jefferson, maybe John Adams.

But Washington was the man who held the ragtag Continental Army together, who learned from his defeats and pressed his advantages, who inspired his men to victory against numerically superior forces several times, and who came back to serve as the first President and set the example for others to follow.

The language of what Washington was warning about might be a bit tough to read- people talked funny back then.

But the gist of it is this: Don’t let one branch of government encroach upon another. Don’t let yourself, or let another, be blinded by the idea of short-term gain or need or emergency. Don’t let any one department of government assemble and hold all the powers that are split up among the government by the Constitution, for that is surely the way to tyranny.

Washington was talking EXACTLY about what George W Bush is doing today. He was saying that under no circumstances, even during times where such power grabs seemed like an “instrument of good”, should we allow any one branch of government to snag all the power.

And yet, from (of all sources) USA Today, comes this story, of how the government- through the NSA as part of the whole domestic spying program we’ve heard about over the past few months- has put together “the largest database ever assembled in the world”.

What is this database? Oh, not much- just your phone records.

Yes, the big spying program, that Bush and his cronies have continually assured us was only aimed at the terrorists, has as one goal to create a database of every call ever made inside the borders of the United States. A complete record of everyone.

Folks, the Bush Administration and President Bush himself has been lying to us about this from the start. Bush said a long time ago that he wasn’t doing this kind of stuff, then the news came out that they were. Then Bush said…

In defending the previously disclosed program, Bush insisted that the NSA was focused exclusively on international calls. “In other words,” Bush explained, “one end of the communication must be outside the United States.”

But now it turns out that’s a lie, too, because they’re building this monster database of every call, by everyone, whether going international or not.

What’s more, they’re tapping into the Internet, too. The EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) has had an ongoing case where the news came out that AT&T had allowed the NSA to build its own room and directly tap into AT&T’s Internet switching routers and such.

Every time we hear something more about this case, it’s that they’re listening in on more things than we thought they were, that they’re spying on us more than we thought, that the technical capabilities of the NSA are more, that the program is more and more invasive than Bush has ever told us.

The Bush Administration’s argument in all of this is that Congress gave the President permission to do this.

I say BS. They did no such thing, and what’s more, they probably CAN’T do that even if they want to. In my opinion, Congress can’t give away its rights, responsibilities, and powers that are granted to it by the Constitution without actually AMENDING the Constitution.

Nor should it. The original George W had it right- no one branch of government should be assembling or given all these powers. It’s just asking for trouble.

The really stupid thing about this program, and about the reaction of the right wing when the news stories about it came out (remember how Bush acted all angry when the story was first being reported?) is that to assume that it was needed, or that the terrorists didn’t know, is to assume that they’re complete idiots- and let’s face it, on 9/11 they showed that they were NOT complete idiots and that the United States government had a lot of idiocy in it.

Bush has got to go down. ITMFA. Vote Democratic Party when this year’s elections come around. (Yeah, in some ways the Dems are idiots too, but hey- remember when Clinton was in charge? Was it really that bad, the whole lying bit? I mean, it was only lying about him getting oral sex from someone other than his wife- do we really prefer a President that lies about WMD, lies about spying on us against the Constitution, lies about his political enemies?)