Posted on 07/09/2008 1:05:04 PM PDT by shrinkermd
WASHINGTON — More than two and a half years after the disclosure of President’s Bush’s domestic eavesdropping program set off a furious national debate, the Senate gave final approval on Wednesday afternoon to broadening the government’s spy powers and providing legal immunity for the phone companies that took part in the wiretapping program.
The plan, approved by a vote of 69 to 28, marked one of Mr. Bush’s most hard-won legislative victories in a Democratic-led Congress where he has had little success of late. And it represented a stinging defeat for opponents on the left who had urged Democratic leaders to stand firm against the White House after a months-long impasse.
“I urge my colleagues to stand up for the rule of law and defeat this bill,” Senator Russell D. Feingold, Democrat of Wisconsin, said in closing arguments.
But Senator Christopher S. Bond, the Missouri Republican who is vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said there was nothing to fear in the bill “unless you have Al Qaeda on your speed dial.”
Supporters of the plan, which revised the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, said that the final vote reflected both political reality and legal practicality. Wiretapping orders approved by a secret court under the previous version of the surveillance law were set to begin expiring in August unless Congress acted, and many Democrats were wary of going into their political convention in Denver next month with the issue hanging over them—handing the Republicans a potent political weapon.
So instead, Congress approved what amounted to the biggest restructuring
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
No comment.
That $10 would be a good investment, I do believe. Getting rid of such BLATANTLY unconstitutional bilgewash can only be said to be a GOOD MOVE.
So tossing away the Constitution and MY freedom so YOU can feel a little more of that false sense of security is OK with you? ‘Cause it sure doesn’t fly with me.
And you actually think this will somehow PROTECT us? How cute and naive you are.
If you look back and see what the Founders had just come through when they wrote the Constitution and so seriously LIMITED FedGov’s authority to do this very sort of thing, you’d run screaming from the room. There was a REASON they wrote it the way they did. But now people like you don’t seem to mind that government has so many powers specifically denied it by the Founders. Is it the death of the Republic you desire so much? Because that’s PRECISELY where we are headed. With this much power in the hands of government AND someone like McLame or Obambi getting ready to accede to office next January, you are a cheerleader for the end of this nation as we knew it.
Besides, FedGov is NOT responsible for my protection... or YOURS, for that matter. I AM and you are, respectively. Get used to it, because that’s the way it was designed... for FREEDOM-loving individuals with the stones to step up and protect themselves and their own and NOT hide behind the skirts of FedGov for every little thing. If you don’t have what it takes, too bad, so sad. Keep your slimy paws off MY freedom.
It IS telling. I know of at least ONE Republican in the House who voted against it. The ONLY one who has even one SHRED if personal integrity left.
You win Drama Queen of the Day award.
Cool. You win Moronic Noobie of the MONTH award for your idiocy and advocacy of Big Government. Also for your apparent refusal to accept personal responsibility for your own protection and well-being. I also note that you could not respond factually or rationally, so maybe we can make you the Moronic Noobie of the Year...
If memory serves me right, this entire thing goes back to a court ruling that a warrant was needed, even on totally foreign communications via telephone because the way networks are constructed, those calls can end up going through a switch/router within the US even if both parties are outside of the US. The court somehow found that since a switch or router involved in the call may be in the US, it becomes a domestic issue.
Thats total nonsense.
Funny how you side with an admitted liberal troll that signed up yesterday, yet chastise me for agreeing with every single republican senator that we need FISA as a tool to monitor terrorists.
>>>>>Also for your apparent refusal to accept personal responsibility for your own protection and well-being.<<<<<
I can protect myself from attacks on my family or my household. Thats what my guns are for. I cannot protect myself from a crazed islamofascist flying a plane at my building. That is what the military is for.
FISA is a way to intercept those things. But you, and all the bleeding heart liberals, don't want Bush to hear your phone conversations with his super secret earphones. You'd rather watch another attack take place.
Protect me? Thanks, but I’m not so cowardly that I see a threat in anyone who has a foreign accent. I’m about as concerned about being killed in an act of terrorism as I am in being involved in a golf related fatality. And what exactly was preventing them from protecting us using the FISA bill that dated back to the 70s? You know, the one that provided the ability to obtain warrants retroactively and was almost never denied? Thanks, but I’d rather have my civil liberties than a misguided attempt by the government to save me because they know what’s best. I bet Obama can’t wait for you to throw him more of your rights.
I want to know one act of terrorism that has been stopped because of the modified FISA rules. ONE ACT. Can’t do it, can ya? And most of the people being spied on won’t actually know they’re being spied on. I, for one, am not cool knowing that the government could spy on me if they wanted to. I don’t prescribe to the belief that if I haven’t done anything wrong, I don’t have anything to worry about. Talk about a dictator’s wet dream. A populace that is all too happy to surrender their rights because it’s for their own good. I wonder what else you’d buy.
What a terrible analogy. Was there ever a law against reporting information to the authorities that was obtained legally? Of course not, that’s why you’d never be held responsible for the chevy owner’s inconvenience. The telecoms broke the law by providing information to the government that they told you as a consumer they didn’t have a legal right to share. They broke the law because the government asked them to, then came running back to that same government to prevent them from having any responsibility for breaking the law. If you don’t understand the difference, then I don’t think I’ll have much further luck talking with you.
“”I don’t think I’ll have much further luck talking with you.”””
Ok then STOP. Go back to DU where your sentiments are embraced.
darkwing104, can you summon the kitties for troll cleanup over here?
Wow, that was a very well reasoned and informed response. So much easier to call me a DUmmy than to actually say something rational. Bravo, you’ve just exposed how much thought you put in before blindly supporting something the government tells you to. If only all citizens could be like you.
Not that I don’t want to respond.... I am just very busy. I put things in order of priority that need to be done and talking to loony that thinks the govmt is out to get us is pretty low on the list.
I'm not. You seem to missing the point: that point being, we already have given up many aspects of our 4th amendment rights if not outright, then by legislation sleight of hand and underhanded deals. So getting all up in arms about FISA is about the same as calling the police because your neighbor dog take a dump in your yard while the burglars were stealing you blind out your front door.
are we just supposed to give up and surrender all rights because of an irrational fear of Muslims?
Of course not, surrender ALL of our rights is a strawman argument. Nobody is proposing that.
FISA is a tool of the government to protect the citizens. There are rules and regulation in place to protect our rights Can they be abused ? Of course, but we weigh the difference between another potential attack or some government worker making a mistake.
Last time I looked AQ didn't tear up their Fatwa's and start singing Kumbaya
Tell that to the family of Alex Jimenez
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