- Posted by Piperyell on September 22, 2008
It was about 6 years ago when I first started to realize
that our civil liberties are degrading here in the U.S. It was at dinner one
night with my Wife’s family. Her Uncle was talking to me about the prisoners at
Guantanamo Bay. I was someone that accepted the Patriot act as a necessity of
war. But the more I thought about the encroachment of Government in our lives
the more concerned I became.
The latest issue disturbing my sleep has to do with the Communications
companies and the wiretapping and data mining cooperation with the NSA. Let me
briefly describe the issue.
What is the issue?
In October 2001 the Bush administration began a surveillance
program which allows the NSA to conduct wiretapping, and electronic surveillance
of American citizen’s telephone and internet communications without a warrant,
or statutory authorization. This is done with the full cooperation of the
communication companies. After an AT&T employee named Mark Klien came forward
with evidence that the NSA with help from AT&T were intercepting and
analyzing millions of citizen’s communications, you would have thought that the
proverbial stuff would have hit the fan. Well, it did not.
Certainly the Democrats have put a stop to this!
Not even close. This is exactly what they Democrats have
been screaming about since they realized that the Patriot act would get them in
trouble if ever the voters found out what it really was. This is their chance
to show voters that they are really on our side, not on the side of Special Interest
or Lobbyists. The Dems have had a chance
to stand up to Bush since 2006, and have done nothing to end the constant and
blatant violation of our civil rights. But wait the Communications companies
are really large contributors…
But Obama isn’t like the other Lifelong Politicians…
In an interview in June 2008 with ABC News Senior National
Correspondent Jack Tapper, Obama said "I haven't opposed, for example, the
national security surveillance program, the NSA program," adding that he
believed the program could be done without violating the Constitution. Here is the full interview. http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=5178123
But that is exactly what is going on. It is violating the
constitution. Are you just waiting until you get elected? What if you lose? I
thought you were this great proponent for change, and when you have the chance
to rally the Democrats to get off of their pampered politician bottoms and do
something, you do not make the call. He is the figure head of the party now
with more of a bully pulpit than ever. Disappointing.
And even worse…
There is a recent amendment to the FISA that, for one thing,
removes the Communication Companies liability. 22 Democrat Senators voted yes.
We have come to expect this from the Republicans, but those of you that think
the Democrats are any different, then, at least in this very important situation, theyclearly are not. Please encourage everyone to become increasinly concerned with this issue and place addition pressure on our elected officials to stop this now. You can do all of that by voting Libertarian!
Thanks for reading, and as always I would love to see some comments.
Yell