Secret government eavesdropping just got easier with the 69-28 Senate passage of the FISA bill.

The bill greatly overhauls the rules for allowing widespread datamining and collection of personal information by the federal government. It also grants immunity to the giant telecommunication companies that helped the government eavesdrop on American phone and computer lines without permission, knowledge, or court orders in the years since the 9/11 attack – warrantless wiretapping, a certain violation of the Fourth Amendment.

Several amendments that were offered that would have tempered the bill’s broad-reaching aspects and the immunity provision for telecoms were all rejected. That means the 40 pending lawsuits by those who had their personal information handed over to the government will now be dropped. The ACLU, a party to some of the lawsuits, said the bill was “a blatant assault upon civil liberties and the right to privacy.”

Details of the very classified program were available to only a few members of Congress – most still know nothing of the details, so in essence they have granted immunity to telecoms without the facts of the case.

“This president broke the law,” Sen. Russ Fiengold (D-Wis.) stated, but all to no avail. Feingold has been the most vocal opponent of the FISA re-write and is a severe critic of President Bush’s authority in instituting such a secretive and unconstitutional abuse of executive power. "I can promise that if more information is declassified about the program in the future, as is likely to happen ... members of this body will regret that we passed this legislation," he warned.

Presidential candidate Barack Obama voted for the bill saying although he found it imperfect, it was still a good compromise even though, “It grants retroactive immunity to telecommunications companies that may have violated the law by cooperating with the Bush Administration’s program of warrantless wiretapping.” Nevertheless, mindful of the power he hopes to wield soon enough, he also noted: “Government must have the authority to collect the intelligence we need to protect the American people.”

Meanwhile, the current President welcomed passage of the measure. “This legislation is critical to America’s safety. It is long overdue,” President Bush commented.

Listed below are the 28 senators who stood up for the embattled Fourth Amendment and voted “no" on the measure. Every one of them is a Democrat; the Republicans chose to vote the party line, rather than support and defend the Constitution. If your senator’s name is not listed then your senator voted “yes,” and needs to hear how you feel about his or her vote. (Only three abstained from voting: Ted Kennedy (D-MA) because of illness; Sessions (R-AL) no reason available; and McCain (R-AZ) because he is on the campaign trail. (Senate roll call vote online.)

Keep in mind that in the vote last week for cloture, which ended any chance of a filibuster against the bill, only 15 voted “no.” The vote on the actual bill shows 28 “nays,” an increase of 13 senators. But don’t be fooled into thinking that these senators have seen the light. These 13 senators could easily have voted in favor of a filibuster last week if they were truly opposed to the FISA rewrite.

Those voting against the measure were:

The Senators that changed their positions on the bill will be on record as having been against warrantless wiretapping, the gutting of the Fourth Amendment and subsequent loss of civil liberties – a very politically expedient position to be in when facing the constituency back home – despite the fact that they did not support the filibuster.

As a result of passage of this measure, Americans once again have allowed their individual rights to be usurped by politicians who have the most to gain from the subversion of freedom – namely more power for the politicians and servitude for the unvigilant citizens. By invoking the “safety” mantra long enough politicians have actually redefined the term to mean “give up your civil liberties,” and lulled Americans into a political catatonic stupor.
 

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed

Show/Hide comments

Write comment

This content has been locked. You can no longer post any comment.