Constitution Not Secure Under Security Bill

The passage Tuesday of the Bush administration’s bill to create the Department of Homeland Security may well signal the beginning of the end of our constitutional democracy. Embedded in this bill is the most far-reaching assault on privacy and civil liberties that has ever taken place in the U.S.

It lays the groundwork for a department euphemistically called “Information Awareness” to have the authority to spy on Americans. No shred of personal information will be private.

As horrific as the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11 were, they did not threaten the constitutional foundations of our government. It is the Bush administration’s response to Sept. 11 that threatens the rights of all Americans and, by extension, the geopolitical stability of the planet. We have seen this president repeatedly using Sept. 11 and “national security” to weaken civil liberties and drum up support for a needless war while our economy declined, unemployment increased and too many Americans suffered from hunger and lack of medical insurance. The passage of this bill should make it clear that the administration’s agenda is to remake our democracy into a police state. All to protect national security, of course.

Mary Batten

Los Angeles

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Will somebody assist me? The ex-CEO guys who now run our government, preach small government and rant that throwing money at a problem is no way to solve it have just created the largest government boondoggle in our history called “homeland security” and added to a growing Defense Department. The combined boondoggles will approximate a trillion dollars annually of taxpayer money and debt. This was done to “defend” us from a small number of guys in a cave who orchestrated the destruction of the World Trade Center and who continue to terrorize us by operating with a budget of perhaps $40 million annually.

I play by the rules, pay my taxes and have graduate degrees from excellent universities. Yet the math here confuses me.

Caldwell Williams

Los Angeles

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George Orwell got it right just a few years too early. It wasn’t 1984, it is 2004 that we should all fear. Citizen Bush will not be happy until he can, at the touch of a button, find out every detail of our lives and question our patriotism if we but dare to question. What next? Do we all get a microchip implanted in our heads? Welcome to the “new world order,” fellow citizens.

Peggy Burke

Valley Village

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We, the people, of the 50 states, in order to spy on our broken union, build up injustice, ensure domestic conformity, strengthen unreasoned defense, promote the general warfare and secure the gates of security for ourselves and our old secrecies do abstain and inter these 10 amendments for our piece of North America.

Michael Chmielecki

Encino