Democracy for Vancouver

You weren’t using that 4th Amendment, were you?

Because Obama and a bunch of other cowardly Dems just sold us out for a little telecom cash and a kited check from the MSM that will bounce somewhere around October 1.

Final vote: 69-28. So, a hearty FUCK YOU to Alexander (R-TN), Allard (R-CO), Barrasso (R-WY), Baucus (D-MT), Bayh (D-IN), Bennett (R-UT), Bond (R-MO),
Brownback (R-KS), Bunning (R-KY), Burr (R-NC), Carper (D-DE), Casey (D-PA), Chambliss (R-GA), Coburn (R-OK), Cochran (R-MS), Coleman (R-MN), Collins (R-ME), Conrad (D-ND), Corker (R-TN), Cornyn (R-TX), Craig (R-ID), Crapo (R-ID), DeMint (R-SC), Dole (R-NC), Domenici (R-NM), Ensign (R-NV), Enzi (R-WY), Feinstein (D-CA), Graham (R-SC), Grassley (R-IA), Gregg (R-NH), Hagel (R-NE), Hatch (R-UT), Hutchison (R-TX), Inhofe (R-OK), Inouye (D-HI), Isakson (R-GA), Johnson (D-SD), Kohl (D-WI), Kyl (R-AZ), Landrieu (D-LA), Lieberman (ID-CT), Lincoln (D-AR), Lugar (R-IN), Martinez (R-FL), McCaskill (D-MO), McConnell (R-KY), Mikulski (D-MD), Murkowski (R-AK), Nelson (D-FL), Nelson (D-NE), Obama (D-IL), Pryor (D-AR), Roberts (R-KS), Rockefeller (D-WV), Salazar (D-CO), Shelby (R-AL), Smith (R-OR), Snowe (R-ME), Specter (R-PA), Stevens (R-AK), Sununu (R-NH), Thune (R-SD), Vitter (R-LA), Voinovich (R-OH), Warner (R-VA), Webb (D-VA), Whitehouse (D-RI), and Wicker (R-MS).

And hat’s off to Big Pussy John McCain, who didn’t even bother to show up.

And, though saying NO to this obscenity should have been as easy as saying no to a shit sandwich, thank you to all those who stood up for the Constitution: Akaka (D-HI), Biden (D-DE), Bingaman (D-NM), Boxer (D-CA), Brown (D-OH), Byrd (D-WV), Cantwell (D-WA), Cardin (D-MD), Clinton (D-NY), Dodd (D-CT), Dorgan (D-ND), Durbin (D-IL), Feingold (D-WI), Harkin (D-IA), Kerry (D-MA), Klobuchar (D-MN), Lautenberg (D-NJ), Leahy (D-VT), Levin (D-MI), Menendez (D-NJ), Murray (D-WA), Reed (D-RI), Reid (D-NV), Sanders (I-VT), Schumer (D-NY), Stabenow (D-MI), Tester (D-MT), and Wyden (D-OR).

So, only slightly more than one quarter of the U.S. Senate thinks you and I have a right to be free from unwarranted government spying. That privacy is an inherent right.

There is something very diseased at the heart of this country. We are a bunch of fucking pussies, scared of each other and our own shadows. Willing to give up anything so long as we don’t have to think, don’t have to learn, don’t have to worry about anything but whether the TiVO is working and how I’m going to pay for that new Scarlet LCD TV if I’m paying $70 twice a week to fill up my F-150.

I will vote for Barack Obama, but he will not get one more dime from me. I will hold no bakesales. I will do no canvassing.

All of my resources will go to Strange Bedfellows to hold accountable those responsible for today’s evisceration of the 4th Amendment - Democrats and Republicans alike.

If you would like to join me in supporting a massive pushback against this criminal coverup and extension of Dick Cheney’s wet dream of a corporate surveillance state, Glenn Greenwald points the way forward:

[T]he campaign we have been conducting is intended to be only the first step — not the last — in taking a stand against the endless erosion of core constitutional protections… We have created a new organization, Accountability Now, to conduct the ongoing battle to target and remove from power those who enable these abuses; to force these issues into our political discourse; and to prevent the Washington Establishment from continuing to trample on basic constitutional protections with impunity.
…
To initiate and fund our new campaign, we have teamed with the individual who was behind the innovative and extraordinarily successful Ron Paul “money bombs” … to plan an “Accountability Money Bomb” for August 8. That is the day in 1974 when Richard Nixon was forced to resign from office for his lawbreaking and surveillance abuses. That day illustrates how far we have fallen in this country in less than 35 years, as we now not only permit rampant presidential lawbreaking and a limitless surveillance state, but have a bipartisan political class that endorses it and even retroactively protects the lawbreakers.

To participate in the money bomb and support our new organization, you can pledge to donate here — or by clicking on the logo above. On August 8, those who pledged will make their actual donations in whatever amount they choose, and the results will then be announced.

This type of ideologically diverse coalition devoted to the preservation of basic constitutional protections and the rule of law … can be a new and powerful force. Those who are responsible for these erosions need to be undermined and the nature of the debate over these issues needs to be changed. A successful start and the support of as many people as possible is vital to launching this effort the right way — in a way that will enable its presence to be heard and felt in the Beltway precincts that need to hear and feel it.

Because this should be a day of mourning, I won’t post any more today.