An Open Letter...

...To President Barack Obama.

Dear Sir,

In November of 2008 you were elected to the office of President of the United States by me, and millions of other Americas, on a platform of hope and change. But recently, it seems to be more a case of "Meet the new boss...Same as the old boss".

It began with the reluctance of your administration to live up to its duties in investigating the Bush administration for its apparent violation of US and international human rights law regarding the abuse of detainees in US custody. Now your administration seems to not only be siding with the late, unlamented Bush administration, but are actively seeking to expand the authority they claimed to conduct domestic surveillance operations on US citizens without a warrant! This in response to the lawsuit filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

The motion submitted by your DOJ does nothing short of gutting the Fourth Amendment, and all in the name of "state secrets". As a former professor of constitutional law, Mr. President, it should not be necessary for me...a layman...to tell you that a right unenforced is no right at all. Secondly, using the doctrine of "state secrets" as a means of preventing the investigation of a crime is no better than complicity in that crime.

Make no mistake sir, you and your administration have been doing some good things. But, as we said in the Navy, "One 'Awww shit!' wipes out all of your 'Attaboy!'s". In this case you have a MAJOR "Awww shit!"