Rule Of Law Falls By A 293-129 Vote

One more nail in the coffin of this unspeakably corrupt, debased, indecent government. They're loving it in the corporate boardrooms and lobby shops today. Here's Caroline Frederickson of the ACLU on this unconstitutional surveillance abomination (rejected by a majority of Democrats, but again, the majority of the majority doesn't count anymore).

"It’s Christmas morning at the White House thanks to this vote. The House just wrapped up some expensive gifts for the administration and their buddies at the phone companies. Watching the House fall to scare tactics and political maneuvering is especially infuriating given the way it stood up to pressure from the president on this same issue just months ago. In March we thought the House leadership had finally grown a backbone by rejecting the Senate’s FISA bill. Now we know they will not stand up for the Constitution.

"No matter how often the opposition calls this bill a ‘compromise,’ it is not a meaningful compromise, except of our constitutional rights. The bill allows for mass, untargeted and unwarranted surveillance of all communications coming in to and out of the United States. The courts’ role is superficial at best, as the government can continue spying on our communications even after the FISA court has objected. Democratic leaders turned what should have been an easy FISA fix into the wholesale giveaway of our Fourth Amendment rights.

"More than two years after the president’s domestic spying was revealed in the pages of the New York Times, Congress’ fury and shock has dissipated to an obedient whimper. After scrambling for years to cover their tracks, the phone companies and the administration are almost there. This immunity provision will effectively destroy Americans’ chance to have their deserved day in court and will kill any possibility of learning the extent of the administration’s lawless actions. The House should be ashamed of itself. The fate of the Fourth Amendment is now in the Senate’s hands. We can only hope senators will show more courage than their colleagues in the House."

They won't. The die has been cast and the bastards in the House leadership just want to get on with it. They are very obviously protecting themselves, fearing that the illegal activities they failed to stop after the fact will make them accountable. The "Nuremberg Defense" that if the government says it's legal, then you are immunized has returned to full effect. The merging of corporate and governmental interests here is the very definition of fascism.

And ho-hum, your rights have slipped away quietly, in broad daylight, and your media doesn't care, and your elected officials enthusiastically don't care. Fine. We're going to fight this, and we're going to keep fighting this for as long as humanly possible, and we're not going to forget one name on that list of 293. We'll be slow and methodical, but someday soon we'll get rid of all of them.