“It’s particularly unusual in the case of the telecoms because you don’t really know what you’re immunizing,”said Louis Fisher, a specialist in constitutional law with the Law Library of the Library of Congress."You don’t know what you’re cleaning up.”
When I was a student at the art academy,
our education tended towards balance,
harmony, order, the observation of nature,
and the poetry of everyday life.
If only our leaders were required
to receive such an education.
picture and words from
www.robertsturmanstudio.com
"Even as the White House lobbied to expand the scope of FISA, we now know that President Bush disregarded the rule of law when he authorized the National Security Agency to spy on ordinary Americans' phone calls and e-mails without the warrant FISA requires. Shockingly, Congress voted to temporarily condone this abuse of power in August 2007 with legislation sanctioning this illegal operation. This legislation, which we've dubbed the "Police America Act," is only temporary and will expire in February 2008."
~ the ACLU website
For my Canadian readers, this first:
We need a clean sweep! Out with illegal legislation and Executive Orders! Out with the "Police America Act!" Out with the rePUGs who want everyone living as serfs! Out with those who side with them!!
The BuZh administration (can you say Dick Cheney and cohorts?) has done many abominable things to turn the United States into an IMPERIAL PRESIDENCY, rotting a republic striving to be democratic right to its very core.
The trampling of human rights really picked up steam under Clinton in many, many areas of law in a country which is SUPPOSED to be based on rights of individuals. The US is the child of yearings to be free of the power of Kings and Queens and rights are clearly delineated in the First Amendment to the Constitution which reflect its parentage.
Clinton was quite good at trampling people under by using the government - lest you forget, I am talking about Waco, Ruby Ridge, and the persecution of many indigenous tribes. He managed to subvert the purpose of the Department of Justice, as if by magic.
I fell into one of their little "traps."
And of course, as I am ALWAYS on about this -- he trampled the rights of people like me by insidious practices that broke the LAW on the war on drugs. At least the ACLU noticed some of it .. but because it lead to abuse, the current US adminstration thought that they would take it that many steps further ..
BuZh is something else. His something else is that PRIVATE corporations and government contractors now are the vigorous perpetrators of oppression, which has been workable as long as he can keep up his IMPERIAL WAR DRUM, which continues to eat away the rights of the US citizen, no matter where that individual may be. Motive is a seperate topic. We are concerned in this posting with only the wherefores of how they use criminality to do that today ..
One doesn't have to be in a "combat area" to fall under the purview of the US Intel "community" - according to them all areas are combat areas! Under the global war on terror, America has the most basic of its rights -- freedom of assembly, freedom of speech suffer -- grave assaults. And he would take away the right to privacy, too, if people let him. You can catch a link to information on the The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act below and how that came out for We, the People below ..
This is to speak a very deep legal issue in very bare terms, I know. But I am trying to make a simple point.
When the US was founded there were no fax machines, no "singing wires", no computers and the founding fathers didn't sit down and figure out how to enact laws on each little thing that would be invented in the future. They figured just putting into the first amendment to the Constitution that people had a right to privacy was quite enough to cover any eventuality in the future that might crop up.
But BuZh, as is HIS want, thinks HIS decisions over what constitutes threats to America and what HE wants to do about his little Global War on Terror (choke!) outweighs the United Constitution. And to BuZh&Co, all areas are threatening - including the privacy of one's conversations with one's mother-in-law or an email to Santa Claus.
Or, has more darkly been contended, they can listen in to find out how to blackmail people .. because now whatever you express over some communications network is grounds for "surveillance" and the information gathered is "duly noted", but by who, we aren't really sure.
The intel agencies have mushroomed, blossomed, been given vast sums of money (who even knows how much??), become the elephant in your computer, on your phone, anywhere data can be collected. There were around 16 the last time I checked ..
When Clinton came to office there were a multitude of telecoms. The monopoly powers had been smashed in court. However, as time went along the power of the bigger telecoms came back with corporate takeovers and America was back to the powerful handful once again. How the FCC was manipulated is another story, for another time. But since BuZh, these telecom guys have been making unconscienable profits, and much of it due to the unwilling largesse of the American taxpayer who is apt to paying for his own surveillance! Make sense to you? Me, neither.
There it is - in a very written-down nutshell. It's We The People versus George W. BuZh and his staff of insidious legal advisers in the little matter of what rights do WE have to keep the federales outta our computers, off our phone lines, intercepting our fax transmissions .. and hanging unto data about us in storage for God knows HOW long and for what purpose(s) as yet determined.
Why should we fight for this -- what would appear to be a fundamental right?
Because the RePUGlican Party outweighs the interests of America, the US citizen and the democratic values enshrined in America's Bill of Rights. People have clearly forgotten what a republic is under the rePUGs and allow CONgress to "abridge their rights" and allow those who do it outside the DC Beltway to do it with IMPUNITY!!
The Patriot Act saw to that.
The bullies just see the imperial tax collectors, the corporate cronies right to profit without any accountability (and of course, the better war mongers they are and the more money they give the Republican National Committee, the more money they get to keep) all in a cozy little nest - and then there is everyone else. And anyone who violates this nice little system of theirs - well, they just better beware!! Big Brother is LISTENING.
While Bush&Co's imperium has clearly VIOLATED the law of the land, cronyism being what it is, they wish to keep their telecom friends from criminal (or civil) prosecution by saying that telecoms have total immunity for damages. Hey! you give yer buck$ to the rePUGs to get elected, you should have your immunity, eh? That's what the telecoms with their big fat dollars think.
Too bad the telecom's have invaded people's lives and tough cookie all you stiffs who got 'tapped.
Um HMMM. Sure.
Not just while BuZhistas are in office, but for always.
So to that end, Karl Rove and Dick Cheney and their nice little GOP "reich" want to shove this down Congress's throat .. right away, before the bill which allows this to expire.
The neocons looked like they were gonna get away with this nasty little piece of cronyism BUT Christopher Dodd, a Senator STOPPED! them which came as a bit of shock to those of us used to seeing ONLY a spineless CONgress. But we still need them BROOMS to get rid of this mess once and for all.
Someone finally stood up to The Decider and made a difference. Which gives all of us human rights activists a bit of a thrill in a seven year slog.
There is a great fear on the part of some Congressmen/"ladies" and potential candidates that they just might not get re-elected or find a seat if they don't start standing up for Americans. Some of us are pretty busy letting CONgress know "we're mad as hell and we're not gonna take it anymore!" And not only THAT, but you're gonna find we don't give you another nickel to run for office.
So the spineless democrats are now coming onto us -- trying to make us believe we can count on them for another term to express our views, and stick up for our rights -- and DO something for a change. Not that they'll end the war, but at least let us sue the companies whose services we paid for not knowing that they had extra ears on our lines and huge storage facilities for all the data that they were collecting -- all supposedly in the "national interest." It's in the REPUBLICAN PARTY's interest, that is all.
[and not only that, but should it turn out that this info was used to blackmail or set someone up or .. then we can use that in impeachment proceedings and war crimes tribunals ... ] Funny how these Bushistas can conveniently "lose" millions of emails, but can find the time and inclination to store all of ours!!]
President Bush and the National Security Agency enlisted the help of telecommunications companies to spy on American citizens without the FISA-required warrants. Now Bush wants Congress to give the telecom companies permanent immunity from prosecution!! Like the Telecoms didn't KNOW?? I don't reach for metaphors easily, and I'm not going to now either, BUT this really stinks. It's just all Bad Law all around. And who wants this to turn into something SO big, it'll take a tank rather than a few brooms to remove it??
I ask you to fight/understand the telecom immunity problem in the first step towards restoring the US to being a republic. It's a SHAME to be fighting on this issue, but there ya have it, it's what must be done. And it might prove well worth it ..
Telecom immunity means that corporations who worked with the government to illegally spy on US citizens would never have to answer for their actions and I don't care if you are pro-republican or pro-democratic or from the moon, it's just not okay as it is a system just clearly meant to create different classes of people - those who can listen with impunity and do whatever they like with what they hear, and those who cannot. There is not even a guarantee that this date is actually accurate if it is used in a court of law! They can say you said anything they make it out you said . or didn't. It's really complicating a very basic idea on many levels .. that basic idea is that you have a right to privacy. nice. neat. simple. and people who violate that right, should be held accountable!!
This bill exemplifies how wealthy corporations have more rights than U.S. citizens. Large telecommunications companies spied on Americans, violating the 4th Amendment, the right to privacy, and now Congress and the president wants to give them a get out-of-jail-free card.
We need to protect the Constitution of the United States or we might as well just say, "let's have the kings back!" and it's okay for the US to ram democracy down people's throats around the world while not being the least bit democratic at home. And all this surveillance is a total waste of taxpayer's money! Not only THAT, but there's a very good chance this information is being used to cover up CRIMES. That's what Dr. Fisher is on about. Ya don't know whatcher cleaning up!!
Some of us are not too keen on that immunity for the king's chronies idea. History is replete with the tales of King's gone wild over the citizenry. It's hard enough with Presidents to ensure rights. King George II must be put back in his place .. as someone who is being paid to protect citizens and uphold the Constitution, whether he likes it or not, it's not "just a piece of paper." For some people like me, it's a birthright and something that was a model for taking on values as a citizen. To replace the Constitution with Big Brother is not my idea of republic at all.
What a dangerous precedent has been set by the actions of CONgress and the Bushistas. But the hope is that the damage can be undone.
The immunity that telecom companies "enjoy" due the spineless CONgress expires in February. Last December Dodd made his stand and said someone has to stop this! The new Senate session convenes on 15 January and the rePUGs want to vote on the bill as fast as they possibly can. Can we get out enough brooms in time and SWEEP??
IF enough people can swing their Senators (they guys with the big buck$ in CONgress), the US might finally get this message: no one is going to support lawmakers who give immunity to those who violate US citizens' rights. There should be no need for a further filibuster and endless debate; enough people should be good and mad to stop this complete breakdown of the law.
Here's a question: How do you commute the sentence for a crime, before you've even determined what it is, precisely? Rhetorical? No a question for some lawyers to look at and one for us ACTIVISTS to bring to the public's attention. It's not a textbook question, it's one that we all must solve if there is to be any freedom from Big Brother at all.
No Telecom Immunity Action Page:
http://usalone.com/laesch
Facebook Version:
http://apps.facebook.com/fb
this you must be a member of Facebook and logged in)
this has been the subject of MUCH legal debate: here is the BEST summary of the some of the FISA issues and how this came to this pretty pass:
http://judiciary.house.gov/media/pdfs/Fisher070607.pdf
The link below gives you a good precis of some legal issues with plenty of links AND just a smidgen of the now famous John Ashcroft confrontation (oh, these Bushistas! They'll stoop to anything!!)
http://sethabramson.blogspot.com/2005/12/clash-between-then-attorney-general.html
and then this may help you get informed on the whole issue of the Surveillance in the US:
http://www.aclu.org/safefree/general/17321res20030408.html
Immunity for Telecoms May Set Bad Precedent, Legal Scholars Say
October 22, 2007, Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/21/AR2007102101041.html
When previous Republican administrations were accused of illegality in the FBI and CIA spying abuses of the 1970s or the Iran-Contra affair of the 1980s, Democrats in Congress launched investigations or pushed for legislative reforms. But last week, faced with admissions by several telecommunication companies that they assisted the Bush administration in warrantless spying on Americans, leaders of the Senate intelligence committee took a much different tack -- proposing legislation that would grant those companies retroactive immunity from prosecution or lawsuits. The proposal marks the second time in recent years that Congress has moved toward providing legal immunity for past actions that may have been illegal. The Military Commissions Act, passed by a GOP-led Congress in September 2006, provided retroactive immunity for CIA interrogators who could have been accused of war crimes for mistreating detainees. Legal experts say the granting of such retroactive immunity by Congress is unusual, particularly in a case involving private companies. "It's particularly unusual in the case of the telecoms because you don't really know what you're immunizing," said Louis Fisher, a specialist in constitutional law with the Law Library of the Library of Congress. Civil liberties groups and many academics argue that Congress is allowing the government to cover up possible wrongdoing and is inappropriately interfering in disputes that the courts should decide. The American Civil Liberties Union [said] in a news release Friday that "the administration is trying to cover its tracks."
A very famous TV clip about Andrew Card & Gonegonzles confronting Ashcroft
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