
But, to be Chicago kind of candid, whatcha gonna do about it?When did the U.S. lurch so far to the right that jetissoning the Fourth Amendment is considered running to the center?Today, the freshman senator from Illinois voted in favor of the FISA bill that provides retroactive legal protection to cooperating telecom companies that helped the feds eavesdrop on overseas calls. Up until a few weeks ago -- let's see, that would be shortly after the last primaries settled the Democratic nomination and terminated what's-her-name's once frontrunning campaign -- Obama adamantly opposed the bill. "Unequivocally" was the word his people used.
— Nomination in hand, Obama stiffs the Dem left on FISA vote, Andrew Malcolm, L.A. Times, 9 July 2008
The "compromise" the bill was supposed to represent is nonexistent;
To be sure, 75% of voting Senate Democrats voted against it (including Hillary Clinton). 100% of voting Senate Republicans voted for it (except John McCain, who couldn't be bothered to show up). So somebody cared. But not enough did. To paraphrase Robert Burns:
'We are bought and sold for telecom gold'-
Such a parcel of rogues in a nation!
The ACLU is suing.
“This fight is not over. We intend to challenge this bill as soon as President Bush signs it into law,” said Jameel Jaffer, Director of the ACLU National Security Project. “The bill allows the warrantless and dragnet surveillance of Americans’ international telephone and email communications. It plainly violates the Fourth Amendment.”We'll see if they can get a court to grant them standing this time.
What this bill has to do with net neutrality is probably obvious, but more on that later.
-jsq
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