The many decent minded conservatives I know would never have voted for this amendment, I am sure that you would be hard pressed to find many libertarians in favor of it either and just about every democrat or social minded person in the country would’ve voted against it too. But, only if HR6304 were understood for what it could be, not just what it is and as long as the essence of the amendment was not misrepresented to the people in the same way that some of the arguments in favor on the floor of the house today grossly misrepresented it.
The bill allows for
the warrant-less wire-tapping of foreign terror suspects
now to most fearful Americans that would sound decent enough, they’d figure that a terrorist shouldn’t be deserving of the same rights that they as Americans deserve and that our secret service/law enforcement should be given every help.
But, here, regarding the issue of who gets rights anyway, I would disagree with them. I believe, as I am sure the founding father’s believed, that ALL men/women should be provided the same level of justice, regardless of citizenship or any amount of insinuated guilt. That’s at the very core of what makes America great, but it’s irrelevant because the amendment is not just talking about terror ’suspects’.
The key term in the statement
warrant-less wire-tapping of foreign terror suspects
is the ‘suspects’ bit, it should and could read the
warrant-less wire-tapping of anyone the govt and/or it’s representatives deem to be a terror ‘suspect’
Which casts a much wider net. Of course it all comes down to what defines a ‘suspect’, but unfortunately there is no definition, it's just whoever our government and its representatives deem to be a ‘suspect’.
Perhaps somewhere someone has a bad neighbor, or a jilted ex-boyfriend/girlfriend that happens to be a 'representative' of the government an agent or cop and labels them a 'suspect'. Let's face it there are rogue elements in these agencies, it certainly wouldn't be the first time someone in a position of authority has abused that power.
Perhaps a state senator somewhere could be deemed a suspect, no, that's crazy, no government would ever knowingly try to incriminate another party's elected officials...would they?
There's a view among some of the more foolish Americans on issues like this and that is ‘if you’re doing nothing wrong then you’ve got nothing to hide from’ but they’re missing the point.
It doesn’t take long to ruin a life, suspend bank accounts, destroy reputations, all without warrants and no trials either, you could be taken away and left somewhere to rot, never to be heard from again, oh that’s right! No, you don’t have to worry about that bit because they didn’t quite squeeze the habeas corpus amendment through, but they wanted it, right? Still, not to worry, they’re not gonna let that one go without a fight, I’m sure it'll rear it’s ugly head again but in any case it wouldn't stop them taking you somewhere and leaving you there because they could always retrospectively gain the constitutional right to do so, right!
There’s absolutely no doubt in my mind that totally innocent people will have their entire lives ruined because of what happened in congress today.
Oh yeah! I knew I’d forgotten something, another dangerous precedent was set today, not only did this amendment provide an amnesty or immunity from prosecution, but now and forever more rogue administrations will feel they can break the law with impunity, knowing that all they have to do is whip something up and throw it through congress to get a retrospective amnesty put into place.
Today is a dark day for America, the terrorists gained more today than they ever have by blowing something up, we’ve thrown away all that we were entrusted to protect and all because we were scared. We did it selfishly and without a thought for our children or future generations of Americans.
I thought the oath was to: support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic NOT ‘change and amend‘ if it gets in the way.
Perhaps it needs to be changed again, at least for all those religious types who broke their oath to God today, maybe something along the lines of ‘I swear by almighty God to selfishly serve myself and change the constitution if it gets in the way’.
At least the president gets a big caveat he‘s only got to do it ‘to the best of my ability’, so no one’s holding their breath there.
We’re no longer a nation of laws, but law breakers, we are no longer decent but the indecent, our leaders have ripped and scratched at that beautiful scroll called the American constitution and we've stood by and let them.
This is not a time to worry about petty politics, the constitution was there to protect us, all we had to do was protect it, regardless of political affiliation.
Our badly bandaged constitution rarely works anymore, it certainly doesn‘t protect those it was intended to THE PEOPLE, not the fucking government. On the occasion it does, it’s seen as getting in the way and is promptly altered by some hideous amendment.
A Kossack here has a tag line that asks ‘would Jesus torture?‘ I’d ask ‘would the founding fathers torture?‘, but like the Kossack I already know the answer, they wouldn’t under any circumstance, simply because by doing so they would’ve become what they abhor, we, their descendants have become what they abhorred.
They say countries get the leadership it deserves well look what we have. We’re certainly no longer deserving of the graceful document left us, the founding father’s brilliance quickly undermined by greed and fear, frightened little people like Limbaugh now having a greater impact on our constitution than our founding fathers.
Now we’ve been left to fend for ourselves, thanks government of the people.
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