I wasn't surprised that every single Republican in the House voted to spit on the Constitution and give the telcos (and George Bush) a get out of jail free card. Spying on American citizens without cause and with no regard for the fourth amendment isn't shocking considering Bush's record thus far. What was sad, dismaying and atrocious was that more half of the Democratic caucus went along with it and have the audacity to claim it is a good bill.
From FireDogLake:
...and the drip, drip, dripping away of our civil liberties continues. The vote was 293 Yays, 129 Nays. As Glenn says:
Today, the House leadership has set aside a grand total of one hour to debate the FISA/amnesty bill, and gave its members less than 24 hours from the time it was released yesterday until they have to vote on it today. That's the same bill which the NYT this morning calls "the most significant revision of surveillance law in 30 years." They're going to enact massive changes to our spying laws without having the slightest idea what they're voting on. All they know is that the President demanded this, and that's enough, because -- as Kit Bond says -- "when the government tells you to do something, I'm sure you would all agree that I think you all recognize that is something you need to do." In this formulation, "the government" means "The President."
You can register your disgust here...we're well over $250,000 and climbing....
UPDATE: The vote tally on this is not yet up on the House website. But I've confirmed the numbers that the total votes was as follows: 293 yes -129 no. Also that the majority of the House Dems voted no - 105 voted yes, 128 voted no. As soon as there is a full vote tally, will get a direct link up and running for everyone.
UPDATE #2: Vote tally just went up for the roll call vote on HR 6304. You can find the full list of yays and nays here.
Well at least my Congresswoman didn't vote for it, if that is any consolation for the constituents of NY-14. Still, everyone here on the East Side of New York, clear across to the west side of San Diego will suffer from this legislation. Congress collectively told us that our Bill of Rights doesn't matter and that they really don't care what we think about retroactive immunity for lawbreakers.
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