The word despotic refers to something that concentrates absolute political power and control in one set of hands. The Protect America Act certainly does that. Shamefully passed on a Saturday night in the middle of the summer of 2007, when Congress knew that the American people would not be paying attention, the Protect America Act gives the Attorney General of the United States and the Director of National Intelligence the ability to conduct dragnet electronic spying campaigns against the American people, and to do so without approval by the courts through constitutionally-required search warrants, and without oversight by Congress.
In short, the Protect America Act establishes a Big Brother spy network that has powers beyond anything George Orwell could have imagined. Thanks to the new law, the government’s electronic spy network now has the power to listen to your telephone calls, read your emails, intercept your online financial transactions, and watch where you go and what you do on the Internet. Because there’s no court approval or oversight, the Bush White House can direct this spying to take place against American citizens who aren’t suspected of any crime, for political or personal reasons, without anyone being able to stop it.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation says of the passage of the Protect America Act that “Rather than setting meaningful boundaries on the Executive, Congress essentially handed him a blank check to invade Americans’ privacy.”
The Washington Post wrote of the Protect America Act, “To call this legislation ill-considered is to give it too much credit: It was scarcely considered at all. Instead, it was strong-armed through both chambers by an administration that seized the opportunity to write its warrantless wiretapping program into law — or, more precisely, to write it out from under any real legal restrictions.”
The Center for National Security Studies warned, “The administration approach would allow massive surveillance of Americans with no meaningful judicial oversight or individualized probable cause in violation of the Fourth Amendment.”
The Protect America Act is a law that enables the transformation of the United States of America from a democratic nation into country that must live in fear of its all-seeing despotic ruler.
In December, Senator Chris Dodd was able to delay passage of a new bill in the Senate that would extend the Protect America Act by providing legal immunity to telecommunications companies that have helped George W. Bush conduct electronic spying against American citizens – even when such spying took place before the Protect America Act was passed.
The Protect America Act is set to expire on February 1, but the Bush White House is pushing Congress to pass the extension that Chris Dodd blocked back in December. Call your two US Senators today and tell them to let the Protect America Act expire!
Call the Congressional switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to your senators’ offices. That’s two senators, and two phone calls. Don’t know who your senators are? Look for them, under your state, at our Senate legislative scorecard on Progressive Patriots.
So where were the Democrats when this was passed? Why aren’t they doing anything to limit Bush’s power? Why are they not standing up to the Republican’s? They are the majority, right? Why is the only Congressman to stand up to Bush considered a whack job and a nut?
Oh, good questions, Mike. None of the Democratic presidential candidates voted for the Protect America Act. However, many other Democratic members of Congress did. They all, each and every one of them, deserve to be turned out of office in 2008.