Wednesday, July 9, 2008
The Senate committed the unconscionable act of passing The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) Amendments Act this Wednesday afternoon by a final vote of 69-28.
The bill’s passage comes after three proposed amendments were defeated earlier on Wednesday. The amendments would have eliminated or changed the provision granting immunity to the telecommunications companies who assisted President Bush in warrantless wiretapping of American citizens after September 11, 2001.
RIP Fourth Amendment.
From the Left 
Do you have the names of the turncoats who gave Bush what he wanted? They should be lined up against a wall and shot firing squad style for helping to destroy our Constitution.
Fucking bastards. I promise to vote against every one of them in November.
Christopher – You had a post up with a poll showing the Congress at 9% approval.
Is it possible there will now be a poll showing the Congress with negative job approval numbers?
This is a sad day for what was once a great and noble nation. May these senators join Jesse Helms and rot in hell.
This is what I have found so far:
Sen. Barack Obama voted “YES”
Sen. Hillary Clinton voted “NO”
Sen. John McCain didn’t vote at all
It’s not too late for the Superdelegates to change their minds at the convention next month.
This bill is much, much worse than previously believed.
As a strict constitutionalist, I am gravely worried about what this president and Congress have perpetrated on the American people.
Names of Dems who voted to pass FISA:
Baucus (D-MT) Bayh (D-IN) Carper (D-DE) Casey (D-PA) Conrad (D-ND) Feinstein (D-CA)
Inouye (D-HI) Johnson (D-SD) Kohl (D-WI) Landrieu (D-LA) Lincoln (D-AR) McCaskill (D-MO) Mikulski (D-MD) Nelson (D-FL) Nelson (D-NE) Obama (D-IL) Pryor (D-AR) Rockefeller (D-WV) Salazar (D-CO) Webb (D-VA) Whitehouse (D-RI)
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=110&session=2&vote=00168
…Assholes – no surprise I’m afraid.
But I am afraid to ask what’s next on their agenda.
Aunt Peg, I need a hug.
This guy quit his $65,235 a year job rather than lower the flag for Jesse Helms.
He’s a hero in my book.
I’m not angry with Obama for voting for this awful FISA legislation — I’m disappointed.
The fact is, I expected more from him. After all, Obama is a Harvard educated Constitutional lawyer and professor — he knows the Constitution, the Bill of Rights and the law.
In short, he knows better.
I’m afraid this vote is a deal breaker for me and I will not be able to support him in November.
The TV images today said it all.
The Old Lion, Sen. Ted Kennedy, battling brain cancer and receiving chemotherapy, managed to get out of his bed and wobble into the Senate chambers to vote in favor of a bill to restore Medicare fee reimbursement to doctors because it matters.
Later in the day, Sen. Barack Obama slid into the same Senate chamber and voted to give George Bush and the radical right, retroactive telecom communication immunity.
Kennedy is a great American.
Obama is a regular coward.
So Obama kicks us in the teeth and then asks for our vote come November? Brother Barack, you’re playing with fire. You think we’re angry? Wait until you face the superdelegates in Denver.
Does everyone understand now why Hillary Clinton “suspended” her campaign but never ended it?
This is what separates a seasoned strategist from a neophyte.
I love the manufactured political theater here.
Obama votes to shred the Fourth Amendment and give Bush and Cheney what he wants.
An hour later, Jesse Jackson appears to say Obama cut his nuts off, distracting the braindead media and giving Obama cover.
They must think we’re stupid.
I have doubts about Barack Obama now. I don’t like feeling uncertain at this point. This is the point where I should be feeling giddy and enthusiastic but instead, I wonder if my primary vote was a mistake?
Here are the DINO assholes who voted to destroy the Constitution:
Baucus (D-MT)
Bayh (D-IN)
Carper (D-DE)
Casey (D-PA)
Conrad (D-ND)
Feinstein (D-CA)
Inouye (D-HI)
Johnson (D-SD)
Kohl (D-WI)
Landrieu (D-LA)
Lincoln (D-AR)
McCaskill (D-MO)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Nelson (D-FL)
Nelson (D-NE)
Obama (D-IL)
Pryor (D-AR)
Rockefeller (D-WV)
Salazar (D-CO)
Webb (D-VA)
Whitehouse (D-RI)
The Constitution. Who needs it? I mean, how 20th century to think it matters in the post-9/11 era/ Isn’t that what Bush, Cheney, the Republicans and the DINO Dems keep telling us through their votes?
Where’s feminazi? I wonder if she knows how Obama voted? I bet she’s pissed. Can’t wait to see what she has to say.
Don’t be fooled by Hillary voting “NO.” The only reason she voted the way she did was to make Obama look like a bigger coward than he is. If she were the front runner she would’ve voted precisely the way Obama voted. There’s nothing courageous about Hillary Clinton.
Oooh Rachel made my comment before I could.
So now all I can do is say “Yeah what she said”.
I can’t find the answer to this, so if anyone knows, please share: did the telecoms act only under the direction of the feds with regards to the wiretapping or did these companies act outside of federal requests….or is that information even public at all?
Bill Hussein O’Reilly: Clinton suspended her campaign rather than shutting it down so she could keep raising money. At the time, her campaign was $20 million in debt and the Clintons were carrying $10 million of that debt.
We’ve been hoodwinked. There’s no other way to put it.
Obama and the Democrats bowed before Bush — a president with a lower approval number than Nixon had in the weeks before he resigned from the office of president and now Obama wants our vote? I may not be a Constitutional scholar but I know this: a law that weakens the governing document of this nation is a bad law. If I know it then Obama should know it. This is a disgrace.
Any chance I can get back the $250 I sent Obama’s campaign earlier this year? I really think I deserve a refund for thinking he was any different from any other Beltway politician. Maybe I’ll try to recover in small claims court.
Maybe Obama will volunteer to fellate George Bush the next time he has a hard-on?
There seems to be nothing Bush wants that the DINOs aren’t ready, willing and able to provide.
So much for the Constitution. And shame on Obama.
Obama kept his word and tried to strip telecom immunity. Just exactly what was he supposed to do as the presumptive nominee who 1 in 4 Americans don’t consider patriotic enough — give this one to the GOP so they could use this to make people feel afraid of him and label him as soft on terrorists?
The average Ameican is not paying attention right now. The media has shown themselves to be more than willing to be complicit with John McCain, and he would have used this for the next 3 months to paint Obama as soft on terrorism.
I blame Reid and Pelosi and Hoyer who set him up. He got backed into the wall on this one, and they did it to cover their own compromised backsides.
Hillary didn’t even show up the last time the FISA bill came to the floor — when Barack Obama voted against it. She could have cared less about the first FISA bill, yet now everyone is applauding her. What nonsense. She only voted against it this time because she wanted to try to make Obama look bad. Mark my words — if she was the nominee, she would have voted for this bill.
And besides, we wouldn’t even be in this mess if Hillary had bothered to read the NIE in 2003 and had voted against the AUMF. Hold the kudos for Hillary, please.
You can shame Obama all you want, but the bigger shame would be President McCain. Keep your eyes on the bigger picture. We aren’t going to correct 8 years of tyranny in one day.
This election is officially a joke. “Democracy” without the Bill of Rights is meaningless.
I hate to say I told you so, but…
Obama’s record said one thing while he was on the stump saying another. Since he clinched the nomination, he’s basically gone out of his way to confirm my earlier suspicions. I caught some hell for a few posts questioning Obama’s sincerity, but I didn’t regret making the posts then, and I don’t now.
I’ll probably still vote for him, because that bill he just voted to pass is prima facie unconstitutional and destined to be struck down the same way the MCA was. Obama is highly likely to appoint a SCOTUS Justice that will do just that. But you know, so is Bob Barr, and unlike Obama, Barr hasn’t backed away from any of his positions. The Libertarian side of Barr is looking more attractive every day.
Christopher –
Thank you for keeping this issue front and center. It was here that I learned about the implication the FISA legislation would have on our Constitutional rights. I am very disappointed Barack Obama failed to stand with Feingold and Boxer and against Bush and tyranny. I’m afraid this election will once more come down to voting for the lesser of two evils. This is a sad day for me.
KOS has a piece up this morning on the FISA vote called:
“Bowing to Mr. 28%.”
I was thinking about some of the comments I saw here and at KOS and one thing occurred to me.
At least a whore can come home at the end of the night and take a shower and she’s as clean as the day she was born.
Baucus, Bayh, Carper, Casey, Conrad, Feinstein, Inouye, Johnson, Kohl, Landrieu, Lincoln, McCaskill, Mikulski, Nelson, Nelson, Obama, Pryor, Rockefeller, Salazar, Webb, Whitehouse, on the otherhand can bathe in bleach and they will be just as filthy as the moment they voted to give Bush his domestic spying bill.
Listen to your phone calls?
Yes, we can!
Record your conversations?
Yes, we can!
Read your mail?
Yes, we can!
Monitor your internet usage?
Yes, we can!
Look at your credit card statements?
Yes, we can!
Now that’s change we can believe in! Thank you, Sen. Obama for stabbing us in the heart.
vicodaniel1987@yahoo.com
Thanks to all of you for the most excellent thoughts, opinions, and insights.
I find myself in a genuine quandary this morning vis a vis Obama and his FISA vote.
In the past, I was willing to cut him some slack, Jack, after he said “impeachment of Bush was unacceptable,” then backing off NAFTA, followed by embracing Bush’s faith-based initiatives, and then embracing gun ownership.
However, the FISA vote is different and could be a deal breaker for me.
While Mr. Obama may lack the cajones to stand up to Bush and Cheney on domestic spying, at least the ACLU ain’t backing down. Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU National Security Project, in a statement:
“This fight is not over. We intend to challenge this bill as soon as President Bush signs it into law. It plainly violates the Fourth Amendment.”
These chickenshit US Senators could learn a lesson from the ACLU.
We won’t be seein’ much of Obama today cuz he’s resting his feets after dancing on the Constitution yesterday.
That poor, old document finally ain’t no more.
I don’t blame Pelosi or Reid. Pelosi voted “YES” and Reid voted “NO.” No one put a gun to Obama’s head and made him vote “YES.” Sorry, but Obama is a coward.
Courage is a rare commodity in 2008. Politicians tread lightly like church mice. From Obama voting for the FISA bill to Pelosi taking Impeachment off the table for fear of rocking the ship. These people are cowards and don’t deserve our support.
I have gone over this vote again and again.
Obama could’ve stood with Russ Feingold and the Netroots and voted against the FISA bill but he didn’t.
I must conclude the reason is, he plans to use the Executive branches’ spying powers himself once elected president.
I cannot vote for Obama now. The party is over.
This bill is so much worse than the MSM is reporting to the public.
Consider:
1. the Telecom at the direction of the Bush White House knowing violated the Constitution and local and state laws by engaging in domestic spying. This is a violation of 4th Amendment and they knew it.
2. the Telecoms obviously dispatched their legal team to meet with the White House to determine a remedy for the mounting cases being filed by individuals and groups who objected to being spied on by the Bush administration.
3. the Telecoms knew they were in deep bandini and didn’t have a legal leg to stand on and if these cases ever reached a jury, huge financial loses would hit an industry already turned upside down by changes in user technology.
About the vote.
Do we know how much money the Telecoms gave to Barack Obama to buy his “YES” vote? In the case of Nancy Pelosi, it was less than $25,000 to purchase her support. Let’s say hypothetically, the Telecoms gave Obama 4 times as much, say $100,000, looking ahead, imagine how much the military, industrial complex could “donate” to his campaign to win his support for a war against, say Iran, or Venezuela?
This should disturb all Obama supporters.
Everyone calm down – this is not the end of the world or the 4th amendment. Obama voted for the FISA bill so that once he becomes elected, he can sic his AG on BushCo and the telecoms for criminal charges rather than just civil charges. Without this bill in place, there would be just civil cases that could brought (say biught – and paid for) – now, the old exec’s at the phone company are sweating because they know if Obama gets in, they are looking at personal jail time – not a cash settlement. Obama, in a no-win situation (since however he voted, the Repubs could attck) decided to vote for the lamely-worded bill so that he could strike back at a later date. I’d do the same thing, considering how poorly the bill was written in the first place. Most important – elect Obama into office – no matter what bitter pills we think we have to swallow. We could do much much worse with McCain who will kill the planet, kill whoever is pissing him off from day to day, and kill us all in the process!