If I turned up at your house and put a bug in your telephone handset and then told you that I might have done and that it would enable me to listen to every single phone call that you ever made again, would you still be sat there on your lazy behind watching the TV and paying no attention to the rest of the world that has, contrary to popular belief, continued to exist around you or would you get up and try to kick my ass?

Ladies and gentlemen of the nation formerly known as the "Land Of The Free", it is time to put down the remote control and the twinkies for just a moment and pay attention.

Your President is already in your house. The only difference between my scenario and the real one is that he will not be threatening or even warning you, he is just going to do it anyway and MAYBE, IF HE FEELS INCLINED, he will tell the judiciary before, during or after he has done it...

But I doubt it!

Just because the law is getting changed, it doesn't suddenly make flagrant destruction of the Constitution something that a president would like to announce his involvement in.

America, you are supposed to be the fledgling nation that lights the way for us all. A perfect demonstration of people who understand their rights and, more importantly, understand the value of them.

Yes, many people will go down the usual cynical route telling me that it was all a lie and America was never all it was advertised to be, but I have spent a fair amount of time in the US (unlike most Americans who average 4 states in the course of their lifetime, I have visited over half, 26 to be exact, of the 50 mainland states AND Hawaii too) and I have news for you...

You have an amazing country, you have sme of the finest people in the world and you are our only hope!

If the good people that I met during my various treks across the US cannot stand up for the rights that they have lived and died by for over the last 230 years, then there is no hope.

But I do not believe that all hope is lost. America, you are the children of the world. Your enthusiasm for life knows no bounds. Your desire to be protected by your Constitution and NOT by your government makes you special. Your zest for truth and justice (the American way?!) through a series of guaranteed rights and, more importantly, the responsibility that the Founding Fathers and every subsequent generation since them have sworn to uphold makes you the epitome of democracy.

Yes, we have seen Bush swearing to uphold the Constitution with his hand on the Bible that he claims to believe in and, yes, we know that he was lying. But that does not mean that you should follow his example.

Every American has a duty. A duty to those that fought to take back your nation, those who fought to ensure that you had the opportunity to build and enjoy the freedom that you now take for granted and are gradually losing sight of and a duty to those that have continued to fight to protect you from all enemies, foreign and domestic.

You have a duty to all those who have refused to sit down and pipe down when their government got a little too close to forgetting who works for who. A duty to all of the people that spent their life fighting to keep the rights that were supposed to be inalienably yours.

Well, those duties are not being performed. If the Bush administration passes this law, a law that totally destroys the 4th Amendment and any rights that you may have enjoyed because of it, don't think that you will EVER be allowed take it back. It just doesn't work like that. Once this is passed into law none of the subsequent corporate, elite-club, Skull and Bonesman (or woman in Hilary's case!) presidents are going to strike it from the record after so much money was spent and so much time invested into ensuring that it was passed in the first place.

The 4th Amendment clearly and categorically states that no person shall EVER be searched in any manner without the necessary probable cause being demonstrated to a judge to ensure that the power of the executive or the law itself is not being abused. This new law guarantees the absolute polar opposite.

As usual, your mainstream media has betrayed you with their smoke and mirrors, so transfixed are you on the pointless gamesmanship of the charade that nobody seems to have noticed the really important stuff.

Yes, everybody in the US is aware that Bush wants to make something that is illegal, legal. Yes, everybody in the US is aware that Bush has been breaking the law for over 5 years and is now going to absolve himself of that guilt by making those actions legal. Yes, everybody in the US is aware that this law means that they could be watching you, listening to you, cataloguing you anytime, anyplace, anywhere.

But there is a much darker and more insidious issue here that has been largely ignored.

Amongst other nasty little catches, clauses and amendments, Bush has managed to attach one such amendment that ALLOWS him to submit his wiretapping program to a National Security Agency secret court for constitutional review...

But it does not REQUIRE him to.

So, if the wiretapping gets a little out of hand, which is not so hard to imagine given the constant stream of occasions in which this administration has gotten out of hand, Bush OR ANY SUBSEQUENT PRESIDENT will not have to hand ANY of the program over to the NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY for review.

Even if you think that Bush is a good, trustworthy President, an incredible thought but there are some that do, this law will still exist when the next president takes office, and the next, and the next. Even if you believe in Bush what guarantee do you have that you won't be fooled into voting for a maniac sometime on the future?

Do you think that the people of Germany voted for Hitler because they thought that he would catalogue them, issue a National ID Card, take away their guns and then murder anybody that he deemed "unsuitable"? Of course they didn't and for this very reason you should be very afraid of leaving this legislation just lying around to be used by another President who may not be so "trustworthy".

Ask yourself two VERY simple questions:

1. You are told that this bill is necessary for the NATIONAL SECURITY of the United States of America. If that is the case, why are the NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY not guaranteed oversight and review?
   
   
2. If the National Security Agency are not going to be receiving reports on the wiretapping program that Bush claims is essential for National Security, then who IS going to be receiving them or are we to assume that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and Rice will be reviewing the program themselves?

And whilst you consider those questions, do remember that America currently has 140,000 servicemen and women fighting in the Middle East to ensure that your rights and freedoms are protected. They are fighting and giving their lives for the very rights that you are allowing your government to take away in their absence.

One more question:

Do you think that the Bush administration would have the cheek or the balls to do this if those 140,000 servicemen and women were back from the Middle East or do you think that they would be scared that these highly trained warriors might just question their actions and even be prepared to take their country back suppoerted in full by almost every retiring senior military officer since the War in Iraq began?

Kinda makes you wonder why your military is still fighting a war that they can never win in a country that was NEVER a threat, doesn't it?

The future of your nation lies in YOUR hands. You cannot stand by and wait for somebody else to stand up so that you can follow them, you must stand up for yourself and others will follow you.

WAKE UP AMERICA!