Bob Barr Criticizes Congress for FISA Capitulation
July 11th, 2008 by Staff“The administration and its supporters have used the terrorist attacks of September 11 as an excuse for a host of power grabs, even though the government failed to protect Americans on that tragic day because it didn’t use the authority that it already had, yet rather than updating the law, the Democratic-controlled Congress decided to gut it.”
July 11th, 2008 at 11:18 am
The more I sit here in front of my computer, the more I see how needed the LP is today in America. Article after article makes it clear that the GOP and DNC have no idea about the ideals this nation was founded upon. They have no clue about freedom and liberty, but they are the first to say the freedom isn’t free. Do they even understand what that means? Freedom is HARD, liberty is HARD and certain members of both parties think its easy. It’s easy to them because they want freedom on their terms, their own kind of freedom, their own definition.
Well, freedom isn’t free at all, freedom means I work two jobs to pay my bills and keep my family afloat, freedom to me means that I want every American to express themselves as they want, freedom to me means that I am a Libertarian, the only true party that wants freedom.
FISA is another step in the last 30 years where the government has made us weaker and themselves stronger, this needs to be the year we stand up and show that we are not going to take it anymore.
Jeff Indiana
July 11th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
some spacing issues in the first paragraph.
Please fix
July 11th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
This is an open letter to Mr. Obama. I am highly disappointed in your FISA vote. You have betrayed those of us who believed you. Your friend, Oprah, likes to say that when someone shows you who they are, believe them. I believe you are not who you represent yourself to be. I do not believe in your change. You threw your convictions away, for fear of being considered weak on terror. If you are this weak now, how will you ever handle a national, or international crisis. It will be pander to outside interests as usual.
I will be supporting the Libertarian party in the Presidential election. Don’t for a second try to accuse me of “throwing my vote away.” You see, I am going to show you what I believe in: Freedom and Democracy for all. I urge others to stand up to this Washington nonsense.
July 11th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
Barr has to hit hard on FISA, Iraq war, cutting government spending and talking about corruption especially if he can uncover and bring to light.
July 11th, 2008 at 1:05 pm
“…Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed” - The Declaration of Independence.
I don’t remember giving my consent to be spied on!
July 11th, 2008 at 2:02 pm
http://www.libertygator.com/story.php?title=Bob_Barr_Criticizes_Congress_for_FISA_Captitulation
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July 11th, 2008 at 6:51 pm
“the government failed to protect Americans on that tragic day”
They didn’t fail to protect us, they had no clue. Quit trying to blame 9/11 on the government and blame it on the extremists who committed these crimes against us. The government did everything right following the events of 9/11.
FISA helps protect Americans, while maintaining their liberties. When was the last time you saw Joe Schmo get taken in for questioning by the government? You haven’t, because that doesn’t happen. FISA targets terrorists and people who would do this country harm, not your drinking buddies or your neighbors you go to barbeques with.
You can’t get something for nothing, you can’t expect to live in a world where you have completely absolute freedom as Barr suggests, there comes a point in time where the government is responsible for doing (guess what) governing the people. You can’t expect to remain safe without allowing the government to do anything about the people who could threaten your lives.
I’d much rather have the risk of the government seeing what library books I read than being dead because of some brainwashed extremist.
July 12th, 2008 at 8:42 am
Manfred you are so wrong. Of course, no one wants to be dead. However, the choice between being like a communist or facist country where they know what library books you read is a false choice. You dont have to make that choice. You can have court supervised searches and seizures. I don’t expect to live in a world of absolute freedom. I know there will be reasonable searches and seizures. I know if the governments wants information on me and has probable cause such the the FISA court always available approves of their actions, they will tap my phone. But the government has no probably cause to read my mail. I am a college professor who abides by the law. The government needs to abide by it too by honoring the constitution.
How do you know FISA targets terrorists? What if the wrong person get’s in charge of the searching? J Edgar Hoover did and spied on everyone. What if you disagree with the government and want to criticize them in an email. Will you not think twice? The point is there is a chilling affect that happens your freedom is gone. One reporter could who is a plaintiff in the case against Fisa, lost a story about an incident that almost was an act of war, because he could not assure his source that he was not being tapped.
The fourth amendment and the bill of rights is what America is about. If we compromise on that our of fear (be dead because of some brainwashed extremist) we lose being America.
James
July 12th, 2008 at 11:57 am
Go Barr! This could be THE ISSUE for 2008 if the LP will keep it front and center. It makes Barr unique among the candidates for he will be the ONLY candidate against FISA and the retroactive immunity granted to telecommunications companies. THIS could be the year where the LP candidate breaks through! We love you BOB! Keep the momentum going!
July 12th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
Manfred misses the point. We do not have at present the government spying on average Joe Americans and Jane Americans at this time, but the FISA laws open up the possibility for that in the future. We need to be VIGILANT in the protection of our frrrdoms so that the slipery slope never happens!
July 12th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
Congressman Barr said that Congress “passsed legislation that … will give the government the power to listen in to any phone call, any email transmission, that anybody makes so long as a government bureaucrat reasonably believes that one party to that electronic communication is outside the United States. [fade] That’s all the government has to show in order to listen in to somebody’s private communication without ever going to a court. They don’t have to be talking to al-Qa’ida, they don’t have to be committing a crime, nothing.”
Then Congressman Barr said “it went sailing through the House.” Congressman Barr, fifteen months of bitter argument is “sailing?” Congressman Barr then said “the people do not realize … the extent to which the government is surveilling you.” Lest you forget, sir, Senators Clinton, Kennedy, until the very last second Obama, and a host of other elected socialists, all agree with you.
Congressman Barr, whom I otherwise respect and admire, but who never sat on an Intelligence committee while he was in elected office, would have you believe by his words that the U.S. government is in fact monitoring any conversation by any U.S. Person at this very moment.
Congressman Barr, shame on you, sir! You should know better than that. You know who works for those agencies, you know what they stand for and what they are working and fighting for. You know your statement is deliberately incidiary, and that for the sake of “standing apart” from the establishment. Well, sir, you sound exaxctly like the socialist establishment. Shame on you, sir!
I hope at some point you will think about what you just accused countless patriots of and come forth and apologize. You are playing the lowest common denominator of American politics. Appealing to the general lack of personal knowledge of the U.S. populus, people who do not work in the sector you just lambasted, playing to notions of X-Files-like conspiracies and Art Bell guests. Shame!
I want so much to support you and thus vote for you, but if you’re going to play this game (just like all the other establishment candidates), then I have no choice but to vote for no candidate. You’re better than this, Congressman Barr. Please live up to your standards.
July 14th, 2008 at 8:56 am
Bob get off fisa and pot use or you will drive us back to mccainn.
July 14th, 2008 at 10:05 pm
I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it.
- Thomas Jefferson
Why is it that *some* people think that we are safer by surrendering our civil liberties to the government in exchange for the illusion of safety!??
Welcome to the Fascist States of Amerika …
July 15th, 2008 at 11:33 am
Mr. Brodie,
It’s not a matter of “accusing” anyone of anything. It’s not an insult to imply that human beings are imperfect. Any person may succumb to the temptation to abuse the power entrusted to them.
The FBI has testified before Congress that they abused the power given to them in the Patriot Act. They promised to stop, and then the next year again testified to Congress that they, the FBI, had abused their powers.
So we know for certain our intelligence agencies are abusing their powers, by their own admission. These are the so-called “patriots” you demand Bob Barr apologize to. I’d rather Bob Barr gave them a pink slip, and with God’s grace that is exactly what he will be in a position to do!
Our great country was founded on a healthy suspicion of government power. To demand that we assume our public servants will never betray their masters, the people, is nothing less than reprehensible treason. You’re lucky the First Amendment protects you, despite your lack of respect for the freedoms that make America the greatest nation on Earth.
August 7th, 2008 at 9:41 pm
Mr. Edes,
How ironic.
You criticize me for making an assumption about Congressman Barr and yet you go right on ahead and do the same thing about me. “Despite your lack of respect for the freedoms that make America the greatest nation on Earth” you wrote. Perhaps you could tell everyone who I am since you seem to know so much about me. Of course you can’t because you don’t know me. Your statement about me reeks of condescending snobbery.
I am no leftist pig seeking to enslave nations with chains forged of “social justice.” I despise the very Marxists and Maoist fascist scum who to this day seek to undermine this miraculous Republic of ours, even to its destruction in favor of a global collectivist superstate. I resist with my modest abilities the pseudoscientists and their financial patrons who foist tyranny on humanity for “the sake of the planet.”
Who the hell do you think you are to accuse me of disrespect for the freedoms that make America great? I’ve been to third world nations and seen with my own eyes the obscene squalor and tyranny to which those poor souls are subjected. I’ve kissed the ground of my beloved America on returning, thanking my Creator for blessing me with natural-born citizenship here. How dare you, Mr. Edes!
It’s a shame there’s not enough room way up there for the rest of us common American patriots. No, you’ll have to suffice with your rare and rarefied breed of American super-patriots who will damn those who fight and die for freedom all the while sitting in your comfy living room and accusing them of the slightest infraction.
Perhaps you could lead the way by joining one of these agencies and showing everyone how to do it right. But no, that would require courage and the will to accomplish something. No, you’d rather be an armchair patriot and accuse others who do what you don’t have and apparently lack the testicular fortitude to do.
It must be awfully drafty way up there on your lofty heights.