It is a sign of the trouble that Barack Obama invited when he broke his promise to his supporters and announced his support for the FISA Amendments Act that Obama’s supporters are beginning to pull away from his campaign. In supporting the FISA Amendments Act, Barack Obama turns his back on the Bill of Rights, and embraces the politics of fear promoted by George W. Bush himself.

The FISA Amendments Act retroactively legalizes George W. Bush’s program to spy on the private communications of millions of Americans. The proposed law would allow physical searches as well as electronic spying against American citizens without search warrants or other judicial control. Only two people, the Attorney General of the United States and the President, could have control over the spying. Only they would have the power to stop it.

The FISA Amendments Act creates an opportunity for tremendous abuse of power. No one who truly respects the Constitution and the rule of law could support it.

Yet, Barack Obama has announced support for the FISA Amendments Act. Obama says that he will vote for the law when it comes up for a vote in the Senate on July 8. He justifies this support of one of the worst programs of George W. Bush in the same way that Bush does - Obama says it’s necessary to keep Americans safe from terrorists.

I thought Barack Obama said he was going to bring America away from the politics of fear.

Obama once inspired. Now he disappoints. And so, now on Barack Obama’s own campaign web site, the largest grassroots group will soon be a group that opposes Barack Obama because of his support of the FISA Amendments Act. As of this evening, the group against the FISA Amendments Act is the second largest group on Barack Obama’s site.

The chart below shows the damage. The Million Americans for Obama group actually has only 8,541 members. The top group has 13,431 members, but the anti-FISA Amendments Act group is right behind it, with, 12,614 members, and gaining between 100 and 200 members with every passing hour. By the time today is over, the anti-FISA Amendments Act group on Barack Obama will become the largest grassroots group on BarackObama.com.

Barack Obama, listen to your supporters. Admit your mistake. Vote NO on the FISA Amendments Act.

Well, that’s it. Barack Obama has failed to support the filibuster of H.R. 6304, the bill to gut the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution and legalize warrantless wiretaps and physical searches. A number of people are asking themselves how they can support a presidential candidate who fails to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. Democratic partisans like Racht are asking them to stop thinking about it:

Nobody should be shallow enough to abandon support for the best Presidential candidate we have on a single issue.

My response to Racht:

The media (and a lot of bloggers) have focused on telecom immunity. But there is a lot more to this bill.

This is about the passage of a bill that only takes away standing from citizens to bring a court case that could possibly strike the bill down. How can you declare the bill unconstitutional if you can’t get it in court? There is more. The bill enables both electronic AND physical searches on an “emergency basis” without any court review or warrants. The presidential administration gets to keep the information from those electronic AND physical searches solely on the presidential administration’s say-so.

This is about the gutting of the Constitution, which is THE single foundational basis of the rule of law in the most powerful nation on the planet. It’s about unchecked power and the destruction of checks and balances that keep this most powerful nation on the planet from going completely unhinged.

It is not shallow to consider the Constitution of the United States when voting.

People who care about the Constitution are not shallow.

What is patriotism? Is it the mere defense of a piece of turf? Any fool can defend a piece of land.

No, patriotism is the defense of the ideals that a nation stands for. In the case of the United States of America, the ideals that the nation stands for are established by the Constitution.

In America, to be patriotic is to stand in defense of the Constitution, whether it is under attack from outside the nation’s borders, or from within, by domestic enemies.

I count Representative Jan Schakowsky as a patriotic hero for her role in the effort to stop the FISA Amendments Act.

Democratic Party leadership is shamelessly repeating Republican talking points. They claim that the FISA Amendments Act is some kind of “compromise”. Anyone who has actually read the law knows better. Listen, for example, to what the legal experts at the Electronic Frontier Foundation say about the FISA Amendments Act: “Some have called the bill a balanced compromise between extremes, but this is pure spin. In reality, it’s nothing less than a complete cave to the phone companies’ and White House’s demands.”

Jan Schakowsky read the law, and saw that the FISA Amendments Act will give legal immunity to telecommunications corporations that broke the law by working with George W. Bush to spy on the private communications of millions of Americans. So, instead of just going along with the crowd, and obeying the Democratic Party leadership, Congresswoman Schakowsky took to the floor of the House of Representatives and stood her ground, speaking out against the terrible law.

Schakowsky reminded us of the wisdom of the leaders who crafted the Constitution: They knew that liberty makes us stronger not weaker. They knew that freedom is the foundation of true security, and that whenever freedom is sacrificed, people actually become less secure. Schakowsky said,

“The Bush Administration has put forward the idea that Congress must choose between the liberties we cherish and the security we demand. I disagree wholeheartedly with this premise. The Congress can and must take stronger steps to protect the civil liberties of ever American, to do anything less is simply contrary to everything for which this country has stood.”

Thanks to Jan Shakowsky for doing her part to stand against the domestic enemies of the Constitution.

Republican-leaning Blue Dog Democrats like Congressman Michael Arcuri tried to trick their constituents this week, by saying that when they voted in favor of the FISA Amendments Act, they were voting for a compromise. The truth is that the only compromise that took place was a compromise of principles.

The FISA Amendments Act gave George W. Bush and the Republicans everything they wanted. That’s not a compromise. It’s a surrender.

Assuming that you haven’t actually read the FISA Amendments Act for yourself, these dishonest members of Congress will try to tell you that the law does not give retroactive immunity to telecommunications corporations that broke the law by helping the government engage in illegal spying against millions of Americans. Read the legislation, and you’ll see that these Blue Dog Democrats are out-and-out lying to you. The law provides retroactive immunity, letting criminal corporations off the hook, and encouraging future crimes against the American people.

Don’t just take my word for it. Listen to what Congressman John Dingell had to say on the matter on Friday. He rose to speak before the House of Representatives, to warn them about the law they were about to pass:

“The immunity provision contained in this bill purporting to allow for judicial review to determine whether immunity is appropriate is a sham. As drafted, courts will have no real discretion and will be forced to grant immunity so long as the Government claims its actions were legal.”

Under this law, all the Bush White House has to do is present a piece of paper to a court claiming the privilege of granting legal immunity to a corporation, and then the court has no choice but to grant that immunity.

Thanks to John Dingell for sharing this unfortunate truth.

Yesterday, we warned you about H.R. 6304, the FISA Amendments Act, the bill in Congress that allows George W. Bush to spy on American citizens without any search warrant, without any judicial control, and without any congressional oversight. Electronic surveillance, with the President listening to the phone calls, reading the emails, and watching the online behavior of anyone he wants, is made legal. So are physical searches of anyone’s home or place of work - without the need of the government to even prove that you’re suspected of a crime.

This law is so blatantly in violation of the Constitution of the United States that it ought to have been laughed out of the U.S. House of Representatives. Yet, it wasn’t. 105 spineless Democrats, too afraid of their own shadows to honor the Oath of Office they all took, joined with George W. Bush’s Republican Party in voting for the Big Brother spying law.

Then, when I thought that it couldn’t get worse, it did. Barack Obama, who promised during the primaries to uphold the Constitution and end Bush’s spying programs if elected President, flip flopped and announced that he would support the law to allow government spying against American citizens without a search warrant. Then he added a real kicker - Obama said that he would continue the Bush spy programs if elected President. Obama said that he would “monitor” the spy programs himself - just like George W. Bush and Dick Cheney monitor them now.

Why doesn’t Barack Obama understand that we don’t want to be monitored. We want our Bill of Rights back!

I am disgusted with Barack Obama. All his talk about hope and change we can believe in turned out to be nothing more than false promises.

Today, the U.S. House of Representatives is preparing to pass a law that will allow the President of the United States to conduct physical searches of your home or office. If this law passes, government agents will be able to search your body wherever they find you without telling you why they’re doing it, and without a search warrant from a judge certifying that there is good reason for the search.

The law is numbered H.R. 6304. It’s called the FISA Amendments Act. If you try to read the law through the Library of Congress, all you’ll find is the message “The text of H.R. 6304 has not yet been received from GPO”. That’s because shameless politicians in Congress like Steny Hoyer are trying to pass the law quickly before you have the chance to read it.

A writer over at Irregular Times has obtained a copy of the bill and posted it online so that you can read it. That writer, upon reading the legislation, found something very interesting on page 77. You’ll find that section below.

This is the section of the law that allows physical searches of your home or office at the President’s whim. It starts out looking like a protection from unreasonable physical searches, but please read all the way to the end. There, you’ll find a couple of clauses that strip away all protection from physical search without a warrant, and put the power right into the hands of the President’s top aides and political appointees.

(5)… In the event that such application for approval is denied, or in any other case where the physical search is terminated and no order is issued approving the physical search, no information obtained or evidence derived from such physical search shall be received in evidence or otherwise disclosed in any trial, hearing, or other proceeding in or before any court, grand jury, department, office, agency, regulatory body, legislative committee, or other authority of the United States, a State, or political subdivision thereof, and no information concerning any United States person acquired from such physical search shall subsequently be used or disclosed in any other manner by Federal officers or employees without the consent of such person, except with the approval of the Attorney General if the information indicates a threat of death or serious bodily harm to any person.

(6) The Attorney General shall assess compliance with the requirements of paragraph (5).

Did you catch that little maneuver? You are protected against physical search from government agents, unless the Attorney General of the United States says otherwise. Who will determine that the Attorney General has been correct in allowing physical searches of you? Why, the Attorney General - and no one else.

- No approval required by judges
- No search warrant needed
- No requirement for evidence that there is good reason to search your home or office, or your body on the street.

This law is an attack against the Constitution of the United States of America. In the Bill of Rights, we are promised protection from unreasonable search and seizure and promised that no government searches will take place without a warrant backed up with proof that the search is reasonable.

H.R. 6304 is unconstitutional, an attempt to take your constitutional freedoms away. Do not let it pass.

Call your U.S. Representative first thing this morning, at 9:00 ET. Call (202) 224-3121, and tell them your zip code. They’ll put you through.

This is no joke. It sounds too outrageous to be true, but unfortunately, although it’s outrageous, it’s quite true. Go to the Electronic Frontier Foundation and read what they have to say about it.

Oddly, the New York Times recently ran a prominent story that promoted the idea that John McCain might not be so much like George W. Bush, really, and so we all ought to give him a chance.

It’s fact check time. Over at Where I Stand, people have carefully catalogued the political opinions of George W. Bush and John McCain. This hasn’t been a partisan project, either.

They found that George W. Bush and John McCain agree on an overwhelming majority of the issues - 80 percent. You don’t get much closer than that, so yes, it’s very fair to say that a vote for McCain is a vote for 4 more years of Bush.

The Most Inept And Shallow Bill Of The Year award goes to H. Res. 970, which expresses support for National Corvette Day. Yes, that Corvette - the car. A few members of Congress actually believe that the Corvette needs its own national holiday.

Hm. America is suffering from record-breaking increases in the cost of gasoline, which is now above four dollars per gallon and is expected to go over five dollars per gallon by the end of the summer. At the same time, the effects of global warming are damaging our economy as well.

These problems make now exactly the wrong time to celebrate the gas-guzzling, carbon-spewing, inefficient Corvette. Nonetheless, Republican Congressman John Shimkus thought that it would be a great idea, and introduced H.Res 970 a few weeks ago. The resolution has picked up the support of 12 other members of the House of Representatives.

It ought to come as little surprise that many of these politicians come from districts that profit from the production of Corvettes. Representative Shimkus, for example, has Mid America Motorworks a company that sells Corvette parts and accessories. Their kind of short-sighted approach to legislation is exactly what we need to see less of on Capitol Hill.

Robert Brady
Michael Burgess
John Duncan
Ruben Hinojosa
Dale Kildee
Ron Lewis
Michael McCaul
Thaddeus McCotter
Candice Miller
Adam Putnam
Harold Rogers
Mark Souder

One of the foundational principles of American freedom is that the law applies to everyone equally. That principle is actually included in the Constitution, in the 14th amendment, which states that government, at the state as well as federal level, must give all people equal protection under the law.

Congressman Paul Broun from Georgia seems to hate the idea that all Americans are equal under the law. Representative Broun has proposed a new amendment to the Constitution to create a loophole around the 14th amendment. The new amendment aims to reduce the number of marriages in America by restricting marriage to only heterosexual couples.

The bad news is that, although Congressman Broun introduced his proposed constitutional amendment just yesterday, he already has 28 cosponsors in the House of Representatives.

The silver lining is that all of the 28 cosponsors are the usual suspects - the right wing lunatic fringe in Congress, people like Todd Akin and Roscoe Bartlett, who always support extremist hare-brained schemes to undermine the Constitution. Still, be on the lookout. Never underestimate the lengths a member of Congress will go to in order to pander to the most small minded of their constituents.

California Republican Representative John Doolittle has added his name in support of H.Res. 598, a bill that proclaims support for the Ten Commandments Commission in its goals, which are to give Christian theology a determinative role in American politics and to exclude atheist Americans, Muslim Americans, secular Americans and anyone else who isn’t a Jew or a Christian from leadership. That’s a proselytizing theocracy right there, and it’s bad enough that Rep. Doolittle has abandoned the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, which forbids the use of government power to promote one religion above others.

Yes, that’s bad enough, but to add insult to injury this is the same John Doolittle who took hundreds of thousands of dollars from Brent Wilkes and Jack Abramoff while doing them favors, and funneling his wife hundreds of thousands of dollars more from his campaign funds.

Thou Shalt Not Covet.
Thou Shalt Not Steal.

Why doesn’t John Doolittle focus on his own theological consistency before he starts shoving theological mandates down the gullets of the American people?