Unconventional Sources

A quick thanks to Privacy International for the rather grim picture of privacy around the world. We here in the United States are marked black, which translates into: Endemic surveillance societies.

We in the USA are now in the same Big Brother category as Russia and China, thanks to the warrantless wiretapping that began under George W. Bush and now continues under Barack Obama. This map shows the privacy ranking for 2007, but the situation became even more grave in 2008, with the passage of the infamous FISA Amendments Act, which gave amnesty to telecommunications corporations that helped the White House create an immense electronic surveillance network that gathers all electronic communications by foreigners and by Americans, targeting journalists, soldiers, aid workers, government whistleblowers and who knows what other groups. Barack Obama voted in favor of this Big Brother spying system, and has said that he intends to keep on using it.

I know that doesn’t fit with the Obama as savior narrative, but it’s a fact.

An American has to have been determined to be ignorant not to know what’s happened to the Constitution of the United States of America under President George W. Bush. The individual rights that are guaranteed by the Constitution have been thoroughly violated by the Bush White House, which announced that the Constitution’s rules were merely suggestions that would need to give way before the needs of the moment. It was declared that the President is above the law, and above the Constitution itself.

Torture and Big Brother spying programs against peaceful Americans were begun. The power of arbitrary imprisonment without a trial or even habeas corpus was announced. Freedom of speech and assembly were curtailed. Church and state were mixed.

Now, Barack Obama is becoming President of the United States. Will all that change? Will the Constitution’s authority be restored?

Unfortunately, restoring our constitutional rights isn’t as simple as electing a new President. President Obama will have the same powers as President Bush, and it’s up to Obama, and to the Congress, to pull back presidential power so that the Constitution can regain its proper place.

Will Barack Obama act to bring the Presidency back under the law? Will President Obama respect the Constitution?

It looks uncertain. For all his talk of change, the closer that Obama gets to the Oval Office, the more reluctant he sounds about cutting back on the authoritarian powers established under George W. Bush. Obama suggests that secret torture prisons may not be closed, espionage against Americans may not end, and church and state will continue to be mixed.

We cannot simply trust President Barack Obama to obey the Constitution. We need to do our duty as active citizens, and push Obama to bring the White House back under control.

That’s why, on Inauguration Day 2009, there will be a Pro-Constitution Inauguration Demonstration. The parameters of this political demonstration are simple: On the parade route, outside the Department of Justice, at the southwest corner of 9th Street and Pennsylvania Avenue NW, at noontime (plan to get there early to really get there on time), Americans who love the Constitution will assemble in a place reserved with the cooperation of the National Park Service. They will come with small signs, buttons, t-shirts, etc., with messages urging Barack Obama to comply with his Oath of Office, and uphold the Constitution.

More information about the 2009 Inauguration demonstration for constitutional rights.