Dick Chaney Wants Access to Your E-mail
Under the guise of responding to the NSA spying scandal, the Bush administration and its allies in Congress are actually pushing for new ways to invade your privacy, with unprecedented and dangerous spying legislation crafted under Dick Cheney’s supervision.
The bad news is, if these bills pass, our homes, cell phone records and email inboxes will be laid bare to new kinds of government spying that are currently completely illegal. The good news is that we have a chance to stop these bills now, before White House pressure drives them to a speedy vote.
This August you can help generate a public outcry that will make Congress think twice before they hand over even more power to the Bush administration. Call your member of Congress today, and get the word out in your local community with a letter to the editor.
This legislation is being characterized by some as "surveillance we can live with," but the fact is it would vastly expand the government's power to search and spy on Americans without any judicial checks, including reading any email you send if the government does not know where all the recipients are physically located.
Don’t be deceived by claims the Cheney-Specter bill restores judicial review. The legislation really tries to make warrants optional while allowing a secret court to rubber-stamp surveillance of Americans, without even knowing the names of Americans to be wiretapped or whether they’ve done anything wrong. We are running advertisements and working with every contact we have in the major news outlets to counteract the government’s spin, but we need your help.
If you’ve had enough of an administration that’s proven itself grossly indifferent to the rule of law and the balance of power time and time again, on issues from warrantless spying, to secret kidnapping, to the unlawful treatment of Guantanamo detainees, now is the time to say “NO MORE.”
Just last week, President Bush and Attorney General Gonzales were pushing Congress to rubber-stamp a new plan for military commissions at Guantanamo that would violate U.S. law and the Geneva conventions, flying in the face of the recent Supreme Court ruling striking down the entire Bush-sponsored system of detainee trials.
Use the links above to learn more about the Cheney-backed proposals and get involved during this critical month of action. You can help get out the truth about this bill and the dangers it poses.
Throughout August, we’ll be calling on you to help cut through the White House spin and tell Congress how toxic these bills are to our basic freedoms. They need to hear the wave of opposition while they’re on their summer break. And we’re counting on you to help turn the tide, by speaking out at home and online.
Thank you for standing with us.
Sincerely,
Anthony D. Romero
Executive Director
American Civil Liberties Union
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This 9 August 2006 letter belongs entirely to the ACLU, and no threat to its rights in any way is intended by posting it here. It was sent free to everyone who chooses to subscribe to their email notices of critical threats to freedom in American, and to successes in fighting those threats.
To get on the action list on this issue, go to action.aclu.org/site/Ecard?ecard_id=3281
To subscribe to their email, so that you can know what's happening in America and what you can do about it, go to action.aclu.org/getemail
You can visit the ACLU website at www.aclu.org
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Comments
This is totally wrong! How can they keep doing this? Isn't freedom of speech protected, and doesn't the Bill of Rights protect us against searches without a search warrant? They're just trying to gut the Constitution!
They try to make people afraid because then they'll give up anything to feel safe. Well who's going to protect you when the threat is your own government?
I get the ACLU emails and I'm telling my friends what our government is trying to do. Don't let our own government destroy what people fought and died to protect!
Posted by: Lorien Loveshade | August 10, 2006 01:40 AM
America is becoming a totalitarian state and the people are supporting it like Sheep. They are being led to the Bureaucratic/Corporate slaughter by Power Pigs who just want their mutton. Us Dogs are the only ones who care and want to stop it. But we get tired nipping at the heals of gullible misguided Sheep. Maybe it's time we eat the Sheep and the Pigs and start something for ourselves.
Posted by: Still On The Run | August 10, 2006 06:11 AM
Whether it's a reference to George Orwell's Animal Farm or Pink Floyd's album Animals, Still on the Run makes some interesting if controversial comments. One lesson to remember from Orwell's book--when the saviors come into power, they may grow into the oppressors.
Posted by: Alden Loveshade | August 10, 2006 05:04 PM
It would be great for the government to be able to spy on anybody and everybody whenever they like for whatever reason they feel like. They could keep us all in control. Let's throw away the Bill of Rights. Just look at the old Soviet Union or Nazi Germany and you can see how good this works.
Posted by: NutriCen | August 10, 2006 07:00 PM
Dick Chaney can kiss my butt! Of course he might be reading this.
Posted by: Molasses | October 27, 2006 03:52 PM
Dick Cheney is out of the White House along with his crony Dubya. Now will we have some actual rights in America?
Posted by: Orleans Dancer | January 22, 2009 05:17 AM