FISA: The Mourning After, Part I
In a multi-part series examining the FISA legislation passed on 7/9/08, the statements of Senators Kit Bond (R-Mo), Arlen Specter (R-Pa), and Russ Feingold (D-Wi) are reviewed and deconstructed. First up: Kit Bond…
This is one of those days when I feel like I’ve stepped into an alternate reality.
While the focus of my ire yesterday was aimed at presumptive Democratic Party presidential nominee Barack Obama, there is plenty more reserved for the other Senators, both Dem and GOP, who voted yesterday to gut the fourth amendment to the United States Constitution. The comments of three Senators, two GOP and one Dem, stand out in particular.
Over the next few hours, I’ll be posting a series articles that I’ve been working on since yesterday evening. The first batch will examine quotes from Kit Bond (R-Mo), Arlen Specter (R-Pa), and Russ Feingold (D-Wi) on the revised FISA legislation. The final post will wrap up the discussion with an impassioned response from a fellow blogger. What will be conspicuously missing are any quotes from Barack Obama - because there are none in the public domain right now.
“It would be unfair and potentially disastrous to use our patriotic electronic carriers as punching bags to try to get at the administration.
“Patriotic electronic carriers”?? Christ on a friggin two-pair phone wire.
These privately held corporations were illegally directed by the clandestine departments of a rogue regime to break the law. There is no question that these privately held corporations knew exactly what the hell they were doing, whether they received letters from a government agency or directly from George W. Bush. You can not tell me for one moment that any such requests were reviewed by the corporate attorneys at each of these privately held corporations, and that the vast majority just rolled over and capitulated to the requests, mainly in the interest of political expediency…
So, breaking the law and the subsequent gutting of a core provision to the United States Constitution to cover the lawbreaking is now “patriotic”, Sen. Bond?
In an upcoming post, ASZ readers will understand the truly egregious nature of Bond’s statement.
FISA: Why I Can No Longer Vote for Barack Obama
FISA: The Mourning After, Part 1
FISA: The Mourning After, Part 2
FISA: The Mourning After, Part 3
FISA: The Mourning After, Part 4
Kit Bond had my BP way up listening to his bullshit propaganda.
First of all, if the Administration had complied with the law in the first place and obtained a lawful warrant from FISA, the telcoms would have been forced to comply and as a result would have been immunized against civil litigation because they had been compelled to comply. If you don’t cooperate with a legal warrant you can be arrested for obstruction of justice and/or fined.
Bush does not have the authority to override the law especially laws like FISA which contain exclusivity provisions. Doesn’t matter if we are ‘at war’ or not. So to have him order a company to violate the law makes them accessory to a crime. By this same bullshit Kit Bondian logic a person order to rape and murder a woman by the President should be give a free pass solely because the President ordered it. It’s ridiculous. It’s illegal and unconstitutional. It’s spurious and it’s disgusting that we would even consider it.
What HR 6304’s passage has done has Congressionally authorized the President to override any law he wants at any time. Something our founders would NOT have approved of considering they were willing to go to war against England to prevent the King from doing the same. Even if Bush doesn’t abuse it, this statute is a ticking timebomb sitting around waiting for some future president to set off.
Further, if you look at the actions of the phone companies, patriotism doesn’t even enter into it. The telecoms didn’t stop complying with the Administration until the FBI started forgetting to pay them. In which case they SHUT DOWN a bunch of the operations.
If they had been legally compelled by a valid warrant, they could not have shut down the program for non-payment by the FBI. If they were real patriots they would not have shut down due to non-payment by the FBI. Nobody brought this shit up. Especially not Kit ‘I took 5 grand that was on the books from the telecoms this year’ Bond.
All of this, including the massive waste of public dollars investigating it and the waste of money and manpower chasing down false terrorist leads, the erosion of the justice department, the erosion of the Republican party, the erosion of the FBI and the destruction of any faith the American people had in their government could have all been avoided if only AT&T had been a real patriot and demanded the Bush come back with a real warrant.
and any troll sycophants that come along have to acknowledge that fact. There is no benefit to the public in stripping away more of their rights to protect criminals. This is not making us safer or putting gas in our cars or repairing our bridges. Bush’s overreaching have put this not just nation in further danger and further debt but it puts each and every one of them in danger in a very direct way as well.
By this same bullshit Kit Bondian logic a person order to rape and murder a woman by the President should be give a free pass solely because the President ordered it. It’s ridiculous. It’s illegal and unconstitutional. It’s spurious and it’s disgusting that we would even consider it.
Not to put too fine of a Godwin’s Law point on it, but this is exactly what the Nuremberg trials were all about: “We were just following orders.”
Not to put too fine of a Godwin’s Law point on it, but this is exactly what the Nuremberg trials were all about: “We were just following orders.”
Comment by Richard Blair — July 10, 2008 @ 2:27 pm
And Obama ( and my senator Mikulski ) are letting them get away with it.
bob casey fucked us too. fucking asshole.