Don't think that the Democrats in the House of Representatives have necessarily done a good thing by allowing the Protect America Act to expire without a vote because this is not what happened at all. There was a vote and most of the Democrats voted to allow a 21 day extension of the bill in its current form.
This report from Media Matters clears up a lot of the confusion:
NBC falsely suggested House Democrats refused to extend expiring FISA amendments.
Summary: NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams stated that the Republicans "left the House chamber to protest the Democrats' refusal to renew the foreign intelligence surveillance law, which expires this week." In fact, the House voted on a measure to extend the law in question, the Protect America Act, for another 21 days, but all 195 Republicans who voted on the matter voted against it. Moreover, the "foreign intelligence surveillance law" doesn't expire this week; the Protect America Act, giving the president broad authority to intercept communications involving people in the U.S. without a warrant, expires. Even without its renewal, the government has the authority to conduct foreign intelligence surveillance. |
Furthermore, any ongoing investigations under the auspices of the Protect America Act can be carried out for twelve months, so Bush's claim that Americans are in danger if this bill is not made permanent immediately is total bunk and the House knows it.
Media Matters makes further clarification of what really happened during the Republican walk out on February 14 as stated here:
Additionally, Nightly News did not report the full reason for the Republican decision to walk off the House floor. As The Washington Post reported, House Minority Leader Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) led a Republican walkout just before the House was set to vote on "contempt citations against White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten and former White House counsel Harriet E. Miers over their refusal to cooperate with an investigation into the mass firings of U.S. attorneys." In calling for the walkout, Boehner stated: "We have space on the calendar today for a politically charged fishing expedition, but no space for a bill that would protect the American people from terrorists who want to kill us. ... Let's just get up and leave." The House then approved the citations by a vote of 223-32. Neither ABC nor NBC reported on the contempt citations, consistent with a pattern on the part of both networks to ignore developments relating to the U.S. attorney scandal in their nightly news broadcasts. |
And GovTrack details exactly how the members of the House of Representatives voted on February 13 here.
Aside from that, if it were so important to protect America with this Protect America Act, why is Bush threatening a veto against any bill that doesn't contain immunity for telecommunications companies and why are House Republicans voting against the 21 day extension of this oh-so-important piece of legislation? Does this not make Bush and certain members of Congress the ones who are not protecting America now, according to their own standards?
Are we going to end up with more unconstitutional spying on Americans once Congress returns from their vacationing as well as immunity for the telecommunication companies? Just like Bush wants. We shall all see.
It must be mentioned here too, that what the Senate did, in handing the Bush Administration a victory with their vote to make the Protect America Act with immunity included for the telecommunication spies permanent is nothing short of straight-up fascism. Every Senator who voted yea should be immediately thrown out of office and banned permanently from ever holding office again. If the House returns from vacation and does the same thing, as far as I am concerned, what's sauce for the goose is also sauce for the gander, kick them all out on their collective rear ends.In giving immunity to the telecommunication companies, members of the Senate who voted yea are effectively negating the lawsuits currently pending against these companies for spying on Americans illegally. But another more insidious reason for the push to immunize telecoms against lawsuits has not graced the pages of any mainstream media article I have read so far.
In giving immunity to the telecommunication companies, members of the Senate who voted yea are effectively negating the lawsuits currently pending against these companies for spying on Americans illegally. But another more insidious reason for the push to immunize telecoms against lawsuits has not graced the pages of any mainstream media article I have read so far.
Think of it this way, the telecommunication companies surely didn't just wake up one day and say to themselves, "I think we should spy on Americans without warrants and give the Bush Administration this information because we love our country so much. It doesn't matter if we're breaking the law. We're Patriots and we love America."
Let's get real here. No, these corporate bloodsuckers do nothing for God or Country as the White House Spokeswoman Dana Perino would try and have us believe in her statement here.
"MS. PERINO: The telephone companies that were alleged to have helped their country after 9/11 did so because they are patriotic and they certainly helped us and they helped us save lives."
They really do think we are stupid little children and they are our Mommies and Daddys don't they? Does this insult of your intelligence not outrage you? Well, it certainly should.
It doesn't take a wild-eyed conspiracy theorist to deduce that the telecommunications companies involved in this must have either received some secret lucrative contracts from the NSA or did so in exchange for political favors. And this amounts to collusion between the telecoms and the U.S. Government to illegally wiretap and spy on Americans if it can be proven. I want to know exactly who they are, don't you?
What the Bush Administration, the Senate and the telecoms have done is Corporatism in the raw. What you are looking at is the merger of Corporations and the State against the best interests of the American people and against the Rule of Law, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. We shall see if the House of Representatives follows suit and makes this law a permanent part of our lives when they return from their vacation. I'll certainly be watching to see how this mess turns out.
This nonsense has got to stop right now or we might as well just give up and allow a Dictatorship to replace this Republic. How low do we have to go before the people march on Washington D.C. and demand the rule of law be restored to this country?
The worst part of it is that the Bush Administration and Congress use terrorist tactics on We The People in order to force their will upon us. If you had not realized yet that this is the same tactic that has been used for every other unconstitutional piece of legislation passed prior to this since September 11, 2001, then this debacle should practically blind you with the brilliance of truth of what government has been doing all along shining in your eyes. They might as well be screaming, "If you don't let us steal your civil liberties and invade your privacy we're all going to die!" Actually, that is what they are doing and darn near daily. Someone change the record, please, this one is really starting to sound scratchy.
Call your Representatives and demand that this law be left to languish in the musty halls of Congress and tell them that you want not only the telecoms held up to the rule of law, but there needs to be a full investigation into the Bush Administration, NSA and any other government entitiy (including members of Congress) involved in the illegal spying on Americans without a warrant.
Have the meaning of the word accountability, a copy of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights ready to read out loud to them when you make that call because it appears none of our dear leaders seem to know or care about the meaning of the word freedom these days.
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