The information on surveillance & reporting of money transfers and tracking has been public information for decades (as part of the ‘war on drugs’).

Similarly, the premise that spies and/or terrorists are/were unaware of the monitoring of phones (wired, cellular & satellite), radios, the Internet, and banking processes, is ridiculous. It’s been described in books, used in films, and is part of all intelligence/counter intelligence training.

Obviously the President, and his advisors, are counting on an ignorant populous, and stagnant and meek news media.

The simple truth is that (I think) the President and the Republican party seem to think that they are the only ones who have the necessary knowledge to run the country. It seems as if they think that the ordinary American citizen is stupid; it seems as if alot of them are. For what else could you say about somebody who constantly upholds a leader who in the name of national security, is constantly whittling away at their constitutional rights.

The sublime in the Bush administration is their minimalism—a distinctly American Internationalism. There is the world and then there are American interests. Our interests alone are that which marks out the sublime. Only a liberal could believe other nations exist when it comes to diplomacy. That would mean a compromise and for America compromise means weakness when we must seek nothing less than sublimity. —A Distinctly American Internationalism!

We could contrast this concept with the principle of democracy in general and ask ourselves whether a distinctly American Internationalism can even pretend to call itself democratic? Outside the Red Republican Curtain it is called autocratic imperialism or even fascism pure and simple! More enlightening is to attempt to gain insight into the base of our leadership’s moral ground or even the lack of it. In doing this then we can glimpse that for which they stand, which is that for which we all must stand by default. For that for which they stand is that which all Americans stand and even beyond—for the entire world as we know it. This follows directly from what a distinctly American Internationalism means—either you are with them, in which case you are American or you can disagree with them, in which case you are un-American. By deduction all those who are un-American are threats and subject to the schizophrenic rules regarding the War on Terrorism. The law of America today is “Either you are with us or you are against us”. There is no in-between. With such an understanding of democracy who needs fascism!

I’m happy that at least the New York Times attempted to uphold an American tradition of standing for at least one thing I was raised to believe that this nation stands—a Free Press and the concept of free speech in general. The public has a right to know what its government is doing. It is that simple. Moral Indifference is what the Bush administration asks of the American People and yet it is through moral indifference that the moral bridge breaks down and in its place stands a void known as nihilism. When one awakens to such a horror one finds that we stand for nothing at all or worse!