Once again, I am completely dumbfounded as to how things happen. Maybe someone can explain it to me (really, I mean that), but here's what I think happened.
Our 4th Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure have generally been pretty uniformly trampled upon throughout history by administrations that thought that the niceties of the Constitution just got in the way. However, the Supreme Court has held that even in the situations where national security was at risk, the Constitution still required a court order for wiretaps, electronic surveillance, etc. Then, in a series of actions that have further eroded our rights, Congress passed the FISA legislation in 1978. This established a super secret court that could approve such surveillance even after the fact but still required probable cause. The FISA legislation was crystal clear that it was the only method by which such surveillance could be conducted.
Enter President Cheney and Bush, the lesser, and stir in 9-11. In 2002, this band of merry rapers of the constitution authorized the NSA to conduct such surveillance without FISA court approval and without a showing of probable cause and without a warrant. In other words, they completely ignored the Constitution and the FISA act passed to circumvent it and just wrote their own rules or lack thereof. When this was exposed, although it was obvious they had just ignored the law, they said that they were authorized by the AUMF (Authorization for Use of Military Force) passed by Congress and used beyond recognition by Cheney to invade Iraq or in the alternative, the FISA law was unconstitutional because it limits the President's "inherent power" to provide for national security as the commander guy. Neither argument was worth a shit and the criminals just continued to ignore the law, but after a federal court declared the program unconstitutional, George, the lesser, agreed to have the program overseen by the FISA court, even if it wasn't clear how they were to do it and it was all a big secret.
Then, recently, the actions of these rights fuckers became so odoriferous that even the rubber stamp FISA court couldn't hold their noses tightly enough and declared some of their actions outside of the FISA authorization. This was also secret and if John Boehner, the Repug house minority leader, hadn't divulged classified information on national television and told about this decisions, they may have just continued to go about their business.
But then the really amazing thing happened. Bush, the lesser, with Cheney's hand up his ass and working his little puppet mouth, told Congress that they had to amend the FISA law immediately, before they went on summer recess or we would all die. He said this even though he has taken more time off from his job than Paris Hilton. So, the Democratic majority of the House and Senate, heeding their constituents' wishes when they voted for them in 2004 to stop this illegal and immoral war and rein in the abuses of the administration thugs, told the administration to shove it and refused to grant the additional authority and went on summer break so they could be like their Iraqi counterparts. And the voters cheered and cheered.
Wait, that wasn't exactly how this went down. Rather than do the right thing (described above) 16 Democratic senators and 41 Democratic representatives voted to give Bush, the lesser, added authority. Now, it is obvious that I don't know enough about what went on to know why they did this and they haven't bothered to tell me. You see, it is all secret and I think the Democrats that caved on this don't really know either. They just were afraid to look soft on terrorism and wanted to go on vacation and didn't give this the real attention it deserved. They abandoned their voters and left us twisting slowly in the wind.
Hell, what makes them think the administration would have done anything differently even if they had not voted for this? Cheney makes Bush, the lesser, sign a signing statement with each bill declaring kings x as it relates to him. So, they could have just gone on ignoring the law, as they have done all along.
So, I really don't understand the Democrats on this and I want one of them to explain it.
Here's what they have wrought. The President and the Attorney General (remember who this is, the bizarro George Washington) now can authorize surveillance without probable cause, without a warrant and without the supervision of a court. The only requirement is that one end of the conversation (telephone, e-mail, IM, text message, smoke signal, semaphore, etc.) be based outside the U.S. I'm not confident that they will even comply with this given their track record. Therefore, if you are an activist and Cheney wants to know about you and you communicate with someone outside the U.S. (and since it is hard to tell where internet message originate, maybe just look at all of them for good measure), then all they do is say the foreign entity is of interest (not even necessarily suspected of wrong doing). This will apply even if the person outside of the U.S. is a U.S. citizen. The FISA court can only look at the procedures to see if they are reasonably designed to determine if one of the participants is outside the U.S not the identity of the people involved and not whether probable cause existed. What a crock!
You pussy Democrats got some 'splaining to do!
