By Supporting "Intelligence" Bill, Senate Democrats Show They Have None

In a move that shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone who has been paying attention for the past five years, 19 Senate Democrats defected from the defense of American civil liberties and Constitutional rights and gave the Bush administration a major victory in the War On America.

According to the NY Times,

One by one, the Senate rejected amendments that would have imposed greater civil liberties checks on the government’s surveillance powers.

That sums it all up right there. The Bush administration's shameless use of 9/11 to promote their agenda of stripping away our rights continues, undaunted by the Democratic majority in the House and Senate. Indeed, many of the Senate Democrats (who are surely concerned more about re-election than actually serving the interests of American citizens) are totally on board. John D. Rockefeller (D-WV):

This, I believe, is the right way to go for the security of the nation.

Which I'm sure is totally unrelated to the "$42,000 in contributions that Mr. Rockefeller received last year from AT&T and Verizon executives."

The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) was a little slippery to begin with. From Wikipedia:

[FISA] allowed warrantless surveillance within the United States for up to one year unless the "surveillance will acquire the contents of any communication to which a United States person is a party". If a United States person is involved, judicial authorization was required within 72 hours after surveillance begins.

It was created to accommodate the sometimes urgent need to gather intelligence. It provided (in theory, at least) protection of the civil liberties of Americans while allowing for necessary surveillance to take place.

The new intelligence bill, which was supported by 19 Senate Democrats, changes the basic structure of FISA.

The bill, which had the strong backing of the White House, allows the government to eavesdrop on large bundles of foreign-based communications on its own authority so long as Americans are not the targets. A secret intelligence court, which traditionally has issued individual warrants before wiretapping began, would review the procedures set up by the executive branch only after the fact to determine whether there were abuses involving Americans.

“This is a dramatic restructuring” of surveillance law, said Michael Sussmann, a former Justice Department intelligence lawyer who represents several telecommunication companies. “And the thing that’s so dramatic about this is that you’ve removed the court review. There may be some checks after the fact, but the administration is picking the targets.”

So now, thanks to 19 Senate Democrats, we no longer have any sort of safeguards against illegal wiretapping. Do you feel safer yet? The bill also, of course, grants retroactive immunity for any telecom company that gave up caller information to be added to the giant NSA database back when the illegal program began.

There is something about this bill that stinks almost as much as the stripping of our rights against unwarranted search and seizure. It will serve to absolve the Bush administration of any charges of wrongdoing stemming from their illegal wiretapping program. Granted, there are a few hundred other criminal charges that could be brought against them, but this one was pretty solid. Bush has tried to deflect criticism by referring to his illegal wiretapping program as a Terrorist Surveillance Program. Wow, who would have guessed they'd try to use 9/11 to justify their criminal activity? Thing is, this program started well before 9/11.

And now, thanks to 19 Democrats in the Senate, Bush gets what he wants, the Telecoms get what they want, the Republicans get what they want, and the rest of us get screwed.