The Shame of Congress

For more than 5 years now, communication companies in collusion with Bush have been spying on American calls and emails in a direct contradiction of the protections defined by the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution.

Today, the Senate will vote (most likely in favor of) the FISA Capitulation Bill that seeped out of Congress like a nasty sewage leak - a bill that grants immunity to these same communications companies, and bringing to a halt more than 40 law suits against illegal wire-tapping and government surveillance without a warrant.

This bill renders the FISA legislation impotent in the ability to protect Americans from a government over-stepping it's bounds and thumbing it's nose at the very document our elected "leaders" have sworn an oath to uphold. And Congress has crafted this bill willingly and eagerly, despite having shown in the past year that they were capable of - and gained public approval by - standing up to the President.

In the face of a very broad and continuous surveillance program functioning outside of the law, Republicans buried the last vestiges of their "limited-government" agenda in the folds of the President's jacket. Matheson's Blue Dog Democrats have, with this vote, betrayed the final vestiges of their "fiscal responsibility" cover for voting like Republicans on social, and Constitutional issues.

Today the Senate will vote for this bill and tell us that is is a wonderful "compromise," and that it helps to protect Americans. But in their vote, they are chipping away at the very principles that define us as Americans in the first place, pitting our Constitution against fear, capitulation to avoid being called "weak on terror," and (for many) providing protection to phone companies with large lobbying arms.

There is little hope the Senate will stand up on this, and our Congressional reps have already caved. Most likely, by the end of the day, AT&T will have it's immunity, the President will have his "justice," and Americans will have their phone calls recorded without even the moderate oversight of warrant from the courts.

In a few short months, Americans will have a chance to stand up themselves when Congress and the Senate would not do so. We might not be able to stop this from happening today, but we can ensure we don't end up in the situation in the future, learning from our previous mistakes in electing leaders with so little respect for the United States Constitution and our liberties, remembering who stood with the phone companies and who stood with the citizens.

I'm going to wrap this post up with a video from Morgan Bowen on his opposition to warrantless wire-tapping and granting retro-active immunity to law-breakers. It gives me something to look forward to as we watch our leaders cave in today.



Help Morgan beat Rob Bishop, who voted NO on requiring warrants for the surveillance of Americans.

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