Yesterday, Congress passed the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, which gives telecommunications companies retroactive immunity from civil lawsuits for their participation in Bush's illegal wiretapping program. The bill also legalizes warrantless wiretapping in many cases.

Needless to say, every representative or senator who voted for this bill betrayed their constitutents and the constitution when they did so. There's nothing new about Congress ignoring the constitution and trampling on the rights of US citizens, but what's especially disappointing about this is that Senator Obama, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, voted for it.

Glenn Greenwald at Salon did an excellent job taking apart the ridiculous excuses Obama and his supporters have given for this betrayal.

Meanwhile, the ACLU is suing to stop the government from engaging in the surveillance allowed by this law. I urge you to give them your support.

My "Obama '08" bumper sticker hasn't showed up in the mail yet, and now I'm glad. I can just throw it in the trash instead of having to scrape it off my car.
- posted by truthspeaker    Comments