By the corporations, for the corporations

Instance after instance of US government secret monitoring programs keeps surfacing, all of which were authorized by the Bush administration, and all in the name of national security. Terrorists. Threats. American lives. Danger. Paranoia.

Why exactly does the government want us on a constant state of paranoia and terrorist alert?

One of the more recent programs monitors financial records of private citizens and even corporations. Rest assured, it's to track the terrorists and the execution of the program is very narrow. If you believe that, I've got a nice chunk of waterfront property that you'd be interested in buying.

The Times recently reported this, and this is what your government representative had to say:

"Each of us swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, which includes the power of a free press. We also believe that this power comes with great responsibility, especially in wartime when the lives of millions of Americans are at stake. We believe this power was abused by the New York Times for the most cynical of reasons: to end American involvement in Iraq no matter the long term cost in lives and national security."

- Rep. Hayworth

Millions of lives at stake? This secret monitoring program protects millions of lives?!?

The Bush administration knows that true "terrorists" are sophisticated enough to know better than to use financial transaction methods that are easily traced. When the Times reported this, the only security broken was that of the government's ability to secretly monitor not only private citizens' lives, but commercial competitors and other nationals as well. The Bush administration has taken this "by the people, for the people" government and changed it into a "by the corporations, for the corporations" government.

January 20th, 2009 cannot come fast enough.