Topic: Constitutional Issues
McCain Violates Senate Oath In a clear example of why he must never become president, John McCain yesterday violated his Senatorial oath of office by voting for an "ex-post facto" law protecting large corporate Telecoms.by creator
(libertarian)
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
In a public display of arrogance, Senator John McCain, Republican candidate for President of the United States, was one of 68 Senators who yesterday violated their oaths of office. He voted to pass S. 2248, a new law designed to replace the so-called "Protect America Act."
Permitting the President to spy on Americans without a warrant.
Granting retroactive immunity to tele-communications companies that collaborated with the Bush administration in previous warrantless spying.
This unconstitutional legislation is described in greater detail in this article from DownsizeDC. The provisions of the bill that excuse Telecom companies from prosecution for breaking the law are a form of "ex-post facto law", clearly prohibited by Article 1, Section 9 of the Constitution of the United States. Here is information about an example case against AT&T for helping the government break the law.
What kind of unmitigated gall does it take for a sitting Senator, candidate for the highest office in the land, to vote for this unconstitutional bill? Senator McCain has as much as said "In your face, America!" It could not be more clear that John McCain is unfit to be our president.
Had the many who have already voted for him simply read his presidential platform, they could have easily seen that McCain has promised in advance to also violate the presidential oath. Despite his statements about "strict construction" of the Constitution, McCain's plans for Education, Economics, Health Care, and other important issues are patently unconstitutional. Yesterday's violation of his Senate oath just proves his intent to disregard the constitution.
As American voters, we must scrutinize the candidates and what they stand for. A vote for John McCain is a vote for unchecked presidential power and corporate favoritism.
Vote instead for a man of integrity, a man who has faithfully kept his oath of office for more than 20 years, Dr. Ron Paul.
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This should have been the top news story. Instead, all the news networks were fixated on drug use by millionaires playing a child's game. Congress spent five hours on that, while the Senate was giving the President carte blanche to spy on its citizens. We're living in Bizarro World.
At least Rep. Conyers from Detroit told the President to wait, because Congress had a lot of unanswered questions. The President needs to wait another year so he can retire to his peanut farm, like all the other retired Presidents do.
In the novel 3001 (a follow on to Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssy) people in the future are fitted with brain scanners to predict when they will do bad things and are prevented. Searching for phone dialing patterns and speech content for bad words is the best we can do today. But the principle is still wrong.
Civil lawsuits may be the best method to prevent this sort of malpractice by the telecos. If my doctor gives out my medical history without a court order, he can get sued and lose his license.
Telecos should not give out my personal info without my permission, like a library should not tell the government what books I read, or my priest should not repeat my confession, unless I say I'm going to hurt someone.
I think the constitution is missing a "right to privacy". It's sort of understood, but not enacted well. I need a chill pill.
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