 | Democrats Who Voted For Spying Against American Citizens Inside The USA |
Today, Senators Russ Feingold and Barack Obama teamed up with eight other senators(Webb, Tester, Biden, Sanders, Kennedy, Menendez, Akaka, and Dodd) offered up an amendment to the rotten FISA Amendments Act, to try to make it a little less rotten. Their amendment included the simple language,
“No communication shall be acquired under this title if the Government knows before or at the time of acquisition that the communication is to or from a person reasonably believed to be located in the United States.”
How could anyone object to this simple guarantee? The amendment by Feingold and Obama even allowed for exemptions from this requirement. If terrorist acts would be reasonably suspected to be involved in the matter, or even if bodily harm against somebody would be involved, the White House spies would get carte blanche to spy against the electronic communications of Americans.
So, all that the Feingold-Obama amendment asked for is that Americans not be targeted for electronic spying, unless there is a threat of terrorism or bodily harm to someone.
Is that too much of a scrap of our former freedom to ask for? The following Democratic senators thought so. They voted against the Feingold Obama amendment.
Evan Bayh of Indiana
Tom Carper of Delaware
Kent Conrad of North Dakota
Dianne Feinstein of California
Daniel Inouye of Hawaii
Tim Johnson of South Dakota
Mary Landrieu of Louisiana
Carl Levin of Michigan
Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas
Barbara Mikulski of Maryland
Bill Nelson of Florida
Ben Nelson of Nebraska
Mark Pryor of Arkansas
John Rockefeller of West Virginia
These senators voted, along with the Republicans, to say that Americans in the United States should be targeted for electronic spying, without a search warrant even if there is no reason to suspect a terrorist threat, and even if there is no threat of bodily harm to anyone. What a sad day it is for the Democratic Party to have politicians like these running the name of Democrat through the mud.
Postscript: Don’t let my focus on the failure of Democratic senators absolve the Republicans in the Senate. Not a single Republican voted for the Feingold-Obama amendment. Except for Senator Lindsey Graham, who was absent, every Republican senator, including presidential candidate John McCain, voted to allow the federal government to use electronic communications networks to spy on American citizens, without any search warrant, even when there is no threat of terrorism involved.
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Uh, jClifford, looks like Clinton did cosponsor Dodd’s amendment:
http://www.govtrack.us/congress/amendment.xpd?session=110&amdt=s3907
Comment by Iroquois — 2/12/2008 @ 5:49 pm
I’ll strike that first postscript, then. Too bad Hillary Clinton was too busy promoting herself even to vote for amendment 3907…
…given that she was campaigning for President just a few miles away.
How little is a Clinton cosponsorship worth?
Will she even vote on the final passage of the bill?
Comment by J. Clifford — 2/12/2008 @ 6:03 pm
Good move on Obama’s part…it’s called DOING YOUR JOB. Let’s see who is playing politics and who is actually leading the pack…
Comment by Caffeine — 2/12/2008 @ 6:12 pm
The Senate just passed the bill. The roll call will be available within an hour… and we’ll all see who voted, and how they voted.
Comment by J. Clifford — 2/12/2008 @ 6:30 pm
Oh, so co-sponsoring FISA amendments was important when you thought Clinton wasn’t a cosponsor. Now that you know she cosponsored an amendment, that’s no longer important.
I suppose if I went back in the Irregular archives and showed that you yourselves said Clinton had voted against closure, the anti-closure vote would become unimportant as well.
Funny how drinking the Obama koolaid puts things into perspective.
Comment by Iroquois — 2/12/2008 @ 7:37 pm
Refresh your page and look at this website again.
Comment by Jim — 2/12/2008 @ 7:38 pm
You democrats don’t want to be busted for your illegal behaviour, whether it is running to Hugo (the communist) Chavez or other underhanded activity so you are crying foul like you really care about anything pertaining to freedom, come on you don’t want to get busted in your illegal workings, you hippies are the reason we lost the vietnam war look whos on your side you have hanoi Jane fonda liberal Democrat extrodanier.I would really worry though if a socialist/communist Democrat took Office and agin started killing folks like they did on Ruby ridge and in Wako with David Koresh killing innocent women and children.Love that Janet Reno she was a real precious wire tapper and murderer.
Comment by Anonymous — 2/12/2008 @ 9:13 pm
You caught me. I’ve been running to Hugo Chavez for so long now. I started out in Berkeley, but by the time I got to Haight-Ashbury the soles of my Birkenstocks wore out, so I waited a while and dealt some pot to my friends in exchange for some cobbling classes and some love beads, then I started running to Hugo Chavez again. It’s been three months and I’ve run all the way to San Salvador, but I have to just keep running and eventually I’ll make it to Caracas, I swear. The bonus is that I’m in great shape.
Comment by Jim — 2/12/2008 @ 9:51 pm
Don’t be silly. Jim is not a communist murderer. He is a Martian murderer. How do I know? Easy. No antenna.
Comment by Iroquois — 2/12/2008 @ 9:57 pm
I love this. This Republican yahoo comes on here refusing to give a name, because he or she knows that the government is watching, and then suggests that we have nothing to fear so long as there’s not any part of our private lives we don’t want the whole world knowing about.
If you love Big Brother so much, Anonymous, why not give your name?
Comment by J. Clifford — 2/12/2008 @ 9:59 pm
Why does Anonymous use the British spelling for behaviour and try to throw around French phrases like “extrodanier”? Not to mention the extensive knowledge about illegal activities. Maybe Anonymous is not Republican, but Tory.
Comment by Iroquois — 2/12/2008 @ 11:01 pm
LOL! What do you demoncrats have to fear? Why are you so important that the government spies your activities?I hear that all the time from you paranoids I think somebody laced your pot. I do trust conservatives who want to spy on illegal activity like Al Qaeda etc… I do not trust Liberals because I know you are projecting your real fears of your own party,in other words you know what they are capable of and so do I! We witnessed that when attorney general Janet Reno killed innocents(Woman and children)in Waco Texas and Ruby Ridge they will do it again because they don’t understand religous freedom. Grant you I did not agree with either group but I do regocnize this is America and people have the right to believe however they like as long as they do not break our laws in doing so.
Yes I am scared of liberals!
Comment by Anonymous — 2/13/2008 @ 8:25 pm
Did you trust your conservatives in government to spy on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.?
If you’re not afraid of George W. Bush’s spies, why won’t you leave your name here?
Comment by J. Clifford — 2/13/2008 @ 8:26 pm
“Did you trust your conservatives in government to spy on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.?
If you’re not afraid of George W. Bush’s spies, why won’t you leave your name here?”
LOL! I am not afraid of Geoege Bush!I am Afraid of Hillary and Barack! What do I have to fear of George Bush? That is your silly fear because of your Bush derangement and hatred. You sound pretty stupid asking both of these questions! Are you suggesting the Bush administration went back in time and spied on MLK jr.? Somebody surely spiked your pot. If in fact it happened ,that administration has no more to do with this current one than the north pole has to do with a gooseneck!
Comment by Anonymous — 2/13/2008 @ 8:37 pm