It is hard to fathom what they are thinking in the Senate. I mean, I've heard of the dangers of the slippery slope. And we've certainly experienced it the past many years.
We've gone from "We Do Not Torture" to "We Torture A Bit" without the requisite uproar. We should be in the streets burning things, should we not?
Because it is clear, absolutely clear, that our Government has sold our rights down the river. This is not the America I grew up in: these days, I no longer know what exactly my rights are or what the government can do to me without anyone knowing or having the right to find out. Wherever we turned the corner, the corner is turned. Maybe it was yesterday when they cast the vote to immunize our telecom providers from illegally spying on us, and now to continue to do so. It might as well be today that we mark as the day that our leaders failed, finally, ultimately, to lead. They betray us, and they betray their common solemn oath to defend the Constitution of the United States.
We need a moment of crystallization, an exemplar of the bottom of that damn slippery slope. The slope is over folks; here we are at the bottom of the ditch, muck and mire in our slippers. Looking up at our leaders who have sold us out to protect lawbreaking, spying telecommuncations companies.
ACTION ITEMs:
- Find a cell phone and Internet provider who will refuse to break the law, and refuse to turn over your information without a warrant;
- Make it a single-point campaign to defeat the following Senators on the SOLE basis of their vote today on this bill:
[UPDATE: CORRECTED LIST!] Alphabetical by Senator Name
Baucus (D-MT), Yea
Bayh (D-IN), Yea
Carper (D-DE), Yea
Casey (D-PA), Yea
Conrad (D-ND), Yea
Inouye (D-HI), Yea
Johnson (D-SD), Yea
Kohl (D-WI), Yea
Landrieu (D-LA), Yea
Lieberman (ID-CT), Yea
Lincoln (D-AR), Yea
McCaskill (D-MO), Yea
Mikulski (D-MD), Yea
Nelson (D-FL), Yea
Nelson (D-NE), Yea
Pryor (D-AR), Yea
Rockefeller (D-WV), Yea
Salazar (D-CO), Yea
Webb (D-VA), Yea
Whitehouse (D-RI), Yea
These Senators have betrayed their oath. They have betrayed us. They have betrayed America. They are, in other words, traitors.
The only logic under which they are not traitors is completely Bushian: it's not treason if the Senate approves it. I don't buy that argument for ONE SECOND.
Supposedly the Blackberry outage yesterday was due to an upgrade. I can imagine. They need more capacity now that they have permission and orders to store everything you send, say, and read on the damn thing.