House Says No to Government’s Warrantless Spying on Citizens

The historical closed session of the United States House of Representatives was reported¹ to be driven by passionate debate culminating in a vote that said no to warrantless spying of the government on its people, you and me.

One thing I am happy about is holding the massive telecommunications corporations responsible for violating our rights and breaching our privacy and trust.² Moreover, I am glad the President and the secret government agencies are being stopped from acting omnipotent, from thinking they can ignore portions of the Constitution, and for thinking they can rule and act as they please.

However, this is what the President had to say:

Companies that may have helped us save lives should be thanked for their patriotic service, not subjected to billion-dollar lawsuits that will make them less willing to help in the future. The House bill may be good for class action trial lawyers, but it would be terrible for the United States.

Please understand I am not a fan of the litigious system in the United States. I do not like the fact that people without common sense can sue corporations and win because the coffee was too hot. duh I think the issue at hand is greater than the interest of protecting corporations exclusively.

If I had to choose which party to protect the rights of, the people or the corporations, I would chose the people. That’s partly why I’m against giving corporations immunity. I would prefer there be a balance in legislation where the rights of both people and companies be protected, while the interests of our nation be served.

I do not have a problem with warranted spying, that is spying after obtaining a warrant. Therefore, I did not agree with the President’s argument that the judicial process, or the court system, was cumbersome (perhaps he meant slow and ineffective). I don’t agree with that statement because if the court approval process is the problem, then a legislature or a committee should look into modernizing and improving our judicial system. Do not get me started on that topic…

I did search Google News and Slashdot for confirmation of this news. I recommend you look at news outlets like these and others (MSNBC, Fox News, etc) as a vehicle to expose you to the news. However, you should try as much as possible to go to the the source. In this news story, I went to the House of Representatives website and searched for the the vote count and then the resolution by name. It seems like the major news outlets think I’m stupid because they just included the vote count but not the resolution number. Some provided neither. So after I searched the House website for the vote  213-197, I found the resolution was called H.R. 3773 - FISA Amendments Act of 2008.

The legislative process continues. The debate is only starting to heat up. The House resolved an amendment to a Senate legislation. But what will happen next? What do you think should be the Senate’s response? How should the President and the Supreme Court respond?

All in all, I think we have the right to differ in opinion. However, we do not have the right to hate each other, or draw separating lines between people. I respect the President, both parties, and the judges. God loves them all, and so do I.

I hope you enjoyed this article. If so, please consider contributing to my writing efforts by purchasing an item from my Amazon.com Wishlist. Thank you so much and God bless!

Image credits: CNN for President Bush, Wikimedia Commons for the other three.

1. The reported sources referenced here are: New York Times @ http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/15/us/15fisa.html, and Slashdot @ http://politics.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/14/2033212 [↩]
2. Class action lawsuits are being filed against companies like AT&T and Verizon. Please refer to the first footnote to better understand both sides of the debate and then refer to CBS News reference @ http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/02/23/national/main3868291.shtml [↩]

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