DOIN’ THE FISA FLOP

Since the days when Newt Gringrich was Speaker of the House, you and I have been saying that this Congress needed to relearn the art of compromise. The dogged partisanship that his Contract on Amerika engendered has been one of the signal ways in which our system has been deteriorating to nearly the point of self-destruction.

This past week, however, both parties were touting their bipartisanship by pointing at the compromise legislation the produced in “reforming” FISA – the act that governs the nature of intelligence gathering in this country.

This compromise, though, is more a proof of the old adage, “Be careful what you wish for, you might get it” than of the value of Congressional compromise.

The new FISA is less a compromise than a collapse. Essentially, nearly one-half of the Democrats (Demorats -105 yea, Democrats - 128 nay) caved in to the demand of the administration that the telephone companies be given blanket immunity for anything illegal they did in the past in wiretapping American citizens.

The rational given is that when the government asks AT&T or anyone else to do something it is their patriotic duty to do it without question. What a crock of &#**. When the government asks even a soldier to do something illegal, it is that soldier’s responsibility to refuse. If anyone should understand the legal issues involved in wiretapping it is AT&T. They have years of history of involvement in the warrant rules for surveillance. They should have been the whistleblowers, not the enablers of this administration’s violations of the fourth amendment, and they should be punished for the complicity.

Typical of the Demorat position, Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-MD., not only supported the legislation, but praised those responsible for striking a ‘compromise’. "We needed consensus to move forward," he said. "No one gets everything he wants."

Well it seems to me, Mr. Hoyer, that the Bush administration gets a lot more of what it wants than it ought to. How much backbone would it take to force an administration with only about a 30% favorable rating to back down from a position that violates the fourth amendment? Why was there such a great need to “move forward” on this bill that we should be willing to sacrifice the right to prosecute those who violate the Constitution?

Doesn’t this Congress have any more of an understanding of the Constitution and its value than the average southwest Missouri Republican?

And how will the Senate vote next week on the same bill? Here’s an indication – “Obama declared he will support the bill when it comes to a Senate vote, likely next week, despite misgivings about legal provisions for telecommunications corporations that cooperated with the Bush administration’s warrantless surveillance program . . .”

How are we going to be able to support any candidate for president if Obama is going to be that spineless? If this is the kind of leadership we can expect from him if elected, this may be the first election since '68 that I refuse to vote in.

Here is the message I sent to Obama this morning:

"I read this morning that you intend to support the FISA "compromise" that provides immunity to telecommunications companies. No one should be immune to law because they acted according to the wishes of a government intent on committing illegal acts. This is a fourth amendment issue and the kind of thing for which you have had my support as a presidential candidate because I believed that you had the knowledge and courage to confront.

If you vote in favor of this act, you will lose my support and my vote, and I will, for the first time since 1968 refuse to cast my vote for either a Democrat or a Republican in the presidential election."

If you want to contact him, go to: http://obama.senate.gov/ There is an easy link there to use to send him an email.

It will be darned hard for any candidate for the any seat ever to drag my vote out of me if they support this legislation. We need a Congress that understands and supports the provisions of the Constitution -- a legislative body that supports the rights of the people and the balance of powers in the government. Without that knowledge and courage, the Congress is nothing more than a rubber stamp for illegal and unethical practices that should be appalling to every American whether he or she is a Democrat, Republican, Libertarian, Independent or anything else.

And a president who supports this kind of legislation -- who needs another one? We have had more than enough of that kind of governance for the past eight years. Lord, just strike us dead and put us out of our misery if we can't get rid of it.


Be the change you wish to see in the world. -- M. K. Gandhi

Individually we have little voice. Collectively we cannot be ignored.
But in silence we surrender our power. Yours in Peace -- BR

The reason for going was to keep the crude flowing and raise a false flag abroad. – from a poem by Jack Evans titled 3500 Souls - http://www.myspace.com/paralegal_eagle