That's what the New York-based 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals unanimously said about the NSA's bulk collection of American phone records earlier this morning.
As I've stated since the very beginning, the NSA's program of collecting billions of innocent Americans' phone records, texts, emails, Internet searches, and social media posts is blatantly unconstitutional.
The Founders included the Fourth Amendment in the U.S. Constitution to protect Americans' right to privacy from government snooping.
But the court didn't even need to address the program's constitutionality!
While spy-state apologists point to the so-called "PATRIOT Act" as the source for legal authorization, the court noted the bill does nothing of the sort!
The entire scheme is flat-out ILLEGAL. Period.
Eric, I'm sure this is going to make my colleagues' skin crawl in Congress.
They want nothing more than to keep the national security spy state growing until it tracks, traces and catalogues virtually every detail about every aspect of our lives.
To them, the safety Americans yearn for can only be had under the watchful eye of Big Brother.
Of course, I know the legal wrangling over the NSA's domestic spying programs is far from over.
But with a fight brewing over renewal of the "PATRIOT Act" in Congress, I suspect this court's decision will only embolden some of my colleagues to enshrine the NSA's ILLEGAL and UNCONSTITUTIONAL spying schemes in federal law.
I'm going to fight them with everything I have -- if I can count on your help.
The Founders understood liberty cannot long survive without privacy.
Most conservatives know government registration of firearms would ultimately lead to gun confiscation.
It's no different with the rest of our lives.
Once government bureaucrats know every aspect of our lives -- what we watch, what we buy, what we eat, where we worship -- it won't be long until they try to run them "for our own good."
After all, the Washington machine believes bureaucrats know best.
They couldn't be more wrong.
Out-of-control government has gummed up the wheels of our economy, leading to only 0.2% growth in the first quarter of this year.
It's sunk our nation in $18.2 TRILLION in debt.
Meanwhile ObamaCare is driving up health insurance premiums, shuttering hospitals and worsening the quality of American healthcare.
I know they say, "trust us."
But how can we?
How can we after the IRS targeted conservative organizations for harassment and intimidation?
How can we after the Justice Department spied on reporters who dared criticize this administration?
Even this entire NSA spying scheme is another example of an out-of-control government bureaucracy breaking the law to get what it wants.
Yet, more and more voices are now admitting these unconstitutional programs don't even work.
If our government used the legal tools it has to target terrorists -- instead of sifting through innocent Americans' information -- we could fight terrorism and uphold the Constitution.
There is an inherent tendency in all governmental power to recognize no restraints on its operation and to extend the sphere of its dominion as much as possible. To control everything, to leave no room for anything to happen of its own accord without the interference of the authorities--this is the goal for which every ruler secretly strives.
Ludwig von Mises, Liberalism, p.67
But it's going to take a President who is willing to take the oath to uphold the Constitution seriously.
Eric, I ran for office because I feared the Washington machine was out of control.
I believed it was time for true patriots -- not career politicians -- to stand up and stop the madness.
Today, I'm running for President because we need a true, uncompromising voice for liberty.
And I'm going to fight any attempt by my colleagues in Congress to disguise the NSA's unconstitutional spying programs with a veil of legality.
[Editor's Note: NSA is just part of the US' "benevolent totalitarianism" achieved with the propaganda of "reverse semantics" (Bob Livingston). The NSA is one of several agencies with almost unlimited discretionary power whose decisions are expempt from judicial review. The above appeals court decision is headed in the right direction for freedom. If the CON-gress can't see fit to ELIMINATE some of these tyrannical agencies, then the laws must be amended to cut budgets as well as explicitly and very specificly restrict the enforcement power of these Executive Branch agencies.]
[Editor's Note: what I have dubbed the "Legislative-Executive-Judicial Cabal" which the American People have caused by ignoring the generational transition from our Constitutional Republic to what now is, in effect, an "elected" dictatorship. Never mind who is elected. Never mind which bogus party is in power. We the People still lose more freedom after every "emergency" or unnoticeably when CON-gress passes another general, open-ended law that enables the Executive (dictator) and its unaccountable agencies to formulate more freedom-restricting regulations (200 pages a day get posted to the Federal Register). The "Dictator's" agencies (police force) continue to pile-up more weapons to squelch uprising(s) when the People finally realize and understand their tyrannical government.
A Constitutional Convention is necessary to amend the Constitution for Congressional Term Limits to twelve (12) years and restrict time in DC to only six (6) months per year. Such an Amendment is only a FIRST step in restoring America to its Constitutional roots. Back in the day when the People still feared kings, the president's term was limited by Constitutional Amendment.
Currently, CONgress is just a group of socialists, progressives, and faux-conservatives (career politicians) that, on a daily basis, ignores the Constitution, many of their own past statutes, and cedes their responsibilities to the president ("elected" dictator). A comparison to the history of Rome becomes more and more credible with the Executive and its "featherbedded" lackeys gaining more power while CONgress sits back all fat-dumb-and-happy.
CONgress has made recent efforts to expose State Dept. failures in Benghazi (inept political leader), Fast-and-Furious gun-running (criminal AG), IRS 1st amendment violations, gov't union Veterans Administration fraud, and whining about Obama(Reid)-killer-Care, but these efforts are mostly politics as usual. Most "citizens" will forget about these infringements from our unaccountable, uncontrollable Executive branch with its tyrannical agencies staffed by socialist unions that extort "juicy" contracts from the "elected" dictatorship.
Most positions in the federal government whether elected, appointed, or hired are nominal, make-work jobs (confidentially) designed merely to grow government, bilk money from private businesses and citizens, and eventually fully transform America into a totalitarian state. When this happens, CONgress will have destroyed the economy and the country by their negligence and counter-liberty policies, and it will be almost impossible to Restore America. The 'Restore America' list is only a beginning too.]
Those who seek out positions of power tend to be paranoid, hypocritical wimps. Consider the issue of firearms. Politicians have many thousands of mercenaries (soldiers and "law enforcers") wielding all sort of deadly weapons--guns, tanks, missiles, drones, etc. Yet those same politicians pee themselves at the thought of the rabble owning semi-automatic rifles. From their twisted, elitist perspective, it's perfectly fine for them to swipe many billions of dollars from their subjects to spend on all manner of armaments, but if YOU want to possess a rifle, they think you should have to ask their permission, and register it, and make sure they always know what you own.
They also expect to be allowed to do things in secret, while claiming the right to spy on you and everyone else. As far as they are concerned, it's none of your business what they do, or what weapons they have, but it is their business to know everything that you do and everything that you have. Of course, they will pretend that their goal is to protect you from the "criminal element," but you'd have to be pretty dense to actually believe that. Why do you suppose they mostly whine about civilians having weapons that:
are used in only a tiny percentage of actual crime, and;
are the most effective types of weapon for resisting "government"
aggression?
You don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure it out. People who gravitate towards political office think they have the right to rule you. That's the job they applied for. And, of course, extorting you and bossing you around could be rather more difficult if you are better armed than their enforcers. So they hand out machine guns to their mindless thugs, but have tantrums about you having a 30-round magazine.
A new Congress has been seated, and it brings the prospect of perhaps, maybe, potentially, in a possible way doing something about the runaway federal deficits. And in other news, several New York area bridges are for sale, which you can acquire at a bargain price.
Excessive Spending Destroys!
Feds Have a Spending Problem — DO NOT RAISE THE CEILING!
Feds Have a Sewage Problem!
Becky Gerritson: "...government is out of control!" and "...our representative government has failed us."
A federal judge on Thursday ordered the IRS to detail under oath how some of former agency official Lois Lerner’s emails went missing, as well as any potential methods for recovering them.
Judge Emmet Sullivan of the U.S. District Court in Washington gave the Internal Revenue Service exactly a month — until Aug. 10 — to file a report, which he demanded as part of a lawsuit from a conservative watchdog, Judicial Watch, against the agency.
Judicial Watch is seeking a wide range of documents from the IRS, including Lerner’s emails, as part of a Freedom of Information Act request. It has complained that the IRS didn’t tell it that the agency couldn’t recover all of Lerner’s emails from 2009 to 2011.
Sullivan cast his ruling as a compromise, and a potential way for Judicial Watch to get answers without the court wading any deeper into the matter. Judicial Watch had asked the court to potentially compel IRS officials to testify about the lost emails, through a process called limited discovery.
The FairTax is a consumption tax unilaterally applied to all Americans at the same rate. For businesses, payroll taxes would no longer exist. Our exports would include a heavy tax for overseas buyers purchasing our products, while our imports would be cheaper for us to purchase. I'm not sure how this would affect GDP, as more information is necessary.
According to the FairTax website, "Under the FairTax, every person living in the United States pays a sales tax on purchases of new goods and services, excluding necessities due to the prebate." The prebate gives every legal resident household an "advance refund" at the beginning of each month so that purchases made up to the poverty level are tax-free.
So a family of four making something like $50,000/year should not have to pay taxes, thus preventing an unfair burden on low-income families. Since the FairTax eliminates both federal and payroll taxes, you get to keep your gross pay amount of each paycheck earned.
John Adams said, “Without [term limits] every man in power becomes a ravenous beast of prey”. That being said, here are some of the reasons we believe our country needs Term Limits.
Term Limits can help break the cycle of corruption in Congress. Case studies show that the longer an individual stays in office, the more likely they are to stop serving the public and begin serving their own interests.
Term Limits will encourage regular citizens to run for office. Presently, there is a 94% re-election rate in the House and 83% in the Senate. Because of name recognition, and usually the advantage of money, it can be easy to stay in office. Without legitimate competition, what is the incentive for a member of Congress to serve the public? Furthermore, it is almost a lost cause for the average citizen to try to campaign against current members of Congress.
Term Limits will break the power special interest groups have in Congress.
Term Limits will force politicians to think about the impact of their legislation because they will be returning to their communities shortly to live under the laws they enacted.
Term Limits will bring diversity of people and fresh ideas to Congress.
[Editor's Note: If you want to get rich, i.e. advance from a low paying government bureaucrat job on the local or state level, THEN GET ELECTED TO THE US CONGRESS (House or Senate). Once you're elected, it's easy to steal from your campaign contributions or the Congressional budget allocated to your seat and staff. You can go on a government-funded junket with 'lavishly' paid expenses. The list of ways to steal from the government while in office is inexhaustible. There are only a few Congressmen who left Congress just wealthy instead of a multi-millionaire. Of course, there are several who arrived in Congress as multi-millionaires and don't need to steal from the government.]
