Houses Passes Electronic Surveillance Bill

The bill wasn't what Bush wanted. It strengthens court oversight over surveillance of suspected terrorists, but does not include immunity to telecommunications corporations who assisted in eavesdropping American citizens.

So if you helped the government committ a crime, you're not getting away with it.

The vote was 227-189

Five Republicans voted in favor;
John Duncan (R-Tennessee)
Jeff Flake (R-Arizona)
Wayne Gilcrest (R-Maryland)
Bob Inglis (R-South Carolina)
Wayne Jones (R-North Carolina

Five Democrats voted against;
John Barrow (D-Georgia)
Mike Capuano (D-Massachusetts)
Nick Lampson (D-Texas)
Mike Michaud (D-Maine)
Jose Serrano (D-New York)

Capuano, Michaud and Serrano oppose any bill authorizing government surveillance. Other opponents, such as Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio) and Ron Paul (R-Texas) were not present.

Interestingly enough, Democrats picked up the votes of some of their usual dissenters on national security, like Dan Boren (D-Oklahoma), Jim Marshall (D-Georgia) and Gene Taylor (D-Mississippi)

20 Democrats Cosponser Gonzales Impeachment

The impeachment resolution introduced by Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Washington) is gaining some support from some twenty House Democrats, not all of them liberal lions.

Currently the cosponsors include;

Rep. Mike Arcuri (D-New York)
Rep. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wisconsin)
Rep. Xavier Beccera (D-California)
Rep. Shelley Berkley (D-Nevada)
Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Oregon)
Rep. Bruce Braley (D-Iowa)
Rep. Ben Chandler (D-Kentucky)
Rep. Yvette Clarke (D-New York)
Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tennessee)
Rep. Pete DeFazio (D-Oregon)
Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minnesota)
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Massachusetts)
Rep. Raul Grijalva (D-Arizona)
Rep. Darlene Hooley (D-Oregon)
Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Georgia)
Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minnesota)
Rep. Dennis Moore (D-Kansas)
Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-California)
Rep. Tom Udall (D-New Mexico)
Rep. Davis Wu (D-Oregon)

Gonzales To Be Impeached?

Maybe.

MSNBC just reported that a resolution seeking the impeachment of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales will be introduced by Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Washington)

Expect the Republicans to call it political theater. Expect the Democrats to move forward with the people's blessings.

Schumer: Gonzales Must Go

Our own Senator Schumer is the first member of Congress to call for Attorney Generral Alberto Gonzales to resign.

Gonzales has had a pretty bad week to say the least, thanks to, first of, the recent PATRIOT Act problem; Gonzales and FBI director Robert Mueller acknowledged the FBI had broken the law to secretly pry out personal information about people in the U.S. as part of its pursuit of suspected terrorists and spies. This does not bode well for those arguing the PATRIOT Act does not infringe on people's civil liberties.

Then there's the recent federal prosecutor firing scandal. A group of federal prosecutors, all Republicans, were recently fired for "performance problems." These prosecutors complain they were fired for either bringing ethics complaints against Republicans or failing to do so against Democrats...political reasons...not a reason to be fired.

Senator Joe Biden (D-Delaware) stated Gonzales is "better off" if he resigned, while Senator Arlen Specter (R-Pennsylvania) remarked that the decision to resign is between Gonzales and President Bush, but vowed to ask tough questions on both issues plaguing the Justice Department.

I don't really think the chances are likely Gonzales will resign at this point, not with only 22 months left in the administration, and Democrats controlling the Senate, which would have to confirm his successor. Barring an impeachable offense against him discovered, I think he goes down with the rest of the administration.

Liberal Arguments Vindicated

The Headline says it all

FBI used Patriot Act to invade privacy, intimidate businesses

All it took to do this was to scare the living crap out of Americans long enough to enact this law. There is no reason for this, they did not gather this information. This country has been had...and you can hear the Democrats who opposed the Patriot Act and were called unpatriotic and defeatist screaming a rousing "WE TOLD YOU SO!"

I can see right through Robert Mueller;

“We strive to exercise our authorities consistent with the privacy protections and civil liberties that we are sworn to uphold,” Mueller said. “Anything less will not be tolerated. While we’ve already taken some steps to address these shortcomings, I am ordering additional corrective measures to be taken immediately.”

translation: "Ah, you caught us, sorry, ok, we'll stop"

The Patriot Act needs to be repealed, or at the very least, heavily altered.

I SAID THIS WOULD HAPPEN!

Is anyone really shocked?

This is what we warned about, this is what we said would happen. We allowed them to scare the crap out of us enough that they were able to go and do this?

Warrantless spying on American citizens is idiotic if you ask me. There are so few, if any, American CITIZENS who are tied to Al-Qaeda that this does not justify spying on Americans.

The Patriot Act needs to go...or at the very least, needs to be restructured and reorganized. I can't fathom how anyone can stand for this.

They're up to something else, and this is what we got for trusting the government with limitless powers. Have we learned nothing from history? Just because we're a democracy, doesn't mean we can stay that way (see: Pre-1933 Germany)