As my long-time readers know, I don’t make my views on politics, religion, etc. known. That’s because I’ve seen too many message boards (and friendships) torn apart by disagreements between people with different points of view. However, recent events compel me to speak up. As long as the comments remain civil, I’ll leave comments enabled on this post. If things get out of control, I may lock this post temporarily or permanently, or delete the whole thing. With that out of the way…

“They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” – Benjamin Franklin

I’m stunned by the revelation that the NSA is continuing to monitor all phone calls, collecting and storing for an indefinite length of time the phone numbers of both parties, the locations of both parties, and the starting time and length of each phone call. [Reference].

Even more troubling is President Obama’s statement that “In the abstract, you can complain about Big Brother or how this is a potential program run amok, but when you actually look at the details, then I think we’ve struck the right balance.” [Reference]

Apparently Congress was informed of this and yet not a single member appears to have raised any objection.

On the heels of that revelation, further information was published showing that a different data collection operation is in progress, sending everything from email to photos to VoIP phone calls, etc. to the NSA. [Reference]

Next, it was revealed that the NSA is also receiving details of credit card transactions. [Reference]

President Obama, I voted for you (twice!) because you campaigned on a platform saying you were different from President Bush and would repeal the “surveillance state” legislation passed as a knee-jerk reaction to 9/11. Not to mention your promise to “Close Guantanamo Bay”. Instead, this is what we get? You make me ashamed to be an American.

“People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people.” – V, “V for Vendetta”