Tag: J Edgar Hoover

The Unfair Vilification of Donald Trump

Over the past year, Donald Trump has been labelled with more tags than any other presidential candidate in my lifetime.

He has been called a racist, misogynist and xenophobe with no respect for separation of powers or any other part of the Constitution.

It has been written that he is torching the most sacred American values and undermining the pillars of our democracy.

I read and hear these various commentaries in the media and from party, especially Republican Party luminaries, and I wonder why Trump is being held to a standard most are not.

Racism has been an integral part of America and we still have a long way to go to stamp it out. In 1776, we held truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal and are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. But, if you were a slave, you’re very humanity was denied you.

Not only were many of our early presidents slave owners, but Woodrow Wilson made “Birth of a Nation” the first film ever screened in the White House and called it quite good. Wilson’s comments were 50 years after the 13th, 14th and 15th amendments were passed and 126 years after the Constitution was ratified.

And we are not even considering the “Southern Strategy” which played so large a part in rejuvenating the Republican Party nationally.

As for misogyny, this country denied women the right to vote until 1920, as well as many other basic rights of citizenship, and still generally pays women less than men for the same job.

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Ron Paul feted in raucous farewell rally

Ron Paul On Warrantless Surveillance

A recent column by former Congressman Ron Paul called for an end to warrantless mass surveillance and a return of the 4th Amendment to American life.

As Paul pointed out, there is no terrorist exception in the 4th Amendment. Either probable cause exists to surveil someone, in which case warrantless surveillance wouldn’t be needed, or it does not.

We couldn’t agree more. Terrorism is no excuse to suspend the Constitution just as the alleged, but basically fictional, “Red Menace” was no excuse 100 years ago.

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National Security Agency Spying and the Constitution

Seven months after the Edward Snowden leaks about National Security Agency spying started becoming public, President Barack Obama is now saying some changes in programs may have to be made.

A Blue Ribbon panel appointed by the president, Review Group on Intelligence and Communication Technologies, recently published a 309 page report.

One of the conclusions in that report were that the NSA program of vacuuming information about phone calls and other electronic transmissions within, into and out of the U.S. was, from all available evidence, worthless as a tool to fight terrorism.

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Big Brother 30 Years Beyond 1984

George Orwell’s “Big Brother” is alive and well in the U.S. government 30 years beyond 1984, but I’m not sure even Orwell ever anticipated the level of the current actions.

Another attack, by “Big Brother”, on U.S. citizens’ right to privacy and guarantees of freedom from illegal search and seizure was reported by the “Guardian” and “Washington Times” newspapers recently regarding requests for cell phone records from Verizon.

Those revelations were bad enough, but we later learned, from “The Hill”, that senators knew about these vast phone sweeping operations by the National Security Agency, which have been going on since 2007.

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