Domestic Spying

This topic totally floors me. I can't begin to explain just how deeply disappointed I am with our government for
instituting a system for spying on our own citizens. What's worse is that it seems most Americans don't care. Our
freedom from government intrusion into our lives is one of our inalienable rights! Holy crap, when did search
without a warrant become OK? This is an incredibly slippery slope which seems to have no safeguards to prevent
some perverse member of our government (Karl Rove? Donald Rumsfeld?) from using it to treat us all as potential
criminals. Back in revolutionary days, the English government could search your home for any reason without warrant.
They could demand that you quarter their soldiers. The Bill of Rights specified inalienable rights that would
prevent these types of intrusions from ever being brought to bear against American citizens. Yet somehow, we've
forgotten that. Here is Amendment IV of the Bill of Rights:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Regardless of whether we are in wartime or peacetime, no person in this country should endure the intrusion upon
their private conversations in their homes. Based on current reasoning, how long until all of our conversations
are recorded and analyzed for potential "Anti-Americanism". How long until telling your buddy on the phone that
"You don't like Bush" leads to your being whisked away to a Cuban prison? Don't think this isn't already happening?
How about when CIA agent Valery Plame's husband publicly disagreed with Bush, and his wife's agent status was
suddenly "leaked" days later? How about the reporter, Judith Miller, who exposed the story being sent to jail
because she wouldn't out her informer.

There are so many instances of abominable behavior by this administration that I really fear where our country is
headed. We imprison thousands in an offshore military camp without hope of trial. We imprison reporters for
exposing improper government activity. We destroy the careers of those who oppose the actions of the president.
And the worst, we spy on the conversations of every one of our citizens we can. Election day can't come soon enough,
I just hope enough Americans are as disgusted as I am so we can get things set right.