Unabashed Warrantless NSA Spying on Americans is NOW LEGAL - And It's SPECTACULAR..

[The Cleaner]

:shrug:
:scared:

WASHINGTON, Aug. 5 — President Bush signed into law on Sunday legislation that broadly expanded the government’s authority to eavesdrop on the international telephone calls and e-mail messages of American citizens without warrants.

Congressional aides and others familiar with the details of the law said that its impact went far beyond the small fixes that administration officials had said were needed to gather information about foreign terrorists. They said seemingly subtle changes in legislative language would sharply alter the legal limits on the government’s ability to monitor millions of phone calls and e-mail messages going in and out of the United States.

They also said that the new law for the first time provided a legal framework for much of the surveillance without warrants that was being conducted in secret by the National Security Agency and outside the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the 1978 law that is supposed to regulate the way the government can listen to the private communications of American citizens.

“This more or less legalizes the N.S.A. program,” said Kate Martin, director of the Center for National Security Studies in Washington, who has studied the new legislation.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/06/washington/06nsa.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin

[Beelzebud]

1. It's getting hard to support a party that lets us down at every opportunity.

Gonzo needed impeachment, not unchecked power...

If they thought they'd pick up some Republican votes by doing this, they'll be in for a shock when people like me just don't vote, because there is no real choice at the ballot box.

I'm done voting for Republican Lite, and with this crop of Democrats, thats exactly what we have.

[babylonsister]

3. I second that, and am feeling real discouraged.

And now I have a full month to let that feeling fester. What were they thinking?

[Hydra]

22. notice the crickets

where the apologists and "we need more time" people used to be?

Ah, sweet silence.

[Selatius]

4. I thank the 16 fucking Democratic senators who threw us all under the bus.

They sold us all out when they voted with the Repubs. Both Jim Webb and Diane Feinstein voted for it among others.

[leftchick]

11. I was never impressed with Webb

I knew he was repuke. :puke:

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

18. I've emailed and called my Dem Senator. Please keep the pressure on.

MKJ

on edit, and my Dem Senator is as DINO as they come. :puke: MKJ

[leftchick]

9. there are a whole lot of true conservative repubs that don't like this either

along with independents. I don't know what the fuck they are thinking by giving more power to the chimp but it will backfire on the democratic party BIG TIME!

[Junkdrawer]

10. Pelosi's treachery is even worse than is commonly presented here:

There were two versions of the FISA bill in the House. The Democratic version gave Bush/Gonzo far less powers. Both bills obtained a majority vote, but, because Pelosi/Hoyer required that the Democratic version needed a 2/3 vote, only the Bush version passed.

So I ask: Which side is the House Democratic Leadership on?

See:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=1515976&mesg_id=1515976

[leftchick]

12. not our side?

I was clued in to that in 2004.

[Junkdrawer]

13. Well, yeah...but this was blatent, in you face, "you're too stupid to notice"...

I mean, this really did cross a line.

[leftchick]

20. they have crossed many lines AFAIC

this was pretty blatant but then.....

Sad Day? How About a Sad Six and a Half Years?
Spy Power: Bush Demands, Congress Delivers -- Again and Again and Again


http://counterpunch.com/lindorff08042007.html

[peacetalksforall]

14. This vote made me more determined then ever to fight against Republican

Lite condidates. For me, that means any candidate that the DLC supports. I've had it. A line has been crossed. I have been quiet about candidates because I thought it was early. It's time to go after them. They let us down. We need to expose them including the voters who are too new to be branded/guided by the DLC - Webb and Klobuchar come to mind.

[leftchick]

2. "The Homeland" seems so much more appropriate now

I hate this fucking country and the traitorous "democrats" who did this. :grr:

[rodeodance]

5. and if anyone thinks the WH will not use this new power, they are NUTS!

[Beelzebud]

7. Also, if anyone thinks they'll give this power up in 6 months, they are STUPID.

[spanone]

15. you can bet in 6 months they will ask for more

[robinlynne]

25. PLus it kind of takes the punch out of investigations into the illegal spying, when

they just legalized it....

[MisterHowdy]

6. A fascist police state

Is quickly becoming your reality.

Way to go sheep.

Perhaps when they threaten to take your
televisions
or your SUV's
or your 1lb serving of French fries away
then maybe you will do something significant.

[Solly Mack]

8. New sig line I added to my emails

"“Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal.”MLK, Jr)


In a nation where people are conditioned to believe the rule of law is everything, and where those rules are distorted by a corrupt government, atrocities will take place in the name of law. Laws can be - and have been - used to give legal protection to the crimes of government

[havocmom]

16. Re emails: Since the cloning of anyone's email address is so easy

(spammers do it all the time) how does one defend one's self from accusation that one's email was subversive?

Oh, I forgot, once the chimp says 'you bad' you don't have any way to defend yourself anyway, or even call a lawyer or your family.

My daughter says she used to wonder how the people of Germany in the 30s let such evil men become so powerful. She is very sad that now she actually knows.

[earthside]

17. Impeachment is DEAD.

I know that sounds kind of silly ... but for those of us who still had idealistic hopes that impeaching Bush and Cheney might still happen, well, all hope is gone.

The one big thing that Bush could have been impeached and convicted on was his public admission that he ordered illegal, warrentless wiretapping of Americans. Now, the Congress has legitimized what Bush did, maybe not in a legal technical sense, but certainly in a political sense.

And, how do you justify impeaching Gonzales when the Congress just gave him broad new powers? That is what the Rove propaganda machine will certainly argue.

I just don't understand any of this stuff that goes on the Washington anymore.

[papau]

19. this new law dies in 6 months -we need to lobby for revisions in the

bill that must pass in January

[Beelzebud]

21. If you honestly think they'll give up this power in 6 months, I have a bridge I'll sell you.

[Junkdrawer]

23. I hear the I-35W is a real steal....

I'll get that one for you cheap...

[papau]

26. no one gives up power - it is taken away from them n/t

[tex-wyo-dem]

24. Good luck with all that...

The cat's out of the bag...

The genie is out of the bottle...

And the Bushco/PNAC dream of authoritarian, fascist, global-corporate empire just keeps gatherin' steam.

If anyone thinks * will relent any ill-gotten powers, think again. Gee...wasn't that terrible suspension of habeas corpus legislation supposed to be reversed by now? How about some of those horrible "Patriot" act provisions?

Oh, yeah...never mind.

[BleedingHeartPatriot]

27. You're quite discouraging. You seem incapable of doing what's right if it's not comfortable.

Too bad for you. MKJ