Old Man Cap

Today, the Senate is poised to vote on the latest edition of the FISA bill. It’s currently looking as if it will pass easily without the Bingamin or Feingold amendments which is a damn shame. It’s entirely unsurprising. Each week, our once great country loses a bit of itself gleefully. Update: Both amendments failed about 32-67 or so. McCain was too busy to care/vote. For my fellow Californians, Boxer voted Yes to both. Feinstein voted Yea for the Bingamin and Nay for the Feingold amendments. Update 2: The bill has passed.

For the uninitiated,  the FISA bill is an update to the way government carries out its intelligence activities (read: spying) and all the rules they must abide by. The current version provides retroactive immunity for the previous FISA laws that telecomm companies broke willfully.  The government is essentially saying go ahead and break the law because we tell you to, we’ll make sure you don’t get busted. It really puts in writing the two-tiered justice system we currently have in place. If you’re a random shmuck on the street and break the law, get ready for some hard time. If you’ve got friends in high places, we can exempt you if we want. Retroactive immunity is technically unconstitutional, if I remember correctly, but that hasn’t seemed to stop much of the last 7 years and its affronts. On top of the ridiculousness of what retroactive immunity technically is, the Senate doesn’t even know what they’re granting immunity to, since all the knowledge is buried within the Bush Administration. This is nothing other than a cover up. Were retroactive immunity not to be passed and awareness of the telecomm industries domestic spying came to light, they would almost go, if not actually go, bankrupt from the civil claims ($10,000 per person per incident). Update: The Feingold amendment was a failed attempt to remove the retroactive immunity completely from the bill. The Bingamin amendment was a failed attempt to investigate the alleged crimes before granting immunity or not.

What it also does is allow the government to spy on a US citizen for a week before attempting to get a warrant. If you’re not offended by the breach of your privacy rights right now, think that this means all of your communications can be read, including all your e-mails and all your internet traffic. For a lot more detail, check out Glenn Greenwald’s numerous posts.

Then think that the Military Commisions Act of 2006 was never repealed. The administration currently has the ability to label anyone an unlawful enemy combatant and put them in jail indefinitely without habeas corpus; the right to challenge your detainment. Granted the Supreme Court recently found this unconstitutional (ONLY 5 of the 9 thought so), but you haven’t heard of any of the Gitmo detainees roaming free. Have you?

It’s seems eerily like the entrance to a security state ala Orwell’s 1984. “Thoughtcrime does not entail death: thoughtcrime is death.” Yes, I’m sounding like a conspiracy theorist. However, many of the systems to start the switch to this type of society are technically in place. All it takes is someone with the balls to do it.  It’s not like the American populace care about their rights.

“Those who would give up liberty to gain security deserve neither and shall lose both.” – Benjamin Franklin