Sen. Rand Paul’s government reckoning on the Peoria.com Forums

Gazillions. That’s the number of times that the federal government has spied on Americans since Sept. 11, 2001, through the use of drones, legal search warrants, illegal search warrants, federal agent-written search warrants, and just plain government spying. This is according to Sen. Rand Paul, Kentucky Republican, who, when he asked the government to tell him what it was doing to violate our privacy, was given a briefing that was classified. The senator — one of just a few in the U.S. Senate who believes that the Constitution means what it says — was required by federal law to agree not to reveal what spies and bureaucrats told him during the briefing in reply to his inquiries about the government’s violations of the right to privacy.

The rules for classified briefings of members of Congress on areas of government behavior that the government wants to keep from its employers — the American people — are a real Catch-22. Those rules allow representatives and senators to interrogate government officials about government behavior that they are afraid to reveal, and it requires those officials to answer honestly and completely, but the rules keep the interrogations secret and they expressly prohibit members of Congress from telling anyone what they have learned.

www.washingtontimes.com/news/2012/aug/8/sen-rand-pauls-government-reckoning/

This is a Must read. Regardless of your political affiliations.

I read an article a few months back about the government's interpretation of the Patriot Act, which is of course also classified. I can't remember exactly who it was, but they alluded that the government basically interprets it to mean they can spy on whoever they want, however they want, whenever they want. It's pretty clear that this is the stance moving forward.

This isn't the article, but it's basically the same info: http://www.aclu.org/blog/national-security/governmen

The Government is assaulting our civil rights so badly it has to swear to secrecy our elected Representative that they brief on those tactics. We aren't talking about the privacy of criminals, or Terrorists (Which is the same thing), we are talking about the assault on law-abiding American citizens, assaults that are happening with the frequency of an imaginary number recently described by Rand Paul who had a secret briefing on the matter as being in the Gazillions.

How or why do they keep this stuff secret, no law is above the US Constitution. If the Government is violating it, and our Representatives do nothing.. what is the point of even having a constitution, or them for that matter.