You are here

Home » Blogs » Shahid Buttar's blog

NSA vs USA

published by Shahid Buttar on Wed, 02/25/2015 - 6:40am

Check out a series of 9 sick remixes of NSA vs USA, or download the open source stems from which to construct your own. You can also download the extended dance floor mix from Soundcloud.

NSA vs. USA was written to be a teaching tool as much as a dance track. Below are annotated lyrics, with links to articles and reports you can read to learn more. The first step in helping "build a movement, raising your voice" is to learn history and get informed.

The next is to connect. Reach out if you need help or ideas on how to get involved!

Many thanks to everyone involved in helping enable this project, the media outlets that have covered it, the tremendous music producers from around the world who contributed remixes, the courageous Edward Snowden whose revelations forced a long overdue debate, and -- most of all -- the millions of Americans who, every day, "build a movement, each raising our voice."

NSA vs. USA
 
Verse #1 (thought crimes, oppression by rotation)
The NSA breaks the law every day
it doesn't matter who you are or what you say
they monitor your phone calls and emails anyway
Corrupt Congress and courts paving the way
 
There's a lesson you’ll learn someday…
…watch what you say.
They spy on your mind, record your calls for posterity
 
They’re the authorities, here to keep us safe…
Until the boot ends up on your face.
 
NSA CHORUS
It's the NSA against the Constitution
We the people are the ones our government is abusing.
We can force any agency to make a new choice
when we build a movement, each raising our voice.
 
Verse #2 (lies, NSA reach, FISA, military-industrial complex)
they lie about the numbers of Americans watched -- immense,
too large for them to calculate, they sigh
a self-serving lie by the government’s eye
 
computing power unmatched in history
it's insanity how large the hubris looms
the government's watching you in the bathroom
 
and they lie about it at every opportunity
sustained abuses of every community.
Unity across Washington DC:
all three branches against you and me.
 
See, Bush signed a secret presidential decree.
Obama talked a big game, but presidentially,
did everything he could to entrench the Bush Legacy
A complex composed of military, industry
 
Eisenhower 60 years before anticipated it’d be
rising in the wings for generations, growing
a crisis in democracy sowing.
The future's at stake. You can start by knowing
 
NSA CHORUS
 
Verse #3 (Palmer Raids, COINTELPRO)
For a hundred years, since World War I
the FBI versus free speech has held the gun
Constitutional rights on the run
the Palmer raids the first but not the last one
 
Fast forward 40 years to the real red scare
McCarthy did a number but the FBI was there.
They were everywhere. They knew what you wore to bed
 
What does it mean to monitor thoughts?
Spying means a lot more than watching what you bought
it's the Feds always knowing what you’ve got in your head
not only whoever with whom you share your bed
 
But whether you're compliant or a threat instead
A head, like MLK, to be "neutralized." 
That's the word the FBI used: decades of lies
exposed, revealed as institutionalized 
 
Beyond trying to drive Reverend King to suicide,
no one even knows how brother Malcolm died.
Fred Hampton killed in his own house, inside!
 
and those lies go all the way up the chain of command.
The agencies lie to judges when on the stand.
The Director, the head honcho, the man,
claims his lies were unplanned and that he didn't understand  
 
FBI CHORUS
It's the FBI against the Constitution
We the people are the ones our government is abusing.
We can force any agency to make a new choice
when we build a movement, each raising our voice.
 
Verse 4* (Snowden, secrecy, Congress, budget)
How would a Patriot act, in fact?
He'd drag Congress out back, and beat it with a bat.
Like Revere rode through the streets, warning of attack,
Snowden, 250 years later, back
 
again the alarm. You can bet the farm 
that the agencies on democracy inflict harm,
hiding secret crimes -- works like a charm!
Congressional dysfunctionality far 
 
and wide go the attacks on cyberspace
and the telephone system, every call that you place
monitored: caller, receiver, profile, race, 
ideology, temperament, sexual taste
 
Noticed a budget crisis? Heres the waste:
billions every year to our country debase.
Don't settle for half ass, keeping spying in place.
The agencies need to be erased.
 
Acronym CHORUS
Agencies against the Constitution
We the people are the ones our government is abusing.
We can force any acronym to make a new choice
when we build a movement, each raising our voice.
 
Verse #5 (Thought crimes, COINTELPRO, corruption, DHS)
Some fools think Edward Snowden is a traitor
But they ignore everything that happened later:
We’re talking ‘bout corruption in the capital for shizzle.
 
Democracies fizzle when their people are watched
that's why the NSA's got to be stopped,
and the FBI too. Don't forget what they do.
Entire agencies arrayed against you,
 
setting in motion predictable plot twists,
arresting democracy to bind her wrists.
The constitutional coup already happened: it's
 
We must all resist…or we'll be history
 
Closing CHORUS
Agencies against We the People
Don’t stoop, don’t grovel to no government steeple.
We can force our government to make a new choice
when we build a movement, each raising our voice.
 
 
* available only on the extended Dance Floor mix
Tags: 
Poetry
Music
Activism

Theme by Danetsoft and Danang Probo Sayekti inspired by Maksimer