Pacific Views

Give Dubya an inch.

And he'll try to grab what's left of the Constitution.

Here's some of what our Dear Leader had to say as he signed the so-called Protect America Act, in which spineless Democrats in both houses of Congress made it possible for the GOP to ram through an ill-considered expansion of the feds' spying powers under the FISA law:

While I appreciate the leadership it took to pass this bill, we must remember that our work is not done. This bill is a temporary, narrowly focused statute to deal with the most immediate shortcomings in the law.

When Congress returns in September the Intelligence committees and leaders in both parties will need to complete work on the comprehensive reforms requested by Director McConnell, including the important issue of providing meaningful liability protection to those who are alleged to have assisted our Nation following the attacks of September 11, 2001. [Emphasis added]

Obviously, having the right to intercept any phone call, text message, or email that passes through a US network without a warrant isn't enough for the prez. Nor is having six months to turn the internet and domestic phone networks into permanent spying architecture. Dubya has put us on notice that he wants to make his illicit spying program retroactively legal, getting his corporate accomplices out of any responsibility for assisting the  regime  government poke into the private affairs of its  suspects  citizens.

Aren't you ever so glad that we put the Democrats in control of the Congress? After all, god knows what would have happened if the elections had left the GOP in charge of protecting the Constitution and our civil rights ...

Posted by Magpie at August 6, 2007 12:33 PM | Civil Liberties | Technorati links |