Jan. 15, 2007 - 20:51 MST

HOLDING THE FORT

There is a term used in pinball games of my early manhood, "gunching" which defined jogging the game cabinet to make the ball go where the player wanted it to go, or keeping it from going where the played didn't want it to go, in such a way as to avoid the game lighting up "TILT" and stopping the action.

It appears to me that our administration is using "terror" to "gunch" the game in order to allow them to do whatever they want without being held accountable, and in secret too.

An item in The Rocky Mountain News this morning delineates the action described, I think. The article is by The Associated Press - no writer given. Following is a quote in full of the article:

CHENEY DEFENDS RECORDS CHECKS

VP says Pentagon, CIA entitled to look at bank, credit data

WASHINGTON -- "Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday the Pentagon and CIA are not violating pople's rights by examining the banking and credit records of hundreds of Americans and others suspected of terrorism or espionage in the United States."

"Rep. Sylvestre Reyes, D-Texas, the new chairman of the House Intelligence Committee said his panel will be the judge of that."

"National Security letters permit the executive branch to seek reecords about people in terrorism and spy investigations without a judge's approval or grand jury subpoenas."

"The New York Times, which reported Sunday on the expanded use of the technique by the Pentagon and CIA said military intelligence officers have sent the letters in up to 500 investigations."

"The Defense Department gets involved because we've got hundreds of bases inside the United States that are potential terrorist targets," said Cheney, who was interviewed on Fox News Sunday."

"The Department of Defense has legitimate authority in this area. This is an authority that goes back three or four decades. It was reaffirmed in the Patriot Act," he said. "It's perfectly legitimate activity. There's nothing wrong with it or illegal. It doesn't violate people's civil rights."

"In a statement Sunday, Reyes promised that his panel would take a careful look at those allegations."

"Any expansion by the department into intelligence collection, particularly on U.S. soil, is something our committee will thoroughly review," Reyes said."

"We want our intelligence professionals to have strong tools that will enable them to interrupt the planning process of our enemies and to stop attacks against our country," he said. "But in doing so, we also want those tools to comply fully with the law and Constitution."

"The Pentagon and the CIA, to a lesser extent, have used this little known power officials said. The FBI, the lead agency on domestic counterterrorism and espionage, has issued thousands of such letters since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001."

"The letters have generated criticism and court challenges from civil liberties advocates who say they invade the privacy of American lives, even though banks and other financial institutions typically turn over the financial records voluntarily."

+++++++++++++++++++++++

And who is to say who is a suspect ? Where is the oversight and judicial finger to prevent some dingbat official from naming suspects who are in no way involved in such activity ?

And along with that, how soon will our medical and psychiatric records be open to the political world ? How soon will what goes on in the confessional be recorded for the Feds to pore over ?

In my mind and way of thinking, the Patriot Act goes much too far in the allowing of individual arms or our government to do what they wish, without oversight or judicial approval. Oversight and judicial approval were there as a protection of us average Joes and to my mind a part of the "checks and balances" in government as visualized by men (who I think in the long run) were much more intelligent and ethical than any present day politician -- my thoughts on that.

Also what worries me is that with this permissive set up, the groundwork is laid for the next, or the one after that, government administration to legally do things that would lead to a dictatorship in essence if not in name.

But, of course, Cheney and company stoutly keep pushing and trying to keep on HOLDING THE FORT . . . . . . . . . . . . .

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