Liberals in the Senate stand for liberty
| By BingVanGorden - Jun 26th, 2008 at 10:51 am EDT |
"Congress shall make no ex post facto law……………….." (that means no retro active laws)
United States Constitution
Republicans like to demonize liberalism and conveniently call anyone that disagrees with them a liberal. It's easy for their supporters to grasp and gives them someone to despise and blame for whatever the Republicans want to claim they've done. As a liberal I have written many times about what liberalism really is and who in my view is a liberal. A recent vote in the Senate that gave expanded spying powers on American citizens to the President as well as granting retro active immunity to the telecom companies that illegally spied and collected data on you and me. Sadly the Democratic Party caved in to their more moderate and right leaning wings of the party. Obviously this bill started and passed the House before it got to the Senate and the same was true there. Speaker Nancy Pelosi proved without a doubt, despite hailing from liberal San Francisco, is no liberal herself as she supported it. In the Senate only 15 voted against this un-Constitutional compromise.
They include,
Joseph Biden, DE
Barbara Boxer, CA
Sherrod Brown, OH
Maria Cantwell, WA
Chris Dodd, CT
Dick Durbin, IL
Russ Feingold, WI
Tom Harkin, IA
John Kerry, MA
Frank Lautenberg, NJ
Patrick Leahy, VT
Robert Menendez, NJ
Bernie Sanders, VT
Chuck Schumer, NY
Ron Wyden, OR
These 15 are the liberals in the Senate. 14 Democrats and one independent in Bernie Sanders. Thank you for standing up for our civil liberties and standing against the erosion of them. Thank you for adhering to the oath you took and for measuring each piece of legislation as it applies to the Constitution and not knee jerk politics of fear.
I am aware there are many people out there who are of the opinion that it's ok to give up some privacy rights for the sake of security. Frankly they are cowards. Just as all the representatives in the House and the Senate who are either afraid of another terrorist attack or fear they will be portrayed as being on the side of the terrorists are cowards. This includes our nominee Barack Obama. He claims that our national security is more important than suing the telecom companies. He's wrong. Each and every representative takes an oath to uphold and protect the Constitution. There is no clause that exempts Constitutional protections because of the possibility of terrorist attack. These telecom companies helped the executive branch of our government collect data on us without a warrant or probable cause while the President denied this was happening. He even claimed flatly that the Constitutional protections of wiretapping were being respected. Later he admitted that he lied, that the Constitution was not being respected and our rights were being violated. This bill sends a dangerous message to future administrations. Not only that, it also illustrates that an industry that breaks the law can effectively lobby and buy off congress for a get out of jail free card.
Think about it folks. We're screwing around with our civil liberties and our founding document, the radical blueprint of freedom that has been used around the world by other countries hungry for our greatness, because of a handful of radical militant Muslim fundamentalists living in a cave in the North of Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Republican Party has been scaring their constituents into believing only the GOP can keep them safe and to do that they have to ignore Constitutionally guaranteed rights. How many times have I heard the most cowardly refrain from Republicans that they are willing to forgo their rights to be kept safe. That they have nothing to hide so if the government spies on them, it's ok. How ironic the party that fears the government at every turn is now happy to let them spy on them without a warrant. Now the Democrats in DC have validated this ridiculous philosophy. Except for the liberals, who continue to adhere to the oath they took upon entering office.
Shame on Mark Udall. Shame on Ed Perlmutter and shame on Ken Salazar. You've enabled the Republicans once again in making the law and the Constitution optional. You've broken your oath of office. It's a simple thing we ask you to do and you have failed us again. I don't feel any safer knowing that the federal government has the authority to collect my personal information, my emails, my phone records, my communications with friends abroad. Somehow I think those that would do us harm will still be able to and we have lost rights to privacy we may never get back again. I know it's a tired refrain, but it is from Ben Franklin after all, "those who would give liberty for temporary security deserve neither."
United States Constitution
Republicans like to demonize liberalism and conveniently call anyone that disagrees with them a liberal. It's easy for their supporters to grasp and gives them someone to despise and blame for whatever the Republicans want to claim they've done. As a liberal I have written many times about what liberalism really is and who in my view is a liberal. A recent vote in the Senate that gave expanded spying powers on American citizens to the President as well as granting retro active immunity to the telecom companies that illegally spied and collected data on you and me. Sadly the Democratic Party caved in to their more moderate and right leaning wings of the party. Obviously this bill started and passed the House before it got to the Senate and the same was true there. Speaker Nancy Pelosi proved without a doubt, despite hailing from liberal San Francisco, is no liberal herself as she supported it. In the Senate only 15 voted against this un-Constitutional compromise.
They include,
Joseph Biden, DE
Barbara Boxer, CA
Sherrod Brown, OH
Maria Cantwell, WA
Chris Dodd, CT
Dick Durbin, IL
Russ Feingold, WI
Tom Harkin, IA
John Kerry, MA
Frank Lautenberg, NJ
Patrick Leahy, VT
Robert Menendez, NJ
Bernie Sanders, VT
Chuck Schumer, NY
Ron Wyden, OR
These 15 are the liberals in the Senate. 14 Democrats and one independent in Bernie Sanders. Thank you for standing up for our civil liberties and standing against the erosion of them. Thank you for adhering to the oath you took and for measuring each piece of legislation as it applies to the Constitution and not knee jerk politics of fear.
I am aware there are many people out there who are of the opinion that it's ok to give up some privacy rights for the sake of security. Frankly they are cowards. Just as all the representatives in the House and the Senate who are either afraid of another terrorist attack or fear they will be portrayed as being on the side of the terrorists are cowards. This includes our nominee Barack Obama. He claims that our national security is more important than suing the telecom companies. He's wrong. Each and every representative takes an oath to uphold and protect the Constitution. There is no clause that exempts Constitutional protections because of the possibility of terrorist attack. These telecom companies helped the executive branch of our government collect data on us without a warrant or probable cause while the President denied this was happening. He even claimed flatly that the Constitutional protections of wiretapping were being respected. Later he admitted that he lied, that the Constitution was not being respected and our rights were being violated. This bill sends a dangerous message to future administrations. Not only that, it also illustrates that an industry that breaks the law can effectively lobby and buy off congress for a get out of jail free card.
Think about it folks. We're screwing around with our civil liberties and our founding document, the radical blueprint of freedom that has been used around the world by other countries hungry for our greatness, because of a handful of radical militant Muslim fundamentalists living in a cave in the North of Pakistan and Afghanistan. The Republican Party has been scaring their constituents into believing only the GOP can keep them safe and to do that they have to ignore Constitutionally guaranteed rights. How many times have I heard the most cowardly refrain from Republicans that they are willing to forgo their rights to be kept safe. That they have nothing to hide so if the government spies on them, it's ok. How ironic the party that fears the government at every turn is now happy to let them spy on them without a warrant. Now the Democrats in DC have validated this ridiculous philosophy. Except for the liberals, who continue to adhere to the oath they took upon entering office.
Shame on Mark Udall. Shame on Ed Perlmutter and shame on Ken Salazar. You've enabled the Republicans once again in making the law and the Constitution optional. You've broken your oath of office. It's a simple thing we ask you to do and you have failed us again. I don't feel any safer knowing that the federal government has the authority to collect my personal information, my emails, my phone records, my communications with friends abroad. Somehow I think those that would do us harm will still be able to and we have lost rights to privacy we may never get back again. I know it's a tired refrain, but it is from Ben Franklin after all, "those who would give liberty for temporary security deserve neither."
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