The one amendment I heard mentioned that made any sense was that which extended privacy protections for United State’s citizens no matter their locale. Senator Feinstein’s amendment turning over the legality of the immunity protection to the FISA court (a ‘secret’ court) is the last thing this country needs, specifically more ‘secrecy’. And now Bush has said it is a ‘non-starter’.
The bottomline is that the House and Senate legislation that DOES NOT provide immunity but DOES provide the ‘tools’ the Bush Administration has said are necessary for the ‘war on terror’ (do any of you ever wonder why everything that is an issue in the U.S. becomes a ‘war on’?) are ALL –except the amendment that extends extraterritoriality- that needs to be passed.
If Bush wants to veto such legislation and Republican’s won’t join in a bi-partisan manner to override such a veto, then it is the Bush Administration and Republican Senators and Representatives who are to blame for not acting in a manner that supports ‘national security’.
The ‘message’ that is currently being presented to the citizenry of the United States is that, if immunity is granted, then, once again, Congress has failed in it’s responsibility to the citizenry in favor of corporate donors and a desire to avoid addressing the lawlessness that the Bush Administration has consistently engaged in. And no amount or type of amendments will overcome that idea.
The citizenry of the United States has even a lower opinion of Congress than they do of the Bush Administration and this current example of Congress putting ‘practical’ above ‘Constitutional principle’ and letting the Bush Administration ‘skate’ on it’s illegal practices is but the latest example of why that opinion is so low. If immunity is granted, it will only hasten the demise of this representative form of a republic.
And bluntly speaking, the chances of me or anyone else being harmed from driving on the California freeways is many orders of magnitude greater than being harmed by a ‘terrorist attack’. And people know that fact; governing from a basis of fear is no longer acceptable to the citizenry of the U.S. and Congress needs to realize that. It’s time to stop making a mockery of the words ‘land of the free and home of the brave’.
In closing, I implore you to NOT provide any immunity to the telecommunications companies (don’t they have enough help from the FCC already?) and put the onus on the Bush Administration and Republican’s of both Houses for not passing legislation said to be ESSENTIAL for ‘national security’.
I would also ask that this missive be read on the floor of the House’s and entered into the respective Congressional Record(s).
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