Jul 9, 2008

Jonathan Turley: The Fix is in for a "Pirate Victory"

Well, as the really patriotic defenders of the Fourth Amendment feared, the criminals in our government--and I include the Senators who failed to uphold their oath of office--have won.

I excerpt here Glenn Greenwald's comments and refer you to a You Tube clip, an interview with Prof. Jonathan Turley, who points out that a Federal judge just a few days ago in his opinion indicated clearly that President (yeah, I know, my maw churns with bile at the word) George W. Bush is an admitted multiple felon.

First Glenn Greenwald:

With their vote today, the Democratic-led Congress has covered-up years of deliberate surveillance crimes by the Bush administration and the telecom industry, and has dramatically advanced a full-scale attack on the rule of law in this country. As I noted earlier today, Law Professor and Fourth Amendment expert Jonathan Turley was on MSNBC's Countdown with Rachel Maddow last night and gave as succinct an explanation for what Democrats -- not the Bush administration, but Democrats -- have done today. Anyone with any lingering doubts about what is taking place today in our country should watch this:


Go to YouTube for the video of Rachel Maddow on Countdown last night and her interview with Professor Jonathan Turley.


And Greenwald continues:

What is most striking is that when the Congress was controlled by the GOP -- when the Senate was run by Bill Frist and the House by Denny Hastert -- the Bush administration attempted to have a bill passed very similar to the one that just passed today. But they were unable to do so. The administration had to wait until Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats took over Congress before being able to put a corrupt end to the scandal that began when, in December of 2005, the New York Times revealed that the President had been breaking the law for years by spying on Americans without the warrants required by law.

Yet again, the Democratic Congress ignored the views of their own supporters in order to comply with the orders and wishes of the Bush administration.


And later: "Somehow, at some point, someone somewhere convinced [Democrats] that the best way to avoid appearing weak is to be as weak as possible."


Read Greenwald's complete article HERE.


Some observations:


1. The weak Democrats can go to hell.


2. Most citizens of the United States, including some good friends of mine, could give a rat's ass about the fact that their President is a self-admitted lawbreaker, or that the government now has the means to spy on them, their credit transactions, their emails, their telephone conversations, their text messages. They don't have anything to hide. They won't understand until a double entendre, or an incautious joke, or a monetary transaction gets looked at by a Homeland Security bureaucrat and they get called on the carpet, or fall under suspicion of being "up to something."


3. Few Americans understood that the first FISA bill in 1977 was the start of the erosion of the Fourth Amendment. In other words, we are at the bottom of the slippery slope.


4. The telecoms have spent millions to grease the palms of Democrats and Republicans alike. Change your phone to Qwest if you have their service. They refused to break the law when Bush told them to, and they refused almost nine months BEFORE 9/11/2001. So much for the national security arguments.


5. No, I revise my invective: screw the Democrats. Only 28 of them understood the meaning of their oath of office.


6. Clearly, we need to watch out for Obama. Despite his explanations and rationale for why he supports the bill, he's no fool. It gives him power to break the law if or when he is elected president. Don't rely on his good faith or integrity. He voted for it. Worse, he know it was going to fail. What would he have lost by voting against it or trying to make the arguments he gave at the end of 2007 when he didn't have the nomination? Obviously the telecoms' high regard. Just another politician. Screw him too.

6.1: Senators voting against and upholding their oath of office:
Akaka - Biden - Bingaman - Boxer - Brown - Byrd - Cantwell - Cardin - Clinton - Dodd - Dorgan - Durbin - Feingold - Harkin - Kerry - Klobachur - Lautenberg - Leahy - Levin - Menendez - Murray - Reed - Reid - Sanders - Schumer - Stabenow - Tester - Wyden. Hillary Clinton voted against it!


7. Upon further reflection, fuck the Democrats. Especially the ones in the House who brought the legislation under the cynical leadership of Steney Hoyer, and violated their oath of office.


8. It will be a long haul until we purge the Congress of all of these slimy bastards.


9. Think of one good reason why Nancy Pelosi took "impeachment off the table," and why the nuclear option is still "on the table."


10. Reread Tom Paine over the summer. Or read him.

With apologies to William Butler Yeats

ON JULY 4TH, AMERICA CELEBRATED THE RULE OF LAW. ON JULY 9TH, THE SENATE WILL VOTE TO BURY IT.

Those words form the banner headline of a full-page ad that will appear in the Washington Post tomorrow.

And then sometime tomorrow--barring a miracle--the Senate of the United States will probably vote to subvert the Constitution rather than fearlessly defend it. Senators who have fallen under the corruption of political expediency, and who should, if they were faithful to their oath of office vote 100-0 against the FISA bill, will vote to pass the abomination.

Goodbye true Democracy. We are no longer a nation of laws but a sham Democracy with some sort of quasi-king who breaks the law, baldly admits it with a sneer, tells the American public he will continue to break it, and expects others to break the law at his mere suggestion. Back in the 50's this would have been seen as creeping totalitarianism.

The tyrant, its hour come round at last, is slouching toward Washington. Watch it and weep.