It's right there in the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution:

_____

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

_____

Do not pass go, do not collect two hundred dollars, do not parse, do not fold, mutilate, spindle, tear, gut, burn or shred.

In keeping with policies and procedures consistent with gutting the foundational principles of our Constitution and democracy, the Bush Administration's Department of Homeland Security has proceeded to ignore the care and handling advice and has engaged in the very actions verboten by those instructions.

originally posted 2008-07-09 00:07:21, bumped - cho

Call, fax or email. It's too late now to send a postcard to stop this heinous capitulating "cave-in to be" but it's not too late to start letting them know that gutting our fourth amendment is not cool.

Why is it necessary, why is it politically expedient, to set in stone and make yet another law that falsely legitimizes the crimes of the Executive, of Congress, of the Department of Justice and the telecom industry? In light of the FACTS that Bush Committed 30 Felonies and did not do so alone, did not act without support and protection from Congress -- what makes it so important that this must be passed today? There are ongoing cases that this would shut down -- more reason, not less, to send this disgraceful veil of faux legitimacy to an early and ignoble grave.

Promoted -- GH. Originally posted 2008-06-22 15:50:20 -0500.

"I John McCain do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign and domestic."

This is the oath John McCain will have to swear if he is declared winner of America's presidential election in November of 2008. Every American president since George Washington has had to take the same oath. It is an American tradition that defines us even more so than baseball and Mom's apple pie. If the Constitution of the United States is not preserved, protected and defended, then this country isn't really the land of democracy that America's founding fathers created and wished to preserve.

However, it would seem that John McCain has no respect for America's founding fathers, or the U.S. Constitution which every president must swear and oath to defend.

Bumped. Originally posted 2008-06-20 13:13:50 -0500.

Posted simultaneously on ePluribus Media, DailyKos, Docudharma and Below Boston.

There are words that comprise paper tigers and those which ignite fires; some words are worth fighting to protect, others are not.

Some words forge new nations and ideals amid the forge-fires of conflict, while others are relegated to the dustbins of history as naught but a footnote at most.

There are words, on the page following, which have worth that appears to vary across the depth and breadth of the nation today. Once -- long ago, perhaps -- they were words that could inspire and entice the people of a nation to do great things. Now, however, their fate appears uncertain. I ask, fellow netizens, just one simple question: Whither the words necessary to marshal a hue and cry of outrage and demand for restoration, restitution and accountability?

Earlier today, I posted a piece on ePluribus Media's community site entitled Comparison and Contrast: Privacy and Violation of Human Rights. While I crossposted the opening to the piece on DailyKos and DocuDharma, the only the version published on ePluribus Media contained excerpts toward the end of relevant passages from the U.S. Constitution's Bill of Rights.