Please check in if you oppose the massive surveillance being conducted on American citizens

[DirkGently]

227. We cannot trust a secret process, ripe for abuse, to be fair & just.

- We know this system was set up to be abused, and was being abused, and that the NSA in particular did not bat an eye at following Bush's secret, illegal orders. Then they went further, passing around sex calls for their own amusement.

So "safeguards are in place," and "we follow the law" are both meaningless statements, when made about secret activities.

- The present administration will not discuss recent illegalities, or how they have been addressed.

- The present administration has shown a willingness to engage in Bush-esque generosity erring on the side of excessive executive power, like the application of "Emergency" suspension of Miranda in ever possible terror case

But the issue is the process. Collecting sensitive information in secret has never NOT been abused. Chris Hayes did a good job last night reminding us that the FBI used its un-monitered powers of surveillance, to for example, attempt to drive MLK to suicide (by sending anonymous notes with information on his illicit affairs).

And we cannot simply accept that "it works." Remember Cheney and waterboarding? He'll tell those lies until the day he dies. And some will believe him, because they want to.

Homeland Security was apparently so busy monitoring OWS Facebook activity and estimating the possible "damage to the financial sector" that it paid little heed to warnings about the Boston Marathon bomber's activities in Russia.

So we know where their priorities are, no matter who is in office.

Do WE simply want to believe massive surveillance protects us? Do progressives now give the government spying operations *traditionally used to suppress us* the benefit of the doubt? Why? Because we like this President?

It is PROCESS that cannot be trusted. Not now. Not ever.