Drinking Liberally, 8/21/07
Drinking liberally, this Tuesday, 8/21/07, will be at the lovely and talented Tangier Bar, at 18th and Lombard, 6:00 PM! Free wings and drink specials for early birds.
-sigh- I hate to rant, but after reading “Concerns Raised on Wider Spying Under the Law” about that godawful FISA expansion…
…well, I don’t know what else to say.
Broad new surveillance powers approved by Congress this month could allow the Bush administration to conduct spy operations that go well beyond wiretapping to include — without court approval — certain types of physical searches on American soil and the collection of Americans’ business records, Democratic Congressional officials and other experts said.
[snip]The dispute illustrates how lawmakers, in a frenetic, end-of-session scramble, passed legislation they may not have fully understood and may have given the administration more surveillance powers than it sought.
That’s right: just like with the PATRIOT ACT, they didn’t really, y’know, READ THE BILL. That would be the bill that allows “physical searches on American soil and the collection of Americans’ business records” Ooopsie-Daisy. The bill that gives “Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales broad discretion in enacting the new procedures and approving the way surveillance is conducted.” Uh-oh, Spaghetti-os…
Oh, and it gets better:
Though many Democratic leaders opposed the final version of the legislation, they did not work forcefully to block its passage, largely out of fear that they would be criticized by President Bush and Republican leaders during the August recess as being soft on terrorism.
That’s right: the Democrats, who were elected on promises of ending the war and reining in an out-of-control administration, DID NOT READ the bill that gave that same administration MORE power to violate our 4th Amendment Rights, AND they did so because they were SCARED THAT MR. 20% AND HIS EQUALLY UNPOPULAR PARTY MIGHT SAY MEAN THINGS ABOUT THEM.
And let’s not forget that just two weeks ago, Congress rushed the bill through because they wanted to GO ON VACATION. Must be nice. I wish MY boss let me do half-ass work that actually does harm to stakeholders so I could get a jump on MY vacation.
Oh wait… just who is Congress’s boss anyway?
Your Senator can be reached here
Your Representative can be reached here.
I think the employees need a good talking to, don’t you? Maybe a reminder about who they work for?
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August 21st, 2007 at 11:20 pm
[...] Drinking Liberally, 8/21/07 [...]
September 7th, 2007 at 2:23 pm
[...] The entire venture has been immoral from the start: the Democrats who voted for the war, in my opinion, didn’t do so out of any real fear of Saddam Hussein’s nonexistent WMD. The vote was one of fear: after all, the 1990s “war” went so well and earned Poppy Bush a few ticks on ye olde popularity meter (just not enough to beat the Clenis in 1992), and who wants to be the object of jeers and catcalls? And now that the new war is going so poorly, the Democrats are content to let the Republicans bleed to death slowly. Well, figuratively at least: it’s our sons and daughters who are doing most of the bleeding, unless you count the occasional paper cut when you’re passing bills you don’t even bother to read. [...]