Police State
Feb 13th, 2008 at 1:56 pm by Susie
Scott Horton: (h/t Avedon)
If things proceed on the course now set by the Bush Administration and its shortsighted collaborators, and the national surveillance state is achieved in short order, then
future generations looking back and tracing the destruction of the grand design of our Constitution may settle on yesterday, February 12, 2008, as the date of the decisive breach. It hardly got a mention in the media, obsessed as it was with reports on the primary elections, the use of drugs in sporting events, and that unfailing topic, the weather. Yesterday the Senate voted down the resolution offered by Senator Dodd to block retroactive immunity for the telecoms and it voted for a measure which guts the Constitution’s ban on warrantless searches by extending blanket authority to the Executive to snoop on the nation’s citizens in a wide variety of circumstances, subject to no independent checks. On the key vote, the Republicans in the Senate continued to function in lock-step, as they have on almost all significant issues for the last seven years, while the Democrats fragmented. Their vote summed up everything that’s wrong with Washington politics today. Fear and hard campaign cash rule the roost, and the Constitution is regarded as a meaningless scrap of parchment, indeed, a nuisance.The issue in focus was a retroactive grant of immunity to telecommunications giants which violated the rights of millions of Americans by facilitating warrantless surveillance by the Bush Administration. With the exception of Qwest, they were knowingly complicit in criminal acts. And in a touch worthy of a totalitarian state, Qwest quickly found its CEO under criminal investigation and prosecuted. In fact the White House’s own arguments smack of the mentality of totalitarianism. Here’s the leading argument that the White House offers up in favor of the legislation:
“Companies should not be held responsible for verifying the government’s determination that requested assistance was necessary and lawful — and such an impossible requirement would hurt our ability to keep the Nation safe.”
But as Dan Froomkin notes at the Washington Post, “Isn’t that the very definition of a police state: that companies should do whatever the government asks, even if they know it’s illegal?” Indeed it is.
Blue Dogs Enabling GOP on FISA.
Front page this please, Susie.
The Fascist 21:
# Rep. Leonard L. Boswell, D-Iowa — Phone: (202) 225-3806, Fax: (202) 225-5608
# Rep. Marion Berry, D-Ark. — Phone: (202) 225-4076, Fax: (202) 225-5602
# Rep. Mike Ross, D-Ark. — Phone: (202) 225-3772, Fax: (202) 225-1314
# Rep. Earl Pomeroy, D-N.D. — Phone: (202) 225-2611, Fax: (202) 226-0893
# Rep. Robert E. “Bud” Cramer, D-Ala. — Phone: (202) 225-4801, Fax: (202) 225-4392
# Rep. Melissa Bean, D-Ill. — Phone: (202) 225-3711, Fax: (202) 225-7830
# Rep. Heath Shuler, D-N.C. — Phone: (202) 225-6401, Fax: (202) 226-6422
# Rep. John Barrow, D-Ga. — Phone: (202) 225-2823, Fax: (202) 225-3377
# Rep. Allen Boyd, D-Fla. — Phone: (202) 225-5235, Fax: (202) 225-5615
# Rep. Joe Baca, D-Calif. — Phone: (202) 225-6161, Fax: (202) 225-8671
# Rep. Dan Boren, D-Okla. — Phone: (202) 225-2701, Fax: (202) 225-3038
# Rep. John Tanner, D-Tenn. — Phone: (202) 225-4714, Fax: (202) 225-1765
# Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah — Phone: (202) 225-3011, Fax: (202) 225-5638
# Rep. Jim Cooper, D-Tenn. — Phone: (202) 225-4311, Fax: (202) 226-1035
# Rep. Lincoln Davis, D-Tenn. — Phone: (202) 225-6831, Fax: (202) 226-5172
# Rep. Brad Ellsworth, D-Ind. — Phone: (202) 225-4636, Fax: (202) 225-3284
# Rep. Tim Holden, D-Pa. — Phone: (202) 225-5546, Fax: (202) 226-0996
# Rep. Charlie Melancon, D-La. — Phone: (202) 225-4031, Fax: (202) 226-3944
# Rep. Dennis Moore, D-Kan. — Phone: (202) 225-2865, Fax: (202) 225-2807
# Rep. Christopher Carney, D-Pa. — Phone: (202) 225-3731, Fax: (202) 225-9594
# Rep. Zack Space, D-Ohio — Phone: (202) 225-6265, Fax: (202) 225-3394