The Senate passed the new(er) FISA act friday and Bush signed it yesterday (sunday): Bush and Gonzales now legally have the right to spy on you (us) — thus legalizing all the wiretapping and spying on US citizens they’ve been doing illegally all along. The shiny new legalized wiretapping act gives the NSA six months to solidify their backdoor access to major telecommunications switches on American soil with the cooperation of major corporations. They did this over the weekend. Crooks and Liars sums it up with their post (incl. video) American Civil Liberties Destroyed. But the truth is laid bare in white-knuckled anger in Enough Already with the Pathetic Excuses over at DailyKos, snip:
I know what a lot of you 57 Democratic Representatives and Senators are going to be saying over the next month while you’re speaking on the home turf. You did it to protect Americans. You didn’t want to take a chance. You had to stand up to the terrorists. You really had no choice.
If anybody asks why in hell you chose to legalize what the Cheney-Bush team has been doing illegally since 2001, you’re going to tell us you did it for our own good. You amended the 29-year-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act – originally passed to put some modest restrictions on agencies whose outrageous and frequently illegal behavior had been exposed by journalists and the Church Committee – to make us safe. You’re going to tell us you’ve got our backs.
You’re going to claim we can depend on you to be tough against terrorists even though you just put your foreheads to the floor at the feet of the most loathsome duo ever to sink their talons into the office of the Presidency. You’re going to tell us you couldn’t stand up to the blackmail, although that’s not what you’ll call it. You’re going to say Democrats can’t afford to appear weak.
At which point, if I happen to be in the back of the room, your bodyguards will probably have to drag me off. Because I cannot imagine how I will be able to quiet my laughter long enough for you to get on to the next question.
Frankly, you epitomize weak. Your every pore exudes feebleness. You are surrender monkeys. And you’ve just casually tossed away a basic protection as if it were a banana peel.
Link.
I already feel safer from the terrorists — thanks, America! We are, truly, “open for business.”
The people who voted for this – Democrats and Republicans alike – sold out the American public. They didn’t do it because of terrorism, but because of fear and cowardice. None of them is deserving of the office they hold or the oath that they took to uphold the Constitution and it’s amendments. Thanks for the post, Violet.
what really chills me is the part about backdoors into corporations. as, in, corporations like Google? I think it’s likely.
God this is disappointing. How come the Republicans have the strength to stonewall every single measure the Dems put forward, but the democrats can’t even get their asses together to stop something truly evil like this?
I am totally flipping the bird at my monitor right now.