For all you fair weather Obama types with one goldfish eye glazed over and the other fixed on Ralph Nader, here's a bit of info to help you swim about your FISA fish bowl.
The provisions in the original FISA Bill are preserved with respect to criminal liabilities. What the FISA Amendment Act of 2008 does is quash 40 civil lawsuits against AT&T and Verizon.
The Bill Would Also:
* Require FISA court permission to wiretap Americans who are overseas.
* Prohibit targeting a foreigner to secretly eavesdrop on an American's calls or e-mails without court approval.
* Allow the FISA court 30 days to review existing but expiring surveillance orders before renewing them.
* Allow eavesdropping in emergencies without court approval, provided the government files required papers within a week.
* Prohibit the government from invoking war powers or other authorities to supersede surveillance rules in the future.
To view the criminal elements of the bill can be found here.
I catch your drift. I feel your pain.
But instead of drowning in senseless panic, at this point, I would think Obama has some idea of what he is doing.
If you can't trust a candidate that somehow beat the political machine of our lifetime, then before you commit goldfish hari-kiri, take a deep breath and revisit what we've all lived through.
--The damage Bush and the neocons have done to America will take a generation to repair.
--Bush and Company never saw a corporate welfare program that they didn't love. They complain about welfare for the poor but sky is the limit for multinational corporations.
--Constitution? The toilet paper used in the White House? Oh, that Constitution.
--The effects of the weak dollar. High oil prices. Rising inflation, especially food inflation. Food inflation which equates to a huge tax increase for average people and negatively impacts the poor and working people.
If that's not enough to respirate you out of your idealized self-pity.....
Keep on whining you foolish, foolish people.
Distraction and division are two of the most effective fat-cat Republican baits.
And you've swallowed the hook.
