FISA
July 9, 2008If you follow politics in the U.S. you that Congress is set to give our President the power to illegally wiretap American citizens. Breaking the 4th amendment is unacceptable and Senators voting to approve this is unacceptable. Wikipedia has a good article. I whipped up a quick comic to express how the whole idea comes across.
I also find articles such as this deplorable. My favoriteleast favorite line is “Currently, FBI agents need specific reasons — like evidence or allegations that a law probably has been violated — to investigate U.S. citizens and legal residents”.
I can’t wait to vote.
I’m feeling pretty clever for this right now, so I thought I’d share it:
“Frequent Intrusive Spying Act”
I’m with you, it’s deplorable. My representative to the House voted in favor of it. I’m sure our Republican Senator Allard will vote for it, but I hope that Salazar does not.
I think we can both be proud of heroes in the Senate such as Chris Dodd and Russ Feingold speaking out against it. Now I only wish Barack Obama would come out against this. He’s a constitutional lawyer!!
That said, I’m nearly 100% sure McCain will vote for it.
@Derek
McCain sat on the committee that wrote the bill…As i understand it this grants immunity for civil trails…I just hope someone prosecutes the lawbreakers in federal court.
I can’t wait either… But who to vote for? Now that its passed we can see the effect:
The one candidate (McCain) actually was on the comittee that designed the bill. When it came time to vote, as usual, he didn’t even show up for work, so his vote was counted as abstain.
The other candidate (Obama) publicly came out against it… but when it came time to actually vote (ie, earlier today), he voted for it instead of against it.
Third party? Look where that got us (ie 2004)
Agreed. Privacy is paramount.
Yikes, terrifying. While there’s a lot to worry about in the Netherlands regarding privacy (much of it invoked by US demands), we’re relatively off well.
@Vek:
Obama did not come out against it. In June he said he was for it. http://blog.washingtonpost.com/the-trail/2008/06/20/obama_supports_fisa_legislatio.html
That article says that one of my senators (Specter…barely a Republican) is one of the few Republicans opposing it. He voted “yea” on the bill though. So did Casey.
Obama is just as bad as Bush in this case. McCain is a coward. I’m sticking with Bob Barr in 2008.