US Lawmakers Pass Too Many Crazy Bills

Lawmakers have passed a bill to protect companies that helped in the White House's controversial warrant-less wiretaps program against US citizens. The bill also grants the US government the power to continue with its warrantless surveillance scheme. Congress and the While House continue to draft bills that violate US Citizen privacy rights, and we think it's time to put a stop to it.

President Bush said the scheme was needed to prevent attacks on the US, and the telephone companies were facing as many as 40 lawsuits for their involvement in the scheme.

The bill was passed in the House of Representatives with bipartisan support, after House Democrats reached a compromise with the Republicans over the provisions to grant telecommunications companies immunity from prosecution.  So now, anyone can tap into your phone line and be immune? Previous attempts to pass the bill - and allow the warrant-less wiretap scheme to continue - had floundered on the issue of immunity for telecom firms. Democrats had been reluctant to grant the firms immunity, saying the courts should first determine what the companies did.

Former President Bush - backed by Republicans in Congress at that time - wanted to ensure that firms which had helped his administration would not be liable for prosecution. The two sides reached a compromise, whereby telephone companies would not be automatically immune, but courts would be obliged to dismiss a suit against a firm if it is able to produce written certification that the White House asked it to participate in the program and assured the firm it was legal.

The National Coalition believes that Bills of this nature, enacted by Congress, are a threat to the fabric of our liberties and Constitutional right to privacy. An attack from a foreign terrorist group should not excuse Congress or the White House from being accountable for placing our Rights on the back burner. Every excuse imaginable was used to justify this domestic spying strategy, and most Americans were convinced that it was to protect our Country.

But this strategy is only the tip of the ideburg. New bills are presented on a regular basis that rpopose to take / eliminate the rights of one citizen or another. The reasoning of Congress, or the excuse Congress uses most often, is that it's necessary for "Public Safety" Our Constitution provides no means for laws enacted to strip individuals of their civil rights or Constitutional protections, yet, may of us are apathetic or scared to death to address this issue with our representatives.

The most heinous strategy has been the creation of "Registries" for convicted felons that requires them to appear at a local Police station to be photographed and finger printed. It's clearly a violation of Liberty Rights, and our constitution does not provide for ANY citizen to lose their Constitutional protections or civil rights. The most affected group of people by such laws are former sexual offenders. Even though all data concerning former sexual offenders shows that they are "least likely" to re-offend, the media hype and political grandstanding has been enough to justify enacting such an unconstitutional law. Sexual offenders are easy targets because most American voters are parents, and are easily emotionally manipulated with news stories concerning children murdered by sex offenders. However, knowlegable citizens who look into the facts will discover that the media and politicians have used the same "few" cases, month after month, year after year, to justify the laws.

What say you?

Source: BBC

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