Yes, while it has been discussed in the open threads, I felt it incumbent to express my anger and disappointment at the Democratic Senators who let us all down on Thursday by voting to renew The Patriot Act (TPA). It is especially obscene for those Senators who have been giving lip service lately to curtailing the demonstrably fascist nature of the current abomination we have of an administration.
Before I go any further, here is the Roll of Shame for those who missed it:
Baucus (D-MT), Bayh (D-IN), Biden (D-DE), Boxer (D-CA), Cantwell (D-WA), Carper (D-DE), Clinton (D-NY), Conrad (D-ND), Dayton (D-MN), Dodd (D-CT), Dorgan (D-ND), Durbin (D-IL), Feinstein (D-CA), Johnson (D-SD), Kennedy (D-MA), Kerry (D-MA), Kohl (D-WI), Landrieu (D-LA), Lautenberg (D-NJ), Lieberman (D-CT), Lincoln (D-AR), Menendez (D-NJ), Mikulski (D-MD), Nelson (D-FL), Nelson (D-NE), Obama (D-IL), Pryor (D-AR), Reed (D-RI), Reid (D-NV), Rockefeller (D-WV), Salazar (D-CO), Sarbanes (D-MD), Schumer (D-NY), Stabenow (D-MI)
If you came here looking for some twisted logic to defend these spineless arseholes, so as to keep a united Democratic front, look elsewhere. I am sick and tired of political, pragmatic and quasi-security reasons for voting for such a sickening piece of Legislation. The Patriot Act is nothing more than a shamelessly named document that is providing little but blanketing the unconstitutional and repugnant nature of the BushCo cabal. When asked what exactly TPA has done to provide safety for the country, we are given piecemeal answers and told like petulant children that any more information would be a threat to National Security. Really? Because I don't see fucking anything but the blind robbery of American's rights in the renewal of this scrap of regurgitated NeoCon vomit.
Not just that, but completely absurd revisions and/or amendments to TPA were instigated by Democrats like Diane Feinstein from my own State. For christ's sake, look at this:
Stores would be required to keep medicines like Sudafed and Nyquil behind the counter, and consumers would be limited to 3.6 grams, or about 120 pills, per day, and 9 grams, or about 300 pills, per month. Purchasers would need to show a photo ID and sign a logbook....The limits target meth dealers who buy large quantities of the drugs to extract the pseudoephedrine...The measure is a compromise reached after months 'of haggling over the 30-day limit. Sens. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., and Jim Talent, R-Mo., who pushed the legislation in the Senate, insisted the limit was needed.
What exactly does this have to do with securing our Nation from Terrorists Senator Feinstein? Nothing, you know it and I know it. Maybe you should have been paying more attention to the parts of the Act that are actually relevant to the Citizens of your State and Country.
If you voted for this Act to gain or keep secure (ironic mee thinks) your office, then you are of no use to those of us who are fighting tooth and nail to keep what dwindling freedoms and privacy we have left. You deserve nothing but contempt and from me you shall be lucky if you receive that. We need fortitude, vision and accountability to fight these knuckle dragging fuck pigs. You have made your statement all of you. You wish to remain part of the machine, offering a polish to its coarse exterior now and then so we can keep slightly informed, but glad to lock down the controls and even make sure they stay well out of the public's view.
If you offer pragmatism in any shape as a defense, you deserve even less respect. Pragmatism is what got us and this Nation into the shoddy state it is in now. Instill fear, give a rights restraining law a name which will make career politicians cower and presto...you get what you needed. That is pragmatism, and that is how it works for these dirt bags in Washington and you lot have allowed it to fully manifest itself. You're afraid to look weak on national security? Well, you look weak by casting these votes. You are weak.
Against my better judgment before I list the Senators who do deserve our respect and thanks for handing in their "nay" for this sham of change to what is primarily a renunciation of the Constitution, I will leave you with a message in the form my Scottish upbringing demands:
Away and hiv a right good fuck tae yerselves
Russ Feingold, D-Wi; Patty Murray, D-Wash.; Jim Jeffords, I-Vt.; Robert Byrd, D-W.Va.; Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii; Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M.; Tom Harkin, D-Iowa; Patrick Leahy, D-Vt.; Carl Levin, D-Mich.; and Ron Wyden, D-Ore
Thank you.