House approves government spying and telcom immunity

With the record of the Bush regime and its congressional enablers, this story seems anticlimactic. But it just goes to show how out of control the GOP/DLC monarchy is.

The Decider is praising Congress for its so-called compromise that would allow the government to spy on phone communications without a warrant. They call this a compromise? A compromise with what??? The warrantless eavesdropping program was and is unconstitutional. How can you compromise constitutional rights?

The Fourth Amendment is very clear. For the government to listen in on any communications is a search, and it requires a warrant. Period.

The new bill also provides immunity to phone companies for allowing past and future wiretaps, no matter how illegal the wiretaps were when they occurred. In other words, telcoms can break the law and get away with it.

When Bush claims this new policy will help fight terrorism, he's a liar. (Just like he is about everything else.) Under the FISA rules of 1978 that are now being gutted, there was no threat of terrorists escaping, as long as these rules were followed. That's because FISA allowed the government to get retroactive clearance if surveillance had to be done immediately. But that's gone now along with the Fourth Amendment.

Gee, talk about being let down by the major parties. You can't pin much blame on me from now on, because I've switched to the Greens, but this story just goes to show what a big disappointment the current congressional leadership (to use the term loosely) is.

(True to form, the allegedly Democratic Congress has higher approval ratings among Republicans than among Democrats.)

The Senate is expected to approve the changes next week, and Bush of course is expected to sign the whole sordid bill into law.

(Source: http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2008-06-20-bush-eavesdropping_N.htm;
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN1929314820080620)