69 People I Will Not Have Dinner With

The FISA Amendments Act of 2008 has passed the Senate. For those who did not read my post yesterday, this bill grants the telecom companies immunity for helping the NSA spy on phone conversations so that we may never know the extent of the NSA’s warrentless wiretapping program, and grants the president even more warrentless wiretapping powers. What follows is a list of all the senators that voted in favor of the FISA bill. Hopefully, I never have to meet any of these people (again), because I do not want to shake their slimy hands. Read more

Obama’s FISA Reversal and Imminent Vote

Well, Obama has finally made a proper statement about his disgraceful flip-flop on the FISA Ammendments Act. Mr. Charisma now supports the bill (though with only about with as much enthusiasm as I support him) after saying for the last few months that he would filibuster it as long as it had immunity for the telecom industry (which it does). More over at The Swamp.

As it stands, the bill is the results of apathetically lackluster “compromising” and “negotiations” between Democrats and Republicans in Congress which gave the Republicans more than they could have ever hoped for if there had been a competent negotiator on the Democrats’ side. The bill grants retroactive immunity to the telecom industry for helping the NSA with their warrentless wiretapping, meaning that we may never know for sure the extent of the spying (unless you listen to this man). And, all of this is happening before the results of a report by the Inspector General on the warrentless wiretap program.

To learn more about the FISA bill, check out this video at Four Hour Work Week. It is well worth watching, and makes includes a great argument that even though you may not be doing anything wrong, you still do not want the government spying on just anybody without a warrent. Daniel Ellsberg says that warrentless wiretapping means that government officials and activists can be spied on by the ruling party in an effort to stop plans that may be against what the ruling party wishes (Watergate anyone?).

Obama’s defense of his flip-flop is laughable. For one thing, he says that he will fight to remove immunity from the bill, but then admits that even if immunity is not removed, he is still voting yes on the bill. What kind of commitment is that? He continues on by saying all the reasons that the bill is “imperfect” (see: dangerously unconstitutional), but then brushes it all aside in favor of the “well counter-terrorism is important” defense. Clearly just playing towards the center during an election instead of sticking to his convictions. Obama claims that once he is in office he will have the Attorney General review survelence programs like this one, but not only is he making the assumption that he will win in November, but anybody who believes him is forgetting that power corrupts, and once in office he will have no reason to have that review. McCain is going to vote for the bill, so all Obama is doing by voting for it as well is playing politics for the election, and it is not right. The American people deserve better from a possible commander-in-chief. At least McCain seems to believe in his vote (however wrong it may be).

And please, call your senators. The vote is tomorrow. The EFF has a great script to read to them.

Kucinich reads Bush Articles of Impeachment on the House floor

I flipped on my television at approximately ten-thirty Eastern time on Monday night, and I was pleasantly surprised to find Representative Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) speaking on C-Span. Kucinich was talking about President Bush and his various crimes against the United States, and I soon became aware that the Representative was introducing Articles of Impeachment against President Bush (also known as House Resolution 1258).

Dennis Kucinich had begun his long trudge through the Articles two hours earlier, and he would continue his reading, to an almost empty House chamber, for nearly another three hours. There were 35 Articles in total, each one detailing a crime that Bush had committed that warranted impeachment. I congratulate Kucinich for having the courage and conviction to undertake this task.

A summary of each offense for each Article, as provided by the index of the Articles of Impeachment, reads as follows: Read more

Conspiracy!

Okay, as a disclaimer the following opinions are my own and do not reflect the opinion of ThinkYouth.net

Haven’t you guys noticed that since 9/11 there has been an explosion of “the government is trying to get us!” crap going around? One day during my MySpace pillaging I have came across one of these conspiracy fanatics. Being open minded I decided to read what he had to say.

In doing so, I also discovered Prison Planet (www.prisonplanet.com). I like it how Alex Jones uses FLAWED logic to get his arguments across. So, for the some of you who are actually concerned what our Government might be up to, here’s a couple of tips.
1. Pay attention to the newspaper and do not count on websites like Prison Planet for what’s going on. The views on many websites are biased (including this one) and have their own agenda. Some of them may be noble, but most of the time they are in it for the shock value.

2. If you are unhappy with something, DO SOMETHING about it and not just sit there and whine about it. Really, we choose who runs our country, might as well as be a smart person than C average.

3. Have some common sense. While it might be true that Bush had used wire tapping to find out what the country is doing, he is not trying to take over the world. Big business men are not trying to take over the world. No one is going to force communism on you. I just want to make this clear because most conspiracy websites are claiming that a group of people will take over the world and become rich while the rest of us are broke and if we say anything unpleasant we get shot it. It’s the 21st century. Enjoy it.

In general, I just want these doom-and-gloom types to stop trying to make us sensible people scared and feel helpless. Really… that attitude is not productive whatsoever.

Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act 2.0

The Senate passed the vote to expand the fine print of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act last night. The vote tallied in at 60 - 28. 16 Democrats and Joe Lieberman (Independent) joined 43 Republicans in supporting the bill.

The changes to the bill include things such as not needing a warrant to monitor phone calls domestic, or international calls that are leaving the US. Emails may also be monitored. This will be conducted by the NSA.
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White House Finally Subpoenaed

The White House has finally been subpoenaed. This is a major defining moment in the Bush “presidency”, and the showdown with Congress is gonna heat up.
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