Last week, I sent a letter to my congressmonkeys (dewine, voinovich, latourette) about Specter's new bill that would make illegal suing over NSA wiretapping (see Glenn Greenwals's
Defeating the Specter bill).
Surprisingly, dewine wrote me back (a form letter no doubt) and his
FIRST SENTENCE IS:
"As you know, following the attacks of September 11, 2001..."He went on to explain his support for the ILLEGAL NSA domestic spying program and bragged about his "Terrorist Surveillance Act of 2006" (S.2455). Problem is, his description of his own bill is DECEPTIVE AND INACURATE!
(Read Greenwald's dissection
The new Nixon Law is introduced -- that which the President does is legal)
~snip~
Amazingly, the bill actually authorizes electronic surveillance based substantially on someone's political views (which would be deemed to be "in support of" terrorists), just as long as those views are not the sole basis for interceptions the person's communcations. Thus, if someone gives a speech which the Administration believes is "pro-terrorist," and then has a meeting that the Administration thinks is suspicious, the person's communications could be intercepted under the bill.
~snip~
Critically, this bill defines who the Administration can eavesdrop on without obtaining a warrant. That means that all of the determinations as to who qualifies to be eavesdropped on are no longer with a court, but with the Administration to make unilaterally. The bill allows eavesdropping on anyone deemed by the Administration to be "working in support of" terrorist groups. It expressly allows First Amendment activities to be taken into account and even be the substantial basis for such a determination. In essence, then, the bill thus vests in the Administration the unchecked power to eavesdrop on whomever it wants.
Who knows how many of these obfuscating emails he's sent out?
DeWine and his ilk are open threats to the US Constitution and make no bones about their intentions. We MUST get this guy outta the US Senate!
I sent the whole thing to Sherrod Brown's campaign. I hope they beat him over the head with it.
Sherrod Brown for US Senate:patriot:
Have I mentioned yet just how much I HATE those people?