While the Senate was ready to vote on the FISA Amendments Act today, Senators Russell Feingold and Christopher Dodd fought to keep them from casting a final vote and jamming the bill through Congress.
In a statement released by Feingold, he says:
"I am pleased we were able to delay the vote on FISA until after the July 4th holiday instead of having it jammed through. I hope that over the July 4th Holiday, Senators will take a closer look at the deeply flawed legislation and understand how it threatens the civil liberties of the American People. It is possibly to protect this country against the terrorists while also protecting the rights and freedoms that define our nation."
For those who haven't read up on the new FISA bill, it would basically give the government the right to peek into the private overseas phone conversations, emails, and even text messages of all Americans. Part of the bill would give retroactive immunity to telephone companies that gave the government private information of Americans.
Feingold says the FISA bill would also allow the government to take all international communications and put it in a giant database. The most outrageous part of the bill states that there does not have to be any court review or evidence that anyone is doing anything wrong before the government intrudes on the person's privacy. The government will simply have complete access to the personal overseas communications of every single American.
Feingold continues to say, "It's a vast power that has no limits. There's no regulation of it."
Obviously, the new FISA bill was created to help the government "track down terrorists"....just like the Iraq War was orchestrated to find weapons of mass destruction. It all makes perfect sense.
It's angering that the government has instilled so much fear in the minds of Americans, that many are ready to hand over precious civil liberties in the name of "protection." In fact, it's sickening. All the Republicans who are avid gun owners and want to protect their constitutional right to bear arms have NO RIGHT to say an American's right to privacy is not as important. This proposed FISA bill simply violates the right to privacy. Fear tactics should not trick Americans into giving up their freedoms. The Senate needs to wake up.
The more the Bush Administration remains in power, the more the United States mirrors the image George Orwell illustrated in his book 1984. Big brother really is watching, and members of our own Senate are allowing it to happen.
Feingold admits that many of the Senators have not completely read the bill and do not know the logistics of it. By holding off on the bill until after July 4th, hopefully the Senate will have the opportunity to think things over and not just hand the Bush Administration exactly what they want.
If you want to watch TYT's interview with Senator Feingold, please check out the video below:
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FISA Bill On Hold!
Posted Jun 26th 2008 8:23PM by Ana Kasparian
Filed under: Iraq, Politics, George Bush, Media, Young Turks
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Reader Comments ( Page 2 of 23)
16. Bpers;
you sound like a pussy. your boy osama is voting for it so i guess that makes him a nazi too you racist jack ass.
german guy at 12:01AM on Jun 27th 2008
17. Dear German guy,
Ask anyone, I don't waste what you call intelligence on these pointless pages. In fact, why? They're just a silly pasttime for me. I am sad that you take them so seriously.
Loser-dumbass.
Robert at 12:01AM on Jun 27th 2008
18. RE: Gutless #15
See-?
Robert at 12:03AM on Jun 27th 2008
19. Robert:
you liberals always show your true colors. Whine about civil rights and then attack someone with racist remarks for expressing a view contrary to your own.
That is blatant first amendment deprivation of the utmost. But then again, anyone who reads your posts can see you are unarmed in every manner of the word.
terrorism doesnt exist you say. that easilly is the stupidist remark i have ever heard on any blog anywhere, bar none.
But then again, thats about par for you.
german guy at 12:06AM on Jun 27th 2008
20. Dave, dave, dave....
And you think a bunch of Saudis with barely passable flying skills pulled that one off? Dude, you're hidebound propagandist mind-set (sorry for the redundancy, folks, I liked the line) has blinded you to the actual FACTS. Sorry.
Robert at 12:06AM on Jun 27th 2008
21. Dear GG,
Racist? I said nothing racist. Gutless? Yup!Pointless? You bet. But racist? Dude, wipe off the foam, it's clouding your vision.
Robert at 12:12AM on Jun 27th 2008
22. No Robert,
Gutless is telling the families of the thousands of americans killed around the world by terrorist extremists that they dont exist. I think those countless families would like a word with you and beg to differ.
Typical liberal hacks. If anyone said anything disparaging about blacks, or insert your non white sub class, you liberals would be going nuts. Because I am german, it is ok to call me a nazi for expressing my views.
You guys are beyond pathetic. Hypocritical, ablated, miscreants in every sense of the word.
german guy at 12:13AM on Jun 27th 2008
23. Trust me, terrorism as imagined is simply a replacement for the Cold War foe that collapsed similarly to how we are going down.
They (the terrorists) have valid points. Israel is one of them. Not the abolishment thereof, but the WTF preferential treatment of them at the cost of the Palestinians. Ad nauseum.
Robert at 12:16AM on Jun 27th 2008
24. Which THOUSANDS of Americans? The two and a half victims of COLLATERAL DAMAGE from the WTC? The four plus in Iraq fighting an unnecessary war? Which ones, asshole (sorry, the wine's kicking in)?
Robert at 12:19AM on Jun 27th 2008
25. P.S. gg, I meant Bpers nailed your personna, not your fra-gee-lay sense of self.
Knee-jerk dumbass.
Robert at 12:21AM on Jun 27th 2008
26. Okay Dave, conspiracy theory time.
Katrina provided a perfect test ground for urban chaos. And in November, their votes, what they have of them, won't matter.
Move on th the midwest, present day. Help arrived, rather quickly in fact, (I think, I haven't actually seen much actual assistance yet). Along with W's gentle assurancce of "You'll come back better..." Why the banal platitudes? Because come November, their votes WILL matter.
"Desperate times breed desperate measures..." Or somesuch.
Robert at 12:28AM on Jun 27th 2008
27. Little bitch Robbie:
caught yourself in a lie didnt you. Had to backtrack like the liberal punk ass you are.
Pathetic, trolling on blogs every night. Run out of money for the 900 numbers. No wonder you need a govt handout.
You self admittedly dont put any thought into your comments. theres the understatment of the century.
Like I told your liberal brethren last night, its very easy. If you dont understand the insructions or the dosage, just ask the pharmacist. I hear anti psychotics can be tricky.
Let me guess, you have seen aliens too. Watch out, bigfoot is looking through your cell door. war of the worlds was a documentary. Osamas a christian.
New rule, from now on atleast some type of high school equivalency.
german guy at 12:37AM on Jun 27th 2008
28. German Guy
I had the same type e-mail with that Ana who seems to be really in love and impressed with herself. Writing for AOL and working with Cenk, who has sunk so low he is no longer with Air America. I think she says she is working on an advanced degree in Journalism. I mean how advanced can anyone be as a Journalist Major, if that is what she is.
ROBERT OKANE at 1:09AM on Jun 27th 2008
29. Robbie:
Now I have to back track. You just hit an all time low with 26. Not one coherent thought in that whole post.
Katrina wont matter in november but the votes along the upper mississippi will.
this just in, liberals now claim bush cheney junta has the ability to control the weather. Floods, torrential rains, hurricanes etc. You are by far the most clueless individual to every grace these threads.
usually I just laugh at your insignifigance but tonight you have reached a whole new level of abject feeble thought. i actually feel sorry for you. Hope you dont operate heavy machinery.
In any case, Ana personally emailed me so it hasnt been a complete exercise in futility. That warm greeting will be with me all night and possibly in the shower tomorrow morning as well.
Like a typical repub, work tomorrow so enough of this mindless banter. Someone has to pay for you libs meager pathetic existance.
german guy at 12:54AM on Jun 27th 2008
30. Poor Clifford just doesn't have a clear understanding of modern day events vs. his ongoing grasp to 500 yr old satire of a Utopian society..
xxx
bobby, if you think coming over here and trying a mulligan on a position you stated repeatedly and I repeatedly verified is going to float, you're about as out of touch as bush and busher, inc.
Right now, bobby, about 83% of the voters in our country think it's headed in the wrong direction.
About 78% disapprove of the administration and its policies. About the same percentage disapproves of the war and the economy.
We could go on, but that's more than enough, bobby.
I have only addressed the particulars of the defense you allege that bush provided the nation with in a prior post, just this with you, bobby, save some mild comments on your rather florid reactions to reading what you admit you stand for in print.
That is a large reason why we don't like the direction your party has taken the country.
You stand where you say you stand, and I'm clear in what I believe and that it's in the boundaries I noted above. Clearly majority American opinions.
As always, I will state that we both agree that you are in 100% support of the bush and busher administration, right?
Well, that sounds to me that on the issues I mentioned, you stand with bush on destruction of the bill of rights and habeas corpus and the rather odd position being a dittohead or nearly so forces you to take about bin Laden, that he's neutered and insignificant and not worth sending an army after, even to Pakistan but you still somehow want him dead.
Now, of course your next recourse is to paint yourself as modern and me as mcsame, i guess, but mcsame and his views are your people and your principles as you've repeatedly said. Double standard, but there'd be no GOP without them, right?
Well, how modern are you? Let's take a little inventory, shall we?
Here are some republican ideas and a little on their origins:
Unregulated capitalism, libertarianism is a product of the 1700's. It is a utopian philosophy, and there has never been a libertarian government.
Excessive privatization and unregulated restraint of trade mergers while robber barons were in control of government nearly wrecked us in the 1880's to the 1910's. Teddy Roosevelt is famous for trust busting and pulling the nation back from the brink Ronald Reagan sent us back over. Our greatest enemy adhered to this same philosophy.
The notion that corporations should merge with government and completely control the lives of citizens is a notion from 1932 from Giovanni Gentile and Benito Mussolini, partially in imitation of ancient Rome. Hitler and Franco's governments were restatements of this. It's from 1932 on, but the roman origins are ancient.
The idea that a single party should dominate all government, that non party members be denounced as traitors and that the legislative and judicial bodies be puppets and rubber stamps of the Executive branch is the model used for the soviets by Stalin.
Spying on citizens and deprivation of magna carta and constitutional rights are the function of all despotic governments, especially the communist bloc.
Destruction of habeas corpus is pre magna carta politics, royalist and from the 1200's. However, these rights don't exist in any despotism.
Saddam Hussein had the same view as bush and busher of his citizens - if you're against him or he thinks you might be, you're toast.
Merger of church and state is variable. It's in Mussolini's doctrine and goes back the the beginning of the existing church, but brings much more atavistic values. An average may be about 400 BCE
The conservative philosophy of Russel Kirk is prefaced with quotes from Edmund Burke - only the aristocracy should vote, the masses should be kept uneducated, poor and unhealthy to prevent uprisings. This was conventional English thinking in the 1700's and is certainly evident in neocon domestic policy.
Bobby, these are very old and very failed philosophies as is the absurdity that under libertarianism or communism the state will wither away.
Nature abhors a vacuum, and we haven't seen any withering.
That's the essence of extreme conservatism, bobby. All the ideas you cherish are from long gone times.
As I said, I'm beginning to think DeToqueville might still be on point even though he was describing Americans in 1849, I think. Your last post was very, pardon the term, elitist.
Clif Kuplen at 1:00AM on Jun 27th 2008