This Pleases Me
One of my primary gripes with the Bush Administration is that, as a result of the events of Black Tuesday, the President and his insidiously evil tubs of lard (that would be Dick Cheney and Karl Rove) rammed the USA PATRIOT Act through the Congress. The Patriot Act, for those who may have forgotten, relaxed legal prohibitions and safeguards on civil liberties and privacy rights for all Americans.
The Act, and the "amendment" to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) gave the Federal Government carte blanche to spy on you, to eavesdrop on your communications and to explore any piece of your private records.
Apologists for this told me, "So what? I have nothing to hide?"
Whereupon I would ask, "So you don't mind the Big Bad Evil Government spying on you? I thought you were against Big Gummint."
Whereupon I was usually called "Unamerican."
But I digress.
Like I said, this push against the liberties my ancestors fought and worked for really pissed me off quite deeply, so it was with a great deal of satisfaction that I read this little missive from Senator Russ Feingold (D-MN). He and six other Senators have put together a bill called the JUSTICE Act (what the hell is it with all these cutesy acronyms? I'm waiting for a bill that spells out the word FUCK) that reforms and modifies several keys provisions of both the Patriot and FISA Amendment Acts.
It also includes this little tidbit:
I'm loving this bit, ladies and gents. If this provision gets into law it'll open the legal gates to those who have been victimized by the telecommunications industry in their desire to play ball with the Busheviki. I want AT&T, Verizon and Sprint to get their asses sued off if they've illegally tapped into peoples' phone and email accounts.
And then maybe - maybe - we can start going after the Bush Administration itself.
It would give me great satisfaction.
The Act, and the "amendment" to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) gave the Federal Government carte blanche to spy on you, to eavesdrop on your communications and to explore any piece of your private records.
Apologists for this told me, "So what? I have nothing to hide?"
Whereupon I would ask, "So you don't mind the Big Bad Evil Government spying on you? I thought you were against Big Gummint."
Whereupon I was usually called "Unamerican."
But I digress.
Like I said, this push against the liberties my ancestors fought and worked for really pissed me off quite deeply, so it was with a great deal of satisfaction that I read this little missive from Senator Russ Feingold (D-MN). He and six other Senators have put together a bill called the JUSTICE Act (what the hell is it with all these cutesy acronyms? I'm waiting for a bill that spells out the word FUCK) that reforms and modifies several keys provisions of both the Patriot and FISA Amendment Acts.
It also includes this little tidbit:
Section 303 – Telecommunications Immunity
The bill would repeal the retroactive immunity provision in the FISA Amendments Act.
I'm loving this bit, ladies and gents. If this provision gets into law it'll open the legal gates to those who have been victimized by the telecommunications industry in their desire to play ball with the Busheviki. I want AT&T, Verizon and Sprint to get their asses sued off if they've illegally tapped into peoples' phone and email accounts.
And then maybe - maybe - we can start going after the Bush Administration itself.
It would give me great satisfaction.
posted by Walt at 2:14 PM
2 Comments:
Hear, hear.
Don't hold your breath.
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