the cynic in me
Jun. 20th, 2008 11:47 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sophiaserpentiaThe cynic in me is this morning thinking that 22 Democrats voted to confirm John Roberts as Chief Justice, and 4 Democrats (enough to kill Kerry's filibuster) voted to confirm Samuel Alito as Associate Justice, mainly so that they'd be able to argue now, in 2008, that "ZOMG we need to elect a Democrat as President or there will soon be another judge just like these two on the Supreme Court! (And no we totally didn't help them get there.) You know what will happen then - women, kiss your right to choose goodbye!"
I can't help thinking this while wondering how the vote essentially legalizing the President's illegal wiretapping program from 2002-2006 is going in Congress right now, as i type.
Like i said to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cowgrrl the other night, history is not going to look kindly on this period of American history. All along there have been people documenting the wrongs - the lies, the maneuvering, the approval of torture, the violation of civil liberties, the secret prisons, the gulag, the media's collusion, the congressional coverups, the profiteering. Unless there are going to be a lot of bookburnings in the near future, historians will have a clear and solid record of just how aware the American people were and are of what was going on. This means it won't just be Bush and his cronies whose legacy will be sullied; it won't just be the Democratic collaborators; it won't just be NewsMax and Fox and Halliburton and KBR; it will be the entire American society.
ETA: HR 6304 to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 passed with more Democrats voting YEA than NAY. You can see the roll call here. If it passes the Senate, it will grant the President the ability to basically write his own rules for wiretapping, and will instruct judges to dismiss any lawsuit brought against any telecommunications company for participating in an illegal wiretap if they can prove the President asked them to do it claiming he was looking for terrorists.
I can't help thinking this while wondering how the vote essentially legalizing the President's illegal wiretapping program from 2002-2006 is going in Congress right now, as i type.
Like i said to
cowgrrl the other night, history is not going to look kindly on this period of American history. All along there have been people documenting the wrongs - the lies, the maneuvering, the approval of torture, the violation of civil liberties, the secret prisons, the gulag, the media's collusion, the congressional coverups, the profiteering. Unless there are going to be a lot of bookburnings in the near future, historians will have a clear and solid record of just how aware the American people were and are of what was going on. This means it won't just be Bush and his cronies whose legacy will be sullied; it won't just be the Democratic collaborators; it won't just be NewsMax and Fox and Halliburton and KBR; it will be the entire American society.ETA: HR 6304 to amend the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 passed with more Democrats voting YEA than NAY. You can see the roll call here. If it passes the Senate, it will grant the President the ability to basically write his own rules for wiretapping, and will instruct judges to dismiss any lawsuit brought against any telecommunications company for participating in an illegal wiretap if they can prove the President asked them to do it claiming he was looking for terrorists.
