BernieHund: The Political Watchdog

Well, it’s now up to the Senate to preserve our rights.  The House compromised away most of what we thought the Democrats would stand for today.  In doing so, it is safe to say that they made the President smile, and any time Bush smiles these days you know he has successfully taken another cookie from the jar without reprimand.

FISA has been debated so long that most of us have enjoyed a birthday during the debate.  The House is calling it a compromise.  Some of us are calling it a betrayal of trust.

The HouseFriday easily approved a compromise bill setting new electronic surveillance rules that effectively shield telecommunications companies from lawsuits arising from the government’s terrorism-era warrantless eavesdropping on phone and computer lines in this country.

The bill, which was passed on a 293-129 vote, does more than just protect the telecoms. The update to the 30-year-old Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act is an attempt to balance privacy rights with the government’s responsibility to protect the country against attack, taking into account changes in telecommunications technologies.

The reasoning for protecting the telecoms seems to be that when the government calls, we should all do whatever we are asked without questioning the request or demanding proper process. 

The government eavesdropped on American phone and computer lines for almost six years after the Sept. 11 attacks without permission from the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, the special panel established for that purpose under the 1978 law. Some 40 lawsuits have been filed against the telecommunications companies by groups and individuals who think the Bush administration illegally monitored their phone calls or e-mails.

Okay, so we know that Big Brother has been looking and listening for years.  In effect, the present administration has deemed the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court useless.

So, what is the “compromise?”

The compromise bill directs a federal district court to review certifications from the attorney general saying the telecommunications companies received presidential orders telling them wiretaps were needed to detect or prevent a terrorist attack. If the paperwork were deemed in order, the judge would dismiss the lawsuit.

It would also require the inspectors general of the Justice Department, Pentagon and intelligence agencies to investigate the wiretapping program, with a report due in a year.

Call that the compromise if you will.  Most of us doubt that the compromise is anything more than an rubber stamp for the President. 

What the House is proposing is that we trust the government to do the right thing, in essence.  For what it is worth, the House, especially the House Democrats who voted for the FISA bill have not been paying attention to anything.  It is hard to put blind trust into a government that has deceived us.  It is most difficult to trust a government not to abuse our rights as citizens.  The track record of this administration has been abysmal. 

I understand that following 9-11, the nation was stunned.  For weeks I walked around in total disbelief and cried every time I saw the remains of the Towers.  We were emotional.  Amid that emotion we wanted… and I emphasize “wanted”…  to believe that our elected leaders would have the knowledge and skills and means to protect us from an enemy that had been previously unknown to many of us.  Al-Qaeda was about as familiar to me as the Martians in “War of the Worlds.”  Being unfamiliar with the enemy, we relied on our government to lead us, to direct us, to protect us.

Our governmental officials started off on the right foot, or so it seemed, but now in hindsight it seems that in the midst of our collective vulnerability as a nation the Bush administration took advantage of the situation to advance agendas that had been set into the playbooks prior to the attack on the Towers and the Pentagon.  And, in an effort to continue to advance those agendas, the President and Vice President and the Bush administration conspired to do what was necessary to meet the needs of a hidden agenda. 

While talking tough… “bring it on”… the administration spread fear of the unknown among the citizens of the country.  And bit by bit, pen stroke by pen stroke, they began to eat into our rights and our freedoms by spreading fear on the home front.  This fear spread throughout the country with such intensity that many of us were willing to put our total trust without question into the hands of the Executive Branch of government.  Congress followed along without question until time had passed sufficient for us to catch our breaths and realize that we, by way of government, had been willing to all but give up anything we could to feel safe.  That includes our privacy and our rights. 

Now, we see that FISA, put in place to protect the citizens from government overreach and abuse, has fallen to compromise.  The House, especially the House Democrats, have shown that they cannot stand up under the pressure of the Executive Branch to protect the people they claim to represent. 

There is room for compromise in many areas of government.  Compromising rights is not one of them.  We can only hope, and it is only a hope, that the Senate will take a tougher stand against the White House.