Yesterday, we warned you about H.R. 6304, the FISA Amendments Act, the bill in Congress that allows George W. Bush to spy on American citizens without any search warrant, without any judicial control, and without any congressional oversight. Electronic surveillance, with the President listening to the phone calls, reading the emails, and watching the online behavior of anyone he wants, is made legal. So are physical searches of anyone’s home or place of work - without the need of the government to even prove that you’re suspected of a crime.
This law is so blatantly in violation of the Constitution of the United States that it ought to have been laughed out of the U.S. House of Representatives. Yet, it wasn’t. 105 spineless Democrats, too afraid of their own shadows to honor the Oath of Office they all took, joined with George W. Bush’s Republican Party in voting for the Big Brother spying law.
Then, when I thought that it couldn’t get worse, it did. Barack Obama, who promised during the primaries to uphold the Constitution and end Bush’s spying programs if elected President, flip flopped and announced that he would support the law to allow government spying against American citizens without a search warrant. Then he added a real kicker - Obama said that he would continue the Bush spy programs if elected President. Obama said that he would “monitor” the spy programs himself - just like George W. Bush and Dick Cheney monitor them now.
Why doesn’t Barack Obama understand that we don’t want to be monitored. We want our Bill of Rights back!
I am disgusted with Barack Obama. All his talk about hope and change we can believe in turned out to be nothing more than false promises.
4 responses so far ↓
1 Jane Doe // Jun 28, 2008 at 10:50 pm
Perhaps there are no comments because by now everyone is too scared to make one.
2 Virginia Kreitling // Jul 1, 2008 at 9:47 am
I have always felt that I could not support Barak Obama for president as he is in the hands of the bankers and of big business. If he is elected president, he will not bring about the change we need and the Democrats will lose their best chance of assuming power; if change, real change, if not forthcoming in the new administration the people of this country will not support their government. Now I hear that Obama is going to continue Bush’s illegal spying on the people of this country, I am even more sure that I cannot support Senator Obama. Unless the Democratic Party makes some changes in its plans, I will not be able to vote for president as I can’t in good conscience support either McCain or Obama.
3 Ed Dornbach // Jul 7, 2008 at 5:24 pm
As a true citizen, I will vote for Obama, but only in order to deny McCain the White House. Cynic that I am, I could only wonder at the idealistic gullibility of Obama supporters who actually believed he was an agent of change and who would walk on water and part the Red Sea. He’s a member of an establishment party, which by its very definition precludes real change.
Obama spoke during the primaries in vague, nebulous platitudes of ” change”. His troops repeated the mantra unquestioningly because many of us are hungry for any alternative to the Bush Reich, but in reality Obama was a centrist and his recent proclamations have proven him as a politician ready to compromise on constitutional freedoms if that enhances his electability among undecided independents.
Time to grow up kids. A real revolution of change is never this sanitary. The tooth fairy does not exist.
4 administrator // Jul 9, 2008 at 10:32 am
Ed, you’re not following your ideals in your politics, and so you’re getting what you deserve - a politician who won’t do what you’d like him to do.
No one here ever said “he was an agent of change and who would walk on water and part the Red Sea.”
We did have hope that, as a Senator, Barack Obama would actually comply with his Oath of Office, and uphold the Constitution.
That’s not walking on water. It’s just doing his job.
Obama’s promises were not vague and nebulous. He promised to filibuster the FISA Amendments Act. He promised to vote against retroactive immunity. These are specific broken promises. Didn’t you know about them, Ed? Do you just get your news from the TV?
Please don’t engage in this kind of caricature of Americans who still believe in the Constitution. It’s not accurate, and it’s not responsible.
If your comment is intended to persuade Americans to give up their responsibility as citizens to hold politicians accountable, I don’t think it’s going to work.
The truly childish behavior is yours, Ed - suggesting that because nobody else is going to try to make things better, you don’t have any responsibility yourself.
Leave a Comment