What is going to happen to our Constitution?

Question

For years the Bush administration has been illegally spying on Americans' phone calls and emails with the willing assistance of big telecom companies like Verizon and AT&T. Lawsuits moving forward against these companies may be the only way we ever find out how far the Bush administration went in breaking the law.2

So the White House is putting enormous pressure on Congress to give the phone companies retroactive immunity for all the laws they broke spying on innocent Americans. And some key Democrats are ready to go along!

It seems hard to believe, but it's true. Just months after Congress capitulated to President Bush and politics of fear, they seem ready to do it again.

This happens again and again because politicians are afraid of being seen as weak on security—and because they buy the conventional wisdom that voters don't really care about constitutional freedoms.

But the truth is that voters understand something that Washington doesn't: There is no trade-off between fundamental liberties and security. In fact, a recent poll by our friends at the ACLU found that an overwhelming majority of Americans want Congress to exercise its oversight authority by forcing the Bush administration to get warrants before wiretapping Americans. Further, Americans strongly oppose giving lawbreaking phone companies amnesty for their actions.

The New York Times put it perfectly this Saturday:

"The question really is whether Congress should toss out chunks of the Constitution because Mr. Bush finds them inconvenient and some Democrats are afraid to look soft on terrorism... This provision is not primarily about protecting patriotic businessmen, as Mr. Bush claims. It's about ensuring that Mr. Bush and his aides never have to go to court to explain how many laws they've broken. It is a collusion between lawmakers and the White House that means that no one is ever held accountable."

News reports indicate that Democratic senators agreed to give phone companies retroactive immunity after the Bush administration presented a one-sided case that these companies "acted in good faith."

That's ridiculous. A judge appointed by President Bush Sr. wrote an opinion finding that "AT&T cannot seriously contend that a reasonable entity in its position could have believed that the alleged domestic dragnet was legal."

The bottom line is that President Bush is trying to cover up his own lawbreaking with this immunity.

We need Congress to stop him. Senator Chris Dodd has courageously vowed to block this bill if the immunity provision is not taken out. We need to make sure other members of Congress come out and support his strong stand.

The ACLU is about the only friends the American People have left to help protect our Constitution.

Answer 1

Our problem is those weaselly, wimpy, feckless members of Congress who have failed to confront the runaway executive, who have sat silent or (astonishingly) cheered and assisted as their own constitutional powers have been taken and their once-proud, coequal branch has been made subservient to the executive.

In the first six years of BushCheney, the Republican Congress operated as no more than a rubber stamp for the accretion of presidential power, shamelessly surrendering its own autonomy in a burst of mindless partisan zeal. Too many Democrats just went along, either buying the lies or being cowed by the unrelenting politics of fear and intimidation whipped up by Bush and Cheney. (The Bushites are still using these bullying tactics, as when they demanded this past summer that Congress legalize their illegal domestic spy program and CIA chief Mike McConnell warned publicly that "Americans are going to die" if Democrats failed to pass it.)

The President has also gained unrestricted power to round up unlimited numbers of American citizens and incarcerate them in military brigs or concentration camps for the rest of their lives. He can keep them from ever again communicating with friends, families, and attorneys, simply on the president's certification that the incarcerated are "terrorists," as he has done with Jose Padilla and Yaser Esam Hamdi. The President may also now kill American citizens abroad solely on the basis of his certification that the one killed is a "terrorist". Just ask the family and friends of Ahmed Hijazi, anAmerican killed with a U.S.-fired missile in Yemen. Therefore suspending the Constitutional right: "no person shall be denied life, liberty or property without due process of law."

Ominous signs are all around us concerning the accrual of power into the hands of the Presidency. If Mr. Bush stays in office I think our future will continue to witness shrinking political rights, financial collapse and endless war. Part of the power and seduction of this administration emerges from its diabolical manipulation of Christian rhetoric. I want to flesh out the ideology of the Christian Fascism that Mr. Bush articulates. It is a form of Christianity that is the mirror opposite of what Jesus embodied. It is, indeed, the materialization of the spirit of antichrist: a perversion of Christian faith and practice.

Answer 2

I am not so sure that the Dems. who are ready to go along are worried about "looking weak on terror" They are more worried they wont get a big check. I have to wonder if this vote on amnesty will take place while the news media is busy with non-stop coverage of the fire storm in CA. Seems to me that the news is always to busy with some other story to police our government, Freedom of the press was added to our constitution to have away of policing our government by providing the American people with uncensored information. Ever sence 9-11 the white house has used the press to sell us an illegal war and label anyone who dare appose the president or the funding of his war as UNPATRIOTIC.

Answer 3

Upholding the Constitution requires a lot of work. A large number of the people on the site are just kids with no clue of what it actually means to be American. They are willing to give up some of their (or someone Else's) Rights given under The Constitution for the easy way out. Also there are far too many people who confuse Constitutional rights with privileges. Yes I know I've opened myself up for bashing but keep it coming, I'll stand up for your right to spew what you want. If I don't stand up for your rights, I may lose mine.

Answer 4

They have been listing to ALL phone calls for over 20 years. They have key words that once they are said they are flagged and listened to by a person. It just cannot be used in court or for getting warrants to do other things. It is just a handy reference tool.

Have you watched the "Bourne Ultimatum". The seen where the report say Black Brier over the phone, and the CIA knows about it at once and starts going after him. They really can do that.

Answer 5

The actual document will remain sealed in the national achives while the spirit of that document is already gone. Although there are some cities that have passed Anti-Patriot Act legislation. I am happy to say that my city of Portland is one of those and I am even more happy to say that I helped in that campaign.

Stev, exactly how is Roe v Wade a rape on our Constitution?

Answer 6

Do yo mean what is already happening to the United Stes constitution? Just the Patriot act alone gives the president rights to suspend hebaus corpus, among other things. How many other acts like this do you think are being passed? just think about it, because I'm willing to be thtat there ar emany many more which the peope don't know about/ care enough to find out about.

Answer 7

What Constitution are you talking about? Remember Bush saying: "Constitution is only a peace of paper". Accordingly criminal Bush along with evil Republican Neocons treating US Constitution as peace of worthless paper and same way Bush and Republicans treating American people as worthless. Those evil Republican Neocons are against anything and everything what is good for America and American people. Because of evil Neocons and criminal Bush our country is heading straight to hell. Just wait and see Bush and Neocons to start World War III with Iran.

Answer 8

Great question. It scares me how many people out there are willing to be scared into handing over their freedoms that I personally have fought for.

Answer 9

If you trust and are calling the ACLU friends, you need help bad.

Answer 10

ALL politicians only care about the next election and raising money. What they say is meaningless.