Bush Continues To Chip Away At Individual Freedoms

[annabanana]

Bush OKs opening your mail in US without warrant

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The president has used the recent postal code reform, much of which from what I understand is very beneficial to the employees and to the system overall, to push through a nifty bit of law to allows him to open mail. The only catch is that the president can only open the mail when the president says it is necessary to do so and will only be overseen by... you guessed it, the president himself.


www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2006/12/20061220-6.html

The executive branch shall construe subsection 404(c) of title 39, as enacted by subsection 1010(e) of the Act, which provides for opening of an item of a class of mail otherwise sealed against inspection, in a manner consistent, to the maximum extent permissible, with the need to conduct searches in exigent circumstances, such as to protect human life and safety against hazardous materials, and the need for physical searches specifically authorized by law for foreign intelligence collection.

www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/linkset/2005/04/11/LI2005041100879.html

[beautifulhome1]

Wow that is really a concern!! NOT!! I personally have nothing to hide but maybe someone plotting a 9/11 might be stopped and a few, like 3,000 lives might have been saved... Wow what a concept. If you are not sending anything illegal or plotting anything illegal you have nothing to worry about, do you?

Again I think this forum should be for issues specific to Mountain Cove like the gate not working, vandalism. I believe your own political bashing is not the spirit of this forum.

[cupofjoe]

Isn't it interesting that the Republican Party claims to be the party of personal responsibility and less government intrusion into our lives, yet many of its members continue to blame others for their many failures and snoop into the affairs of private citizens under the guise of "fighting terrorism"?

As a democracy it's our right, nay, duty, to question and criticize our leaders and their decisions. I suggest you take a step back and look at the fundamentals of democratic free society.

From the San Jose Mercury News 4 January 2007:

"Despite the president's statement that he may be able to circumvent a basic privacy protection, the new postal law continues to prohibit the government from snooping into people's mail without a warrant," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., the incoming House Government Reform Committee chairman, who co-sponsored the bill...."

Bush has tacked on over 750 "signing statements" to bills over the last few years, many of which assert that he has rights that he doesn't really have. For some samples of bills and Bush's "interpretations" of how he does or doesn't have to abide by them, see this Boston Globe article from last April:

www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/04/30/examples_of_the_presidents_signing_statements/

Whatever your political leanings, this should really bother you if you believe that the fundamentals of the US should be based on a democracy.