Opinion: NSA overstepping its authority by spying on U.S. citizens

By MARK BALLARD
Guest columnist

MARK BALLARD

Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2013, 2 p.m. — On CNN’s “State of the Union” this past weekend, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a California Democrat, said there were more terrorist groups in the world than ever, with more sophisticated and hard-to-detect bombs.

“There is huge malevolence out there,” she said. She spoke generally of “a real displaced aggression in this very fundamentalist jihadist Islamic community, and that is that the West is responsible for everything that goes wrong and that the only thing that’s going to solve this is Islamic sharia law and the concept of the caliphate”.

Some believe we are already headed to a caliphate (or Islamic state) with the current leadership we have and not only by the direction in which they are trying to steer the country, but the shredding of the Constitution on their way there.

Is the NSA really weakened if they cannot listen to us talk to our Grandma, or read our emails to our friends, or view our self-pics we are sending to our friends? And, if Sen. Feinstein is that concerned with the threat of attacks on our country and her claim there are more terrorist groups now than ever, why is she so anti-gun? You would think she’d want more and more Americans armed to deter that threat and to be able to respond to it.

The true issue is that the NSA got caught with their hand in the cookie jar. They want to have the power to listen to conversations between anyone they choose, to read whatever they want to read, and to not answer to anyone. Now, I am not naïve enough to believe that this is the first administration to have the NSA spying on the very citizens they are supposed to be protecting. I am also awake enough to know that people who do not support, or publicly ridicule, this administration will be the very ones eavesdropped on.

I personally don’t care if they look at my emails or listen to my conversations. The current administration already dislikes listening to things myself and others call them out on, like how they push Communist and socialist agendas, how they support the Muslim countries around the world over our allies, or how they are purposely destroying our country from within. I have been forthright in that assertion ever since the day this administration began not only circumventing our Constitution, but outright trying to shred it. I abhor anyone that ignores, or tries to change the meaning/intent of the Constitution. So, NSA and anyone else that desires, feel free to listen to anything I have to say or read anything I write.

However, there are many who do not want to be eavesdropped on, and it is their right to have that privacy. The Fourth Amendment of the Constitution provides, “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”

These words were not added to sound good; they are there to protect the two fundamental liberty interests of the right to privacy and freedom from arbitrary invasions. The entire purpose of the Constitution is to prevent the government from exceeding its bounds.

Oh, I know there are liberal judges willing to totally ignore the Constitution and make a judgment that helps perpetuate the socialist agendas as has happened in the past. I just hope they don’t expect those of us in this country who don’t have our heads in the sand to roll over and accept it.

Wake up citizens and write or call your Senators and Representatives. Tell them to have the NSA listen to the enemies of our country — not the citizens who are tired of the liberal socialist agendas being pushed on Americans.

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