Poetic Justice

Trey Smith

Let me call your attention to columns by two of my favorite pundits: FBI's Abuse of the Surveillance State is the Real Scandal Needing Investigation by Glenn Greenwald and Done in by the PATRIOT Act: The Grand Irony of the Petraeus Sex Scandal by Dave Lindorff. Both articles make the salient point that the Patriot Act and its inherent violations of our civil rights has risen up to bite some of its chief proponents on the butt! Rather than protecting us from "terrorists," a distinguished (?) military career or two has come crashing down amidst a growing sex scandal.

The FBI "investigation" that led to these many headlines was undertaken despite the fact that no crime had been committed, the alleged threats were mild as far as threats go and the harassing emails had absolutely NOTHING to do with national security. The FBI "investigation" began solely due to a request of one "friend" to another. This friendly request has led to this ever-growing scandal.

And let's face it. These days the FBI, CIA or whoever else doesn't need much of a pretense to investigate anything or anybody. Heck, we already know that our super spies are intercepting millions of emails, Facebook posts and phone calls per day to "analyze." They are watching ALL of us both for important and unimportant reasons. If they decide in their solitary wisdom that YOU pose some nebulous threat to something or other, they are watching YOU closely.

It used to be that our government was restrained from all sorts of nefarious activities aimed at normal citizens by this document called the US Constitution. Sure, they abused this document frequently, but not as a routine way of conducting business. Today, however, they don't even need to pretend that they give a shit about the Bill of Rights -- it's just a silly piece of paper!

We may smirk that some bigwigs have become caught in a snare of their own making, but, at the same time, we should shudder. While each might be an egomaniacal prick, that -- in and of itself -- does not cancel out their OWN civil rights. They should be protected against unreasonable search and seizure just like you or me. If the feds go after them with such tenacity, imagine how forcefully they might go after peons like the rest of us!!