If Al Qaeda is fighting us because they hate our freedoms, as President Bush often says, then they’re winning the war. Pretty soon, we won’t have any more freedoms for them to hate.
Scratch the Fourth Amendment off the list of freedoms that we thought we had.
Pressured by a huge lobbying effort by Big Telecom and by fears of being painted as weak on terrorism, the Democratic-controlled Senate has rolled over on your right to privacy, abandoning legislation that would enforce the constitutional requirements of probable cause and due process of law before the phone companies can help the government spy on you by turning over your phone records, emails and other sensitive information…
On Tuesday, the Senate, with the backing of 18 Democrats and every Republican, defeated attempts by Sens. Chris Dodd and Russ Feingold to hold the telecom companies accountable for their past illegal conduct…
Chalk up another victory for the terrorists, who hate our freedom. So too, apparently, does the U.S. government.
I used to think that the UK followed the US, but now I think its the other way around. It reminds me of the Taking Liberties video currently doing the rounds.
Classic,
Every single Republican buckles, and somehow the Democrats become responsible for the failure.
Take it a step further: suppose those 18 Dems had opposed the bill – who wants to bet the Republicans would now be talking filibuster?
Look at who is voting what, and ask yourself which party is trashing your Constitution.
Raster–what is it about the Deomocratic process do you not understand?
If the Dems support Constitutional freedoms, they would vote against this bill. Thereafter if the Repugs decide to fillibuster, then that is on them.
Yes–the Dems are gutless sell-outs for what I can’t tell. Same with why in the world Bushieboy isn’t being impeached and Rove investigated etc.
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Maybe strong stances interfere with the day to day under the table pay-offs==I mean, campaign contributions.
Don’t seperate the Republicans from the Democrats on this one. They are both part of the same group that has the same goals and jus ticked off another item on their check list.
What a perfect scenario of pretending to have diferent views and attracting diferent supporters so that every now and then when an issue that actually matters to them comes along they have all the voting power they need to ensure that it happens.
Yes the UK is exactly the same.
What the fuck happened to my country? We need politicians with strong moral principles to protect our rights and freedoms. Instead we have the Democrats. Pussies.
Wait until these laws are turned against them. Think a modern Watergate that has become legal.
#2 ans #4 miss the point – unless reality is a problem. The Republikans accept and prate about the point being “security”. They’re expected to vote against liberty. Their ploy is that Americans won’t notice or care.
The Dems say they will fight to defend our freedoms. Just next year.
Hypocrites.
Screw these guys. I can’t believe that senate dems can’t pull it together enough to pass a decent bill. I’m proud to have Russ Feingold as my senator. He has been talking about this for months.
On another note: It’ll be a cold day in hell before I give ATT one red cent.
I am disgusted. As Raster pointed out, there were many more Republicans than Democrats in favor of this.
Next year at this time will the Republicans be howling that Hillary has too much power?
Think of it…, a call goes out to the chair of each telecomm. They, being the recipients of massive contractual monies from the gov’t, and foreseeing support on legislative issues solidifying their iron-clad control of the mediums of communications, concede to simply ‘allow’ the gov’t types to take whatever they wish (in terms of data and content) out of their data stream.
Now they are surprised and dismayed that these ‘people’ are offended and seeking answers.
However, they own all the lines – and what are going to do, boycott them? HA! Our teenagers would spontaneously combust if they couldn’t get their ‘connection’ fix every hour of every day!
Oh wait! The constitution and code of commerce allows us a recourse to redress these matters by a fair and impartial judicial system (spit).
Of course we must protect them from that! “Quick – change the law! Theyll never get it anyway! Stupid people, when are they going to realize that WE know best!”
The American Freedom myth is dead! Welcome to the corporate empire!
#5 –
Thinking your country used to be better than this is a common misconception. There has never been a federal government in the US that didn’t care more about protecting the wealthy, white, ruling elite than the welfare and freedoms if it’s citizens. We only have what freedoms and rights we do have because non-privileged citizens fought for them *against* the government despite what the constitution says we supposedly have automatically.
Saving big phone companies from getting their asses kicked in court in the name of National Security (regardless of whether the securing was legal or not) is a no-brainer for a congress dominated by either party. Humans tend to be the most sympathetic to those who are the most similar to ourselves.
This type of action against our rights will continue until the electorate decide to make it an issue. Only then will our politicians take action.
They respond to who makes them accountable… right now that’s the Telco’s, not us.
Shouldn’t you be mad at the government for doing the monitoring rather than the telecoms for not resisting? Chris Dodd is always big on giving money to trial lawyers, except when they are suing the financial firms in his state. I don’t see how giving lawyers carte blanche to sue telecoms helps. This is a reasonable move. If Democrats want to object, let them be honest and pass a forthright ban on extrajudicial wiretapping.
Anybody writing their congressman yet? Blogging wont get it.
I don’t think writing our representatives will do anything unless the envelope it is sent in contains a large amount of cash. Where is Guy Fawkes when you need him? V
#14 – Higghawker,
Yes. Numerous organizations make it easy to send emails directly to one’s senators, representatives, and other government officials. I have sent a number of emails on the subject.
For those who are really interested in keeping our constitutional rights, don’t forget to put your money where your mouth is and support the ACLU.
Also, get on their action alert list and/or take action on specific issues via this page of theirs.
http://tinyurl.com/79wqa
— Misanthropic Scott, proud card-carrying ACLU member since 1994.
And, for those who think the ACLU is too liberal for their taste, feel free to tell me why after reading my blog about the subject. (Most likely, you just don’t realize how socially liberal and left-leaning the founders were or are misunderstanding the ACLU stance on some issue, probably gun control where they actually don’t have a stance.)
http://tinyurl.com/2dyway
@13 – “If Democrats want to object, let them be honest and pass a forthright ban on extrajudicial wiretapping.”
I hear what you say, but it wouldn’t make ANY difference. That’s what they’ve learned, why spend political capital on this President. The Democrats DID pass a bill that said we can’t torture, and Bush did what he always did (HUNDREDS of times now), just put on a signing statement saying ‘thank you for your opinion, but I’m President and in a time of War(tm) I can do whatever I want’.
Bush has/will ignore ANY/ALL limitations of any bill congress passes. It doesn’t MATTER what the Democrats do. They could pass any bill they want, it wouldn’t never be implemented by Bush. He’s now issued more signing statements that all other Presidents in U.S. history combined. ARGH!
Can you imagine if Hillary or Obama did the same? A Republican bill comes to their desk and they issue a signing statement saying, ‘thanks but I’d rather not obey this, we’re at War(tm) after all’. The Republicans would loose their minds and right wing talk radio would babble on about over reaching of power.
#12 BillM,
Hey, how are we supposed to make an issue of this, as the public, if the media only deigns tells us after all of the action has passed? I have been aware and fighting against this for months, thanks to the inter-tube-webs, but I know that of my friends I was the only one to even know that the Senate was about to pass this wiretap everyone all the time bill. We have to have a functioning media; expecting the public to react without the appropriate information is like expecting a man to do a jig after you cut his spinal cord!