Spies Like Us

Well Obama has messed up big time in my opinion. (I know I will give you a moment to sit down and read this again, yes I have criticized our new president who is a Democrat—take your time, I have a while.) Obama has sided with the Bush Administration on wire taping and is actually seeking to expand the whole shebang so that the government can NEVER be sued for listening in on normal Americans. So not only has he protected Bush's folks on torture, but now he is also doing the same on surveillance.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) is throwing around terms like "state secrets" and "sovereign immunity" to explain why they think in the words of Salon's Glenn Greenwald "the Patriot Act bars any lawsuits of any kind for illegal government surveillance unless there is "willful disclosure" of the illegally intercepted communications."
Greenwald goes on to say:

In other words, beyond even the outrageously broad "state secrets" privilege invented by the Bush administration and now embraced fully by the Obama administration, the Obama DOJ has now invented a brand new claim of government immunity, one which literally asserts that the U.S. Government is free to intercept all of your communications (calls, emails and the like) and -- even if what they're doing is blatantly illegal and they know it's illegal -- you are barred from suing them unless they "willfully disclose" to the public what they have learned.

I get that Obama's administration doesn't want to piss off the folks who are doing intelligence work, but this seems to go against everything that Obama ran on. It brings me no joy to denounce Obama and the DOJ on this, but this kind of continuation and expansion of Bush-era tactics is something that we can not stand for as Americans. Not cool Mr. President.

As a citizen I am not at all comfortable with the idea that we citizens have no recourse against being bugged by our government. Hello, what about my civil liberties folks? Yeah I believe that Obama and his government is a better bunch than Bush, but that still doesn't make it cool. I don't want Gandhi listening in on my calls or reading my emails. I don't care who you are, I want my privacy no matter how inconvenient it is to my government or my political party.

Olbermann covers it in his fifth story last night:

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And here is a skoosh more from Keith:

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A Supreme Ruling

Justice Kennedy penned today's 5-4 court decision ruling that the Gitmo detainees have the right to challenge their detention in U.S. civilian courts.

Yes folks that is one for the Constitution.

And this makes the third time the high court has ruled in the favor of these suspected terrorists rights to a trial. Both previous times, Congress and the Bush administration had to come up with new trial procedures. This decision from the court says those still aren't good enough.

The Court declared that Section 7 of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 was unconstitutional because it wanted to get rid of habeas corpus, despite the fact that our Constitution says this can only be done in cases of rebellion or invasion.

Chief Justice Roberts and Justices Alito, Scalia and Thomas were the dissenters. I will pause while you get over your shock.

Here is Salon's news item on the decision. Glenn Greewald also has more about the decision at Salon.com.

Somebody's Watching Me

Remember that song from the '80s by Rockwell? "I always feel like somebody's watching me . . ." with the non-scary Michael Jackson singing backup? Well that song is more true than ever.

Today, the so-called Democratic-led Senate has allowed the FISA bill to pass that would give immunity to the telecom companies for the warrantless spying the Bush Administration had them do since September 11. In addition, this bill will make it legal to continue this behavior moving forward. For more, read here.

Maybe you think this this doesn't matter, because you have nothing to hide. It doesn't matter if you are talking to your mother about grandma's cornbread recipe or texting a friend about your weekend plans—our government has NO RIGHT to read or listen in on your private conversations without taking the appropriate legal action to do so, showing that they have a reason to believe that grandma's cornbread is bad for America and not just because it raises your cholesterol.

Now you can do something about this. A writer from Salon, Glenn Greewald, is the co-creator/sponsor of a petition to the House to ask them to not vote for the Senate's bill, but rather to push through the Restore Act, a bill that provides privacy safeguards against the kind of invasive techniques Bush and his cronies feed on.

Go here to sign and find out more. People, the time has come—if you can't sign a bloody petition to protect your ability to have a private conversation there is no helping you.