BREAKING NEWS from Yahoo:
US Senate passes wiretap bill, bows to White House pressure
Tue Feb 12, 7:21 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) – The Senate on Tuesday ceded to pressure from President George W. Bush’s administration and passed a controversial measure authorizing security agencies to tap foreign telephone calls and emails in the US “war on terror.”
By a vote of 68 to 29, the Senate passed the bill, which now moves to the House of Representatives and faces stiff opposition from some Democrats.
After heated debate, the Senate authorized the measure offering blanket immunity to telecommunications companies for potential violations of US laws requiring warrants to spy on US citizens –– a notion some lawmakers in the House have resisted.
Bush described the Senate move as a “strong, bipartisan vote in support of legislation that will ensure that our intelligence professionals continue to have the critical tools they need to protect the nation.”
To read the entire report simply go to:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080213/pl_afp/uscongressintelligence2ndlead
Juice readers. Do you view this action as an example of losing our Fourth Amendment from the Bill of Rights or do you support the President as he is sworn to defend the Constitution while providing full protection for all of us who live in this country.
We are engaged in the GWOT which predates 9-11. Our lives will be forever changed.
The Senate should be ashamed of themselves.
I highly recommend Glenn Greenwald’s insightful coverage and commentary on today’s events over at salon.com.
http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald
Email response:
Larry:
I support the President on this one. It works.
Sxxxxxxxxx
Another email reply
Now, if they can get if through the House and Nancy.
It’s a tragedy and a body blow to the Constitution. The Judiciary Committee version of FISA gave the government all the power they need to protect us and spy on terrorists, but that’s not enough for the government we have now, which wants to spy on all of us all the time. AT&T and Verizon broke the law, helping the government spy on us, and they did it for profit — other telcoms refused to. If the House lets telcom amnesty stand, not only is that undeserved impunity for the big corporations but we’ll also never be able to find out exactly what the Bush administration was doing with the vast new powers they grabbed. (And as soon as they got into office — long before 9/11 — which, I like to remind people, they didn’t even manage to prevent!) Do you really — does anybody, even Larry — trust THESE GUYS with unlimited surveillance powers over the US people?
Franklin said it best “Those who would trade their liberty for a little security deserve neither.”