The House passed a bill today that provides retroactive immunity for all telecommunications companies involved in President Bush's domestic spying program. You know why they need retroactive immunity? BECAUSE THEY BROKE THE LAW. The Bush administration, with the help of multiple telecoms, spied on Americans WITHOUT A COURT WARRANT. And now, the House has finally given in and decided to side with the most unpopular president in American history.
And where are the conservatives during all this? Where are the true conservatives who favor PRIVACY among all else, the ones who HATE it when government eschews the law in order to pry in on the lives of individual citizens? Why, they're all backing telecom immunity, too! That hardly surprises me, given that the conservative movement has grown so limp in the face of the neoconservative minority that few if any have the backbone necessary to actually stand up for their original values. Why follow any laws when they can use the "Terrorist Bogeyman" to do anything they want?
Click here to read the case AGAINST retroactive immunity for telecoms.
We should be proud today to be citizens of Wisconsin, to be represented by one of the few brave senators left in Congress: Russ Feingold. The guy with the guts to oppose the "Patriot Act" is the only one truly speaking out against this bill:
“The proposed
FISA deal is not a compromise; it is a capitulation. The House and Senate
should not be taking up this bill, which effectively guarantees immunity
for telecom companies alleged to have participated in the President’s
illegal program, and which fails to protect the privacy of law-abiding
Americans at home. Allowing courts to review the question of immunity
is meaningless when the same legislation essentially requires the court
to grant immunity. And under this bill, the government can still sweep
up and keep the international communications of innocent Americans in
the U.S. with no connection to suspected terrorists, with very few safeguards
to protect against abuse of this power. Instead of cutting bad deals
on both FISA and funding for the war in Iraq, Democrats should be standing
up to the flawed and dangerous policies of this administration.”
We can still fight this. There are two things we can do right now to change things:
1. Contact Russ Feingold and express your support.
2. Contact Barack Obama and tell him to stand up and urge the Senate to vote down this bill. He has the power in the Democratic Party right now to kill this bill in its tracks.
Ken Brosky
