Lynn C. Woolsey: “merely hours after the Bush administration was celebrating the Iraqi election as a triumph for human freedom, what did…”

“merely hours after the Bush administration was celebrating the Iraqi election as a triumph for human freedom, what did we discover courtesy of the New York Times? That our own government, through the National Security Agency, is secretly spying on the phone calls and e-mails of American citizens without a warrant or a court order. And they have been doing so for nearly 4 years at the explicit direction of the President of the United States of America himself. This is even more egregious than any of the other suspensions of civil liberties that we have seen in the last 4 years. It makes the PATRIOT Act look like it was written by the ACLU. Has anyone in the White House read the Bill of Rights and the fourth amendment about the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures? It is a part of the same Constitution that the President has sworn to preserve, protect, and defend. Mr. Speaker, I am not exaggerating when I say that sometimes I do not recognize my own country. Secret gulags in Eastern Europe, the Vice President personally lobbying Senators to give the CIA the right to torture detainees, and now this. What do I tell my grandchildren about what America stands for?…”