December 21, 2005 - The left-leaning media is really having a field day talking about the government spying out U.S. Citizens. "We are losing our rights under Bush" they cry. They act like U.S. history began on January 20, 2001. They forget that under a Democrat we sent Americans of Japanese descent to camps. They forget that Lincoln suspended habeas corpus (which, according to Section 9 of the Constitution, can be done). They forget that another Democrat, who served as President for most of the 1990's used a program to spy on phone calls of U.S. citizens. Occasional government abridgement of rights isn't something that has only happened after January, 2001. Two of the aforementioned were done in a time of war and during the one that wasn't, we should have been at war but we weren't so why was it done?

Those who vocally deplore such actions generally are silent on matters like the police being able to randomly pull over people and check for seat belt use or to make them prove they haven't been drinking. Where's the NY Times article on this breach of personal liberty? Why should people have to prove their innocence? Those actions are done under the guise of safety too. Sure, pull me over at a roadblock (roadblocks used to be used to stop fleeing criminals) but, if government wants to monitor phone calls by a suspected terrorist, well, "we can't have that!" That same crowd also thinks that a full-press pat-down of granny at the airport is necessary for national security. But, if we single out all the common traits of terrorists and apply that when searching people, well, that causes outrage too. It's acceptable to violate granny's rights but not someone else because he looks suspicious.

I don't necessarily agree with this type of thing and I certainly believe it can be abused but people should stop acting like what the current administration is doing is new. People should also stop believing "If I've done nothing wrong, I have nothing to worry about." That is the same thing as proving your innocence which is something we should not have to do.