Telecom Amnesty is a Really Bad Idea

I was behind a car the other day that had a bumper sticker, and I loved it. It said "I love my country but don't trust my Government". I really feel that way. I guess in short, I really don't trust many folks beyond my family to take care of me. You do not have to look far to see huge issues with our Government. Read up on the debacle of Social Security and how our Government has completely dropped the ball. How our current debt is the highest it has ever been. How FEMA completely blew it with Katrina. (On a side note: I actually believe FEMA should be disbanded, that is the job of the Red Cross, but more on that in another post.) How the Government has put our financial eggs in the basket with China, and every time China coughs our markets jump up and down. I guess what I am saying is that my opinion of our federal government is basically at an all time low, and all I really did was start paying attention.

So what did I do with this pent up frustration? Well what any good tech savvy yahoo would do, I started a blog! I pointed my horrible grammar skills and frequent misspellings directly at our federal government. Take that! :D So two days ago, I was all worked up about local issues relating to the Civil Liberties of citizens, and I made references to some local issues that occurred here in Georgia, along with a current issue in Oklahoma, and two historical issues. Well now I turn my attention to the future.

On the commute into work today, I was listening to a story on NPR [link]about a bill that has already passed the Senate Intelligence Committee and is now in front of the Senate Judiciary Committee [wikipedia] that would (among other things) grant full immunity to the telecommunications companies that willingly went along with the Bush administration in opening up their infrastructure to the Government to help in what is known as the warrantless wiretap program [wikipedia]

Folks, this is exactly what I am talking about in my earlier piece. The telecommunications industry does NOT deserve immunity. The reason is because if they are operating within the laws, then they have nothing to fear. Truth does not fear investigation. Now if you are worried that you may have broken laws, then yes, you do have something to fear. So when the telecommunications companies go running to Congress asking for immunity from something the government asked them (and paid them nicely) to help with, then that should raise alarm bells.

Now I know some of you are saying "Well they are just doing their duty to their country". My response to that is pretty flat, "No they are not!". There was already a system in place called FISA [wikipedia], and although it had issues it did serve its purpose. If there were problems then it should have been first addressed inside the framework of the current FISA laws. This program is so shady that even John Ashcroft has serious doubts about it [washingtonpost.com] What really really bothers me is that the only reason we know about this secret surveillance is because somebody on the inside disclosed it. Otherwise, we still would not know about it, and that is very very scary. What else don't we know about?

The real problem is that the people we elect to protect us are the same folks that are giving away our freedoms. This applies to both Democrats and Republicans. On a side note, at one point I thought that Democrats where protectors of Civil Liberties but they are just as complicit as Republicans, just listen to Senator Dianne Feinstein in the NPR report, ugh, but more on that in another post.) Once power has been gained by the Government you are very very unlikely to get the power away from the Government. Although this tool is said to be used against foreign enemies, do not be so naive to believe that they will not use that tool against Americans. (Watergate anyone?) When you have absolute power, and no oversight, then you can do whatever you want because nobody is going to call you on it.

Here is the summary:
1) If you are within the law, then you don't deserve immunity.
2) When you take away the courts ability to decide issues then what you do is take power away from individuals and put them into the hands of the government. Which is always a bad thing.

Here are some links that describe this in a much better way than I can.

eff.org
salon.com Greenwald
saolon.com Greenwald Interview
technewsworld.com - Technical Whistle Blower
Google News
washingtonpost.com Ashcroft in Hospital
NPR Coverage

If you live in Georgia, and this bothers you, take a moment to write to Senator Saxby Chambliss who has already voted for this in the Intelligence Committee, and tell him your feelings on this topic.