Peekaboo...guess who's watching you?

Yesterday a Federal District Judge in Washington ruled that the NSA

Secret surveillance program may be unconstitutional— violating the 4^th amendment‑ the one which protects our privacy from undue search and seizures. I couldn’t agree more.

This got me to thinking about the other side who claims it is necessary to fight the “war on terrorism.”  How are people’s conversations to and from lovers, family members and friends any of the government’s business.  The judge called it down right “Orwellian.” He’s right.  The war on terrorism is not like World War II or Vietnam or any other war with specific sides and battle lines.  It is a murky, dark police action against a force that hides and springs to life when we least expect it. I get it.  The same was true with the forces we opposed during the war on drugs days. But even in those days we still had to go to a court of law and show “probably cause” to get search warrants and wire tapping permission before the police could snoop in the dark.  But now, with the secret courts and the behind the scenes workings of the NSA, CIA and other initialized government bodies, we can be spied on at anytime in almost any situation.

Probably cause is not owning a cell phone. Probably cause is not texting.  Probably cause is not communicating with family and friends.  Probable cause is real and should be shown to a court in the open for the proper paperwork to spy on the country’s citizens.

Many condemned Edward Snowden as a traitor for revealing the workings of the NSA.  Not me.  I think he is a national hero. We need more like him.  Patriots who will take a stand and say that this type of action is wrong and it goes against what our constitution sets forth as the law of the land.

If we are the land of the free, we should have our government act like it. It should be held accountable for our freedoms, not just defending them with a standing army, but propping them up with courts and jurisdictions that can survive the light of day.