If It Looks Like A Duck And It Quacks Like A Duck

Then it might just be a duck.

Despite President Bush's desire to recast his domestic spying program as a "terrorist surveillance program", the fact remains that it has been used in a rather Nixonian fashion. If the US Government taps the conversations of it's citizens, stores the information, and then mines it, as evidence the administration has not refuted has shown, then what you have is not a tool in the war against terror, but Big Brother. This "terrorist surveillance program" (read: domestic spying program) points to the worst excesses that can occur when one administration consolidates power in the way this administration has.

The administration has even had the nerve to claim that if this system had been in place prior to 2001, the 9/11 terrorist attacks would have been prevented. This is offensive on multiple levels. It is an attempt to once again portray the opponents of the program as unpatriotic and to placate and brainwash their base at the expense of the victims. To date the administration's "terrorist surveillance program" has yielded no arrests of indictments of Al Qaeda members. Rather is has led to eavesdropping on liberal student groups, anti-war protestors, and those with opinions differing from the administration. Clearly, Mr. President, you have a duck. A domestic spy program.