Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

It sickens me to think that of the major internet search engines that the White House has asked to turn over the records of internet searches, none but Google even flinched... They just handed these records over with no regard for the privacy of the individual performing the search. It just isn't enough that they can subpoena my library records, and illegally tap my phone, but now they are looking in to my web searches. Good God, George Orwell was a visionary.

When it comes to George Bush and his administration, with their `TRUST ME' theory of governing, I can't help but to imagine Lucy from The Peanuts, preparing to pull the football out from under Charlie Brown, again, and again, and again! I was taught that trust is not given, it has to be earned. George Bush has never, not even once, earned my trust. I'll be damned if I'm going to start trusting him now. Should we `TRUST' that the NSA is only conducting wiretaps on overseas calls? Or is more believable that there are no regulations on which calls are being tapped, if they find a smoking gun, they can claim ignorance, error, over-zealous agent, or the old standby, the "I'm above the law" defense.The same thing goes with this request for Google's records. The Bushies claim to want the data to help ensure a safer internet for the children. To see how porn is searched for. I've been tricked by this ploy before. Here, in Michigan, you used to get an add-on ticket for not wearing a seat belt. When they went to upgrade the law that you can now be pulled over just for the seat belt violation, no one knew about it until after the law passed. It was hidden in a law that required child safety seats. Who would vote against the safety of the children? So no one opposed the law. That was years ago, and it still angers me that we were duped this way.

I totally supported the old law. If you were speeding, or performing some other moving violation and were pulled over, the cop could add a seat belt ticket to the original violation. They could not pull you over, just for not wearing the seat belt.

By changing that law, now there are more reasons to pull people over, without cause. Here is the scenario; you are a law abiding black man, driving an older car through town at... say 1:30 am on our way home from work. You pass a police car, sitting in a parking lot. The cop pulls out after you and pulls you over. You have your seat belt on! The cop explains that you were pulled over; because the officer believed that your seat belt was not on. He can now clearly see that it is on. Instead of apologizing and going about his business. He inquires, "What are you doing out so late?" You reply, "I'm just on my way home from work." The cop inquires, "Have you been drinking tonight?" You answer, "No, I was just on my way home from work." By repeating the same thing that you just told him, now the cop gets a little more agitated, "Would you mind if we searched your car?" I'll spare you the dialogue and just continue the story: The man has nothing to hide, he allows the search willingly. Nothing is found, so just to be safe, the cop runs a check on the man for warrants. Now it has been over 20 minutes since the man was pulled over, without cause, delayed, harassed, and racially profiled. All because we all agreed that the children should be in child safety seats.

This is the same trend that I am seeing with the Bush Regime. There is no oversight to these secret wiretaps, we have no way of knowing or proving that they are being conducted in the manner that we are told. Keeping children away from porn sounds like a great idea. Who would be against that? But is this the true reason for the White House to ask for search engine records? Is there some nefarious scheme to track down and hunt dissenters and anti-war groups? Does Karl Rove want the ability to look for dirt against a political opponent? (Hmmm, I see that Howard Dean has been searching florists on Google, let's leak to the press that he's having an affair, or better yet... he's gay... it worked against Ann Richards.)

So instead of all of this wondering, just give me my own agent. I'll be nice to him, he'd have a cushy job, because my life is pretty boring and I'll feel much better KNOWING that I'm being watched, rather than wondering.

Please read this Op-Ed from The Washington Post, it came out just after I wrote this blog, so I couldn't incorporate it. It is directly related to this Counter-Intelligence Field Activity.