The Senate Votes 60-28 to Pass Bush's Illegal Wiretapping

What the F*** were they thinking? The illegal wiretapping that has occurred without a court order, without a warrant will continue why? Because G. Bush said so? No. Because the Democrats capitulated and as Glenn Greenwald said even more than that they participated in authorizing an illegal program. No more can we sit here and say thank god the democrats were elected. This is a program that Russ Feingold sought to censure Bush regarding.

Feingold has been a vocal opponent of this program and here are some past statements on the NSA wiretapping Program to remind us just how bad this is:

This program is breaking the law, and this President is breaking the law. Not only that, he is misleading the American people in his efforts to justify this program...How is that worthy of applause? Since when do we celebrate our commander in chief for violating our most basic freedoms, and misleading the American people in the process? When did we start to stand up and cheer for breaking the law? In that moment at the State of the Union, I felt ashamed.

Defeating the terrorists should be our top national priority, and we all agree that we need to wiretap them to do it. In fact, it would be irresponsible not to wiretap terrorists. But we have yet to see any reason why we have to trample the laws of the United States to do it. The President’s decision that he can break the law says far more about his attitude toward the rule of law than it does about the laws themselves...

All of us in this body took an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States and bear true allegiance to the same. Fulfilling that oath requires us to speak clearly and forcefully when the President violates the law. This resolution allows us to send a clear message that the President’s conduct was wrong.

And we must do that. The President’s actions demand a formal judgment from Congress.
At moments in our history like this, we are reminded why the founders balanced the powers of the different branches of government so carefully in the Constitution. At the very heart of our system of government lies the recognition that some leaders will do wrong, and that others in the government will then bear the responsibility to do right.

This President has done wrong. This body can do right by condemning his conduct and showing the people of this nation that his actions will not be allowed to stand unchallenged.
To date, members of Congress have responded in very different ways to the President’s conduct. Some are responding by defending his conduct, ceding him the power he claims, and even seeking to grant him expanded statutory authorization powers to make his conduct legal. While we know he is breaking the law, we do not know the details of what the President has authorized or whether there is any need to change the law to allow it, yet some want to give him carte blanche to continue his illegal conduct. To approve the President’s actions now, without demanding a full inquiry into this program, a detailed explanation for why the President authorized it, and accountability for his illegal actions, would be irresponsible. It would be to abandon the duty of the legislative branch under our constitutional system of separation of powers while the President recklessly grabs for power and ignores the rule of law.

Below is a list of Senators who voted for the program. No Republican voted against it. Many believe this participation in the program is because of beltway consultants advising democrats not to look weak in the upcoming election. Poppycock. Take responsibility. The House passed the provision yesterday and it is now law. If the Democrats cannot stand up to a law so illegal and so in direct contravention to our Constitution what can we really ever expect from them? End the Iraq war? I have lost all faith in them.

Evan Bayh (Indiana); Tom Carper (Delaware); Bob Casey (Pennsylvania); Kent Conrad (North Dakota); Dianne Feinstein (California); Daniel Inouye (Hawai‘i); Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota); Mary Landrieu (Louisiana); Blanche Lincoln (Arkansas); Claire McCaskill (Missouri); Barbara Mikulski (Maryland); Bill Nelson (Florida); Ben Nelson (Nebraska); Mark Pryor (Arkansas); Ken Salazar (Colorado); Jim Webb (Virginia).