The majority recedes into the flawed belief that a reasonable balance can be reached. In theory, with good intentions and men of good will, this idea may seem sensible. However, when you compare the record to the promise, upstanding citizens come up short. In order to be aboveboard, it is wise to admit that there is an entrenched criminal culture in all societies. Human nature being what it is, only the utopian attaches pure motives to widespread conduct. Nevertheless, we are suppose to accept that the federal cops are immune from their own corruption and rally to their lawless practices in the name of national security.

Do you remember the horrors of Cointelpro? "Counterintelligence" was a misnomer for the FBI programs, since the targets were American political dissidents, not foreign spies. Well, the lessons of that era, seem to be lost to the generations that didn’t live through that experience. Many of the adolescent authoritarians that supported the Johnson and Nixon regimes, back then; grew up to become the career “just following orders” fascists serving in the bureau today. Those in change are loyal only to the State. The rightful purpose of their service escapes them, that they are supposed to serve the people.

The St Petersburg Times reports: Attorney General John Ashcroft announced in May 2002 that he was lifting restrictions on domestic spying by the FBI - rules that had been put in place in response to the bureau's excesses during the 1960s and '70s - he promised the sweeping new powers would be used only "for the purpose of detecting and preventing terrorism." A classified FBI intelligence memorandum has recently come to light demonstrating that the FBI is using this new authority to spy on nonviolent antiwar demonstrators.

When bona fide conservatives warned that the Patriot Act was just the beginning, the NeoCons pranced out the scare scenario as the reason to surrender your natural rights. With the hijacking of the GOP and the advancement of a psychotic war on terror, the inland panic has been brought directly to your doorstep. The significance of the latest erosion of liberty is that the beneficiary of assembled fear is the originator of the instability. The linkage that is at the core of international hatred towards the United States is the underlying policy of supra dominance.

The verdict has been rendered, the world jury has spoken and the sheeple that support the deranged policies of the Bush administration must create an adversary to ease the pain of self betrayal. Going well beyond the foreign militant, the easiest and most convenient group to vindicate Gestapo practices are domestic dissenters. The tradition of America is founded upon individual liberty. Imagining and manufacturing violate anarchists is the history of the FBI. The two don’t mix. The question is who is the master?

Since the experiment in limited government has failed, the populace requires an excuse for their capitulation. The psychological turmoil that stirs in the minds of the few reflective citizens that keep current with this descent into oblivion, must reconcile how one can resist the insanity of public policy and still protect our mutual civil rights. As dissent of the few becomes more intense, the invasive methods of the federal g-men become more intense.

The price of an unaccountable government is manifest with each new restriction imposed and with every addition to a government enemies list. Is this the formula you want for reasonable, reliable and legitimate national security concerns? As usual, critics that disagree with this assessment are unable to refute the evidence that liberty is the ultimate target for attack, coming from the real enemy of the people - the STATE. With each passing day, the forces of government consolidation grow as the resistors of tyranny are isolated and portrayed as disloyal. Get Real! Have the brain dead so populated the landscape that the trees block out ALL the light?

The minutia in details on each specific intel operation is far less important than the fact that such domestic spying on our own citizens violates the essence of our country. The best test for a genuine conservative is their attitude and action on protecting and preserving civil liberties.  Endorsing draconian measures won’t safeguard the public. Supporting the Justice Department, when there is no lawfulness, will never achieve security for citizens. Opposing damaging policies doesn’t make one a renegade. Praetorian goals won’t restore a republic.

SARTRE - December 1, 2003