The Chilling Effect of the NSA Spying (a personal story)

[maxrandb]

When you get right down to the “nitty-gritty” of this NSA Spying on Americans scandal, you realize how chilling the entire fiasco is. We’ve concentrated on how this spying program shredded the 4TH Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure, and how Americans used to be able to feel secure in their own homes, but it stands to be even more damaging to our 1st Amendment rights. You need look no further than me to see an example of how this chills free speech. The chilling may be subtle..., but it is chilling none the less.

Because of this program, I find myself reluctant to post on DU. Now, most of you may know that I’m an active duty Naval Officer. I suppose if they came after me because of my “political leanings”, (and believe me, being a bleeding heart liberal Naval Officer, is like being the fat kid in dodge-ball) I could claim “selective” prosecution. I suppose if they were to come after me, they would have to go after all the Freaker Repuke-lick posters as well. They would also have to go after the Army soldiers in Iraq that sent pictures to the Rush Limp-balls site of them in their “Club Gitmo” t-shirts…, but that is not the point.

The point is that I don’t feel safe anymore to freely speak my mind. There is no reason that I should feel this way, other than the facts that a) I am a liberal Democrat, b) I oppose this administration’s policies, and c) at any given moment, the NSA might be listening.

In a free society, in a society without government eavesdropping, in an America I used to know…this would not be an issue. Yet, I find myself, even now, hitting the back-space button, and thinking twice about what I’m posting. Knowing that at any given moment, the NSA might be “checking me out”, I find myself holding back, or tempering my disdain for this administration. I choose my words, written and spoken, more carefully these days. If that is not a “chilling” effect on free speech…I don’t know what is.

The other day talking on my cell-phone to my bride, we began to talk about the latest outrage from the criminals in the White House, and I found myself feeling the need to “watch what I said.” Granted, it was just a little subtle feeling in the back of my head...but why should I even have that feeling?

Perhaps this is nothing new. Perhaps the NSA has long had the ability to monitor every e-mail I send and every phone-call I make. Perhaps I’m just being paranoid, but then again, I've heard that a paranoic is someone that has a pretty good idea what is really going on.

The lack of judicial oversight is so critical to this issue. I know I would sure feel a heck of a lot safer, and would be a heck of a lot "free-er", if I knew that the NSA had to convince a judge that I was somehow a threat to National Security, before, or after they spy on me. I would feel safer, because I know that any judge in their right mind would laugh them out of court if they tried to say I was a threat. I would feel safer, because even if a Repuke rubber-stamp judge ruled in their favor, I would still have an opportunity to refute their evidence, and make a case for myself, or at least know that I was being targeted. Without judicial oversight, I don’t feel so safe.

That’s the problem with this whole “spying on Americans” crap. They may tell us that it’s not designed to encroach upon, or limit our rights to free speech…but it already has.

Am I allowed to say that?