It’s around 11:00pm, and I just got finished with an annual ritual here at rhino manor, that of coloring Easter eggs. I love hanging out 
playing around with the dyes and colors and making odd looking ugly eggs, and getting dye on my fingers that takes days to wash off. It’s fun that hearkens back to childhood, and it’s one that i haven’t abandoned once. I’ve colored eggs, whether with my mom and dad growing up or hanging out with my wife, since i can first remember. And just like my Christmas fetish, it is one that i refuse to give up. It may have been born in childhood, but it has grown into a time to just be with the people I love and just have fun. Not have the world intrude with it’s angry invective, it’s just fun for the sake of fun.
There is damned too little of that these days.
Time to fry the President. He has crossed a line I was hoping he would not, but he has. Sovereign Immunity is a term you should get used to hearing here for the foreseeable future. Those two words are two words that show that our president is of much the same mind as the last president when it comes to holding onto and using the power of warrantless wiretaps, and to immunize government officials when it comes to the use of them.
Plainly stated, this is ridiculous. To my knowledge the law that made this possible is set to sunset soon, but to me this makes no difference. This man has spoken about a want and need for transparency, and yet here he is, using the state secrets privilege to protect the government and it’s employees for the illegal warrantless wiretaps that were perpetrated against us. Tell me, where exactly is it written that the government has the right to step on the 4th amendment rights of it’s citizens?
I have argued before, and will argue until the world finally listens, that the people ALWAYS come first. Before big business, before government, before everything. Read the preamble to the Constitution. It does not say “we the undersigned who run this nation” It says “WE THE PEOPLE” the very first words on the document. They are first to make the point that regardless of the needs of government or anyone or anything else, the people come first. To put the needs of the government ahead of the rights of the people is to undermine the very basis of our constitution.
I believe that there are enough people in the congress to help prevent this from becoming a straight out debacle of Cheney-esque proportions, but the Presidency is an extraordinarily powerful position. And the fact that the law upon which this is based sunsets to my knowledge this year helps, as does the fact that opposition has already formed in the democratic party to this concept. And it is not just a small player either. Nancy Pelosi has stated some opposition to this. THAT is good news, she wields much power in the house and can do much from there to protect the rights of the people. I’m sure we’ll be hearing from Russ Feingold on this subject soon as well. Russ has the best interests of the people and the constitution at heart, first, last, and always.
The case this is all referring to, the one the president wants shut down to keep it’s secrets is named Jewel V. NSA, and I will keep you posted on this story as it unfolds. Or you can cut out the middleman and search Jewel V. NSA yourself.
A second video, a few quotes, and I am done.
That’s it for me. Later!
Today’s Nuggets, via wikiquote: What is government itself but the greatest of all reflections on human nature? If men were angels, no government would be necessary. If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary. James Madison
Power is not a means, it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. George Orwell
Casus Belli 